The Indian young squad under the captaincy of Rishabh Pant on 17 June levelled the Paytm series against South Africa by 2-2 in Rajkot. India defeated South Africa by 82 runs.
Following a sloppy start in the beginning, the Indian batters registered a total of 169/6 in 20 overs. While the bowlers didn’t give any chance to South African batters and showed them the route pavilion in just 16.5 overs.
Just like other previous matches, SA’s captain Temba Bavuma elected to bowl against the Indian team. The Indian batters — Ruturaj Gaikwad (5), Shreyas Iyer (4) and Ishan Kishan (27) moved back to the pavilion in just 7 overs when the score was just 44.
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With Pant (17) entering the field, India’s runs started to roll. But SA’s Keshav Maharaj picked Pant’s wicket in then 13th over, when India’s score was 81/4.
Following Pant’s departure, Dinesh Kartik (55) took the charge and made an important partnership with Hardik Pandya (46), setting a target of 169/6 wickets.
For South African batters, it was a smooth ride, until Temba Bavuma (8) got retired hurt after hurting his left elbow in the third over. That time SA’s score stood at 20/0 at 3 overs.
With Bavuma’s departure, South African batting line up tumbled and the batters struggled to score runs. One by one the wickets fell. First loss was of Quinton de Kock, who was run out by Harshal Patel in the fifth over, and then Indian bowlers took charge.
Avesh Khan, Yazuvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel and Axar Patel bowled with great discipline to keep South Africa’s scoring in check. In the 13th over, SA lost three wickets back to back — Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. In the 17th over, India’s Axar Patel dismissed Lungi Ngidi to level the Paytm series.
From the South African side, Rassie van der Dussen scored highest runs (20), while India’s Avesh Khan took four wickets with an economy of just 4.50 runs per over.
Both the teams will fight to win the series during the last T20I to be played on 17 June in Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. The match will begin at 7 pm.
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