New Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], December 11 (ANI): Following his side's loss to South Africa in the second T20I, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav expressed that he, vice-captain Shubman Gill and other batters could have given a better start since the team cannot rely on their star opener Abhishek Sharma all the time.

India's batting concerns continued in the second T20I, as, except for a half-century from Tilak Varma, no other Indian batter managed to stick around for long, and the top order failed yet again, with the captain and vice-captain duo continuing their poor run of form. With this 51-run loss to Proteas, the five-match series is now level 1-1.

Speaking during the post-match presentation, Suryakumar said, 'I think myself, Shubman and other batters, could have given a good start because we cannot rely on Abhishek all the time. The way he has been batting, he might have an off-day. Me, Shubman and few other batters, should have taken it. I think it would have been a smart chase. But then it is okay, Shubman got out on the first ball. But yeah, I should have taken that responsibility, batted a little deeper.'

This year in T20Is, Suryakumar has made 201 runs in 17 innings at an average of 14.35, with a strike rate of over 126 and just one fifty to his name.

On all-rounder Axar Patel's promotion to number three, which yielded 21 runs in 21 balls, the skipper said that the team had seen enough of all-rounder batting well up the order in the ODIs.

'And we wanted him to bat back the same way today as well. But unfortunately, it did not work. He did bat well. But we will see what is up for us going on in the next game,' he added.

Speaking about the bowling, Suryakumar said the team realised later the importance of length on these wickets, and there was some dew.

'As I said, it is a learning process. We learned how they bowled in the second innings. We learned from that, and then we try to execute in the next game,' he added.

Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bowl first. A quickfire 90 in 46 balls, with five fours and seven sixes by Quinton and brilliant finish from Ferreira (30* in 16 balls, with a four and three sixes) and Miller (20* in 12 balls, with two fours and a six), who put on a 53-run stand towards the end in just 23 balls, took SA to 213/4 in 20 overs.

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy (2/29) was the pick of the bowlers for India, while Bumrah (0/45) and Arshdeep Singh (0/54) had an off-colour day.

During the chase, India sank to 32/3 after a top-order failure. Tilak Varma (62 in 33 balls, with two fours and five sixes) got some support from Hardik Pandya (20 in 23 balls, with a six) and Jitesh Sharma (27 in 17 balls, with two fours and two sixes), but it was not enough as India was skittled out for 162 runs in 19.1 overs, with pacer Ottneil Baartman (4/24) being the top bowler. (ANI)