India clinch T20 series against South Africa 2-1
The Indian Men’s cricket team emulated their women counterparts by winning the final T20I in Capetown. India thus completed a memorable comeback after losing the test series 2-1; the men in blue won both editions of the limited over formats. Suresh Raina for his cameo at the top of the order was adjudged man of the match. While Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who had been South Africa’s wrecker in Chief in the first game with his knuckle ball walked away with the man of the series.
No Captain Kohli in the final T20
India suffered a huge blow before the match when their skipper and in-form batsmen Virat Kohli was not in the playing 11 due to a back injury. Rohit Sharma filled in as the skipper for the final T20. JP Duminy won the third toss on the trott and had no hesitation in bowling first.
India got a flourishing start with Suresh Raina (43 off 27) clobbering South African bowlers but the hosts succeeded in straight-jacketing the batsmen by taking the pace off the ball as visitors settled for 172 for seven. The visitors choked South Africa with a remarkable disciplined bowling effort by Bhuvaneshwar, Bumrah and Shardul Thakur in Powerplay overs as they restricted the hosts to 165 for six to not only end the tour on a high but also register maiden T20 series win on South African soil. For South Africa skipper JP Duminy and Jonker played valiant knocks but a slow start in the power play meant that the Proteas could never gain the winning momentum.
