India vs South Africa: Quinton de Kock hits 2000 T20I runs, and more stats

South Africa grabbed a consolation victory on Tuesday as a Rilee Rossouw century coupled with the Proteas’ bowling effort helped them beat India by 49 runs in the third and final T20I in Indore, thereby avoiding a series sweep defeat. With India having won the three-match series before the game on Tuesday, all there was to play for was some pride, and some vital match practice before the T20 World Cup begins in Australia on 16 October.

Having been put to bat by India, South Africa rode on knocks from Quinton de Kock (68) and Rilee Rossouw (100*) to put up 227/3 from 20 overs on board.

In reply, India lost Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer early, but Dinesh Karthik steadied the ship with a valiant 46 off 21 balls. However, Karthik was dismissed in the seventh over, and India kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but later on, Deepak Chahar (31) and Umesh Yadav (20*) showed some resistance with the bat, forging a 48-run stand for the ninth wicket.

India were eventually bowled out for 178 in 18.3 overs.

Let’s now take a look at some of the interesting statistics from the match:

• With Rilee Rossouw hitting a century in Indore, it became the third instance when there were two different centurions in a T20I bilateral series. Rilee Rossouw joined David Miller in scoring a century during the India vs South Africa T20I series this month. Faf du Plessis and Morne van Wyk was the first pair to do so during a South Africa-West Indies series, whereas India’s KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma did it against England in 2018.
• Quinton de Kock became only the second South African batter to score 2000 runs in T20Is. It was only a few days back, in the second T20I on Sunday, when David Miller became the first South African to achieve the feat.
• India are yet to lose a bilateral series with Rohit Sharma as their permanent skipper. Rohit Sharma’s reign as permanent India skipper began with a 2-0 series win over New Zealand in November 2021 at home, and the latest series win over South Africa is India’s 10^th bilateral series win with Rohit Sharma as their permanent captain.
• Lungi Ngidi was the third quickest bowler to 50 T20I wickets as far as number of balls are concerned, taking the third fewest balls to achieve the feat. Sri Lanka’s Ajanta Mendis (600 deliveries) took the least amount of balls, while Ireland’s Mark Adair (620) ranks second in the list.

• South Africa’s total of 227/3 from 20 overs was the second-highest T20I total against India. The highest-ever T20I total against the Men in Blue is 245/6, by West Indies in Lauderhill in 2016.
• Kagiso Rabada joined Tim Southee in dismissing Rohit Sharma most times across all internationals (11 times). Angelo Mathews (10), Trent Boult (8) and Morne Morkel (7) also feature in this list.