Young batter Tilak Varma put in a tremendous audition to be India’s long-term answer at No.3 by scoring a brilliant century to lead his side’s to a thrilling victory over South Africa at Centurion on Wednesday. Tilak Varma repaid the faith shown in him by skipper Suryakumar Yadav by scoring an unbeaten 107* from just 56 deliveries as India put a big total of 219/6 on the board that proved too much for the Proteas to run down.
All-rounder Marco Jansen gave South Africa some hope when he took 26 runs from the penultimate over in the run chase, but pacer Arshdeep Singh held his nerve in the final six deliveries to ensure India moved ahead 2-1 in the four-match T20I series.
Especially when this happens and you’re just 22 years and five days old. Eleven other players have made 20 T20I centuries for India, but only Yashaswi Jaiswal has been younger than Tilak Varma. Jaiswal had been alive for 21 years and 279 days when he scored 100 against Nepal in Hangzhou in China in October 2023.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch and Conditions: “There is a big rain storm that came last night and hope it stays away. Looks like a bit dry. A typical Centurion wicket will have a bit of sheen which is not there. The spinners will have a part to play. The batters enjoy batting here because of the bounce. The boundary size is pretty small; 59 and 64 meters square and 82 meters down the ground,” inform Shaun Pollock and Ashwell Prince.
Toss: South African skipper Aiden Markram won the toss and chose to bowl with no changes in the playing XI. Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav batting first handed debut to Ramandeep Singh in place of Avesh Khan.
Tilak Varma makes impressive No.3 audition with his maiden ton to guide India to 219 in 20 overs
The day belonged to Tilak Varma, who stroked eight fours and seven massive sixes after asking Suryakumar if he could bat at No.3 in the contest and in the process became India’s second youngest player to score a century in a men’s T20I at the age of 22 years and five days.
South Africa and Jansen’s early joy at castling Sanju Samson in the first over for a duck once again was short-lived as Tilak Varma, sent in at No.3 ahead of captain Suryakumar Yadav, joined hands with fellow left-hander Abhishek Sharma to obliterate the early overs. Tilak Varma started throwing his bat around just two balls after Samson fell and used his feet exceptionally well all through his knock.
Abhishek went after Gerald Coetzee, picking 15 in the second over. Just 15 came off the next two overs before both of them laid into Andile Simelane to pick 18 off the fifth over. Both the batters took advantage of the relatively smaller square boundaries to push India to 70/1 in six overs – their second best PowerPlay effort against South Africa in the format.
Jansen got South Africa off to a perfect start when his second ball scythed through Sanju Samson. Samson’s all-or-bust time continued, with his last four T20I scores reading 111, 107, 0, 0 but India did not spend too much time dwelling on that.
They promoted Tilak Varma to No. 3 with astonishing results. He hit the second ball he faced through backward point for four and then smashed Jansen over third for six. Abhishek, who was dismissed for single-figure scores at both coastal venues, quickly rectified that when he took 14 runs off Gerald Coetzee’s opening over, and he showed the full range of his repertoire.
Abhishek went through midwicket, over point and then through the covers. Coetzee was swiftly replaced by Lutho Sipamla, who Tilak Varma pulled behind square, and Jansen by Andile Simelane, who bore the brunt of Abhishek’s aggression. He struck back-to-back sixes to opposite corners of the ground and India were running away with the powerplay. They were 70 for 1 after six overs, and South Africa were yet to bring on the spinners.
India brought up 100 inside nine overs when Abhishek launched Keshav Maharaj over long-on but the spinner had the last laugh. Three balls later, he dragged a delivery wide of Abhishek, who reached out to try and send it through the leg side but missed and was stumped. In the next over, Simelane gave Suryakumar width and tempted him to cut but the India captain could only slice it to deep point.
Maharaj’s second over cost 10 runs but he was kept on for a third, with success. Hardik Pandya missed a sweep, was hit on the pack pad and given out lbw. India lost 3 for 25 in 26 balls and South Africa pulled them back.
Tilak Varma and Abhishek continued to sing similar heavy metal tunes even after the fields spread out, even forcing Coetzee to go full and wide from round the stumps. He ended up conceding wides and then got tonked for a six over deep square leg off a no-ball. After another expensive over, Aiden Markram brought on left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj who was welcomed with a six over long on from Abhishek. He completed a 23-ball 50 but was stumped in the same over to give South Africa a breather.
Suryakumar Yadav fell for 1 in the next over but India got to the halfway stage with 110/3. In the company of Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma brought up his fifty in 32 deliveries and shifted gears even further as South Africa picked three more wickets.
