India set 173 target for S. Africa in third T20
Cape Town, Feb. 23: Suresh Raina clobbered South African bowlers with a 27-ball 43 but India could not exploit a flourishing start and settled for 172 for seven in the series-deciding third Twenty20 at Newlands, here on Saturday.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan top-scored with 47 off 40 balls as India struggled to push the accelerator button on a slowish Newlands track.
Dhawan and Raina put on 65 runs for the second wicket and spearheaded the Indian innings. But the visitors never really hit fifth gear and the innings was patchy throughout as compared to the previous two games.
This was after skipper Virat Kohli was ruled out of the deciding match of the series. He had warmed up before the game, but didnt turn up for the toss due to stiff back. Rohit Sharma led the side.
Put into bat for the third consecutive time in this T20 series, Rohit Sharma (11) was off the blocks quickly taking 13 runs off Chris Morris (2/43) first over.
Junior Dala (3/35) though got Rohit out for the third time in three matches, trapping him lbw on the third ball of his first over. The batsman chose not to review even as the umpire did check for a no ball.
Raina though upped the tempo immediately after coming to the crease. With a flurry of boundaries, he and Dhawan took India to 57/1 in the first six overs and their 50-partnership came off 37 balls.
South Africa changed their bowling around quite a bit and JP Duminy (0-22) bowled a tight first spell that dropped Indias runrate down to 8.5/over before the half-stage of their innings. — PTI