India in the history books again, wins the T20I series against South Africa

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Indian cricket team wins the T20I series by 2-1 against South Africa. Image Source: ICC

XtraTime Web Desk: After the Indian women’s team, Indian Men’s team also made history today as they registered a thrilling win over the Proteas by 7 runs in the third and final T20I to win the series 2-1 at the Newlands Cricket Stadium in Cape Town today. This was an historic T20I series win on Proteas soil. After winning the toss South Africa sent the visitors to bat first in the decider.

India posted 172/7, largely thanks to contrasting innings from experienced top-order batsmen Shikhar Dhawan (47) and Suresh Raina (43), and it always looked like a tough ask for the hosts up against the Indian bowling attack.

And so it proved as South Africa laboured to 25/1 from their six-over Powerplay. Once Reeza Hendricks had departed to a Bhuvneshwar knuckle-ball, David Miller (24 off 23) and Duminy battened down the hatches, struggling to find the boundary.

The game seemed to be slipping out of their grasp as Miller and Centurion’s hero Heinrich Klaasen (7) holed out off Raina and Hardik Pandya (1/22) respectively. Pandya in particular bowled superbly, finding 10 dot balls from his 24 balls to suffocate the scoring in the middle overs.

But to his credit Jonker backed his shots, getting two fours away off Raina’s (1/27) part-time off-spin to get going before unleashing two legside sixes. Despite his efforts it still looked a long-shot for South Africa and Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar combined – like they have so often before – to clinch the game and the series for India.

Earlier, having been put into bat, India lost stand-in captain Rohit Sharma (11) lbw to Dala in the second over. With Dhawan struggling to get going, Raina took it upon himself to kick-start the innings, getting off the mark first ball with a whipped six over the legside.

Raina continued in a similar vein, scoring freely in boundaries, while Dhawan took until the 12th over to hit his first boundary. It was the pressure of Dhawan’s non-scoring that forced Raina into a big shot and he was caught on the long-on boundary by Farhaan Behardien off the bowling of Tabraiz Shamsi for a 27-ball 43.

Dhawan was dropped twice by Shamsi, with a regulation catch at backward point and a steepling top-edge not claimed. The left-hander never really got going though and after just three boundaries he was run out superbly by a direct hit from Dala on the boundary.

Raina continued in a similar vein, scoring freely in boundaries, while Dhawan took until the 12th over to hit his first boundary. It was the pressure of Dhawan’s non-scoring that forced Raina into a big shot and he was caught on the long-on boundary by Farhaan Behardien off the bowling of Tabraiz Shamsi for a 27-ball 43.

Dhawan was dropped twice by Shamsi, with a regulation catch at backward point and a steepling top-edge not claimed. The left-hander never really got going though and after just three boundaries he was run out superbly by a direct hit from Dala on the boundary.