India vs South Africa | India wrap up tour with thriller at Newlands

02/25/2018

After the Indian batting order could only manage 172 in the first innings, the Indian bowling attack showed up and ensured the score was enough to secure a seven-run win for the visitors. Despite, Christiaan Jonker scoring a valiant 49, he failed to get his side over the line in the final T20I.

Brief Scores : India 172/7 (Shikhar Dhawan 47, Suresh Raina 43; Junior Dala 3/35, Chris Morris 2/43) beat South Africa 165/6 (JP Duminy 55, Christiaan Jonker 49; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/24, Hardik Pandya 1/22) by 7 runs.

For the third straight time in the T20I series, India lost the toss and they were asked to bat first by South Africa. Both teams made a host of changes as India rested Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Jaydev Unadkat and brought in Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, and Jasprit Bumrah. South Africa, on the other hand, decided to drop JJ Smuts and Dane Paterson with Christiaan Jonker and Aaron Phangiso coming into the side.

Raina’s pyrotechnics save opener’s blushes

As has been the case throughout the limited overs series, Rohit Sharma got off to a good start by hitting Chris Morris for two consecutive boundaries in the very first over but was then caught leg before by Junior Dala in the next one. The incoming Suresh Raina signalled his intent early by hitting the South African pacer for a six on his very first ball. As Dhawan was struggling to connect the balls cleanly, scoring 11 off 12 balls, Raina ensured that India reached a comfortable score of 57/1 by the end of the powerplay overs. However, with the field spread out, India struggled to find the boundaries and could only manage one in the next three overs. The pressure told as Raina was dismissed while attempting a big shot holing out to Farhaan Behardien at long on. Despite the wicket, India managed to reach the midway point of their innings with the scoreboard reading 81/2.

Useful middle order contributions take India to competitive score

After Phangiso gave away just four runs in the 11th over, Dhawan finally found his groove with his first boundary after 29 balls and doubled his tally in the same over. Pandey, despite a six off Phangiso, failed to recreate his performance from the 2nd T20I and hit a shot right down the throat of Miller at long on. A couple of overs later, Dhawan was sent back to the dressing room thanks to an exceptional direct hit from the boundary line by Dala. The incoming Pandya (20) and Dhoni (12) made useful contributions to take the score to 147/4 at the end of the 18th over but it was Kohli’s replacement, Dinesh Karthik, who scored two back to back boundaries off Dala to take the run rate for the innings past 8.5 per over. Morris took two wickets in the last over as the Indians were trying to accelerate but couldn’t stop the visitors from adding 10 runs to the score to take the final total to 172/7 off 20 overs.

SA’s Miller risk fails miserably

Despite conceding a boundary in the first over, the Indian bowling attack ensured that no easy runs were on offer for the hosts’ openers, Reeza Hendricks and David Miller, as they collapsed to a mere 25/1 by the end of the powerplay overs. With the run rate already over 10 an over, there appeared to be no sense of urgency as the next over after the powerplay yielded just five runs as both Miller and JP Duminy were struggling to read the variations of the Indian bowlers. After the next two overs added 15 runs to the score, the momentum was lost again as Miller was put out of his misery by Raina in the 10th over with the hosts only managing a sub-par score of 52/2 at the halfway line of their innings, which pushed the required run rate above 12 runs an over.

Jonker’s knock goes in vain as visitors seal T20I series

Realizing that the run rate was going haywire, Duminy stepped up in his efforts as he took Axar Patel for 16 off his first over. But keeping with the trend of the South Africa innings, in the very next over, Klassen hit a shot straight at Bhuvneshwar off Pandya’s bowling. The incoming Jonker, courtesy two back to back boundaries, took 12 runs of Raina’s third over before Duminy hit Bumrah for a six to bring the equation to 72 off 30 balls. Over the next two overs, even though South Africa added 19 runs, they lost both Duminy and Morris which left them needing 53 off three overs. However, Jonker gave South Africa some hope with 18 runs off the 18th over before playing a leading role in taking 16 off the next one to bring the equation to 19 off the last over. However, Bhuvneshwar kept his cool in the final over and managed to concede just 11 runs to not just secure the game but also the T20I series for the visitors.