In the fourth T20 match played in Rajkot, India easily thrashed South Africa. Team India has leveled the five-match T20I series at 2-2 with this victory. After the match, captain Rishabh Pant said, “We talked about the strategy implementation and the result is out.” India won by 82 runs, owing to fantastic performance by Avesh Khan (4 for 18).
Man of the match Dinesh Karthik (55 runs) achieved his first half-century in T20 Internationals in 16 years. The series will now be decided by the fifth T20 game, which will be played on June 19 in Bengaluru.
Indian captain Rishabh Pant said that the South African bowlers started to feel the pressure when the partnership of Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya started to play some good shots. Rishabh Pant also said we implemented our strategy correctly and the result came in our favor.
Man of the Match Dinesh Karthik said “South African bowlers bowled beautifully to get the Indian openers out then Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant tried to stitch a partnership then when I came to the crease Hardik said to stay at the crease and to play shots once you get to know the nature of the pitch and we implemented it very well.”
Hardik Pandya, who scored 46 runs in 31 balls with three fours and as many sixes, was also impressive. For the fifth wicket, the two players had put on a 65-run partnership. India scored 169 runs for the loss of six wickets in the allotted 20 overs thanks to this partnership.
In the end India won the match by 82 runs thanks to some beautiful bowling from the Indian bowlers. Now the series will head to Chinnaswamy as level(2-2). Now with the momentum on their side India will be favorites to win the series decider match at Bengaluru on June 19.