India completely lost its momentum in the nominal third T20I played against South Africa tonight. After winning the first two games, India rested KL Rahul, Arshdeep Singh and Virat Kohli for the third match. Their absence was felt as the men in blue lost the game by 49 runs. South Africa was brilliant with the bat. Rilee Rossouw’s brilliant century complemented by de Kock’s half-century gave South Africa a big total.
While batting first, Proteas lost the wicket of Temba Bavuma pretty early. However, de Kock (68) and Rossouw (00* off 48 balls) built the innings and made a partnership of 90 runs for the second wicket. After that, de Kock departed. Later, Rossouw made an 87-run partnership with Tristan Stubbs (23). When Stubbs departed, Miller (19* off 5 balls) joined Rossouw and created fireworks in the death overs. As a result, South Africa scored 227/3 in 20 overs.
India got a double blow while chasing this big target. Opener Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer got out pretty early. The score was 4-2. After that, batters just came, smacked the loose balls and got out on good balls. only Dinesh Karthik (46), Deepak Chahar (31) and Rishab Pant (27) were good enough. In the end, India got all-out for 178 in 18.3 overs. Dwaine Pretorius took three wickets (3/26). Wayne Parnell (2/41), Lungi Ngidi (2/51) and Keshav Maharaj (2/34) got two wickets each.
Even though India lost the game, it won the series by 2-1. The ODI series starts on October 6.
