No Perth Control

A Suryakumar Yadav special wasnrsquot enough against the collective might of South Africa at a fiery Optus Stadium surface on Sunday nightAfter Lungi Ngidi 429 had blasted Indiarsquos top order out in next to no time in the T20 World Cup Super 12 clash Suryakumar showcased his adaptability and nous batting with as much authority on the juicedup strip with pace and steepling bounce as he would on far less demanding pitchesIt was entirely on the back of his marvellous 68 that India batting first by choice recovered from the depths of 49 for five to post 133 for nine hardly threatening but not trifling either given that India had the pace resources to make a match of itEarly blowsArshdeep Singh like Suryakumar on his first tour of Australia sent the 44000strong crowd into raptures when in the second over of the chase he accounted for Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw the latter coming off hundreds in his last two T20I innings Temba Bavumarsquos wretched run continued as India stormed back into contention at 243 but South Africa had the class and experience of Aiden Markram and David Miller to fall back onDavid Miller en route his 59The two took their time getting their eye in Markram playing breathtaking strokes off the back foot between deliveries that screamed past his bat and Miller giving the first halfhour to the bowlers before targeting R Ashwin with a vengeance Their intelligent 77run fourthwicket partnership was the bedrock around which South Africa built their successful chase thus surging to the top of the Group 2 table with a tense fivewicket victory attained with just two deliveries to spareAlso readT20 World Cup Jos Buttler confident of making semis despite rain woesKohli puts down a sitterIndia didnrsquot help their cause by being lackadaisical in the field Virat Kohli of all people put down a sitter at deep midwicket to reprieve Markram off Ashwin when the batsman was 35 and in the next over Rohit Sharma missed a clear runout chance with Markram yards out of his ground The righthander didnrsquot look a gift horse in the mouth speeding to a wonderful halfcentury Miller cut loose after the drinks breakmdashSouth Africa went from 40 after 10 overs to 85 after 14mdashto bring up a superbly paced halfcentury and ensure the result was never in doubtNgidi made sure earlier in the evening that his batsmen didnrsquot have too much to chase with a telling first burst of four for 17 Brought in for leftarm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi he troubled India with the bounce he procured as each of Rohit the beleaguered KL Rahul and Kohli fell to the short stuff Suryakumar waged a wonderful battle a nonchalant flick off Anrich Nortje and a screaming backdrive off Ngidi his standout strokes but there was only so much one man could doBrief scoresIndia 1339 S Yadav 68 L Ngidi 429 W Parnell 315 lost to SA 1375 in 194 overs D Miller 59 A Markram 52 Arshdeep 225 by 5 wkts