India vs South Africa 3rd T20I Stats Review: Harshal Patel’s best figures in T20Is, Ruturaj Gaikwad’s maiden fifty, and other stats

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan both slammed half-centuries while Harshal Patel took a career-best of 4/25 as India defeated South Africa comprehensively by 48 runs in the third match in Visakhapatnam. Gaikwad registered his first fifty in the format while Ishan continued his solid form in the ongoing series. Hardik Pandya’s cameo of 31* off 21 at the end helped India in reaching a total of 179/5 in 20 overs.

Speaking about how the encounter panned out, skipper Temba Bavuma won the toss and elected to field. Both the teams went into the match with the same playing XI from the last game. Gaikwad made 57 off 35 with seven fours and two sixes while Ishan amassed 54 off just 35 with the help of five fours and two maximums. Captain Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik made six runs apiece. Later, Hardik Pandya’s 31-run knock helped India to cross the 175-run mark. Dwaine Pretorius was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors for his spell of 2/29.

Chasing 180, Bavuma got dismissed for just eight runs while his opening partner Reeza Hendricks managed to score 23. Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller amassed only one and three runs respectively as both failed to deliver for their side. Star performer from the last match, Heinrich Klaasen looked in touch again as he scored 29 before falling prey to Yuzvendra Chahal.

The spinner ended the game with figures of 3/20 in four overs which also helped him in clinching the Player of the Match award. Meanwhile, Harshal Patel took four wicekts. With this win, India stays alive in the series with two games to go. The fourth and the penultimate clash takes place on June 17 in Rajkot.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the 3^rd T20I between India and South Africa:

57/0 – India registered their joint second-highest score of 57/0 against South Africa in the powerplay in T20Is. Their highest of 78/2 came in Johannesburg in 2018.

97 – Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan recorded the highest opening partnership against the Proteas in T20Is. The previous best was 71* by Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir in the year 2012.

4/25 – Harshal Patel registered his best figures of 4/25 in the T20Is. His previous best was 3/22, against West Indies this year.

50 – Tabraiz Shamsi appeared in his 50th T20I.

1 – Ruturaj Gaikwad smashed his first T20I half-century. He has scored 120 runs in six matches so far in his young career.

100 – Rishabh Pant featured in his 100th international match.

1 – India scripted their first victory in eight matches against South Africa across formats.

3 – Gaikwad and Ishan also scripted India’s third-highest partnership (97) for any wicket against South Africa in the shortest international format. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma shared 138 runs in 2015 while MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey added 98* runs in the year 2018.

52 – Ishan completed 50 fours in T20 internationals.

202 – Hardik Pandya reached 200 fours in international cricket.