India vs SA, 3rd T20I, Top Performances: Harshal Patel's 4-25, Yuzvendra Chahal's 3-20 and Ruturaj Gaikwad-Ishan Kishan's 97-run stand are top three performances. SA leading by 2-1.
Brief Scores: India 179-5 (Ruturaj 57, Kishan 54, Pretorius 2-29) beat South Africa 131 (Klaasen 29, Harshal 4-25, Chahal 3-20) by 48 runs
Player of the Match: Yuzvendra Chahal for his 3-20 & 2 catches
India and South Africa went head to head in the third T20I of the five-match series in Visakhapatnam on June 14, Tuesday. India were trailing 0-2 in the series and the third T20I was a must-win match for the hosts.
A loss would mean that India would lose the T20I series after losing the Test and ODI series against South Africa earlier this year in the latter’s home conditions. India were yet to beat South Africa in any international matches played in 2022 so far. Head-to-head in T20Is, India still have the upper hand with 9 wins, whereas South Africa had 8 wins under their belt.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma won the toss again and just like the previous two occasions, opted to bowl first on this fresh wicket. Both India and South Africa went into this match with an unchanged eleven.
India register first win of series
India’s openers were off to a flier scoring 57 runs without losing a single wicket at the end of the first powerplay. India were striking at 9.5 runs per over and were absolutely taking the South African bowlers to the cleaners. Both Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan were firing on all cylinders and India were comfortably poised at 97-1 after 10 overs.
It looked as if the South African bowlers had a super drink in the drinks interval, as they were a completely different unit in the second half. Once the openers were dismissed, South Africa came back strongly into this match by picking wickets at regular intervals. Though South Africa were pretty sloppy in the field as they dropped three catches. Hardik Pandya was dropped by David Miller when he had scored just 1 run; he went on to play a crucial 21-ball 31 to take India to 179-5 after 20 overs. India made 126/1 (RR 10.35) in the first 73 balls as against scoring 53/4 (RR 6.76) off the last 47.
India needed wickets upfront to stay alive in the game and Axar Patel dismissed the South African captain Bavuma in the fourth over of the game. Bavuma’s poor form inside the powerplay overs continued as this was his ninth dismissal in 14 innings, where he had accumulated just 97 runs in the 14 innings he batted inside the first six. After the fourth over, India made timely inroads in South Africa’s chase as they picked a wicket in almost every other over.
South Africa were struggling at 63-4 after 10 overs and Proteas’ last batting pair – David Miller and Henrich Klaasen were at the crease. It was getting difficult to score on this sluggish wicket and India targeted with slower deliveries and spinners throwing it outside the batters’ reach. Once Miller and Klaasen were dismissed, it was just a matter of time as the Indian bowlers rampaged through the lower-order and stayed alive in the series with a 48-run victory over the Proteas. This also marked India’s first win against South Africa in this calendar year.
Top Three Performances from third T20I between India and South Africa, Visakhapatnam:
The ‘Rutu-Kishan’ Show - A blistering 97-run stand off just 60 deliveries
With the series on the line, India needed a strong batting performance in this game to put the tourists under pressure. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan started off rather cautiously with just 10 runs in two overs. The real shift in momentum came when fiery Anrich Nortje was punished by Ruturaj for five back-to-back boundaries.
The scoreboard looked like -- 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 -- and Ruturaj marginally missed out on a boundary off the sixth delivery which ended up being a dot ball. The first ball was a loosener wide outside off and Ruturaj played a crisp cut shot. The second delivery, we saw Gaikwad put the dancing shoes on as he walked down the wicket and collected a boundary over mid-on. What followed was a typical fast bowler’s response on batters coming down the wicket; the South African was all fired up and bowled a rip snorter bouncer, but unfortunately it hit Gaikwads’ helmet and went for a boundary.
Nortje then tried to outsmart the batter by bowling a full and straight ball as a follow up to the bouncer, but Ruturaj was in too good a nick as he smashed the next two deliveries for boundaries too. There was no stopping Gaikwad as he took on all the bowlers at will and completed his maiden T20 international fifty.
On the other hand, Kishan was playing second fiddle and was waiting for the spinners to come on. In the match up against Keshav Maharaj, Ishan had scored 52 runs in the 20 balls faced off Maharaj while being dismissed once. Scoring a mammoth 15 runs off Maharaj, Ishan brought up his fifty too. Kishan took on both the spinners and was striking flat sixes. It looked as if both Ruturaj and Kishan were batting on a different wicket from the rest of the batters as everyone apart from them seemed to struggle on this sluggish Vizag wicket as the India openers registered a quickfire 60-ball 97-run stand for the opening wicket.
Read More: India vs SA, 2nd T20I, 2022, Top Performances: Heinrich Klassen’s 81 overpowers India; SA 2-0 up
‘Chatur-Chalak Chahal’ spins South Africa out of the game with 3-20
Unlike the first two games, Yuzvendra Chahal was introduced inside the powerplay in the third T20I. Chahal bowled classic leg spin, giving just two runs in his first spell. He was rather unfortunate as a catch was dropped by the captain himself, on the very second ball of his spell. It didn’t take Chahal much time to put his name on the scoreboard, as he dismissed his Rajasthan Royals counterpart, Rassie van der Dussen, with a pitch perfect leg spinner which turned and bounced away from the right-hander, who was looking to cut the ball and could just manage a thick edge to the wicketkeeper.
Coming into his third over, Chahal foxed Pretorius with a quicker one which bounced a bit higher onto the latter who was looking to play a cute dab shot and was caught by the keeper again. The third wicket of Chahal was a classic Yuzi wicket, a flighted leg spinning delivery wide outside off and Klaasen, the hero of the last match, chased the wide delivery and could only manage to top edge it high in the air for a safe catch at extra cover. Before this match, Chahal had never dismissed Klaasen in the 29 deliveries that he bowled to him. Whereas Klaasen had scored 74 runs in the 29 deliveries against Chahal at a strike rate of 246.7.
After being dismantled all over the park in the last two games, Chahal had a point to prove and bowling a 3-wicket economical spell of four overs, Chahal ensured he did the job for which he was picked in the eleven, picking wickets in the middle overs.
Read More: India vs SA, 1st T20I, 2022, Top Performances: Miller-van der Dussen century stand gives SA 1-0 lead
Harshal ‘Slower’ Patel slows down Proteas’ run chase with a four-fer
Generally known as a 7-17 over bowler, Harshal Patel was brought on to bowl the last over of the powerplay with only two fielders outside the circle. Harshal was welcomed into the attack with a boundary and was smacked for a massive 92-metre six by Reeza Hendricks off a slower delivery. Harshal was determined and was glued to his strengths and bowled a slower delivery again and his persistence paid off as Hendricks was completely deceived by the variation and the ball ended up saluting the skies followed by a simple catch by Chahal at mid-off.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, Harshal had a poor match up against Miller in T20s, where he had bowled 35 deliveries and was smacked for 59 runs without even dismissing him once. Harshal finally had the last laugh against Miller as the man with an arm full of variations foxed Miller and Ruturaj took a brilliant one-handed catch at covers. After the top batters were dismissed, Harshal completed the formalities by wrapping up the tailenders quite quickly as he dismissed Kagiso Rabada and Tabraiz Shamsi to seal the game for India.
What’s to Come
India and South Africa move to Rajkot for the fourth match of the series on June 17.
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