NEW DELHI:Â Riding on a brilliant knock by Virat Kohli and a fiery cameo from Suresh Raina in crunch situation, India stormed into World T20 final as they beat South Africa by six wickets in the second semifinal in Mirpur on Friday.
Scorecard
Kohli made an unbeaten 72 in 44 balls while Raina scored 10-ball-21 as India chased down a competitive 173 with five balls to spare.
Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma too chipped in with 32, 24 respectively.
India got off to a flying start in their chase as they scored over ten runs in first three over.
Rohit Sharma scored 24 and shared a solid 39-run opening stand with Rahane before falling to Beuran Hendricks in the fourth over.
Sharma 24 came off just 13 balls and were studded with four boundaries and a six.
Wayne Parnell gave India second blow by getting rid of Ajinkya Rahane after his 32-run knock to give South Africa hope.
Rahane, who a looking in a fine touch, played badly against the bounce to give an easy catch to AB de Villers at the score of 77 in the 10th over.
Earlier, skipper Faf du Plessis came back from his one-match suspension with an attractive half-century as South Africa posted a challenging 172/4.
Riding on Du Plessis’ 58 off 41 balls and senior campaigner Jean-Paul Duminy’s 40-ball-45, the Proteas scored their highest total against India in the tournament so far. David Miller’s 12-ball-23 also helped to prop up the total, which went past 170.
Barring Ravichandran Ashwin, who had brilliant figures of three for 22 from his four overs, other Indian bowlers had a disappointing day in office.
Amit Mishra gave his worst performance (0/36 in three overs) in the tournament, even as Dhoni was unable to complete the quota of his three specialist bowlers.
Most impressive part about South Africa’s batting was that their batsmen did not try to fight the conditions. Du Plessis showed the virtue of spending some time before going on the ascendancy, while the seasoned Duminy also played an important hand in the team’s total.
Duminy-Du Plessis pair added 71 runs in 8.4 overs for the third wicket, which laid the foundation for a fighting score. Both these batsmen decided to play out Ashwin and attack the other bowlers which yielded desired results.
Quinton de Kock (6) got a debatable caught behind decision off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling. The left-handed opener flashed at a wide delivery from the seamer but it deviated taking an under-edge that was caught by Dhoni behind the stumps. Umpire Ian Gould gave the decision after some contemplation but the batsman looked unhappy.
Hashim Amla (22) continued with his fine batting and drove Mohit Sharma on the rise to get a streaky boundary. Du Plessis followed the suit charging out to the young seamer and hitting him over mid-wicket for a four.
However, Amla’s free-hitting did not last long even though he got a couple of more boundaries in Bhuvneshwar’s next over. Ashwin coming from round the wicket bamboozled Amla with a carom ball that spun like a classical leg-break. He played for the turn and saw the off-stump being pegged back.
