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Tilak’s runs and Arshdeep’s three wickets put India up 2-1
Tilak’s runs and Arshdeep’s three wickets put India up 2-1
Tilak Varma hit eight fours and seven sixes in his incredible century at Centurion
In the span of six days, Tilak Verma has become India’s second centurion by ensuring that the Indian team won’t lose any of the Four match-T20I series. India is leading by a 2-1 ratio and there will be a final face-off on Friday and now South Africa has the only option to draw the game. The hosts really haven’t been able to win any series since they beat Ireland 2-0 in August 2022 and after that, they have lost five series and drawn the other two.
Now the major tournament is 15 months away and South Africa is gonna reach to the T20 World Cup final, they are not really required to worry much about anything. However, there will be still a question about the strategies after they gave away many runs and struggled in the chase for the second time in the series.
South Africa's bowling strength, missing Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, and Anrich Nortje, was not very experienced, which showed during their messy performance at Supersport Park. They delivered 10 wides and three no-balls. These numbers are small compared to Tilak's achievement, who, at just 22 years and five days old, became India's second youngest player to score a century after Yashasvi Jaiswal. He reached his hundred in only 51 balls. Tilak had a 107-run partnership for the second wicket with Abhishek Sharma and a 58-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Rinku Singh, contributing 45 runs in that partnership. Even though India was aiming for a score above 240 after hitting 100 runs in the ninth over, Tilak ensured they had enough runs.
South Africa needs to get 11 runs asking but fell behind at the very start. They were required to make 12 runs in an over till the end of the powerplay and 17 runs till the last five. At that time they had two big batters those are Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller playing at the crease and their partnership was strong as they were easily able to make 58 off 35 balls. Just like Suryakumar Yadav’s catch at the long-off boundary in the T20 World Cup final in June, Axar Patel timed his jump perfectly at deep mid-wicket. Miller had to go after scoring 58 off 35 balls.
Marco Jansen with his best skills keeps South Africa in until the last over and makes sure that they win. Not only did he make his first T20I half-century but gave four fours as well as five sixes of which three were down to the ground. But now South Africa has so much to do. Jansen was out lbw to Arshdeep Singh with three balls left and 18 runs needed. South Africa lost by 11 runs.
Jansen started off very well however second ball was hand over to Sanju Samson, Samson’s all-or-nothing form continued, with his last four T20I scores being 111, 107, 0, and 0, but India didn’t focus much on that. They moved Tilak up to No. 3, which paid off well. He hit his second ball through backward point for four, then sent Jansen over third for six. Abhishek, who had scored in single digits at both coastal venues, quickly made up for it by hitting 14 runs in Gerald Coetzee’s first over, showing a full range of his skills.
Abhishek hit shots through midwicket, over point, and through the covers. Coetzee was quickly replaced by Lutho Sipamla, who Tilak pulled behind square, and Jansen was replaced by Andile Simelane, who faced Abhishek’s big hits. Abhishek smashed two sixes to opposite corners of the ground, and India took control of the powerplay. They reached 70 for 1 after six overs, while South Africa had not yet brought on the spinners.
India was able to complete 100 runs in nine overs meanwhile Abhishek sent Keshav Maharaj on a long-on. On the other hand, South Africa's experienced left-arm spinner had the final say. After three balls, He bowled a delivery wide outside off, tempting Abhishek to reach out and hit it to the leg side, but Abhishek missed and was stumped. In the next over, Simelane gave Suryakumar some room, tempting him to cut, but the Indian captain only managed to slice it to Jansen at deep point. Simelane now had two international wickets, both of them Suryakumar’s. Maharaj’s second over went for 10 runs, but he was kept on for a third, which brought success. Hardik Pandya missed a sweep, was hit on the back pad, and was given out lbw. India lost 3 wickets for 25 runs in 26 balls, and South Africa made a comeback.
Maharaj has the speciality to slow things down however at his last over Tilak wasn’t able to cope with that. By using his crease well, he goes 4-6-4 with the deep square leg, extra cover and deep mid-wicket and on the other hand, Maharaj was able to make only 36 runs out of four overs. That was a warning. Coetzee was hammered in his next over, which also included three wides, as Tilak hit both long and short boundaries. Jansen bowled a scoreless 17th over, and Rinku was bowled out by a yorker from Simelane in the 18th. But by then, Tilak was in full flow. He reached his hundred by hitting Sipamla past mid-off for his seventh four. Tilak then hit one more four to go with his seven sixes, finishing unbeaten on 107.
At SuperSport Park, a swarm of flying ants briefly stopped play during South Africa's chase, as the umpires were worried they might fly into the players' eyes. After 28 minutes, the ants moved on, and play resumed without any overs lost.
In the match, Varun Chakravarthy was the standout bowler. He continued his strong form as the leading wicket-taker in the series, dismissing Reeza Hendricks with a brilliant googly that led to a stumping. South Africa finished the powerplay at 55 for 2.
Aiden Markram briefly tried to fight back with two sixes off Varun, but then he hit the last ball of the over straight to Ramandeep Singh, continuing his poor run of form without a half-century in 27 innings. Klaasen was the one player to have success, hitting three sixes off Varun, including the biggest of the match at 109 meters. Despite Varun’s expensive over, he took crucial wickets.
South Africa needed 86 runs from the last five overs, but despite some strong hitting from Jansen, they couldn't reach the target.
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