At St George’s Park, Tristan Stubbs batted South Africa to a series-leveling victory over India, continuing his maturing season. Stubbs stopped India’s 11-match winning streak in T20Is by saving South Africa from 66 for 6 and joining Gerald Coetzee in a 42-run partnership off 20 balls. Stubbs has hit his maiden Test and ODI hundreds in the past month, and while his 47* in Gqeberha won’t be remembered as a turning point, it was a mature effort that helped a struggling South African team.
South Africa has only won one of their six games since making it to the T20 World Cup final in June. When they pulled together a full-bodied performance in the field and held India to 124, they showed signs of coming back, but they seemed to lack a certain structure to their game. Before the spinners put on a pressure and everyone but Keshav Maharaj were among the wickets, the fast bowlers set the tone up front. Crucially, they eliminated India’s top three players early on, allowing their middle-order to catch up for a total of eight runs.The only time India’s scoring pace exceeded six runs per over was during a 37-run partnership between Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh for the seventh wicket.
South Africa may have assumed the victory would be effortless given the goal, but they had to earn it. They were devastated by Varun Chakravarthy’s first international five-for, and Aiden Markam’s subpar play is still a worry. His most recent T20I half-century came 26 innings ago. India’s spinners kept South Africa quiet, and as wickets fell, the needed run-rate increased till they needed 40 runs from the final five overs. Coetzee displayed his batting ability, Stubbs maintained composure, and South Africa reached the finish line with one over remaining.
