South African opening batsman Reeza Hendricks, who scored 70 runs off 50 balls in the first T20I of three-match T20I series against India at Johannesburg on Sunday, praised Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s superb bowling effort who had a brilliant bowling figure of 4-0-24-5.
While Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the man of the match award for his superb bowling effort in the first T20I, South African right-handed opening batsman Reeza Hendricks praised the right-handed Indian pacer a lot of for his consistency.
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After the match, Hendricks said about Bhuvneshwar, “He (Bhuvneshwar) was just consistent in his areas which was pretty much giving us nothing to score off. So we had to be happy with ones and twos at that time.”
Hendricks also praised the whole Indian team for their successful planning. He said, “They just executed their plans well and kept it very simple. That’s pretty much it compared to what we did.”
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After winning the toss, the hosts South Africa decided to bowl first. Thanks to opener Shikhar Dhawan’s superb 72-runs knock, India managed to score 203/5 at the end of 20 overs.
In reply, Hendricks was the only batsman who strongly replied the Indian bowlers. With the effort of his superb 70-runs knock, South Africa managed to put 175/9 at the end of 20 overs. South Africa lost the match by 28 runs.
Hendricks thinks that the powerplay was played an important role in this game. Where Indian team managed to score 78/2 in the first 6 overs, the hosts managed to put 41/2 on the board at the same time.
Hendricks quoted, “Obviously their powerplay was much better than ours. Looking back now that’s where we lost it.”
The right-handed South African opener further described the reason for their defeat where he pointed out the regular wickets falling.
Hendricks said, “Conditions were very good for batting. But Indians bowled really well. So I started slowly and then I had to get myself in and like I said, take it as deep as possible, with the wickets falling around. I managed to do that but would have loved to see the team home.”
He added, “As an opening batsman, we obviously try to get a start, try and capitalise in the first six and then take it deep as possible. They obviously bowled well, we lost a few wickets so that meant obviously we had to stabilise the innings and build a few partnerships and try to take it as deep as possible.”
