India Make Light Work Of South Africa In The Cold Of Dharamsala

India reclaimed the upper hand in the five-match T20 International series against South Africa when they won the third game comfortably by seven wickets as they restricted South Africa to a meagre score at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. 

India won the toss and once again chose to bowl first as the presence of dew was already around.

The Proteas made three changes to the side that won in New Chandigarh as Tristan Stubbs, Corbin Bosch, and Anrich Nortje came in for David Miller, Lutho Sipamla, and George Linde. 

With no recognised spin bowler, South Africa would need to depend on Donovan Ferreira and Aiden Markram in that department as they were led by a five-man pace attack of Nortje, Bosch, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman, and Marco Jansen. 

India had South Africa in tatters as three wickets were lost in as many overs – leaving the Proteas at 7/3 by the time Dewald Brevis was dismissed – following the dismissals of openers Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock. 

When Stubbs and Bosch were dismissed for a combined 13 off 22 balls, South Africa were inching along at a snail’s pace – scoring 44 for the loss of five wickets at the halfway mark. 

Hardik Pandya became just the fourth T20I player to hit 100 sixes and take 100 wickets when he dismissed Stubbs – as the batter got the faintest of edges to wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma. 

There was a mini revival of some sort as Markram and Ferreira put on 25 in just under three overs before Varun Chakravarthy bowled the latter with a wrong’un as South Africa struggled at 69/6.

Varun dismissed Jansen in the same manner as the Protea batters had no answer for his deadly bowling. 

Throughout all the chaos around him, Markram soldiered on and dispatched Harshit Rana for a four and six off the opening two balls of the 18th over to bring up an attritional fifty. 

Just as Markram appeared to be seeing the ball in his slot – scoring 18 of the 19 runs off Rana’s 18th over – an Arshdeep Singh ball met his outside edge – caught by Jitesh Sharma – for 61 off 46 balls.

The Proteas could only score four more runs after the Markram dismissal as Kuldeep Yadav cleaned up the tail – leaving India a mere 118 runs to win. 

Some of India’s bowling seemed unplayable as Arshdeep Singh bounced back with aplomb following his nightmare performance in the previous game – with figures of 2/13 in his four overs.

Chakravarthy provided superb support with figures of 2/11 in his allotted four overs as India went the entire innings without bowling a single no-ball or wide. 

South Africa – 117 all out

Markram 61 (46 balls), Ferreira 20 (15 balls)

Arshdeep Singh 2/13 (4 overs), Chakravarthy 2/11 (4 over)

While South Africa had hoped India would struggle with the bat as they did, this was not to be, as Abishek Sharma had other ideas. 

In stark contrast to the South African innings, India started like a house on fire, as if they were in a hurry to end proceedings. 

16 runs were scored off Ngidi’s first over, four coming by the way of leg byes – with the very first ball clearing the boundary for six as the chase started fiercely. 

Sharma was dispatching the bowlers to all parts of the field, smashing two further sixes before he was caught superbly by Markram – who ran from mid-off to wide long-off to hold on to a difficult chance.

Sharma was dismissed for 35 off 18 deliveries as his wicket fell with the score on 60 in just 5.2 overs. 

While South Africa mustered just 25 in the powerplay, India scored 68 and already hit more boundaries than the Proteas in their entire innings. 

Comparatively, India doubled South Africa’s score at the 10-over mark – India on 88/1 compared to South Africa’s 44/4.

The game served as a great opportunity to allow Shubman Gill some time at the crease and get some runs, without much pressure, as he scored a run-a-ball 28 before chopping one onto his stumps off Jansen.

Suryakumar Yadav continued his poor form, losing his wicket to Ngidi, caught well by Baartman for just 12. 

This was academic, though, as Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube took India home with 25 balls to spare.  

The results of all three games so far have reflected clear dominance by one team on the day. 

South Africa would have expected a better collective showing as their Jekyll and Hyde performances showed themselves again. 

This will need to be resolved swiftly as South Africa need to win the next game to keep the series alive.

The fourth T20 International takes place in Lucknow on Wednesday.