Men in Blue exhibited a dominating performance to beat South Africa by 106 runs in the last and final T20I at the Wanderers Stadium. World No.1 T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav’s stellar ton and Kuldeep Yadav’s five-wicket haul powered India to register a remarkable win, leveling the three-match series 1-1 with the first game being washed out. The action will next turn to the three-match ODI series as the fans are guaranteed continuous entertainment. The first ODI will be played on December 17, Sunday, the famous ‘Pink Day’ at the New Wanderers.

Batting first, India had a stumbling start as the Proteas’ spinner Keshav Maharaj dismissed Shubman Gill (8) and Tilak Varma (0) in the 3rd over. Gill would have continued to bat if he would have taken the DRS. However, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Suryakumar rebuilt the Indian innings and got their side to a good position, stitching an excellent 112-run partnership for the third wicket.

Jaiswal departed after scoring a 41-ball 60. Although wickets kept falling at one end, Suryakumar played attacking shots at the other end. The right-handed batter went on to hit his 4th T20I century in just 55 balls, smashing 7 fours and 8 sixes. Suryakumar played a captain’s knock and helped his side to post 201/7 in 20 overs.

South Africa’s chase got off to a bad start as Mukesh Kumar cleaned up Matthew Breetzke (4) early. Mohammed Siraj’s brilliant effort on the field helped India to remove the dangerous Reeza Hendricks (8). Arshdeep Singh then dismissed power-hitting Heinrich Klaasen (5) to put the Proteas on the back foot. Aiden Markram and David Miller chipped in with 25 and 35 respectively. South African batters found it hard to withstand Kuldeep’s spin, kept losing wickets, and eventually, lost the game.