In the 2nd T20I game between India-South Africa, The latter team's skipper won the toss and opted to bowl first. South African bowling and fielding were to the point through the innings as they kept taking wickets at the regular intervals starting from the first over.
READ: Watch Wayne Parnell's unique celebration after taking the wicket of Hardik Pandya
Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer tried to steady the Indian innings and stitched a partnership of 45 runs for the second wicket but as soon as Ishan Kishan lost his wicket, the Indian innings' run rate declined and they started to lose wickets at regular intervals.
Hardik Pandya, who had a wonderful IPL earlier this year was dismissed in the 13th over with India's score standing at 90-4. As soon as Hardik Pandya lost his wicket, fans expected Dinesh Karthik to come next in the batting lineup but they were surprised on seeing Axar Patel instead.
There is no doubt that Axar Patel can bat too but Dinesh Karthik was drafted to the Indian team because of his recent performance in the IPL and he is playing as a specialist batsman in this team whereas Axar Patel as a bowler.
Fans were dejected on seeing this and slammed Rishabh Pant for his tactics. Check out some of the reactions.
Dinesh Karthik started his innings slowly but made up for the missed deliveries in the latter part of his innings as he ended up scoring 30 runs in 21 deliveries which helped the Indian innings to set a respectable target of 149 runs.
READ: Bidding for IPL media rights goes past 1000 crore per match, overall value touches 41,000 crore
Talking about the South African run-chase, Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India a dream start as he picked up 3 wickets in his first 3 overs.
As we write this article, South African team is playing on 40 runs for the loss of 3 wickets after 8.3 overs.
.