India VS South Africa T20I: Consolation win for the Proteas against an experimental Indian team

Having been put in to bat first, South Africa rode on the back of a powerful ton by Rilee Rossouw (100* off 48 balls) as well as a half-century from Quinton de Kock (68 off 43 balls) to post an imposing total of 227-3 in their 20 overs. 

It helped, of course, that the hosts chose to rest and rotate considerably for the final match of the series. And while one of the changes made to the team XI – Arshdeep Singh was rested due to slight issues in his back – made sense, resting both Virat Kohli and KL Rahul in this game was a head-scratcher for sure. 

Due to their recent form - both played a crucial role in India's T20I win at Guwahati - it did not make sense, but Indore is known for being an excellent pitch to bat on, so a few runs on a pitch that offers plenty of assistance to batters would have made their confidence even stronger. 

It also left the team a batsman short, as Shreyas Iyer came in and Rishabh Pant was pushed up the order to open. 

Yet India’s number seven in this game was Ravichandran Ashwin instead of Axar Patel, which showed that India chose to gamble with five pure bowlers. 

Of course, there’s also the argument that there were no other all-rounders besides Shahbaz Ahmed, who serves the same purpose as Axar. 

Anyhow, the changes did not work. India’s bowling could do little to curb the onslaught of the South African batters, and it was another night to forget for the bowlers. 

It also tells that only two of them – Umesh Yadav and Deepak Chahar – got wickets. The third wicket came due to the courtesy of Shreyas Iyer's run-out, but by that time, De Kock had already done the damage. 

To compound matters, David Miller slammed 19 off five balls in the final over to end the innings on a high. 

India needed a good start, which is what they didn’t get, thanks to losing Rohit Sharma (0) and Shreyas (1) early. 

Pant (27) and Dinesh Karthik stemmed the tide slightly, but Pant threw away a good start – sound familiar – when on 27 and Karthik was dismissed two overs later. 

Then Suryakumar Yadav was dismissed an over later merely served as confirmation to what most knew all along – India was unlikely to win this match. 

Axar (9), Harshal (17), and Ashwin (2) did not make the kind of impact any of them would have hoped to, with India being spared the blushes of a much bigger defeat thanks to Chahar (31) and Umesh (20*). 

However, that did not spare them the blushes of being bowled out by 18.3 overs. India’s core for the T20 World Cup will now travel to Australia, with a much-changed side taking South Africa in a three-match ODI series.