India ended their tour of South Africa in a stellar fashion after beating the hosts by seven runs in the third T20I at Cape Town to clinch the three-match series 2-1.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar held his nerves in the final over as the hosts faltered in their chase of 173 runs. The senior bowler, who was adjudged the man-of-the-series, ended up with figures of 2/24 from four overs. South African skipper JP Duminy top scored for the hosts with a 41-ball 55, but that wasn’t enough in the end as they finished with 165/6 in 20 overs.
With Virat Kohli out of the tie with an injury, stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma will savour the win as he led the side with a lot of positivity. Earlier, for the visitors opener Shikhar Dhawan (47) top scored with the bat as comeback man Suresh Raina too chipped in with a well made 43 as that ensured India finish on 172/7 in 20 overs.
After losing the Test series 2-1, the Indian team will be ecstatic in the way the tour went for them. They sealed the ODI series 5-1 and now the 2-1 T20Is win will give the unit an immense amount of satisfaction.
#SAvIND T20I series champions! 🇮🇳🏆 pic.twitter.com/cNXo61XflX
— ICC (@ICC) February 24, 2018
South African chase stutter upfront
The Proteas chase did not find any momentum upfront with David Miller and Hendricks struggled to get going. In the third over Bhuvi picked the wicket of Hendricks with the knuckle ball as the latter skied the ball up in the air as Dhawan accepted the catch.
Duminy joined Miller and the scoring rate did not improve with just 22 runs came by in the powerplay for the loss of one wicket. Miller looked short of confidence and one might have though that the southpaw with two eccentric boundaries after the power play would have gone and batted long, but he held out in the deep after trying to smash a Raina short ball for a six.
Duminy continued to stick in and get the ones and twos with boundaries being hard to come by post Miller’s dismissal. In the 12th over he finally let loose after hovering Axar Patel for two massive sixes. Meanwhile, last match’s hero Heinrich Klaasen could not get going this time and he fell for a paltry seven runs.
With the asking rate climbing with every ball bowled, Duminy and new man Christiaan Jonker tried to get the runs flowing. Jonker dispatched Raina for two fours in the 14th over, before Duminy got into the act with a six off Jasprit Bumrah. The veteran star then brought up his 11th T20I fifty with a boundary. He shared a 30-run stand with Jonker.
| Runs | Balls | 4/6 | Strike Rate |
| 55 | 41 | 2/3 | 134.15 |
From there on it was all up to Jonker, who stepped up the plate and put in a fight with Farhaan Behardien as the duo added 51 runs. With 19 runs needed off the final over, Bhuvi produced a gem of an over as he gave away just 11 runs and picked up the big wicket of Jonker with his final ball.
Jonker’s 49 wasn’t enough in the end for South Africa.
| Runs | Balls | 4/6 | Strike Rate |
| 49 | 24 | 5/2 | 204.17 |
Bhuvneshwar cited the Indian Premier League as a contributing factor for the success. “It’s all about how you prepare yourself before every series. IPL has made Indian bowlers thinking bowlers,” said the champion bowler.
India's @BhuviOfficial is the Player of the Series after 7 wickets in the series! Congratulations! #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/9j03WJpNpo
— ICC (@ICC) February 24, 2018
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
| B Kumar | 4 | 24 | 2 | 6.00 |
| H Pandya | 4 | 22 | 1 | 5.75 |
| S Raina | 3 | 27 | 1 | 9.00 |
India put enough on the board
Earlier, the visitors lost their skipper Rohit for a just 11 runs as Dhawan and Raina stormed their way in the middle. Raina was on the song from the word go as he smashed Junior Dala for a six off the first ball he faced. The veteran player took the charge and got the boundaries coming. Dhawan on the other hand supported him well as the two left-handers added 65 runs in just 8.1 overs.
Raina looked in ominous touch and just when he threatened to go more ballistic, he ended up being caught in the boundary off Tabraiz Shamsi. Manish Pandey (13) too followed suit with Dala getting his second wicket.
The 3rd T20I Player of the Match award goes to @ImRaina after a dynamic batting display and a crucial wicket with the ball! #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/mCjjc1cSOY
— ICC (@ICC) February 24, 2018
| Runs | Balls | 4/6 | Strike Rate |
| 43 | 27 | 5/1 | 159.26 |
Shikhar carried on from there on and despite being unable to hit boundaries early on, he finally got going and managed a good looking 47 runs. He fell in the 16th over and from there on Hardik Pandya (21), MS Dhoni (12) and Dinesh Karthik (13) all contributed as India managed to score 172/7 on the board.
Dala was the pick of the South African bowlers as he finished with 3 for 35 while Chris Morris picked up a couple of wickets in the death overs.