Eight Wickets for Sixty-Two, Then Dilruksha Again: South Korea Win by Nine Wickets and Lead 2-0

For a little over six overs, Indonesia looked like a side that had learned from the day before. Gede Priandana was hitting the ball cleanly — six fours and a six on his way to 40 from 32 balls — and at 43 for 1 after 6.2 overs, they had a platform that 24 hours earlier had slipped away from them. South Korea had chosen to field, and for a while it looked like a choice they might regret.

Then the innings simply drained away. Indonesia lost eight wickets for 62 runs and finished on 105 for 9. Balage Dilruksha, who had made 70 not out in the first match, made 73 not out in this one, and South Korea were home in 15 overs. South Korea won by 9 wickets with 30 balls remaining and lead the four-match series 2-0, with two games to come on the same day.

If the first match showed South Korea could tighten things after a fast start, this one showed they could turn tightening into a collapse. Indonesia were 57 for 2 after 9.1 overs and 68 for 3 after 11. Then came the procession: 84 for 4, 88 for 5, 94 for 6, 96 for 7, 97 for 8. Between the 15th over and the 19th, five wickets fell for 13 runs. The last five overs of the innings produced 17 runs and four wickets.

Aamir Lal was the bowler at the centre of it again. Four overs, 11 runs, three wickets — an economy rate of 2.75 in a T20I. Across the two matches he has now bowled eight overs for 26 runs and taken five wickets. Areeb Khalid was more expensive at 3 for 26, but he too has five wickets in the series. Sameera Maduranga needed only two overs to take 2 for 7, Kuldeep Gurjar's four went for 15 with a wicket, and Alam Nakash bowled a maiden in his three overs. Four of the nine wickets were bowled; the other five were caught. Indonesia were never allowed a free over.

The chase was close to a formality. Sageer Ahmad made 11 from 17 before Gede Arta had him caught at 32 for 1 at the end of the sixth over, and then Dilruksha and Daham Madampage added 78 without being parted. Madampage's 18 not out from 21 balls was exactly what the situation asked of him: rotate the strike, keep the other end alive, and let the man in form do the rest.

Priandana's innings deserves recognition. Forty from 32 balls, with six fours and the only six Indonesia have hit across the first two matches of this series. For the second day running, Indonesia's top order produced a bright start; for the second day running, nobody built on it.

The numbers around him are stark. Take away Priandana's 40 and the 9 extras, and Indonesia's other ten batters made 56 runs from 88 balls. No one else passed 13. Rohit Sharma, who had hit four boundaries in the first match, made 5 from 13 this time. Dharma Kesuma's 13 took 23 balls, and Kavin Chaddha, unbeaten on 50 the day before, was caught for 8. When a side is losing wickets this regularly, there is no point at which the innings can catch its breath.

Indonesia made changes to their attack — Dewa Wiswi and Ida Bagus Nara bowled, Danilson Hawoe and Dhanesh Shetty did not play — but 105 was not a total that left them much to work with. Kadek Gamantika again bowled tidily, 3 overs for 14. Arta took the only wicket. Wiswi's four overs cost 30 and Chaddha's three cost 29, and against a batter in Dilruksha's form, anything short of perfect was punished.

The scorecard tells of a pitch that rewarded bowlers who hit the stumps and batters who were already set. Four of Indonesia's nine wickets were bowled. Indonesia scored at 5.25 an over across their 20; South Korea scored at 7.33 across their 15, with Dilruksha's 73 coming at a strike rate of 140. The gap between the two innings was less about conditions and more about who was able to stay in.

Seventy-three not out from 52 balls, six fours and four sixes. Add it to the 70 not out from 53 the day before and the series reads like this: 143 runs from 105 balls, eleven fours, eight sixes, and not a single dismissal. Indonesia, as a team, have hit one six in two matches. Dilruksha has hit eight.

There is something quietly impressive about a batter who keeps finishing what he starts. In both games he walked out to open and walked off unbeaten, and in both games he made more than half of his side's runs — 70 of 123, then 73 of 110. Indonesia's bowlers have now spent 33.1 overs trying to get him out and have not found the way. Two innings in two days, and the second looked a lot like the first. That, for a bowling side, is the most worrying thing of all: not that he is scoring, but that he makes it look like a habit.

Our preview for this match, written before the first T20I, made Indonesia the favourites. We leaned on experience — six Indonesian players with 85 or more T20I caps — and a head-to-head we put at 4-0 in Indonesia's favour. Both of those arguments have now been beaten twice in two days. We should also own a detail: that 4-0 figure appears to have missed the sides' meetings in July 2025, which included a South Korean win.

Of the players we named, the South Korean trio fared best: Dilruksha made 73 not out, Sameera Maduranga took 2 for 7, and Daham Madampage was there at the finish with 18 not out. On the Indonesian side, Ferdinando Banunaek did not play, Anjar Tadarus made 1 and bowled a single over, and the Balinese contingent we highlighted — Gede Arta, Ketut Artawan and Kadek Gamantika — managed 17 runs between them, though Gamantika and Arta bowled respectably.

We did write that the second T20I is often where a home side finds its rhythm. South Korea, as it turned out, had found theirs a day early.

The third and fourth T20Is are both on October 5 at Yeonhui, which means Indonesia have one day and two chances to stop this series getting away from them. South Korea can win it outright in the first of those games. For Indonesia, the problem is not complicated to diagnose, only difficult to fix: the starts have been there both days, and the middle order has not. And somewhere in the plans, there will need to be an answer for Dilruksha.