India beat South Africa in the third T20I to avert a series defeat which wouldn’t have gone down well with Indian fans who are expecting an improved show in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. Thanks to Ruturaj Gaikwad (57 off 35) and Harshal Patel (4/25) who finally came to the party and made sure India edge South Africa for only the second time in home conditions. Rishabh Pant, who was slammed by ex-cricketers last time around for his poor captaincy in New Delhi and Cuttack, also garnered a lot of praise from former cricketers and pundits alike for operating both his spinners in the powerplay. This ploy worked wonders and India managed to get an early breakthrough when Axar removed Temba Bavuma.
Nonetheless, Pant’s batting skills still came under criticism after he was gone for 6 off 8 balls. As a result, there was a dry period in the game where no boundaries came for 34 balls. It was only whem Pandya scored some runs in the final over that India’s score looked decent. Wasim Jaffer, former India cricketer, said Pant is the missing piece in India’s batting.
“Pant’s absence of runs is the missing component of India’s batting, in my opinion. If Rishabh Pant performs until the 18th or 19th over, we might not see this situation. Rishabh Pant understands that fast bowlers maintain it wide against him and slow them down, so he needs to work on that,” Jaffer told ESPN Cricinfo.
“So I believe Pant must now improve his performance. He is a crucial member of this group. He needs to recognize that bowling attack will try to bowl away from his eye-line, which will help him enhance his off-side game even more.”
Meanwhile, Pant himself admitted that India were 15 runs short as far as a decent score was concerned. “I talked about execution and that’s what we saw today, from both batters and bowlers. We thought we were about 15 short but we weren’t thinking too much about that; the bowlers did a fantastic job,” Pant said in the post-match presentation.
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