South Africa on Monday night clinched the Twenty20 series with a comfortable six-wicket win over a lacklustre India in the second match, which was marred by shameful and unruly crowd behaviour here.
The visitors overhauled the 93-run target with 17-balls to spare to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Put into bat, the hosts faltered against a disciplined South African attack to be bowled out for a paltry 92 in 17.2 overs and the crowd, unable to digest the pathetic batting display, started throwing water bottles onto the ground. This was India's second lowest T20 score after their 74 against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in February 2008.
The spectators at the Barabati Stadium continued to throw bottles during the South African chase but could only delay the inevitable as Proteas cruised to victory.
It was a disgraceful behaviour by the crowd, who did not respond to repeated requests on the public system to keep calm putting a question mark on future cricket matches in the city. The behaviour also tarnished India's image at the cricket venue.
For South Africa it was the bowlers who made the difference, with Albie Morkel (3-12) picking up three and Imran Tahir (2-24) and Chris Morris (2-16) sharing two wickets apiece. After a brisk start provided by openers Shikhar Dhawan (11) and Rohit Sharma (22), the Indian batting lost the plot post some fine bowling and indecisive running by the batsmen.
Dhawan was the first to go after being trapped lBW off Morris, while Virat Kohli (1) and Rohit soon ran themselves out. leg-spinner Tahir also swung into action by scalping Suresh Raina for 22 as the Men in Blue looked down the barrel at 67 for five.
The Faf du Plessis-led side also lost early wickets as off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (3-24) tried his best to defend a low score, but the visitors made it look simple in the end. After the fall of Hashim Amla (2), Faf (16) and AB de Villers (19), Jean-Paul Duminy (30 not out) and Farhaan Behardien (11) made sure that Proteas stay comfortable in the chase.
Chasing a low score, South Africa were 64 for three in 11 overs when during the drinks break the trouble began again as the spectators for the second time started hurling water bottles onto the field, interrupting the proceedings for 19 minutes.
Irate fans hurl water bottles
Angry spectators hurled missiles, mainly water bottles, into the cricket ground after India were skittled out for 92 against South Africa in the second T20 International at the Barabati Stadium.
As India collapsed, fans vented their fury by throwing water bottles from the two-levels gallery three and four as it continued unabated in the innings break.
‘didn't address shortcomings’
Coming down hard on his batsmen after a listless showing, Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said they did not address their shortcomings and lost wickets in pairs as the team was skittled out for 92 against South Africa in the second T20 cricket match here.
"I don't think we played good cricket. In the batting department, we just wanted to address run-outs and losing wickets in pairs. We didn't improve on that. Overall, we didn't bat well at all. It's important to address what went wrong. You get performances like these, what's important is how you bounce back," Dhoni said after the match.
South African skipper Faf du Plessis though had everything to say about his bowlers, who were ably led by Albie Morkel (3-12). "look, it's an easy job to be a captain when your bowlers perform like that. I reckon it's the best bowling performance we have had as a T20 team. Albie, it's his 50th game, we are really proud of him for playing that many games, he was really clever with his lines.
I thought there was great variety in those first six overs. Imran (Tahir), I'm not sure he's ever bowled in the first six. My thinking was just to try and get wickets. You never try and be too predictable as a bowling unit. KG (Rabada) bowled four overs on the trot. He bowled really fast," said Faf.