India vs South Africa: Tilak Verma believes wet outfield played a role in second T20I defeat

The conditions in the second T20I between India and South Africa changed dramatically after a brief rain interruption. The pitch had been slow up until that point before quickening up. Additionally, it made things difficult for the fielding India to grip the ball perfectly.

After being put in to bat, India lost their openers for ducks, but quick fifties from Rinku Singh and Suryakumar Yadav, along with Tilak Verma’s 29 off 20 balls, helped the visitors recover to 180 for 7 in 19.3 overs.

A sharp spell of rain then forced a premature end to India’s innings and once play resumed, with South Africa chasing a revised target of 152 in 15 overs, the bowlers struggled to grip the ball. South Africa breezed to 67 runs in the first five overs, thanks to Reeza Hendricks’ blitz, and eventually clinched the game with seven balls to spare.

Read | Rinku’s maiden fifty, Shamsi’s miserly spell and other takeaways

“I feel in the powerplay, we gave a bit [of] extra runs, but after that we came back strongly,” Tilak said in the post-match press conference. “But due to the wet outfield, the ball was not gripping as we thought. But actually we batted well.

“It’s always good to play in South Africa; it’s quite challenging. We are well-prepared for these conditions, and we have actually batted well in a tough situation. The openers didn’t do too well today but after that Surya, myself and Rinku got good rhythm in the batting side and we scored well. But due to the rain and wet outfield…”

Tilak appreciated the effort of the Proteas spinners Tabraiz Shamsi, Keshav Maharaj, and Aiden Markram for keeping India’s run-scoring in check, despite Suryakumar and Rinku batting aggressively. Shamsi bagged the Player of the Match honour for his economical spell of 4-0-18-1.

“I feel the wicket was a bit on the slower side when we batted, especially with the new ball it was slightly seaming,” Tilak said. “After that, it was gripping a bit and spinning a bit when Markram and Shamsi were bowling. So the spell that Markram and Shamsi bowled went their way. I think it was a good spell from them. Otherwise, we could have reached 200 or 200-plus.”

Tilak has played the second-most T20Is among Indian batters this year – behind Suryakumar. Despite that, he isn’t a certain for the T20 World Cup with Shreyas Iyer also in the mix for No 3 spot. Additionally, return of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya could leave Tilak on the sidelines. But the batter is hoping his experience in variety of conditions will make a difference in the squad.

“For every series, I was preparing to the conditions,” Tilak said. “If you see, West Indies was a bit on the slower side, and if you see Ireland, [the pitches] were similar to South Africa wickets, it was a bit bouncy and seaming a bit. We were preparing according to the [conditions] and we are India. So, it has been a great experience and great learning going through.”

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