Rishabh Pant scored 85 runs in India’s defeat to South Africa in the second ODI on Friday.© AFP
India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant on Friday said Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s form is not a matter of concern and everyone in the team knows about the quality of the pacer. Quinton de Kock (78) and Janman Malan (91) batted on the spot South Africa beat India by seven wickets in the second ODI to take an unassailable 2–0 lead in the three-match series. Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram remained unbeaten on 37-37 for South Africa. Bhuvneshwar conceded 67 runs In the second ODI, he did not take a single wicket in his eight overs.
“We are always looking to improve, I don’t think there is much concern about Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s form, we are playing ODI series after a long time, so we are just getting used to the pace. We are disappointed to lose the series. But we are looking to learn from it,” Pant said while answering ANI’s question during a virtual press conference.
“Shardul batted well down the order in both the matches, that’s a positive for us. Venkatesh Iyer bowling for us today, we can take a lot of positive things out of this series,” he added.
Earlier, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul scored 85 and 55 runs respectively as India posted 287/6 in the allotted twenty overs. Shardul Thakur and Ravichandran Ashwin also played unbeaten innings of 40 and 25 runs respectively. Tabrez Shamsi returned with two wickets for the Proteas.
“I think the track was a bit slow. I thought we had enough runs on this wicket, in the last game, it was difficult to bat in the second innings as the wicket got slower and slower. Today, it was the same but South Africa batted well in the middle stage and hence they were able to chase down the target.”
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“I and KL had a good partnership in the middle, if we had gone ahead, we would have got 15-20 more runs in total,” he said.
The third and final ODI will be played in Cape Town on Sunday.
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