IND vs SA 3rd T20: India win by 48 runs, stay alive in series

The first win for Rishabh Pant as Indian captain, and India ended their seven-match losing streak across all formats against Proteas. 

In the ongoing India vs South Africa series, the Proteas power defeated team India in the initial two clashes of the five-match series. Ultimately, the third T20I turned out to be a 'do-or-die' situation as the team had to win this match to stay alive in the series. Justifying all the expectations from the Rishabh Pant-led team, India sealed a brilliant 48-run win to keep the hope for a series win alive. The spin wizard Yuzvendra Chahal led team India to this impressive win over South Africa with three wickets to his name.

A challenging target set by team India in the first inning!

As this was an important match for men in blues, the toss was an essential aspect for the team. Unfortunately, skipper Rishabh lost the toss, and South Africa chose to bowl first at the Vizag Cricket Stadium. Batting first, India had a pretty decent start as the two openers, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan, started cautiously. As the two batters settled on the crease patiently, the scoreboard seemed quite balanced. With their matured batting performance, the two made a strong opening partnership of 97 runs, giving India an anchoring start. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was struggling to make his way in the XI, scored an astonishing fifty. Keshav Maharaj dismissed him after scoring 57 runs in just 35 deliveries. His partner Ishan Kishan scored his fifty, and the two openers contributed significantly to the challenging target set by the team. Although skipper Rishabh failed to meet the expectations with a disappointing score of just 6, vice-captain Hardik Pandya supported the inning with his appreciable knock of 31 runs. The joint efforts of these three took India to a big score of 179 for 5 in the 20 overs. For South Africa, pacer Dwayne Pretorius clinched two wickets, conceding 29 runs in his four overs, while Rabada, Shamsi, and Maharaj claimed one wicket each.

An outstanding bowling attack from India crushed the South African bowling line-up!

Chasing the big target of 180 was a challenging task on the pitch of Vizag. For South Africa, skipper Temba Bavuma and R Hendricks walked in to open the innings. The openers seemed to be struggling against the deadly swingers of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. To take the game under their control, all India had to do was just to take some early wickets in the initial overs. Accordingly, in the fourth over, offspinner Axar Patel trapped captain Temba Bavuma and was caught at mid-on, scoring a dismal score of just 8. With this first wicket, the South African batting line-up seemed to collapse further as they lost their wickets at definite intervals. Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bagged the crucial wickets of Pretorius, Klaasen, and Van der Dussen, returning with figures of 3 for 20 in his four overs. After him, the South African batting line-up failed to withstand Harshal Patel's bamboozling deliveries. Patel clinched four wickets, including the vital wicket of the man in form David Miller. Harshal took the four wickets by conceding just 25 runs in the four overs. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Axar Patel also picked one wicket each, shattering the South African team and restricting them to just 131. Against this top-notch bowling performance, no South African batter seemed to survive, and the team was bowled out at 131 in just 19.1 overs giving an impressive win of 48 runs to the men in blue. Klaasen's 29 turned out to be the high score in South Africa's innings, but it wasn't enough to lead the team towards victory.

The team India's all-round effort helped them clinch their first victory in the series as both the batting and bowling unit performed fabulously. Let it be the grand opening knocks by Ruturaj and Kishan or the stunning bowling performances by Chahal and Harshal. It was all worth an appreciation in this win for India.

Yuzvendra Chahal, Player of the Match, said, "I bowled a lot of sliders and bowled quicker in the previous matches. Today, I changed my seam position. Spinning and getting the ball to dip are my strengths. Today I tried to get it to turn and bowl slower. I tried to bowl to my strengths, I focused on that. When batters try to reverse-sweep, it becomes tough for the bowlers. But now I have a second plan and set fields accordingly. I didn't bowl well in the previous game, the coach asked me to back my strengths. The ground there (Rajkot) is bigger (*chuckles*)."

To win the series, India must win the next two matches, whereas South Africa will look forward to the next game to seal the series win. South Africa will have to work on the batting and bowling department and the fielding, as we saw many catch drops by the team. The over-dependency on a few players collapsed the team, and the team will definitely need to consider this. It will be an exciting battle in the next match as wounded South Africa will surely look for a bounce back while Rishabh's men will fight to stay alive in the series on 17th June 2022 at Rajkot.