Srinagar: The unbeaten quickfire century by Rilee Rossouw helped visitors South Africa register a victory in the third T20I against hosts India at Indore.
South Africa registered a comfortable 49-run win over India to deny hosts clean sweep.
India put South Africa in to bat first in the final T20I and apart from the early wicket of Temba Bavuma, it was smooth sailing for the visitors for the rest of the innings. Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw looked in tremendous touch and picked apart the Indian bowling lineup in dream batting conditions.
Rossouw got a lifeline from Mohammed Siraj, who parried the ball over for a six in the ninth over and that eventually proved to be 76 runs too costly. De Kock got to his fifty in the very next over off 33 balls.
It took some brilliant work on the field from Shreyas Iyer to run-out Quinton de Kock but Russouw and Tristan Stubbs continued the carnage. The southpaw reach his fifty soon off just 27 balls and needed just 21 more to reach his three-figure milestone. The 48-ball century was his highest score in T20Is and the third fastest hundred by a Proteas batter.
Three sixes in the final over from the bat of David Miller took South Africa to 227/3, the second highest total India have conceded in T20Is.
India’s chase was off to a poor start after the hosts lost their skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer in the first two overs. They were going at just over run-a-ball in the first four overs before Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik went berserk in the last two overs of the Powerplay. That, however, came at a cost as India lost Pant in the penultimate over of the Powerplay.
Playing a batter light in the game, the wickets of Dinesh Karthik and Suryakumar Yadav in consecutive overs brought curtains to the chase. Harshal Patel and Deepak Chahar gave a glimpse of their batting ability, perhaps making a case for a spot in the World Cup XI.
Chahar and Umesh Yadav entertained with a 25-ball 48-run stand for the ninth wicket but the target proved to be too tall for the tail. From 86/5, India put up a fight to end up with 178 but ended up falling 49 runs short.