In the second T20I versus South Africa, in Cuttack, Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India a strong start with the ball in the defence of what looked a little fewer than par total of 148 runs.
He bowled three overs in the powerplay and picked up three big wickets – those of Reeza Hendricks, Dwaine Pretorius, and Rassie van der Dussen – in each of his first three overs for just 10 runs to bring India in front.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar Dismissed Rassie van der Dussen
Bhuvneshwar castled Hendricks in the first over with an inswinger. Then he deceived Pretorius with a slower one, having him caught in the deep. The big blow to the visitors came when their top-scorer from the victory in the first T20I, van der Dussen who smashed 75 runs off 46 balls, managed just 1 run from 7 balls today in Cuttack. And it was a proper nut from the experienced India pacer to get rid of the man in form.
There was some help available from the pitch and conditions for Bhuvneshwar whose quality made him almost unhittable in the powerplay today. On the third ball of the sixth over, Bhuvneshwar cramped Rassie for room with a back-of-length delivery.
Upon pitching, the ball seamed back in sharply off the straight with van der Dussen’s foot rooted to the crease. The batter was beaten by the seam movement and lack of bounce in the ball after pitching. The ball beat Rassie’s inside edge and crashed into the off-stump leaving the batsman surprised. There were no surprises regarding Bhuvneshwar’s quality though.
Here, watch how Bhuvneshwar castled Rassie van der Dussen with a top drawer delivery:
