India 219 for 6 (Tilak 107, Abhishek 50, Simelane 2-34) beat South Africa 208 for 7 (Jansen 54, Arshdeep 3-37) by 11 runs
At a time when the next major tournament is 15 months away, and with the knowledge they reached this year’s T20 World Cup final, that may not worry South Africa too much. But there will be questions over their depth and some of their strategies after they conceded heavily and stumbled in the chase for the second time in the series.
South Africa’s seam strength without Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje, is, as expected, inexperienced. It showed in a messy display at Supersport Park which included 10 wides and three no-balls. Those numbers pale in comparison to that of Tilak, who, at 22 years and five days old, became India’s second youngest centurion after Yashasvi Jaiswal, and took just 51 balls to get to his hundred. He shared in a 107-run second-wicket stand with Abhishek Sharma, and a 58-run fifth-wicket partnership with Rinku Singh, in which Tilak contributed 45. Though India were set for a total above 240, after bringing up 100 in the ninth over, Tilak still made sure they had enough.
With an asking rate of 11 needed, South Africa fell behind early on. They needed close to 12 runs an over by the end of the powerplay and as much as 17 runs an over in the last five. At that stage, they had their two biggest hitters, Heinrich Klassen and David Miller at the crease and their partnership had reached 58 off 35 balls. In an eerie reminder of Suryakumar Yadav’s catch on the long-off boundary in the T20 World Cup final in June, Axar Patel timed his jump at deep mid-wicket boundary to perfection and Miller had to depart.
South Africa strike early; India strike back
Jansen got South Africa off to a perfect start when his second ball scythed through Sanju Samson. His last four T20I scores read: 111, 107, 0, 0 but India did not spend too much time dwelling on that. They promoted Tilak Varma to No. 3 with astonishing results. He hit the second ball he faced through backward point for four and then smashed Jansen over third for six. Abhishek Sharma, who was dismissed for single-figure scores at both coastal venues, quickly rectified that when he took 14 runs off Gerald Coetzee’s opening over, and he showed the full range of his repertoire.
Abhishek went through midwicket, over point and then through the covers. Coetzee was swiftly replaced by Lutho Sipamla, who Tilak pulled behind square, and Jansen by Andile Simelane, who bore the brunt of Abhishek’s aggression. He struck back-to-back sixes to opposite corners of the ground and India were running away with the powerplay. They were 70 for 1 after six overs, and South Africa were yet to bring on the spinners.