India lost to South Africa by 5 wickets at Perth on Sunday in a Group 2 match of the ICC T20 World Cup. This is India's first loss of the tournament, after having beaten Pakistan and Netherlands. The loss was a result of some great bowling by the South African pacers, who reduced India to 49/5 at one point. Suryakumar Yadav's 68 helped India reach 133/9 and allowed the bowlers to make a match of it.
Arshdeep Singh's twin strikes gave India the perfect start and things could have been better if the Men in Blue had held on to their chances and fielded better. Half-centurion Aiden Markram was given two reprieves as Virat Kohli dropped a sitter in the deep and captain Rohit Sharma missed a straightforward run out.
There were several other occasions when the Indian fielders were found wanting in the deep as the duo of Markram and David Miller stole doubles.
Speaking after the end of the match Rohit Sharma accepted that it was a dismal performance in the field from his team.
"But we were not good enough on the field. We have played in such conditions so conditions are not an excuse. We want to be consistent in that department. We could not hold on to our chances, we misses a few run-outs including myself," Rohit said.
He also said explained why he gave Ashwin the 18th over of the innings.
" I have seen what happened at the last with the spinners. So I wanted to finish with Ashwin before the last over. I wanted to see that the seamers bowl the right overs. Given the new batter came in, it was the perfect time for Ashwin to bowl," Rohit explained.
South Africa are now top of Group 2 with 5 points. India and Bangladesh are second and third respectively, with net run-rate separating the two.