The Indian bowlers failed to find rhythm and came up with an average bowling performance. The bowling trio of Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar and Navdeep Saini failed to trouble the African opening and were even smashed for some brutal sixes and fours withing first five overs of the second innings. The opening duo of Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks stitched up a 50-run stand for the first wicket for South Africa.
Earlier, South African bowlers restricted team India to 134/9 after 20 overs. Beuran Hendricks (4 for 14 runs) was the pick of the bowlers.
'Hitman' Rohit Sharma, playing his 98th T20I, failed to deliver as he could score 9 runs before getting out to Hendricks in the third over. Meanwhile, Rohit equaled MS Dhoni’s record for most number of T20I appearances for team India.
With Dhawan gone after a well-made 36 off 25 deliveries, Skipper Kohli (9) got out for single figures. Left-hander Pant (19 off 20 balls), 'the bad shot-selector', continued his dismal form with the bat as he yet again failed to step up and score runs.
India lost its another wicket in form of reliable batsman Shreyas Iyer (5). India were in some serious trouble having lost two wickets in the same over. With Pant gone and Iyer stumped, Pandya brothers came in the middle to rescue their squad.
Paceman Beuran Hendricks was introduced again in the attack and he didn't let his skipper down as he bowled a beauty to get all-rounder Krunal Pandya (4) nick one behind to wicket-keeper de Kock.
At this point it seemed that team India would struggle to even put 150 on board with six wickets down for 99, but with Hardik and Jadeja on the crease and final five overs to go, some firepower was still expected.
At the end, India managed to put 135 runs on scoreboard in tough conditions, but skipper de Kock's fiery unbeaten innings outclassed the Indian bowling attack to level the series 1-1.