India’s youth squad under captain Rishabh Pant on June 17 leveled the Paytm series against South Africa 2-2 at Rajkot. India beat South Africa by 82 runs.
After a rough start in the early part, the Indian players registered a total of 169/6 in 20 rounds. While the pitchers didn’t give the South African hitter any chance and only let them know the line stall in just 16.5 rounds.
Just like the previous matches, captain Temba Bavuma of SA was voted as a bad match against the Indian team. Indian tennis players – Ruturaj Gaikwad (5), Shreyas Iyer (4) and Ishan Kishan (27) returned to the stall in just 7 rounds when the score was only 44.
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When Pant (17 years old) entered the field, India’s running track started to work. But SA’s Keshav Maharaj took the lead with Pant then in 13th place, when India’s score was 81/4.
Following Pant’s departure, Dinesh Kartik (55 years old) took over responsibility and formed an important partnership with Hardik Pandya (46 years old), setting a goal of 169/6 wickets.
For the South Africans, it was a smooth ride, until injured Temba Bavuma (8) had to retire after injuring his left elbow in the third round. That time SA’s score stood at 20/0 in 3 left.
With Bavuma’s departure, the South Africans’ defense was in disarray and the smashers struggled to score runs. One by one fell. The first loss went to Quinton de Kock, who was eliminated by Harshal Patel in the fifth game, and then the Indian archers continued.
Avesh Khan, Yazuvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel and Axar Patel played with great discipline to keep South Africa on track. In the 13th half, SA lost in a row 3 players – Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. In the 17th round, India’s Axar Patel eliminated Lungi Ngidi to level the Paytm series.
On the South African side, Rassie van der Dussen has the highest number of runs (20), while India’s Avesh Khan has 4 places with an economy of only 4.50 runs each.
Both teams will battle to win the final T20I series taking place on June 17 at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. The match will start at 7pm.
