India beat South Africa by 48 runs in 3rd T20I; keep their hopes alive in 5-match T20I series

Visakhapatnam, 14 June (Agency) After two indifferent performances, India produced their best bowling show in Visakhapatnam, stifling South Africa’s chase with regular wickets and keeping the series alive with a 48-run win in the third T20I. Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal were the stars of this bowling uptick, the pair combining to take seven wickets after India’s openers posted 179.

Collective bowling discipline and better marshalling of resources. For the third time in the series, India were tasked with defending a target and possibly contend with the dew in the process. They also were defending 179, which in isolation was a good score but when viewed in the context of India setting themselves up for a 200+ total, may have been slightly deflating. Rishabh Pant introduced each of his five frontline bowlers in the PowerPlay, not allowing South Africa any sort of rhythm to settle into. It showed as the Proteas sputtered to 38/2 with Axar Patel getting Temba Bavuma and Harshal deceiving Reeza Hendrics with the last ball of the fielding restrictions.

India had an even better start in Cuttack where Bhuvneshwar Kumar took three wickets and therefore it was imperative for them to step it up through the middle overs. Chahal reprised some of the form that saw him clinch the Purple Cap in the recently-concluded IPL season. He varied the pace on his legspinners and changed his lines cleverly. With some turn on offer, the variety proved to be unhittable. Rassie van der Dussen and Dwaine Pretorius were smartly caught behind by Pant to balls that turned sharply across them while they were camped on the backfoot. Klaasen fell to a floater outside off which spun away and drew the mishit skier. After conceding at 10.70 and 13.60 in the first two games, India’s spinners took 4 for 48 from 8 overs tonight.

At the other end, Harshal produced the defining ball of the middle phase when his slower ball dismissed David Miller for the first time in five T20 innings. At 71/5 in the 11th over, the chase was put beyond South Africa, who continued to play a batter short. Harshal added the wickets of Kagiso Rabada and Tabraiz Shamsi at the head as the icing to his bowling cake. True to Shreyas Iyer’s words, India continued to live by their new policy of hitting through a 20-over period. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan put on 97 in 10 overs for the opening wicket, 57 of them coming in the PowerPlay. Interestingly enough, it was Gaikwad who played the aggressor in the first part of that partnership, plundering five fours off Anrich Nortje’s first over – the fifth of the match – to purr the innings along.

Gaikwad got to his maiden international fifty off just 30 balls before turning it over to Kishan who used his match-up advantage against South Africa’s pair of left-arm spinners. Two fours and a six off Maharaj brought him a 31-ball 50. However after hitting 126/1 in the first 73 balls of the innings, India managed only 53/4 through their final 7.5 overs of the innings. South Africa’s seamers, Pretorius (2-29) in particular, came back well and used the wide lines and strategically placed sweeper fielders to good effect. India got a bit of a finishing kick from Hardik Pandya, who finished with a 21-ball 31* and took India to what eventually proved to be more than enough on the night. Brief scores: India 179/5 in 20 overs; South Africa 131 in 19.1 overs