David Miller hit an unbeaten 59 off 46 balls and Aiden Markram scored 52 as South Africa defeated India by 5 wickets in Perth on Sunday. The Proteas were reduced to 24 for 3 in their chase of 134 runs in the game but a 76-run stand between Aiden Markram and David Miller helped them recover. Aiden Markram fell soon after his fifty but David Miller stayed there till the end to finish the game. It was Surya Kumara Yadav’s 68 off 40 balls that had helped India post 133 for 9 vs South Africa after skipper Rohit Sharma opted to bat first. Lungi Ngidi had returned figures of 4 for 29.
Rohit Sharma, India captain, said, ‘We expected that the pitch will have something in it. We knew that there’ll be a lot of help for the seamers, that’s why it wasn’t an easy target to chase. We fell a little short with the bat. We fought well, but South Africa were better today. When you see that score (40/3 in 10), you’ll always think you’re in the game. That was a match-winning partnership from Markram and Miller. We were a little poor in the field, we gave so many chances and we weren’t clinical. We were just not good enough. The last two games, we were pretty good in the field. We couldn’t hold our chances, we missed a few run-outs. We need to keep our heads high and take a learning from this game. I’ve seen what happens with the spinners in the last over, so I wanted to go the other way. If I can finish Ash, I just wanted to make sure that the seamers are bowling the right overs. You have to use it at some point.’