India vs South Africa 3rd T20i Review: As we predicted in our previous article India have a fair chance of winning the game as Marco Yensen and Coetzee were unavailable for the match. The Indian batters took a fair advantage of it.
After losing the toss and being asked to bat first India had a shaky start with Shubman Gill and Tilak Varma got out too early to Keshav Maharaj in his first and Innings 3rd over. India was 29/2 in the 3rd over and Maharaj had put his team on top but Jaiswal and Skipper Surya had other plans.
Both started the counter-attack from the very next over and scored runs freely all around the ground. Both batters brought their half-centuries in Quick succession. In 14th Over Jaiswal was dismissed by Shamsi for 60. After his dismissal, Skipper Surya was joined by Rinku Singh but Surya kept the majority of strike during the partnership and brought up his 4th T20I Century. With this knock, he also became the first person to score 4 T20 centuries in 4 different nations. With the help of Skipper Surya’s Ton India posted a total of 201 – 7.
In the first Innings, it was visible that the Pitch had got something for the spinners which made it a tempting outing for Jadeja and Kuldeep. South Africa had a poor start with Opener getting out Breetzke getting out in the 2nd over of Mukesh Kumar. The wickets kept falling and at the end powerplay, South Africa was 3 down with Reeza Hendricks and Henry Klassen both getting out. Indian quicks showed a good display of powerplay bowling with Mukesh and Arshdeep both taking wickets. After the powerplay, it was the spinner’s show. Skipper Markram got out at the 1st ball after a powerplay of Jadeja who was also the standing captain in yesterday’s game as captain Surya got Injured while fielding. After the fall of 4th wicket south Africa was down and out Miller showed some resistance and struck some big hits but Kuldeep was all over them as he picked up a Fifer in Just 2.5 overs. South Africa was bowled out for just 95 runs losing the match by 106 runs. Kuldeep was the star of the game as he picked 5-17. Jadeja also did a good job the way he rotated the bowlers on the spinning track.
With this win the 3-match series ended in a draw and the trophy was shared by both captains. Skipper Surya was awarded as the Player of the match as well as the player of the series. This series may have solved some puzzles and some must have been increased for the Indian Team Management. Shubman Gill has not been able to prove himself in T20s. Arshdeep has been going for plenty in his spell. How will the team use Ravi Bishnoi who is currently the No.1 T20 ranked bowler?
Both teams meet again on Sunday 17th Dec for the 1st ODI Game of the series.
