India vs South Africa, 3rd T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

The caravan moves to Lucknow now for the 4th T20I of this exciting series. Will it be a red soil/black soil or a mixture wicket there? It's a venue where you can also get high scores if a true pitch is rolled out. The Proteas made three changes today while India made two. What's the mix going to be at the Ekana? We'll get to know the answers on Wednesday. Good night!

Lowest batting average as captain in a T20I calendar year (min 200 runs)
12.52 - Clinton Rubagumya (Rwanda, 2022)
14.20 - Suryakumar Yadav (IND, 2025)*
15.56 - Aiden Markram (SA, 2024)
15.66 - Clinton Rubagumya (Rwanda, 2023)
15.92 - Yasim Murtaza (HKC, 2025)

Lowest batting AVG by an Indian batter in a T20I calendar year (min 10 inngs)
11.62 - Axar Patel in 2022
14.2 - Suryakumar Yadav in 2025*
18.0 - Virat Kohli in 2024
18.5 - Sanju Samson in 2025*
18.81 - Ishan Kishan in 2023

Highest AVG for IND against a team in T20Is
70.50 - Tilak Varma vs SA*
70.28 - Virat Kohli vs PAK
67.8 - Virat Kohli vs SL
58.83 - KL Rahul vs WI
57.0 - Virat Kohli vs WI
*Min 300 runs scored

Best batting average in T20I chases (min 500 runs)
68.0 - Tilak Varma*
67.1 - Virat Kohli
47.71 - MS Dhoni
45.55 - JP Duminy
44.93 - K Sangakkara
*FM teams only

Tilak Varma at No.3 in T20Is
Inns: 14
Runs: 468
Avg: 58.5
SR: 160.27
100s/50s: 2/2

Suryakumar vs Pace in T20Is in 2025
Inngs: 18
Runs: 122
Balls: 106
Dismissals: 14
Avg: 8.71
SR: 115.09
Dot%: 50.9

Player of the Match | Arshdeep Singh: When I walked onto the ground, everyone was telling me this is also your home ground. So the first thing I told them was, no, this is not my home ground - so that felt better. And after that, just sticking to the basics, doing the basics right, and trusting my skill set. When you play at this level, there are some days when you won’t execute the things you want to do. It was one off day (last game), so it feels nice to do this (bowl well in this game). (On what he did right today) Nothing changed. I just pitched the ball in the right areas and tried to get as much help from the wicket. There was some help in the wicket, the conditions were cold as well, so there was enough swing and seam. I just tried to keep it simple, hit the right areas, and got the reward. Not really (about the discussion on the Reeza Hendricks review). It was Surya bhai who wanted to get some suspense in there. The moment it hit the pad, I knew it was out. When I got the approval from Jitesh as well, we knew we were going for the review. He just wanted to wait, chat for a bit, and then take it. (On the Brevis review) As a bowler, you want to take every review possible (laughs). I felt it hit the pad twice, so that was the confusion. Next time, I’ll take care of that (smiles).

Suryakumar Yadav: I think this sport teaches you a lot of things. How you come back into the series is more important. And we did the same thing, we wanted to go back to basics, do the same things we were doing in Cuttack, and the results were on our side. See, there was a lot of learning from the game we played in Chandigarh. The bowlers sat together, we had a good team meeting as well. We came for practice sessions and tried to do the same things we did in Cuttack. We went back to basics. We didn’t try to do a lot of different things, but I think basics were very important at that time. (On his form) The thing is, I’ve been batting beautifully in the nets. I’m trying everything that’s in my control. And when the game comes, when the runs have to come, they’ll definitely come. But yes, I’m looking for runs, not out of form, but definitely out of runs. I think we’ll enjoy it tonight. We’ll enjoy the win tonight. We’ll sit down tomorrow when we reach Lucknow and then see what happened in this game and talk about that.

