India scores their highest T20I score in South Africa; win by 11 runs in 3rd match
Team India defeated South Africa by 11 runs in the third T20I match played at SuperSport Park in Centurion and took an unassailable 2-1 lead in the 4-match T20 series.
India beat South Africa by 11 runs in the third T20I
Batting first, India scored 219 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs. After this, the hosts, chasing the big target of 220 runs, could score 208 runs in the stipulated 20 overs and lost the match by 11 runs. Marco Jansen was the top scorer for Africa, who scored a half-century in 16 balls, which is the second fastest half-century for the Proteas in T20I. Jansen scored 54 runs in 17 balls but failed to lead his team to victory.
Arshdeep Singh overtakes Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah
Apart from Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen also played an innings of 41 runs in 22 balls. At the same time, captain Aiden Markram contributed 29 runs. On the other hand, fast bowler Arshdeep Singh took the maximum of 3 wickets for India. With this performance, he has become the second highest wicket-taker in T20I for India. Arshdeep now has 92 wickets in 59 matches. He left behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar (89) and Jasprit Bumrah (89). He is now only behind Yuzvendra Chahal (96), who is currently the highest wicket-taker in T20I for India.
In this match, African captain Aiden Markram won the toss and invited Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav’s team to bat first. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma came to open the innings for India. India had a very bad start and on the second ball of the match, Marco Jansen clean bowled Sanju for a score of zero. After this, Tilak Verma and Abhishek Verma made a century partnership for the second wicket and took the score to 107. Abhishek Sharma hit the first half-century of his T20 international career.
Abhishek Sharma hit the first half-century of his T20I career
Left-handed batsman Abhishek Sharma played a brilliant innings of 50 runs with the help of 3 fours and 5 sixes at a strike rate of 200 in 25 balls. He was stumped by Keshav Maharaj at the hands of Heinrich Klaasen. After this, captain Suryakumar Yadav returned to the pavilion after scoring 1 run. Hardik Pandya also could not contribute much with the bat and became the second wicket of Maharaj after scoring 18 runs. Rinku Singh contributed 8 runs for India.
Tilak Verma hit his first T20 century
Tilak Verma scored the most runs for Team India. He hit a brilliant century, this is the first century of his T20 international career. Tilak completed his century in 51 balls with the help of 8 fours and 6 sixes at a strike rate of 196. Tilak played an unbeaten innings of 107 runs with 8 fours and 7 sixes in 56 balls for India. Tilak was awarded the Player of the Match award for this brilliant innings.
Debutant Ramandeep Singh, who started his international career for India with this match, was run out after scoring 15 runs with 1 four and 1 six in 5 balls. While Akshar Patel remained unbeaten after scoring 1 run on the last ball of the innings. Due to this brilliant performance of the batsmen, the Indian team scored 219 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs.
