IND vs SA: Heard We Are The B-side, Not Capable Of Beating Full-strength South Africa: Ishan Kishan After India's Win In 2nd ODI

India’s T20 World Cup squad arrived in Australia on Friday, and the Rohit Sharma-led team is currently playing in practice games in Perth as part of their World Cup preparations.

However, the second Indian team led by Shikhar Dhawan is playing a three-match ODI series against South Africa at home. Team India has levelled the series, with the decider scheduled to take place in Delhi on Tuesday, October 11.

Kishan shared his thoughts on the outside talks of the team being referred to as India’s B team and doubted that their team is not a strong contender against the full-strength Proteas team.

Heard We Are The B-side, Was Really Upset: Ishan Kishan

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Kishan said, “I heard people talking that we are the B-side, we are not so much capable of beating South Africa’s full-strength side. I heard these comments and we’re really upset about it, so we wanted to play our A-game today.”

“We lost the first game and we wanted to win this badly so that we can give a fight in the next one. Hopefully, we will win the next game also. And the kind of form Iyer is batting, Sanju bhai is batting, everyone is in their prime form. So all target is on the next game” he added.

Shreyas Iyer Doesn’t Take Much Time – Ishan Kishan

The Men in Blue lost their openers Shikhar Dhawan (13) and Shubman Gill (28) for just 48 runs. In such a pressure situation, young batsmen Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer put on a match-winning partnership of 161 runs.

While Iyer started the innings aggressively, after settling at the crease, Kishan blew South Africa with sixes at the end. The southpaw played an outstanding knock of 93 runs off 84 balls, including four fours and seven sixes, and missed a century by 7 runs at his ground.

“Partnership was good with Iyer bhai because he is also someone who doesn’t take much time. He comes and starts playing his drives, cut and pull. Looking at his intent also gave me a lot of clarity and a lot of positivity,” Kishan said on the partnership.

Earlier in the match, Keshav Maharaj won the toss and chose to bat first. Aiden Markram (79 off 89 balls) and Reeza Hendricks (74 off 76 balls) scored brilliant half-centuries as the team scored 278 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj was the standout with the ball, taking three wickets and conceding 38 runs in his 10 overs.

Also read: IND vs SA: ‘You Scored Ton, I Missed At My Home Town’ – Ishan Kishan In Chat With Shreyas Iyer After 2nd ODI