India captain Suryakumar Yadav remains confident his team can quickly recover from their heavy defeat to South Africa and keep their campaign alive in the T20 World Cup. India’s 76-run loss to the Proteas in Ahmedabad on Sunday ended a 4-match winning streak and marked their first setback of the tournament. The defeat has added urgency to their remaining Super Eight fixtures, with the defending champions now facing a tense battle to secure a place in the semi-finals.
Despite the disappointment, Suryakumar expressed confidence stressing that a single defeat should not overshadow the team’s consistency over the past year. Notably, India, in chase of 187, were bowled out for 111 in 18.5 overs.
“I feel we were always in the game when we started. I think we bowled really well in the beginning, 21 for 3, and the way they batted after that, from overs 7 to 15, I think they batted really well. Then we came back again later on. Overall, if we see, we bowled really well, but we could have batted a little better,” Suryakumar said at the post-match presentation.
"Sometimes you've got to think, if you're chasing 180-185, you can't win the game in the Powerplay, but you might lose the game in the Powerplay," he said.
"We lost too many wickets in the Powerplay. And then we couldn't have small partnerships, which we wanted to have for chasing 180-185. But then that's part of the game. We learnt it, we'll sit back and then come back stronger," Yadav added.
India now likely need victories against Zimbabwe and West Indies in their remaining Super Eight matches to guarantee qualification for the semi-finals. Meanwhile, they will Zimbabwe in Chennai on Thursday.