India vs South Africa, 3rd T20I – Who Said What

Virat Kohli made a gutsy call to bat first in Bengaluru after winning the toss in the 3rd T20I. However, this decision didn’t quite work in the team’s favour. On a sluggish pitch, the batsmen failed to apply themselves. South Africa made early inroads by dismissing both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for 9 runs each. After a breezy 25-ball 36, Shikhar Dhawan also fell leaving the team in a spot of bother.

The inexperienced middle order didn’t live up to the expectations. Rishabh Pant threw his start away after getting 19 runs. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja got 14 and 19 runs respectively towards the end but they took their time to do so. India couldn’t get the final impetus as they’d have liked and only could accrue 134 runs in 20 overs for the loss of 9 wickets. Kagiso Rabada picked up three wickets in the innings.

The chase was a cakewalk for South Africa. Quinton de Kock led from the front with a second consecutive half-century. While he remained unbeaten on 79 runs, Reeza Hendricks and Temba Bavuma made handy contributions worth 28 and 27 runs respectively. South Africa finished the chase in 16.5 overs and with 9 wickets to spare. With this win, they’ve managed to level the series 1-1.

Virat Kohli, the India captain, said

Exactly what we wanted to do and that’s going to be the template we’ll follow for games we have before the World Cup. The mindset has to be flexible and to try out things when situations are stacked against us. We will have games like this where we don’t execute what we want. But as long as the intent is there to improve, we’ll be in a good zone. I think South Africa bowled well, the pitch suited them in the first innings and we weren’t able to read the tempo of the game well.

I would say only in T20 cricket (where chasing is easier). In one-day cricket, you have time for the bowlers to come back, but here a partnership of 40-50 can take the game away from you. One good partnership and you’re under the pump even if you’re defending 200.

The squad composition we’ll try to get right as soon as we can. The guys who have done well in the domestic circuit are getting opportunities, so it’s not like we are playing random people. You have to understand as well that it’s a very young side, you have to give them time as a team to come together. We batted till 9 tonight, and that’s one area we’re looking to strengthen.

Quinton de Kock, the South Africa captain and the Man of the Series, said

I think we kept it nice and simple. Focused on hitting a good length. Our spinners kept it tight too. Beuran bowled really well, he’s got the skills. Sometimes it’s better on these wickets to take the pace off. We fixed one or two things from our mistakes in the last game. Our intensity in the field has also been really good.

Beuran Hendricks, the Man of the Match, said

It was just one of those games where things worked for me. I have bowled better than this. Lots of hard work put in behind the scenes, so happy with that. I don’t really look at the pitch when we come out to warm up. Overhead conditions meant some swing, once I assess that, don’t need to change much.