‘Ek Hi Dil hain Kitni Baar Todoge, Team India ke Bowlers’- Twitter fumes after a lacklustre performance against South Africa in the third T20I

South Africa- Source (Twitter)

The third T20I between India and South Africa took place at the Holkar Cricket stadium in Indore on Tuesday. On a pitch that was a featherbed for the batters, South Africa made merry and scored plenty of runs. Quinton de Kock was out of the blocks quickly and provided a good start for South Africa.

Although the out-of-form Temba Bavuma departed early, de Kock was in his element. He smashed the Indian bowlers all over the park and scored a wonderful 68 from 43 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes. Rilee Rossouw came in at number three and took a good liking to the Indian attack straightaway. He tore the Indian attack to bits and took everyone to the sword. The innings was pure class where it had the right mix of power and deft touches.

Rossouw was playing the field very well and just proved to be an absolute nightmare to the Indian bowlers. He made the most of his dropped chance on 42 from Mohammed Siraj off Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling. The left hander got the century from just 48 balls with 7 fours and 8 sixes.

Tristian Stubbs and David Miller played good cameos at the end. Stubbs got 23 from 18 balls with 2 fours and a six and David Miller slammed a quickfire 19 from 5 balls. India were poor with ball as the lengths were not on target. The shoddy fielding also did not make things easier. This allowed South Africa to get to a monstrous total of 227-3 in their 20 overs.

In the second innings, South Africa’s bowlers did not allow India to settle down as they kept taking wickets at regular intervals. Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik tried hard by scoring 27 from 14 balls and 46 from 21 balls respectively but it went in vain.

Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius and Keshav Maharaj picked up 2 wickets each and Rabada got a wicket in his spell. This was a good consolation win for South Africa, who won by 49 runs.

Twitter was abuzz. Let us take a look at the reactions here: