South Africa managed a consolation victory as they beat India by 49 runs in the 3rd and last T2OI at Indore. India put a clinical performance and have clinched yet another T2OI series victory.
India rested key players like Virat and KL Rahul ahead of 3rd T2OI and Arshdeep missed out due to back issues. The hosts elected to bowl first after winning the toss and found the early wicket of Bavuma inside the powerplay.
South Africa then changed gears and started smashing the ball all over the ground. Both De Kock and Rilee Rossouw were looking in great touch and were punishing Indian bowlers over after over.
De Kock and Rossouw reached the 13th and 3rd half-century of their T2OI career respectively as they put up a 90-run stand for the 2nd wicket. De Kock was dismissed after getting run out for 68 runs in the 13th over but Rossouw continued his batting brilliance at the other end.
He then added 87 more runs total for 3rd wicket with Tristan Stubbs who was dismissed by Deepak Chahar for 23 runs in the last over. Rossouw scored an impressive century in just 48 balls with 7 fours and 8 sixes.
David Miller played a fiery cameo as he scored 19 runs in just 5 balls and took the team total to 227/3 in their 20 overs. Deepak Chahar and Umesh Yadav were the only wicket-takers for the Indians as they picked up a single wicket each.
Chasing the target, the men in blue had a horrible start to their inning as the skipper Rohit Sharma departed for 0 in just the second ball of the inning. Shreyas Iyer was the next casualty who was dismissed by Wayne Parnell in the 2nd over.
South Africa were magnificent with the ball as they kept finding wickets at regular intervals. Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik played some impressive shots in between but failed to convert their respective inning into a big one.
Karthik took on the bowlers as he smashed 46 runs in just 21 balls before getting dismissed by Keshav Maharaj. Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, and Umesh Yadav played some interesting shots towards the end but weren't enough for the victory.
India fell 49 runs short as they were all-out for 178 runs in their 18.3 overs. Dwaine Pretorius was brilliant with the ball as he took 3 wickets and was well supported by the other bowlers as well.
Rilee Rossouw for the tremendous knock was adjudged as player of the match and Suryakumar Yadav for his consistency throughout the series was adjudged as player of the series.
Both teams will now face off in a 3-match ODI series starting from October 6 in Lucknow followed by the games in Ranchi and Delhi.