Duminy stars in South Africa’s 7-wicket win over India

Needing 10 runs off the last over chasing a 200-run victory target, Duminy’s seventh six tied the contest before he took a single to seal victory with two balls to spare and put his team 1-0 up in the three-match series.

According to a report in The Indian Express, Dhoni was having a stint at the nets when the DJ, who was testing his speakers, pumped up the volume but only to put the captain off.

“A score of 200 in a T20 game is a good one, we could not have expected more”, said Dhoni.

The stadium was under a pool of water after rain and thundershowers in the afternoon when the team landed in State capital Bhubaneswar.

India had been marginal favourites to win after Rohit Sharma struck 106 off 66 balls – his first century in global T20 – in a 138-run stand with Virat Kohli (43), but the hosts stumbled towards the end of their innings to finish on 199 for five.

South Africa: Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy, Farhaan Behardien, David Miller, Albie Morkel, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott, Imran Tahir. The excitement is further confirmation of the role fans play in the successful running of the cricket jamboree in this country, and Axar Patel will be eager to draw a few positive energy out of it. Patel found out during the first T20I in Dharamsala, where JP Duminy hit him for three consecutive sixes in a momentum-shifting 22-run over, that no amount of Indian Premier League games can make up for lack of global experience. He survived two very close shouts for leg-before-wicket during his stay at the crease.

When Mishra played in the World T20 he was the third spinner after Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Ashwin was deceptively brilliant and got vicious turn as he looked risky.

The 28-year-old right-hander brought up his century with a majestic six over long on off pacer Merchant de Lange in the 15th over.

It was a sign of things to come as De Villiers feasted on anything short-and-wide – of which the Indian bowlers offered plenty early on — as South Africa scored 60 in the first five overs.

There is no sureness that Axar is going to play in spite of the encouraging statements by his chief in the media collaboration after the failure in the first match. The bowler has to change his line and length.

“I suppose we do understand what is required to do well in these conditions because of the vast number of experienced players we have in our squad”, he added, on the eve of their only practice game – against a Board President’s XI – here on Tuesday. I am pretty disappointed. Ashwin was the only bowler to concede less than seven runs an over and the only one to demonstrate real guile.

I’m sure we will come back strong.

“Overall, there is a room for improvement, I’m sure the guys have learnt from it and they will come back stronger”.