Maharaj is known for his ability to slow things down but by his last over, Tilak Varma had had enough. He used his crease well to go 4-6-4 over extra cover, deep square leg and deep mid-wicket and Maharaj finished with 36 off his four overs. That was the warning shot. Coetzee took a pasting in his next over, which also included three wides, with Tilak Varma finding the long and short boundaries.
Jansen bowled a boundary-less 17th over and Rinku was bowled by a Simelane yorker in the 18th. But by then Tilak Varma was unstoppable. He brought up his hundred when he smoked Sipamla past mid-off for his seventh four. Tilak Varma went on to hit one more four to add to his seven sixes and ended unbeaten on 107.
Hardik fell for 18 and Rinku Singh struggled on his way to a 13-ball 8 but Tilak Varma blazed away regardless. He went 4,6,4 in a 16-run Maharaj over and then carted two sixes and a four in a 21-run over from Coetzee. The fast bowled finished with figures of 0/51 in 3 overs.
Debutant Ramandeep Singh began his T20I career with a six over the long-on fence. Tilak Varma reached his century in the penultimate over from Lutho Sipamla that earned India 19 runs and took them past the 200-run mark. Jansen then bowled a fabulous 20th over worth just four runs as India ended on 219/6.
Flying Ants the unlikely heroes before Marco Jansen’s 16 ball 50 as Arshdeep’s 3-fer takes India to 2-1 lead over SA
We’ve had bees at the Wanderers but this is, to this amateur historian’s mind, the first time flying ants have stopped play. What, you may ask? Maybe you call them Patingas or Parwana or Eeyal or Eesal but you probably know the ones. They come before the rain, are attracted to light and shed their wings upon landing, and there were so many of them at SuperSport Park, the umpires were concerned they would fly into the players’ eyes.
The players were taken off after an over of South Africa’s chase and a light pylon at SuperSport Park was turned off in the hope the flying ants would go somewhere else. After 28 minutes, play could resume, with no overs lost. It’s wild out in Africa, they say, and so it was. In a bizarre turn of events, play was suspended for 20-odd minutes due to flying ants. The players went off the field and it took the usage of super sopper on the pitch to get rid of them.
When play resumed, there was fire from both ends – Ryan Rickleton and Reeza Hendricks put Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya away when they went either too full or short, but a few deliveries from length squared the batters up. In one such mini-tussle, Arshdeep had the last laugh as he got Ryan Rickleton to play one onto his stumps. Hendricks pushed South Africa ahead until Varun CV came on and had him stumped in the last over of the PowerPlay.
Markram’s struggles in the format in 2024 continued as he just couldn’t put away the spinners in the post-PowerPlay phase. Tristan Stubbs too got stuck after starting off with two fours and ended up perishing while trying to break the rut with an attempted reverse sweep against Axar Patel. Markram finally ended his struggles with two massive sixes off Varun, but hit one down Ramandeep’s throat at deep mid-wicket in the same over to leave South Africa struggling at 84/4 in 10 overs
Forget everything history says about spinners struggling on the Highveld and just look at Varun Chakravarthy. He came into this match as the leading wicket-taker in the series (with double the number of wickets as his nearest rival) and added another to his name with his most unplayable delivery. South Africa have had no idea about his googly and Reeza Hendricks was done for a second time. He advanced on Varun, slogged wildly, missed and was stumped. South Africa finished the powerplay on 55 for 2.
Just when it looked like India were running away with the game, Klaasen stepped up like only he can. He took down Varun CV for three successive sixes and a four – while also being put down by Suryakumar at cover, in a single over. At the other end though, David Miller was scratchy and fell right when he appeared to have middled an expansive pull shot, only for Axar to time his jump to perfection to take a catch at deep square leg.
South Africa may have thought they had the better of Varun Chakaravarthy when Aiden Markram hit him for two sixes over long-on in his third over but it was a case of the opposite. Markram should have put the last ball away over mid-wicket but hit it straight to debutant Ramandeep Singh and extended a miserable run for himself.
He has gone 27 innings without a T20I fifty and has not gone past 30 in his last 12 innings. Klaasen was the only player who could take some bragging rights after he hit Varun for three successive sixes, including the biggest of the match at 109 meters, in an over that cost 23. Varun finished with his most expensive T20I analysis but made two crucial breakthroughs and in the end, that’s all that matters. South Africa needed 86 off the last five overs and it was a bridge too far.
Marco Jansen arrived and hit Ravi Bishnoi for two big sixes but the game was still away from South Africa’s grasp as they needed 59 off 18. Arshdeep then bowled an exceptional 18th over, taking out Klaasen and conceding just 8 runs in it to push the game further away from the hosts.
