BELFAST: South Africa’s David Miller hit an unbeaten 75 runs to help the tourists out of early trouble before their spinners then restricted Ireland to secure a 42-run victory in the second Twenty20 International at Belfast on Thursday.

Miller was in belligerent form, scoring off 44 balls, to lift South Africa to 159-7 after they elected to bat. Ireland were bowled out for 117 in reply as spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin took three wickets each.

South Africa lost two wickets in the first four balls of the innings and were in trouble at 58-5 but player-of-the-match Miller led a fightback, taking full advantage of being dropped on 19 to see them to a respectable score. He hit four sixes in the final over.

Ireland failed to gain any traction in their reply and were strangled by the spinners with Shamsi claiming 3-14 off four overs.

Fortuin took 3-16 while Shane Getkate top scored for the Irish with 24 before they were bowled out with three balls to spare.

South Africa won the first T20 International in Dublin on Monday by 33 runs. The last game of the series is also in Belfast on Saturday.

Scores in brief:

SOUTH AFRICA 159-7 in 20 overs (D.A. Miller 75, P.W.A. Mulder 36, Q. de Kock 27; P.R. Stirling 2-12, M.R. Adair 2-33); IRELAND 117 in 19.3 overs (S.C. Getkate 27, G.H. Dockrell 20; T. Shamsi 3-14, B.C. Fortuin 3-16, B.E. Hendricks 2-28).

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2021