Proteas revved up to salvage draw against India in final T20i match

South Africa will be taking a lot of lessons going into their final T20 international match against India.

They will be hoping to salvage a draw when they take to the Wanderers Stadium on Friday evening.

The Proteas enter the last encounter on the back foot, as they trail the series 2-1, and the best result they can hope for is a 2-2 draw against their rivals.

South Africa fell short in the third game at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Wednesday, where they lost by 11 runs.

The Indians set a target of 220 runs to win for the South Africans.

Heinrich Klaasen, who took charge of the runs chase with all-rounder Marco Jansen by registering 41 runs on the scoreboard, said the team took some positives from the match and it would be nice to end the T20i on a high.

Lessons to take

“We can take a lot of positives from this [third] game. Chasing 220 is never going to look pretty, and it’s always going to be a big task, said Klaasen.

“We’ve done it before here, so the confidence was up, and even when Plankies [Marco Jansen] at the back end started smoking them, we believed we were right up there.

“So, it was a tough loss, but there are a lot of lessons we can take out of it. There’s no time to hover on this.

“We’ll make small tweaks in our planning, but other than that, that’s part of professional cricket these days.

“How nice would it be if we win on Friday, and Sunday is another game, going into it 2-2? It is what it is — we must make sure that we don’t lose the series.”

Jansen recorded his maiden T20i half-century when he smashed 54 off just 17 deliveries — the second-quickest 50 by a Proteas player.