South Africa were high on confidence following a victory in the 1st T20I . They had a disastrous start to their innings by losing 2 wickets with no run on the board. Paul Stirling finally starred for Ireland, but with the ball this time. He removed South African skipper for duck as Bavuma's awful tour continued. De kock tried to rebuild the inning but he saw his partners coming and leaving from the other end. Van der dussen had quite a long stay but he too perished with a strike rate of 40 after playing 15 deliveries. When De kock was dismissed the visitors were reeling at 58-5. Wian Mulder again started the rebuilding process but it was Miller who stole the show as he smashed a much needed half century. Finally, they reached 158 at the end of 20 overs which was still under par .
IRELAND SHATTERED
Chasing an under par 159 with the series on the line , it were the Irish men who crumbled under pressure. Kevin O'Brien created improved on his world record of scoring the most no. of ducks in T20 Internationals (12) by bagging yet another duck in this series (2 in 2). Stirling played an uncharacteristic inning by his standards as all the other batsman were in a hurry to return to the pavilion. When a side chasing 159, has its top scorer making 24 then it's a no brainer that the chasing side is deep in trouble. Yet again it was Shamsi who ran through their middle order by picking up 3 wickets and continued his dream run in this format this year . He was well supported by Fortuin who picked up 3 wickets while Markram also returned with a wicket.
In the end, South Africa won the game comprehensively by 42 runs and took the series 2-0 with a game to spare. South Africa now have two consecutive away T20I series victories within 3 weeks . After a long drought of a series triumph in the shortest format, this turnaround will give them a lot of confidence.
On the other side, Ireland have a lot of changes to be done on their drawing board especially in their batting department because it was their batting which let them down in both the games.
PREVIEW 3rd T20I
South Africa would love to do a whitewash with the T20 World Cup nearing while Ireland will be playing for pride as they will look to end this tour on a high. No changes are expected until there's an injury and South Africa will look to continue their winning combination.
FANTASY TEAMS
RISKY XI :
Stirling ( c )
Bavuma
Van der dussen ( vc )
Kevin O'brien
Tucker
Gatkate
Fortuin
Dockrell
Young
Shamsi
Ngidi
SAFE XI :
De kock (c)
Stirling
Balbrine (vc)
Markram
Miller
S Singh
Adair
Mulder
Rabada
Little
Shamsi
Probable Playing XI
South Africa : De kock (wk), Bavuma, Malan, Markram, Van der dussen, Miller, Mulder, Fortuin, Hendricks, Ngidi, Shamsi
Ireland: Stirling, O'Brien, Balbirnie, Dockrell, Tector, Singh, Tucker, Getkate, Adair, Young, Little
