Quinton de Kock fires up the old engine to drive Proteas to series-equalling T20I victory

Quinton de Kock and the new-ball bowlers showed off the Proteas’ bouncebackability as the visitors levelled up the five-match series at 1-1 with a 51-run victory in the second T20I in New Chandigarh on Thursday. 

After a two-ball duck a couple of days ago, De Kock showed the fickleness of the T20 game with a spectacular 90 off just 46 balls to power the Proteas to 213/4 after being inserted on a glorious batting surface at the Yadavindra Singh Cricket Stadium.

De Kock put himself right back in the frame for T20 World Cup selection, and the IPL shop window with the auction set to be held in a few days' time in Abu Dhabi, with a scintillating innings that was kickstarted with a couple of sixes off Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah. 

Unlike in Cuttack a couple of days ago, and during the ODI series when Arshdeep placed the Proteas batters under pressure, it was the left-arm seamer that was now feeling the heat. 

With De Kock easing to his 17th T20I half-century off just 26 balls, Arshdeep was handed the ball in the 11th over to halt the flowing left-hander. But instead, it was Arshdeep that blinked first with the left-arm seamer delivering an astonishing seven wides after De Kock swatted his first delivery for six. 

Arshdeep conceded 18 runs overall and the momentum was well and truly with the Proteas at 108/1 with nine overs remaining. 

However, the current T20 world champions clawed their way back into the contest by removing Markram, who had struck two successive sixes just a few balls previously, Dewald Brevis and De Kock in a freakish run out a couple of overs later to peg the visitors back to 160/4 after 16.1overs. 

But the Proteas were intent not to waste De Kock’s fine innings with veteran finisher David Miller and newbie Donovan Ferreira, who belatedly found his rhythm, piecing together an unbroken 53-run stand off just 26 balls.

Miller’s undefeated 20 came off only 12 balls, while Ferreira blasted three sixes and a boundary in his 16-ball 30 not out. 

India’s inept performance with the ball was highlighted by Bumrah’s 0/45 - his third-worst T20I figures ever - while Arshdeep’s 0/54 was comfortably the lowlight of his 82-match T20I career.

In contrast, the Proteas bowlers hit their line and lengths from the outset.

Lungi Ngidi had India’s Test captain Shubman Gill caught at slip off the very first ball he faced, and from there Marco Jansen struck a couple more blows to remove both Abishek Sharma and skipper Suryakumar Yadav to reduce the hosts to 32/3 in the Powerplay. 

India never recovered from the false start, despite Tilak Varma’s valiant 62 to keep the crowd interested but the result was never under any threat as the Proteas continued to chip away through Ottneil Baartman's excellent return of 4/24.

The third round of the five-match series will be played in Dharamsala on Sunday. 

Second T20I

Proteas: 213/4 (De Kock 90, Ferreira 30*, Markram 29, Chakravarthy 2/29)

India: 162 all out (Varma 62, Sharma 27, Baartman 4/24, Jansen 2/25, Ngidi 2/26) 

Proteas won by 51 runs , level series 1-1