The fifth and last match of the 5-match T20 series between India and South Africa was played on Friday (December 19) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Team India won this match by 30 runs. With this victory, the Indian team captured the series 3-1 and the team’s invincible streak continued under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav. Surya has not lost any T20 series since becoming the captain.
After losing the toss and opting to bat first, the Indian team had scored a huge score of 231 runs at the loss of 5 wickets, in response to which the South African team could only reach 201 runs despite an excellent start. Hardik Pandya took the big wicket of Dewald Brevis after scoring 63 runs in 25 balls, hitting 5 fours and as many sixes. He was awarded the Player of the Match award. Tilak Verma (73 runs in 42 balls) and Varun Chakraborty (4 wickets) also made valuable contributions to India’s victory.
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India made a comeback after De Kock’s wicket
Chasing the huge target, South Africa had scored 118 runs at the loss of 1 wicket in 10 overs. He needed only 114 runs in the last 10 overs. The Proteas team seemed to be moving strongly towards the target, when Jasprit Bumrah gave a sigh of relief to India by taking the wicket of Quinton de Kock (65 runs from 35 balls) after the drinks break. On the first ball of the next over, Hardik derailed South Africa’s innings by sending Brevis (35 runs in 17 balls) to the pavilion.
Before the Proteas team could recover from these setbacks, Varun turned the match towards India by taking the wickets of Aidan Markram and Donovan Ferreira on consecutive balls in the 13th over. South Africa’s score suddenly became 135/5 from 120/1. After this, the Proteas team never got into the contest and could not get close to the target even after playing the entire 20 overs.
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Hardik-Tilak’s storm came
After being invited to bat first, Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson gave a good start to Team India. Abhishek and Sanju made a blazing partnership of 63 runs in 5.4 overs. Abhishek was out as the first wicket after playing an innings of 34 runs in 21 balls. After his departure, Sanju along with Tilak Verma took the score close to 100. Sanju, who came to open in place of injured Shubhman Gill, returned to the pavilion after scoring 37 runs in 22 balls with the help of 4 fours and 2 sixes. After some time, captain Suryakumar Yadav (5), who was struggling with poor form, was also out.
The score of the Indian team was 115/3. There were 47 balls left to play. In such a situation, it seemed that reaching 200 would be better. Mahar Hardik Pandya had different intentions. As soon as he came, he came forward on the very first ball and sent it for a six over long off. Hardik batted brilliantly and scored a fifty in 16 balls, which was the second fastest fifty by an Indian batsman in T20 International.
From the other end, Tilak Hath was also continuously playing big shots, due to which India’s score easily crossed 200. Before getting out in the last over, Hardik-Tilak made a stellar partnership of 105 runs in 44 balls and took Team India to a huge score, which South Africa struggled to reach.
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