Temba Bavuma, South Africa captain:
“[On the discussion at the ten-over mark] It was trying and up the intent. When you do that, opportunities come your way. Fortunately, we got the momentum we needed. Our batting line-up is in good form, barring myself. It is a unit that has been together for some time. [On their bowling] We were watching the games that were played here. Obviously, it was risky but the variable bounce assisted us. We kept mid-off and mid-on up, which made us predictable but we backed ourselves. We came into the tournament as non-favorites and we will keep flying under the radar. We will keep improving and that’s what we are doing.”
Rohit Sharma, India captain:
“We expected the pitch to have something in it, with the weather around. We knew there will be help for the seamers. Which is why you saw that 130 was not an easy chase. I thought we fought well till the end but South Africa played well in the end. The pitch is such that the wicket can come any time for the seamers. It was a match-winning partnership between Miller and Markram. But we were not good enough on the field.
We have played in such conditions so conditions are not an excuse. We want to be consistent in that department. We could not hold on to our chances, we misses a few run-outs including myself. [On that Ashwin over] I have seen what happened at the last with the spinners. So I wanted to finish with Ashwin before the last over. I wanted to see that the seamers bowl the right overs. Given the new batter came in, it was the perfect time for Ashwin to bowl.”
Lungi Ngidi is the player of the match:
“[On the finish] It was very nerve-wracking. When games get so close, you cannot do much as a bowler but just sit. It is one of my biggest wins – to win an award at the World Cup. It comes down to watching a lot of games being played here. We have also played here earlier. We saw the Pakistan bowl and it helped. Just after the ten-over break, Markram moved the game forward and Miller followed him.”
Pitch and weather:
It is looking tasty for the quicks with pace, bounce, and early swing on offer, and both attacks will want to caution against getting carried away. While the strip looks green, this will be the second match on the ground on the day, following Netherlands vs Pakistan. Doubtless, they will look at the mistakes the Pakistan seamers made early on in their match against Zimbabwe when they started off bowling too full. Hard lengths are the way to go in Perth. And that’s not the only challenge for batters.
On a big outfield, finding the boundary takes some extra muscle so turning ones into twos and twos into threes is crucial. The average first innings score is 143 and 200 has only been breached at this venue once when England played Australia three weeks ago. There was rain around on the day before the match but don’t push the panic button just yet. Despite cloud cover on game day, the chances of rain are no more than 14% through the afternoon and dwindle to just 4% by the time the first ball is scheduled to be bowled.
India vs South Africa Highlights today. 30th Match, Group 2 (N), Perth Stadium, Sunday 30-10-2022, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.
Toss: India chose to bat.
“No particular reason,” Rohit says. “It’s a good surface and we know what to expect here. It was a good prep but now it’s game time. We want to come out here and do what we have been doing. Sometimes you can get carried away or your energy is low but you have to stay calm. Axar misses out and Deepak Hooda comes in.”
“Crucial game for us,” Bavuma says. “We would have probably batted first because it might be a bit difficult to bat under lights. but now we have got to restrict them and pick up early wickets. We have the resources from the pace bowling point of view to exploit the conditions. Shamsi misses out, Lungi Ngidi comes in.”
India team: 1 KL Rahul, 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Arshdeep Singh
South Africa team: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba Bavuma, 3 Rilee Rossouw 4 Aiden Markram, 5 David Miller, 6 Tristan Stubbs 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Anrich Nortje 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Kagiso Rabada
Head to Head In T20I’s: 23
India Won: 13
South Africa Won: 9
India T20I Rankings: 1st
South Africa T20I Rankings: 3rd
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 Points Table
Form guide
(last five completed Tests, most recent first)
India WWLWW
South Africa WWLLW
Match Timings: 11:00 AM GMT | 07:00 PM Local
Umpires – Langton Rusere, Richard Kettleborough
TV Umpire – Richard Illingworth
Match Referee – David Boon
Reserve Umpire – Paul Reiffel
Match number – T20I no. 1853
