Rilee Rossouw’s spectacular 48-ball unbeaten 100 led South Africa to win the 3rd and final match of the 3-match T20I series at Indore on Tuesday. Although India has already bagged the series with two wins, the 49-run win of the Proteas was a convincing one that adds hope to the squad before going to the T20 World Cup in Australia. But the loss will leave the Men in Blue sweating over the pathetic form of their pacers.
Earlier in the game, India won the toss and decided to bowl but the decision was wrong as South Africa showed a blast with the bat. Quinton de Kock started the game brilliantly and gave a good opening to the team. He has scored 68 runs off 43 balls. Even though captain Temba Bavuma cannot last long, Rilee Rossouw came out as a savior. de Kock and Rossouw created a strong bond and lead the team to an excellent win.
Rossouw had his maiden T20I century in this game. Rossouw stayed unbeaten on 100 out of 48 balls. He has plundered 7 boundaries and 8 sixes. With his fabulous performance, Rossouw becomes the second South African batter to post a T20I ton against India.
Rossouw and de Kock added 90 runs in just 48 balls before the second wicket. Then came the young and exciting Stubbs. He also contributed 23 runs to the scoreboard. Miller then took 24 off the final over of the innings bowled by Deepak Chahar. There was a scene where captain Rohit Sharma almost pleading the bowler to stop bowling forgettable deliveries. Chahar has got 3 consecutive sixes in the final over.
The South African batters were making merry on the small ground with 16 sixes and 16 fours, making a mockery of India’s clueless bowling attack. In total South Africa scored 227 runs in just 3 wickets loss.
The Indian bowling department has seen injuries continuously as Rohit Sharma revealed that Arshdeep Singh had a slight niggle in the back and missed the game. All the bowlers in the game were very poor and only Deepak Chahar and Umesh Yadav claimed a wicket each. Not a single player was economical and they couldn’t pick wickets.
It was not easy for India to overcome the target South Africa raised. There was a change in the squad as KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were not part of the team. Instead, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer added. Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant opened the game, but skipper Rohit went out early without scoring a single run. Rishabh Pant managed to score 27 runs off 14 balls but went out in 4.6 overs.
Shreyas Iyer also showed a poor performance. Dinesh Karthik played No.4 and he became the top scorer in India scoring 46 off 21 balls. Karthik played brilliantly, but could not kick on. Even though the stunning striker Suryakumar Yadav amazed the audience in the first two games, this was not his day. Yadav scored only 8 runs in the match. Other players also cannot create much impact in the game. Deepak Chahar’s 31 and Umesh Yadav’s 20 were the notable contributions after Karthik.
India needed a big stand or someone to score big, but that did not happen. In 18.3 overs, India lost all the wickets with a total of 178 runs. Dwaine Pretorius picked 3 wickets for South Africa. Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, and Wayne Parnell claimed 2 wickets each.
South African bowlers were excellent throughout the game and picked wickets at correct intervals of time. All bowlers got a wicket at least.
Indian coach Rahul Dravid says that India has got good results in both series after the Asia Cup. But on a serious note, India wants to concentrate more on the balling department in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah in the T20 World Cup.
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