Johannesburg, 15 November (HS). India has defeated South Africa by 135 runs in the fourth and final match of the T20 series. With this, India has won the four-match T20 series 3-1. For India, Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma played brilliant century innings. Middle-order batsman Tilak Verma was adjudged Player of the Series and Player of the Match for his excellent performance.
The host South African team had a very poor start while chasing the target of 284 runs set by India in the match played at the Wanderers Stadium on Friday. Both the team’s openers Ryan Rickleton (01 run) and Reza Hendricks (0 run) returned to the pavilion with a total of one run. Immediately after this, captain Aiden Markram was out for 08 runs and Heinrich Klaasen was out without opening the account. Tristan Stubbs (43 runs) and David Miller (36 runs) definitely tried to control the innings but they could not stay at the crease for long. After this, Marco Jansen scored unbeaten 29 runs and Gerald Cottege scored 12 runs. In this way the entire team was reduced to 148 runs.
Arshdeep Singh got three successes from India’s side. While Varun Chakraborty and Akshar Patel took two wickets each. Whereas, Hardik Pandya, Ramandeep Singh and Ravi Vishnoi got one wicket each.
Earlier, after winning the toss and batting, Team India set a huge target of 283 runs. With the help of brilliant centuries from openers Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma for the team, India has set a target of 284 runs to win the fourth T20 match against South Africa. The 210-run partnership between Samson and Tilak Verma was the best Indian partnership in T20 cricket. Earlier this record was in the names of Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh (190 runs).
Samson, who could not even open his account in the last two matches, once again scored a century while Tilak scored a century for the second consecutive match. Tilak scored unbeaten 120 runs in 47 balls with the help of nine fours and 10 sixes while Samson scored unbeaten 109 runs in 56 balls with the help of six fours and nine sixes. Apart from Samson and Tilak, Abhishek Sharma played an inning of 36 runs in 18 balls with the help of two fours and four sixes. Lutho Sipamla took the only wicket for South Africa.
