India thrashed South Africa with an all-rounder effort as Kuldeep finished off with a fifer leveling the three-match series.
Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant ton and Kuldeep’s fifer helped India to a dominant victory over the Proteas in the 3rd T20I of the three-match series, better to say two-match series as the series opener was washed out by rain in Durban. The series decider exhibited India’s all-round efficiency.
In the second T20I, the rain god intervened midway where India failed to defend the revised score. But the young stars outclassed South Africa in the 3rd T20 international where Surya’s shine doomed South African hopes of bagging the series.
India showed class with the bat
Earlier on Thursday, South Africa won the toss and sent the visitors to bat first. The first two overs went in India’s favour as Subhman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal gathered 29 runs which forced Aiden Markram to bring Keshav Maharaj into attack. Keshav took consecutive two wickets in the third over sparing a single only. Besides the spinner Keshav Maharaj, none of the bowlers was treated with respect by the Indian skipper and the young opener Jaiswal. Maharaj conceded 26 runs in his four-over spell.
After the early wickets, despite stepping back, both the Indian batters on the crease, Jaiswal and Suryakumar, attacked the bowlers heavily. Instead of rain, runs came pouring down from both the ruthless batters.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 60 off 41 balls whereas the Indian courageous captain hit a magnificent 100 off just 56 balls. A strong partnership of 112 runs between them helped India reach a huge total of 201 in 20 overs. Had SA not given only 7 runs to India in the last over, the total could have been more. The run deficiency in the slog overs might have raised questions if the Indian bowlers could not deliver such dominance.
An extraordinary bowling performance
In the second innings, South African batters stumbled against Indian bowlers from the beginning. Indian pacers gave no room to the Proteas with early breakthroughs in the powerplay. In the seventh over, Surya went for the veteran spinner Ravindra Jadeja and the move worked out well with the prized wicket of Aiden Markram in the very first delivery.
South Africa had already lost 5 wickets for 75 runs in 10 overs from where Kuldeep took the command. Kuldeep Yadav’s 5-wicket haul for just 17 runs seemed to be a self-earned gift to himself on the day when he turned 29. Above all, the bowling performance of India looked confident as Ravindra Jadeja got two wickets and the pacers, Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh, picked a wicket apiece. South Africa had been all out for 95 runs in 13.5 overs.
Surya equals Rohit and Maxwell
India star player Suryakumar Yadav on Thursday hit seven fours and eight sixes to score his 4th hundred in T20I cricket. Newly named ‘Mr.360’ excelled his credentials with a ton in just 56 balls at a strike rate of 178.57. This placed him at another feat with Rohit Sharma and Glenn Maxwell who also share the record.
