Credit: ACC
India beat South Africa in the third match of the T20I series in Dharamshala by seven wickets. India won the toss and opted to bowl first. It was a brilliant start for the hosts as Harshit Rana got the big fish for India, removing Quinton de Kock early and Arshdeep Singh got Reeza Hendricks for a three-ball duck in the first over. Dewald Brevis also lost his wicket and South Africa found themselves at 25/3 in the powerplay.
Hardik Pandya removed Tristan Stubbs (9) for his 100th T20I wicket. With that wicket he also became the first pace bowling all-rounder in the World to pick up 100 wickets and also score more than 1000 runs. From the other end, Shivam Dube began his spell in the 11th over, getting the wicket of Corbin Bosch (4) in his first delivery.
Donovan Ferreira was trying to stage a comeback for South Africa along with Markram, but Varun Chakaravarthy removed Donovan for 20 off 15 balls. Kuldeep Yadav got the final two wickets to bundled out South Africa for just 117. Aiden Markram was the lone warrior scoring a half century but did not get any support. It was a below par score at the halfway mark.
India started the chase of 118 runs in a dominating fashion as Abhishek Sharma smashed 35 of just 18 balls before a stunning catch from Aiden Markram cut short his innings. Shubman Gill and Tilak Varma built a partnership after Abhishek Sharma’s cameo but the scoring rate dropped down after powerplay and Gill was dismissed for 28 by Jansen. Suryakumar Yadav lost his wicket for 12, but Dube and Tilak Varma ensured there was no more wicket as India chased down the target in less than 16 overs. With this win, India are now leading the series 2-1 and the fourth match of the series will be played on 16th December