Markram (2/2): In conditions like these, it’s probably picking a bowler on the night that you feel like you can target. I don’t think it’s a wicket where you can just get away with trying to hit everyone. So it’s finding that match-up, and when the match-up comes, completely backing yourself. In between there, try to be efficient, try to keep the scoreboard ticking. I think you get to that score of 140, 150. You never want to curb players, you never want to speak any negative language about keeping the ball on the floor or whatever the case might be. You always want to encourage the boys to play. Each person will take lessons from tonight and be better cricketers afterwards. (Things that could have been done differently) Obviously the start. They were always going to play that way - so credit to him, he came off. But we’re always going to gauge it on the amount of balls we landed in the right area. Possibly in those first three or four overs, not quite enough in the right area. And if we get them in the right area and they go for 60, then so be it. That’s probably the bit we’ll gauge. But after that, I thought they were much better. So another positive, extending the game as much as they did by holding length. Holding length pretty well and consistently, and yeah, asking some good questions.

Aiden Markram (1/2): Tough conditions up front. They got the ball in the right areas and before you know it, you’re four, five, six down. So, got to give credit to their bowling. Few of them bowled a Test-match delivery, Test-match length, it was challenging. So if conditions are the same moving forward, you’re just going to have to find ways to get through that and try to put some pressure back on them. You’ve just got to give credit to that bowling unit on the night. It was tough. You want to play in this format, but they didn’t give us much to score off. I tried to just take it deep. We obviously lost a couple of wickets, so you think to try to take it deep and make a play at the end. The whole time I was thinking maybe 140, 150 - I think we were massively in the game. So again, if I come off at the death there, I feel like I should be hitting that ball for six, then it could be a different game. So it is small margins. We’re not going to look too deeply into it. We’ll have to have a few answers if conditions are the same. That’s the case.

Varun Chakaravarthy: I actually wasn’t aware of the milestone, so thank you for telling me. It was doing a bit early on when the fast bowlers were bowling, there was some seam movement. But overall, the conditions were very tough. I’ve never played at a ground this cold, so I did find it quite challenging. (Laughs) No, not at all. This (chilly weather) can never happen in Chennai. We had a proper bowling meeting and some very honest conversations. We identified where we went wrong and focused on the right approach. Credit has to go to the management and the bowlers. It was a two-way discussion, and it worked really well. I was just trying to stick to my strengths. Today, the ball was skidding more than turning, so my focus was on skidding the ball on to the batter rather than trying to force too much turn. It feels really good (second fastest to 50 T20I wickets). As long as I’m playing for India and contributing with wickets, I’ll always feel good.

In reply, Abhishek Sharma was off to flier again while Gill took his time. India raced away to 68 in the Powerplay. It just seemed like a formality with such a modest target in front of them, but South Africa did manage to slow the scoring rate before India eventually got a boundary after 37 balls to get the car rolling again.

22:15 Local Time, 16:45 GMT, 22:15 IST: The win was slightly delayed but India still got home comfortably. Winning the toss proved decisive, with India’s pacers exploiting the conditions to perfection, swinging the new ball both ways in the Powerplay. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana bowled relentless lines and lengths to dismantle the South African top order early, leaving the visitors in disarray inside the first six overs. Barring Aiden Markram, none of the South African batters looked at ease against the moving ball. Even as it softened, India refused to release the pressure as wickets continued to fall with Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube chipping in, while the spinners applied the squeeze through the middle overs. It was Markram’s resolute 61 that gave South Africa some respectability, helping them limp closer to the 120-run mark at the halfway stage.

Niket: What if Abhishek Sharma didn't exist in this side? His fearless intent upfront has masked a lot of issues. Without him, India would be heavily reliant on conservative starts, making the middle-order stagnation even more glaring. Right now, Abhishek feels less like a luxury and more like a safety net, that's not an ideal place to be for a team heading into a World Cup.

Most wickets for South Africa in T20Is
89 - Tabraiz Shamsi
77 - Lungi Ngidi*
77 - KG Rabada
64 - Dale Steyn
61 - Imran Tahir