India vs South Africa 2022: 3rd T20I – Who Said What

Team India made a resounding comeback in the series after beating visitors South Africa in the third match of the T20I series and ensured that they stay alive in five-match series. Senior spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was adjudged player of the match for his excellent bowling performance.

South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma won the toss yet again and chose to bowl as usual. However, Indian openers were ready this time and they took on the Proteas bowling. Opener Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan took on thrashed the Proteas bowling attack and scored at a brisk pace.

Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, and skipper Rishabh Pant got some starts but could not get going with the bat. Hardik Pandya was the prominent scorer after Gaikwad and Kishan as he ensured that India reach 179 in their allotted 20 overs.

For South Africa, Kagiso Rabada (one wicket), Dwaine Pretorius (two wickets), Tabraiz Shamsi (one wicket), and Keshav Maharaj were the successful bowlers for the visitors. But, all of them leaked runs in their bowling quota.

Disciplined bowling from India give them big win

Team India was right on the money from the very first ball. None of the Proteas batters except Reeza Hendricks, Pretorius, and Heinrich Klassen were the only batters to cross the 20-run mark for the visitors.

For India, pacer Harshal Patel (four wickets), Chahal (three wickets), Axar Patel (one wicket), and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (one wicket) were the successful bowlers as the Men in Blue went on to win the match by 48 runs and made a good comeback in the series.

Losing skipper, Temba Bavuma said:

“As a collective, it wasn’t our best effort. They were the better side. With the ball, they put us under pressure. The fielding really didn’t back us up. With the batting, we didn’t really turn up. The partnerships weren’t there, there was no momentum. There have been a lot of improvements in the fielding department, this game we weren’t up to the mark, in the first two games we were quite strong. Thoughts coming out to bat, we tried to assess, tried to get some momentum, unfortunately we couldn’t do that. Losing three early wickets, always puts us under pressure. Quinton is an integral member of the team. Unfortunately we don’t have him. We back Reeza at the top. The opportunity is there, we’ll keep going with Reeza. “

Winning skipper, Rishabh Pant said: 

“The execution was spot-on from the bowlers and the batters. We were 15 runs short, but we weren’t thinking about that. Bowlers did a fantastic job for us. In India, spinners play a big role. There is pressure on them, when they come off nicely matches like this happen. When you get a good start, it’s difficult for a new batter to come in and go big straightaway. We lost too many wickets. We’ll look to improve in the next match. We have to make sure that we finish the game with a bigger margin.”

Player of the match, Yuzvendra Chahal said: 

“I bowled a lot of sliders and bowled quicker in the previous matches. Today, I changed my seam position. Spinning and getting the ball to dip are my strengths. Today I tried to get it to turn and bowl slower. I tried to bowl to my strengths, I focused on that. When batters try to reverse-sweep, it becomes tough for the bowlers. But now I have a second plan and set fields accordingly. I didn’t bowl well in the previous game, the coach asked me to back my strengths. The ground there (Rajkot) is bigger (*chuckles*).”