Tilak Varma stole the show with a spectacular maiden century in T20 Internationals as India survived a stunning late assault from Marco Jansen to clinch a narrow 11-run win over South Africa in a high-scoring third T20 International in Centurion on Wednesday.
India now lead the four-match series 2-1. Tilak smashed a brilliant 107 from 56 ball, hitting eight fours and seven sixes to propel India to a huge 219/6. South Africa gave India a late scare courtesy of Jansen’s late assault of 54 from 17 balls, with five sixes and five fours at a strike-rate of 317 as they finished on 208/7.
The contest looked set for a lop-sided finish once the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen (41) fell with 53 runs needed off the last 14 balls in the chase of 220.
But Jansen’s first T20I fifty brought South Africa to the brink of turning the tables on India.
However, Arshdeep Singh (3/37) trapped Jansen leg-before with three balls left in the game to seal the fate in favour of India.
Jansen’s late charge and Klaasen’s 22-ball blitz were the only bright spots in South Africa’s reply after Verma’s sensational unbeaten 107 powered India after being invited to bat.
At the start of chase, Ryan Rickelton (20) failed to make it big once again even as luck favoured him — the new ball missed both his edges and stumps while Axar Patel spilled a regulation catch while running behind from mid-off.
The left-handed batter soon chopped one on to his wickets and soon after Reeza Hendricks (21) was stumped off Varun Chakravarthy.
South Africa captain Aiden Markram (29) only had himself to blame when he pulled a short one on wide outside off-stump to midwicket off Chakravarthy.
Tristan Stubbs (12) also fell to spin trapped leg before wicket by Axar as the Indian spinners dominated the middle overs before Klaasen cut loose to collect 23 runs to spoil Chakravarthy’s figures.
Klaasen served a reminder of the T20 World Cup final when he began treating spin with disdain as he launched three consecutive towering sixes off Chakravarthy — one of them hitting the roof of the top tier.
Chakravarthy responded well when he dropped one short and wide outside off-stump to deny Klaasen any room and the batter obliged by hitting it straight to cover, but skipper Suryakumar Yadav made a judgement error.
Suryakumar was walking in the opposite direction when Klaasen launched the ball towards his left as the ball popped out of his hands.
Axar, at deep midwicket, timed his jump to perfection to bring an end to David Miller’s (18) resistance off Pandya, quite similar to how he brought an end to Mitchell Marsh’s charge in the World Cup Super Eight game with a stunning one-handed grab.
But before all this, the game was held up for nearly half an hour as flying ants swarmed the SuperSport Park forcing the players to walk off.
Earlier, Tilak produced a batting masterclass while slamming his maiden international hundred as India posted a massive total.
Tilak got ample backing from Abhishek who made a brisk 50.
The 22-year-old left-hander tore into the South African pacers as he hammered seven sixes and eight fours during his innings off a mere 57 balls, powering India to their second highest score against the Proteas in this format.
On his part, Abhishek banished a poor run with the bat with a stroke-laden half-century, scoring 50 off only 25 balls laced with five sixes and three fours as the two southpaws dazzled with the bat.
With his rich arsenal of strokes in all directions, Tilak dominated the bowling with complete authority and also helped India stay on course through the blips at the other end.
