India lost their first Super 8 match against South Africa by 76 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. This was their first defeat after 17 matches in an ICC white-ball tournament. While chasing the target of 188 runs, the Proteas bowled out the Indian national cricket team for just 111 runs in 18.5 overs.
Following this defeat, former Pakistan cricketers Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul have mocked the India national cricket team and believe that South Africa “broke India’s pride” by exposing their batting problems in the T20 World Cup 2026.
“They completely destroyed India” – Saqlain Mushtaq
Former Pakistan head coach Saqlain Mushtaq heaped praise on South Africa national cricket team captain Aiden Markram for his excellent leadership qualities and planning against the Indian batsmen.
Saqlain Mushtaq said, “The match planning of South Africa and Aiden Markram was excellent. They changed the result in just one over. Today all their plans worked. They completely demolished India. To be honest, they broke India’s pride and changed the game.”
“South Africa targeted Varun Chakraborty’s four overs” – Umar Gul
Umar Gul also praised David Miller and other middle-order batsmen who showed controlled aggression and read the pitch perfectly, which was suitable for batting. And it also showed that it is right to bat first after winning the toss. India has won only one toss so far in the tournament, which was in the final game against the Netherlands.
“They survived the powerplay even after losing 3 wickets for 41 runs. But the middle overs shape the match. Then the last 3-4 overs are very important to finish strongly. South Africa targeted Varun Chakravarthy’s four overs and exposed that plan. India looked confused about their fifth bowler. Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dubey were struggling, and even Chakravarthy looked under pressure,” Gul said.
Shoaib Akhtar is critical of India’s performance
Shoaib Akhtar also critically analyzed India’s overall performance. The former fast bowler was brutal as he said that his batting and bowling failed to handle the pressure in such big games. Despite winning all the matches in the group stage, India has had problems with the bat.
He faced some minor failures especially in the middle overs. However, against smaller nations this was recoverable, and they were batting first, and against bigger teams like South Africa, they failed to chase down the target.
Shoaib Akhtar said, “Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dubey and the spinners could not handle the pressure. Indian batting unraveled when the pressure came. We always say that India is a very strong team, but today was the day to show character in the middle order. Their aggressive style did not work. Hardik Pandya is not the right choice for the 20th over, and probably not for the middle overs either.”
The Proteas had fallen to 20/3, but David Miller and Dewald Brewis came to the rescue, as the former scored half-centuries and helped the team post a mammoth total of 187 runs. The Men in Blue suffered a similar collapse while chasing, but no batsman played the innings of David Miller, thus they were out for just 111 runs.
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