India’s deputy skipper, KL Rahul has come in defense of the Indian bowlers after their performance in the second T20I against South Africa, saying that conditions in Guwahati were batting friendly. The Indian bowlers, who were on the money in the first T20I, had a lackluster performance in the match on Sunday as they conceded 221 runs while defending a total of 237. David Miller put them to the sword with a sublime century on the day as the Proteas fell agonizingly short in their chase.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, as quoted by Hindustan Times, KL Rahul said, “Overall, as a team, there’s a lot that we need to get better at. These are great opportunities for all teams to experiment and to try and see what works for them. Just because we got 237 doesn’t mean there is no room for us to improve as a batting unit. In the same way, there is a lot of room for the bowlers to improve as well.”
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He further explained, “You have to take into consideration the conditions also, the pitch, it was humid, and there was dew, so it was hard for the bowlers to grip the ball. And when the opposition is chasing 240, you know batters are gonna come hard, try and smash every ball. It becomes a little difficult for the bowlers to execute their plans. That’s the challenge for us as we play more games, that is something we talk about. As individuals, we practice hard to rectify them.”
KL Rahul brought up his second consecutive fifty in the ongoing three-match T20I series. While the first one came off 56 balls, the second one was relatively faster in just 24 balls. He also received the Player of the Match in the second T20I, opened up on his innings after India beat South Africa by 16 runs, and secured the three-match series.
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Talking about the same during the post-match press conference, KL Rahul said, “When you’re batting first, obviously, you want to you give yourself a couple of overs, try to assess the conditions, see what are the shots you can play and your talk to your partner, you’ll see.. sort of giving yourself a target as to this might be a par total on this pitch and you try and try and play according to that. We’ve always tried to be more aggressive and take a lot of risk and that was what was needed from me today.”
India posted 237/3 after being asked to bat first, with Suryakumar Yadav (61 off 22) leading the batting department. In reply, Quinton de Kock (69* off 48) and David Miller (106* off 47) gave South Africa some hope but eventually fell short as India restricted the visitors to 221/3.
