(Cricket news) After winning their first two games against Pakistan and Netherlands, India have lost to South Africa by 5 wickets. The pitch at Perth was extremely difficult to bat on as there was a lot of bounce which assisted the seamers. Both sets of batters struggled early on but were able to steady things later. Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. Both teams made one change, South Africa brought in Lungi Ngidi for Tabraiz Shamsi to get an extra seamer into the side. India on the other hand decided to deepen their batting by bringing in Deepak Hooda for Axar. The move made their bowling significantly weaker and it also meant that India didn't have a single left hander apart from number 11 Arshdeep Singh. 

Batting first India were faced with the wrath of Lungi Ngidi. The Proteas seamer playing his first game of the season dismissed Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya cheaply and only gave away 29 runs in his 4 overs. Anrich Nortje's express pace was too much for Deepak Hooda to handle who looked completely out of place before being dismissed for a duck. The Indian innings was carried by the brilliant Suryakumar Yadav who continues his flourish in this format. He scored 68 off 40 balls hitting 6 fours and 3 sixes and did so without much help from the other end. At the end of the innings Wayne Parnell got rid of SKY, Dinesh Karthik and Ravichandran Ashwin to restrict India to 133/9 in 20 overs. The Indian batting once again collapsed in a pretty bad manner.

With just 134 runs to defend India got off to a great start as Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar worked their magic with the new ball. Arshdeep picked up the wickets of Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw in his very first over. Mohammed Shami dismissed Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma who is still struggling to get runs. David Miller and Aiden Markram steadied things for South Africa both the players got half centuries. Markaram scored 52 off 41 balls while Miller scored an unbeaten 59 off 46 balls. The Proteas targeted Ashwin and Pandya and paced their innings beautifully. India were really disappointing in the field as the dropped catches and missed run-outs. 

India still has a good chance of making it to the semi finals but they will have to improve some things. Dinesh Karthik injured himself while keeping and could miss the next game which could be a blessing in disguise. India is missing someone Rishabh Pant who can speed things up in the middle if India lose early wickets and he is also a left hander. KL Rahul's place in the side is also under the scanner as he has failed to score runs in this tournament so far. India have not been bowling well in the middle overs which is something that needs to be looked at.

Also read: Australia chances of qualification are slim after washout against England