Africa-Press – Gambia. South Africa did really well to push India in the first two games and such was their performance that fans thought India might lose the five-match T20I series in the third match at Vizag itself. Thanks to some good batting in the lower middle order by Hardik Pandya, the team managed to put on good score and then superb bowling from Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal Patel made sure the Proteas choked under pressure in the crucial match. The same pattern was repeated in fourth match where the hosts were down in the dumps, but then were let off which proved to be costly. As a result, the scoreline was 2-2.
All of a sudden, Proteas will have to play the series finale in Bengaluru who are usually not a great team under pressure and former SA cricketer Morne Van Wyk has questioned the team’s adaptability, saying India are the favorites to lift the series.Van Wyk played 17 ODIs and eight T20Is for South Africa between 2003 and 2015 and captained South Africa A team during his playing career. In 2011, he scored a 24-ball fifty against India in a T20I, which was the fastest fifty for a South African at the time. The 43-year-old also has a top score of 114* that he scored against West Indies in 2015.
A lot of grey areas are yet to be addressed but a young Indian team, with an admirable collective temperament, will start as favourites in the series-deciding fifth T20 International against South Africa in Bengaluru on Sunday. In a space of eight days, this Indian team has played four games. It fielded an identical XI, which is in sync with Rahul Dravid’s “school of continuity”, seen the nadir in the first two games, only to break its own record of highest margin of victories over the Proteas — by 47 runs in the third game and by 82 runs in the fourth.
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