South Africa’s captain, Aiden Markram, sets the bar high for the T20I series against India: “We Are Going To…”

South African captain Aiden Markram acknowledged after his team defeated India by three wickets in the second ODI that they must “take it on the chin” and keep playing their style of cricket if the batting does not perform. Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee’s brilliant partnership helped SA avoid the Indian spinners’ attack in Sunday’s second Twenty20 International at Gqeberha, where Proteas defeated India by three wickets to tie the series.

“I thought we bowled really well, some really good plans, and our bowlers executed really well,” Markram stated in the post-match presentation after the game. You want to break it halfway through from a batting perspective, but it did not work out. We are going to stick to our brand of cricket when things do not work out and we have to accept it. Naturally, I am extremely proud of the enormous role that Nqabayomzi Peter and Andile Simlalane played. The younger guys served as an inspiration to the older ones. We must play each game as it comes. We levelled the series with this victory.

The four-match series is now level at 1-1.

SA won the toss and elected to bowl first. India lost their wickets at regular intervals and there were no big partnerships. India reached 124/6 in their 20 overs thanks to some handy knocks from Tilak Varma (20 in 20 balls, with one four and a six), Axar Patel (27 in 21 balls, with four boundaries), and Hardik Pandya (39* in 45 balls, with four boundaries and a six).

Coetzee and Marco Jansen both had four-over spells of 1/25 that caused issues for Indian batters. Peter and Andile each took a wicket.

India was in a commanding position in the run-chase of 125 after reducing SA to 87/6 with a five-wicket haul from Varun Chakravarthy (5/17). But with an over and three wickets remaining, Coetzee (19* in 9 balls, with two fours and a six) and Stubbs (47* in 41 balls, with seven fours) upset India’s plans with a counterattack, leading the team to victory.

Additionally, India’s Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh each took a wicket.

The ‘Player of the Match’ was Stubbs.