India beat South Africa by seven wickets in the second T20 International in Mohali courtsey a fantastic knock by Indian captain Virat Kohli, who scored runs 72 runs. He was given the Man of the Match award for his match-winning knock.

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India's solid start

Winning the toss, India chose to bowl first and the decision paid it's dividends as they restricted South Africa to a mere 149 runs for five. Temba Bavuma, Bjorn Fortuin, and Anrich Nortje made their T20 debuts for South Africa. Quinton de Kock scored 52 runs and Bavuma scored 49 runs, justifying his selection. South Africa, however, did not find much joy from the rest of their squad since India's bowling attack was much more dominant on the day. Deepak Chahar picked two wickets, and he was assisted by Navdeep Saini, Hardik Pandya, and Ravindra Jadeja, who took a wicket each. Virat Kohli went off the field towards the end of the first innings, but not before taking a fantastic catch to end de Kock's innings. 

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India's openers set the tone right from the beginning of the second innings, especially Shikhar Dhawan, who scored 40 runs before another fantastic catch, this time by David Miller, ended his innings. Kohli came in for him and showed no signs of sluggishness or any injuries as he went on regularly and scored a 61 run partnership with Dhawan. Pant, who came in for Dhawan only added to the debate around his pre-mature shot selection as he was taken at fine-leg for just four runs off five deliveries. Shreyas Iyer came in next and he helped Kohli to comfortably finish off the match. Tabraiz Shamsi was the most effective bowler for South Africa as he picked one wicket and had an economy of 6.33. 

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Bowlers make the difference

In the post-match presentation, Kohli said, "Bowlers showed a lot of character. The pitch was very good and they got off to a good start so it was an outstanding effort from the bowler to pull the game back from us. That's exactly what we're looking at, try out new people and see who stands up under pressure." De Kock said, "I think we got off to a good start. Towards the end, they bowled pretty well, they understood the conditions a lot quicker than we did. There was a lot of pressure coming in for some of the new guys and I thought they played really well. Obviously we didn't get a winning start but I thought they held their nerve very well."

This was the first match of South Africa's tour of India after the first T20I in Dharamsala was washed out. The third and final T20I will be played at Bengaluru on Sunday.

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