New Delhi: For a few months now, Harmanpreet Kaur’s India have looked a pale shadow of their bubbling, bristling self that lifted the ODI World Cup five months back. The slide that began in Australia in February where they were blanked 0-3 in the ODIs before losing the only Test by 10 wickets showed no signs of slowing down on Sunday as they suffered their second successive defeat in Durban in the five-match T20I series.

Lax in the field, listless with the bat and toothless with the ball, India were dealt an eight-wicket shellacking by Laura Wolvaardt’s South Africa who chased down India’s 147 without breaking a sweat. The hosts still had 17 balls to spare when Tazmin Brits hit Anushka Sharma through extra cover for the boundary that put India out of their misery.

Asked to bat after Wolvaardt called correctly at the toss, India’s below-par total was down to a telling mix of intelligent bowling, questionable shot selection, and poor execution. From a comfortable 99/2 in the 13th over, India proceeded to lose eight wickets for 48 runs in the remaining seven—15 out of those runs came in the final over, an indicator of the control South Africa had over the India batters.

India’s dramatic, inexplicable collapse nullified a fine 38-ball 57 from opener Shafali Verma, the lone batter who showed the required skills to match her intent. India lost Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues inside the Powerplay, but Verma—playing her 100th T20I—forged a 51-run alliance with debutant Anushka Sharma. The latter’s fall in the 13th over triggered India’s collapse with none of the batters being able to get a move on.

As many as six Indian batters failed to reach double figures with the slow orthodox left-arm spin of the experienced Chloe Tryon accounting for three of India’s top four for a Player of the Match performance. Medium pacer Tumi Sekhukhune also took up three wickets while Nadine de Klerk and Nonkululeko Mlaba returned with a wicket each.

A target of 148 was never going to stretch the strong South African line-up but the clinical ease with which Wolvaardt and Sune Luus went about their task was a treat to watch. The openers raised 106 runs in 12 overs before Wolvaardt (54, 34b) failed to clear Arundhati Reddy at long-on. Luus departed three overs later for a 46-ball 57, leaving Brits and Annerie Dercksen to complete the formalities.

“We didn’t bat well in the last 10 overs in both games,” Kaur said, referring to the lower-order collapse on Friday.

“Bowling-wise also, the Powerplay is not going our way. When you’re not getting the shots, rotating strike is key. Unfortunately, we are not able to do that. We have to stay together and think how to go about the next games,” she added.

The series now moves to Johannesburg with India finding themselves in the must-win scenario and a lot of thinking to do. With T20 World Cup less than two months away, India would look to smoothen the rough edges and rediscover their verve.

Brief scores: India 147 in 20 overs (Shafali Verma 57; Chloe Tryon 3/22, Tumi Sekhukhune 3/31). South Africa 148/2 in 17.1 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 54, Suni Luus 57; Shreyanka Patil 2/35). SA won by 8 wickets.

Punjab Kings’ Priyansh Arya, and Cooper Connolly (PTI Photo)

New Chandigarh: Punjab Kings possess perhaps the most fearsome top order in the IPL, comprising three genial but fearless young batters. On Sunday, Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolly carried out a brutal assault on Lucknow Super Giants with elegance — a second-wicket partnership of effortless hitting, yielding 182 runs off just 80 balls to set up a score of 254/7 and a 54-run win.A carnage of this nature and magnitude is usually driven by muscular hitting which shatters the confidence of the bowling team. Arya’s 37-ball 93 and Connolly’s 46-ball 87 slit the spirit of the LSG bowling like a hot knife gliding through a block of butter. It was always going to be tough for LSG batters to recover from the massacre. Their forceful batting, led by Rishabh Pant’s 23-ball 43 and Aiden Markram’s 22-ball 42, did see them finish with a decent score of 200/5, but they had fallen too far behind in the first half of the match. It didn’t even matter if Punjab Kings put out a subpar fielding effort.Arya and Connolly have shown that scoring at a manic run-rate doesn’t necessarily require brute force. It could be done with languid elegance, depending more on optimum timing. They took touch play to another level. Each of Arya’s nine sixes didn’t have an exaggerated bat swing. In comparison, Connolly’s seven hits beyond the boundary carried a more pronounced follow-through of the bat. The ball looked to be floating into the stands off their bats. They ditched the quintessential flamboyance of T20 batting and relied on finesse. And just like that, Arya has quietly flown under the radar to compete with other Indian marauding left-handed openers like Abhishek Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi.They may know the conditions at their home venue too well. The pitch was undeniably flat. Yet, the authority and confidence in their nonchalant ball-striking was spellbinding, even for someone with the experience and skill of Mohammed Shami. Once Shami’s impeccable outswinger dismissed opener Prabhsimran Singh for naught at first slip off the third ball of the match, it seemed the LSG bowlers were doing well enough to not let Punjab Kings run away with the match in the Powerplay. Connolly struggled for timing and even survived an LBW shout. Arya was unaffected by anything that was happening at the other end. They ended the Powerplay at 63/1 with Arya on 40 off 13 and Connolly on 19 off 22.Punjab Kings have built a reputation of killing games in the first six overs of the innings. They went the other way on Sunday. Connolly gave up trying to hit the ball hard and followed what Arya was doing.Perhaps, they know the conditions here too well, but they also are evidently in ominous form in this tournament. Arya made batting look so easy that one thought all he needed to do was just put bat on ball. Before one could realise, the duo had brought up the team’s 150 in just 12.1 overs. Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan and Aiden Markram appeared resigned to the onslaught. Even Shami looked out of place and short of ideas. Only Prince Yadav held his own and finished his spell with figures of 2/25, his spell an anomaly in the innings.The brute power only came with Marcus Stoinis coming out after Arya and Connolly were dismissed in the space of two runs. His unbeaten 29 off 16 had sixes that could have seriously injured people in the stands. But he did kill LSG’s hopes of restricting Punjab Kings under 240 after the rare failure of Shreyas Iyer.