Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee pulled South Africa out of the fire against India at St George’s Oval last night.
Looking dead and buried while chasing a skamele 124/6, the duo got together with the score on 86/7 and four overs left to play.
This after Varun Chakaravarthy (5/17) spinned them dronk, with frontline batsmen Ryan Rickelton (13), Reeza Hendricks (24), Markram (3), Heinrich Klaasen (2) and David Miller (0) all failing.
But Stubbs stood strong and scored an unbeaten 47 off 41 balls in an innings that included seven fours.
He was well supported by Gerald Coetzee at the end, with the Proteas bowler smashing a vinnige 19 off 9 balls to help his teammate take them home with an over to spare.
The win makes it 1-1 in the four-match series, after India smashed South Africa by 61 runs in the first match in Kingsmead on Friday.
With the two teams now headed for Centurion Park for the third match, SA’s batsmen will know that they have to up their game if they want to win the series.
As for Coetzee and the rest of the bowlers, they did well innie Baai and will be looking to repeat that performance on Wednesday.
Coetzee took 1/25 in his four overs, while Marco Jansen finished with the exact same figures.
Andile Simelane and Nqapa Peter both took 1/20 and Markram 1/4, as Hardik Pandya scored an unbeaten 39 for India.