Tilak Varma smashed a scintillating maiden T20I century to lay a strong foundation for India’s 11-run win that gives them an unassailable 2-1 lead heading into the fourth and final T20I in Johannesburg on November 15. On Wedneday, he forged a blitzkrieg of a partnership with Abhishek Sharma (50 off 25) to maximise the PowerPlay and then kept going even as South Africa attempted to push back at the other end. India finished on 219/6 and then withstood whirlwind efforts from Marco Jansen (54 off 17) and Heinrich Klaasen (41 off 22) to secure a narrow victory.
South Africa and Jansen’s early joy at castling Sanju Samson in the first over for a duck once again was short-lived as Tilak, sent in at No.3 ahead of captain Suryakumar Yadav, joined hands with fellow left-hander Abhishek Sharma to obliterate the early overs. Tilak started throwing his bat around just two balls after Samson fell and used his feet exceptionally well all through his knock. Abhishek went after Gerald Coetzee, picking 15 in the second over. Just 15 came off the next two overs before both of them laid into Andile Simelane to pick 18 off the fifth over. Both the batters took advantage of the relatively smaller squre boundaries to push India to 70/1 in six overs – their second best PowerPlay effort against South Africa in the format.
Tilak and Abhishek continued to sing similar heavy metal tunes even after the fields spread out, even forcing Coetzee to go full and wide from round the stumps. He ended up conceding wides and then got tonked for a six over deep square leg off a no-ball. After another expensive over, Aiden Markram brought on left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj who was welcomed with a six over long on from Abhishek. He completed a 23-ball 50 but was stumped in the same over to give South Africa a breather.
Suryakumar Yadav fell for 1 in the next over but India got to the halfway stage with 110/3. In the company of Hardik Pandya, Tilak brought up his fifty in 32 deliveries and shifted gears even further as South Africa picked three more wickets. Hardik fell for 18 and Rinku Singh struggled on his way to a 13-ball 8 but Tilak blazed away regardless. He went 4,6,4 in a 16-run Maharaj over and then carted two sixes and a four in a 21-run over from Coetzee. The fast bowled finished with figures of 0/51 in 3 overs.
Debutant Ramandeep Singh began his T20I career with a six over the long-on fence. Tilak reached his century in the penultimate over from Lutho Sipamla that earned India 19 runs and took them past the 200-run mark. Jansen then bowled a fabulous 20th over worth just four runs as India ended on 219/6.
In a bizarre turn of events, play was suspended for 20-odd minutes due to flying ants. The players went off the field and it took the usage of super sopper on the pitch to get rid of them. When play resumed, there was fire from both ends – Ryan Rickleton and Reeza Hendricks put Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya away when they went either too full or short, but a few deliveries from length squared the batters up. In one such mini-tussle, Arshdeep had the last laugh as he got Ryan Rickleton to play one onto his stumps. Hendricks pushed South Africa ahead until Varun CV came on and had him stumped in the last over of the PowerPlay.
Markram’s struggles in the format in 2024 continued as he just couldn’t put away the spinners in the post-PowerPlay phase. Tristan Stubbs too got stuck after starting off with two fours and ended up perishing while trying to break the rut with an attempted reverse sweep against Axar Patel. Markram finally ended his struggles with two massive sixes off Varun, but hit one down Ramandeep’s throat at deep mid-wicket in the same over to leave South Africa struggling at 84/4 in 10 overs.
Just when it looked like India were running away with the game, Klaasen stepped up like only he can. He took down Varun CV for three successive sixes and a four – while also being put down by Suryakumar at cover, in a single over. At the other end though, David Miller was scratchy and fell right when he appeared to have middled an expansive pull shot, only for Axar to time his jump to perfection to take a catch at deep square leg.
Jansen arrived and hit Ravi Bishnoi for two big sixes but the game was still away from South Africa’s grasp as they needed 59 off 18. Arshdeep then bowled an exceptional 18th over, taking out Klaasen and conceding just 8 runs in it to push the game further away from the hosts. Jansen however, injected life into the chase by tonking 26 off Hardik in the 19th over – with three fours and two sixes. 25 off 6 was then brought down to 18 off 4 as Jansen smashed yet another six in the last over, but fell on the next ball for an incredible 17-ball 54. This was Arshdeep’s 90th T20I wicket, surpassing Jasprit Bumrah’s tally and becoming the joint-second (with Bhuvneshwar Kumar) on the list of most wickets in the format for India. He then closed out the rest of the over to catch South Africa short.
Brief Scores:India219/6 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 107*, Abhishek Sharma 50; Keshav Maharaj 2-36) beat South Africa 208/7 in 20 overs (Marco Jansen 54, Heinrich Klaasen 41; Arshdeep Singh 3-37) by 11 runs