Marco Jansen however, injected life into the chase by tonking 26 off Hardik in the 19th over – with three fours and two sixes. 25 off 6 was then brought down to 18 off 4 as Jansen smashed yet another six in the last over, but fell on the next ball for an incredible 17-ball 54. This was Arshdeep’s 90th T20I wicket, surpassing Jasprit Bumrah’s tally and becoming the joint-second (with Bhuvneshwar Kumar) on the list of most wickets in the format for India. He then closed out the rest of the over to catch South Africa short.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Suryakumar Yadav the winning skipper said : Very happy. What we spoke about in the team meeting, we played the brand of cricket we discussed. That’s what we have been telling them to do. They do that for the franchise, they do that in the nets. Very happy with the way things are going. Aggression and intent is always not about talking. They have made my job easier when I see them bat like that. I feel we are in the right direction.
First time we were 6-7 minutes ahead on the field. He (Tilak) came to my room at Gqeberha and said give me a chance at No. 3, I want to do well and I said go out there and express yourself. He asked for it and he delivered. Very happy for him and his family.
Aiden Markram the losing skipper said : Proud of the effort to get that close. Good to see the contributions from the lower order. It was just down to executing what we discussed. This is a ground where you can chase 220. I feel it is almost an over by over thing. If you win those overs you have a great chance. We will see areas to improve for the next game.
Tilak Varma Player of the Match for his maiden 100 said : I am okay. It was a difficult chance but I am happy we won the game. I cannot put it in words. It was my dream to play for the country and the hundred came at the right time when the team needed it.
All credit to Mr. Suryakumar Yadav, our captain. He gave me the opportunity to bat at 3 and told me to express myself. Thanks to him again (turns back at SKY and smiles). I just backed my basics. Pitch was two paced to start with and it wasn’t easy for the new batters coming in when Abhishek got out. I was ready to bat long and was waiting for one partnership.
Tilak Varma became India’s second centurion in the space of six days and ensured they cannot lose the four-match T20I series. They lead 2-1 with the final match to be played on Friday, and the hosts left with only the option of a draw. South Africa have not won a bilateral T20I series since beating Ireland 2-0 in August 2022 and have lost five and drawn two series in that time.
At a time when the next major tournament is 15 months away, and with the knowledge they reached this year’s T20 World Cup final, that may not worry South Africa much. But there will be questions over their depth and some of their strategies after they conceded heavily and stumbled in the chase for the second time this series.
South Africa’s seam strength without Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje, is, as expected, inexperienced. It showed in a messy display at Super sport Park which included 10 wides and three no-balls.
Those numbers pale in comparison to that of Tilak Varma, who, at 22 years and five days old, became India’s second youngest centurion after Yashaswi Jaiswal, and took just 51 balls to get to his hundred. He shared a 107-run second-wicket stand with Abhishek Sharma, and a 58-run fifth-wicket partnership with Rinku Singh, in which Tilak Varma contributed 45. Though India were set for a total above 240, after bringing up 100 in the ninth over, Tilak Varma still made sure they had enough.
With an asking rate of 11 needed, South Africa fell behind early on. They needed close to 12 runs an over by the end of the powerplay and as much as 17 an over in the last five. At that stage, they had their two biggest hitters, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller at the crease and their partnership had reached 58 off 35 balls. In an eerie reminder of Suryakumar Yadav’s catch on the long-off boundary in the T20 World Cup final in June, Axar Patel timed his jump at deep mid-wicket boundary to perfection and Miller had to depart.
Marco Jansen kept South Africa in it until the last over and ensured the result flattered them. He scored his first T20I half-century and blitzed four four and five sixes, three down the ground, to threaten a coup. But South Africa had left themselves with too much to do. Jansen was dismissed lbw to Arshdeep Singh with three balls left in the innings and 18 to get. South Africa lost by 11 runs.
India hold their nerve to clinch this thriller and get ahead in the series. When Klaasen took down Varun it looked so on for the Proteas but Arshdeep got him. When Jansen smacked it around it looked so tense but again Arshdeep put his hand up and got him. Two key wickets at key times and India are over the line. At a venue where chasing has been fun, South Africa fancied their chances. Both their openers got starts and threw it away.
Markram looked like finally getting a big innings but Varun prized him out. It was a real struggle for Miller at the start but with Klaasen smacking Varun for 23 runs in an over lifted the mood. When Hardik offered him a hit-me ball he got going but Axar took a stunner to get him eventually. It looked like India had the game in the bag but Jansen smacked 26 off the penultimate over to keep the hosts alive. Arshdeep bowled a fine last over to seal the deal.
The difference between the two sides today was the discipline in bowling. The batters from both teams hit almost the same number of fours and sixes, but South Africa conceded 19 extras whereas India gave away just 6 extras. That is something the home side has to look back on. India have taken a 2-1 lead and in the process ensured the series cannot be lost. South Africa have to do all the work if they are to draw the series in Joburg. That final game is on Friday and India would love to win yet another T20I bi lateral series.