Why did India lose against South Africa?
Sports Desk, New Delhi. On the basis of David Miller's explosive half-century, South Africa has handed India a crushing defeat of 76 runs in the T20 World Cup 2026. India's batting flopped badly in this match and Team India had to face the biggest defeat in terms of runs in the history of T20 World Cup. Apart from India's batting, bowling was also not that good, due to which South Africa made a big score.
Miller proved to be the hero for the Proteas team and he completely changed the course of the match by scoring 63 runs in 35 balls. In bowling, apart from Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah, everyone scored a lot of runs for India and this was one of the reasons why South Africa managed to cross the score of 180 and defeated India badly. Not only this, this is Team India's first defeat in a multinational tournament. Apart from this, this is the first defeat in the T20 World Cup since 2024. One match was canceled due to rain and India has won 21 matches. In such a situation, let us tell you what were the reasons for India's defeat in this match?
1. Poor team selection
In this match against South Africa, India also made a mistake in team selection. Team India dropped vice-captain Axar Patel, who was performing well with the ball. Apart from this, there have been many such occasions when Akshar has scored runs after the top order flop of Team India. The final of T20 World Cup 2024 is the biggest example of this. Washington Sundar was given a chance in place of Akshar, who scored only 11 runs in just 2 overs of bowling and batting.
2. Apart from Bumrah-Arshdeep, other bowlers failed
Batting first against India, South Africa scored 187 runs in this match. Jasprit Bumrah had given three blows to India in the beginning by taking 2 wickets and Arshdeep Singh taking 1 wicket. However, despite this, the Indian bowlers failed to take wickets in the middle overs. Varun Chakraborty got one wicket but he spent 47 runs in 4 overs. Apart from him, Shivam Dubey gave 32 runs in 2 overs, while Hardik Pandya also gave 45 runs in 4 overs. So Bumrah took 3 wickets for 15 runs in his 4 overs, while Arshdeep Singh took 2 wickets for 28 runs.
3. Sending Washington Sundar up
In this match, all-rounder Washington Sundar was sent to bat at number five. He played 11 balls and scored only 11 runs, which increased the required run rate. Rinku Singh could have been sent in place of Sundar, who would have taken some time to understand the pitch well and could have played big shots in the end.
4. Batsmen did not make partnership
Indian batting flopped badly in this match. Indian batsmen did not make any big partnerships, due to which Team India could make a comeback in the match. The biggest partnership for India in this match was 35 runs, which was between Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav. From this it can be judged that the Indian batsmen have shown a disappointing game.
In this match against South Africa, India's opening pair could not add even a single run. Ishan Kishan was out without opening the account. After him, Tilak Verma also returned to the pavilion after scoring one run. Shivam Dubey scored the maximum 42 runs for Team India. Apart from him, no other batsman could even reach the 20-run mark and this was the biggest reason for India's defeat.
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