October 5 2022: Rilee Rossouw’s unbeaten century helped South Africa avoid a clean sweep in the T20I series against India in the final match at Indore.
The win not only gives the Proteas momentum heading into the upcoming ODI series but also instils some confidence ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
India took the series 2-1 – their first T20I series win over South Africa at home – but have a little pondering to do ahead of the T20 World Cup, especially with their bowling once again giving away 200+ runs for the second game in a row.
India put South Africa in to bat first in the final T20I and apart from the early wicket of Temba Bavuma, it was smooth sailing for the visitors for the rest of the innings. Quinton de Kock and Rossouw looked in tremendous touch and picked apart the Indian bowling line-up in dream batting conditions.
Rossouw got a lifeline from Mohammed Siraj, who parried the ball over for a six in the ninth over and that eventually proved to be 76 runs costly. De Kock got to his fifty in the next over off 33 balls.
It took some brilliant work on the field from Shreyas Iyer to run-out de Kock but Rossouw and Tristan Stubbs continued the carnage. The southpaw reached his fifty soon off just 27 balls and needed just 21 more to reach his three-figure milestone. The 48-ball century was his highest score in T20Is and the fifth fastest hundred by a Proteas batter.
Three sixes in the final over from the bat of David Miller took South Africa to 227/3, the second highest total India have conceded in T20Is.
India’s chase was off to a poor start after the hosts lost their skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer in the first two overs. They were going at just over run-a-ball in the first four overs before Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik went berserk in the last two overs of the Powerplay. That, however, came at a cost as India lost Pant in the penultimate over of the Powerplay.
Playing a batter light in the game, the wickets of Karthik and Suryakumar Yadav in consecutive overs brought curtains to the chase. Harshal Patel and Deepak Chahar gave a glimpse of their batting ability, perhaps making a case for a spot in India’s World Cup XI.
Chahar and Umesh Yadav entertained with a 25-ball 48-run stand for the ninth wicket but the target proved to be too tall for the tail. From 86/5, India put up a fight to end up with 178 but ended up falling 49 runs short.
