Shreyas Iyer’s second century in ODIs and Ishan Kishan’s aggressive 84-ball 93 to star in India’s seven-wicket win over South Africa on Sunday. India overhauled the target of 279 with ease to end with 282/3 in 45.5 Overs and have forced the India vs South Africa ODI series to a decider.
India had the momentum arriving into the chase but that did not long last as both openers fell inside the first Powerplay. Shikhar Dhawan looked vulnerable and Shubman Gill too got out after a solid start. The match was poised to be an intriguing India vs South Africa match.
However, then came the match-winning partnership between Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. The latter was aggressive from the start and Kishan too surely kept on getting better. Once the left-hander reached his half-century, he treated his home crowd to a fine show, taking Anrich Nortje apart. Kishan fell in the 90s but Iyer continued to bat through to a sensational ton to guide his team to victory, aided well by Sanju Samson towards the end.
South Africa understood that they were a few runs short and with the dew also playing a part it was going to be tough. Wayne Parnell and Kagiso Rabada did get early breakthroughs but that was it. Both spinners failed to control the game in the middle overs and the pacers too were a bit all over the place. Keshav Maharaj who generally does a brilliant job in the middle phase wasn’t allowed to settle one bit. In the end, the stand between Kishan and Iyer broke the back of the run chase, and the Proteas were defeated with ease. They will now look to bounce back in the final game.
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India vs South Africa – First Innings
Earlier in the game, Keshav Maharaj won the toss and opted to make full use of the good batting conditions early on. This did not work well in the start as they lost a couple of early wickets. Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram did well to put on a century stand for the 3rd wicket to put them in the driving seat. The Indian spinners though got rid of both set batters in quick succession to turn the tide and towards the end, it was a scintillating display by Mohammed Siraj that kept the Proteas to under a score of 300.
In reply, India’s innings was very similar to that of South Africa at the start and then another century stand was added by Iyer and Kishan for the third wicket but the major difference was that one of them stayed on till the end which made sure that there were no hiccups.
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