South Africa captain Keshav Maharaj ‘disappointed’ with 5th T20I against India getting abandoned | Cricket News – Times of India

Keshav Maharaj (AP Photo)

BENGALURU: South Africa stand-in skipper Keshav Maharaj expressed disappointment after the fifth T20I against India got abandoned due to rain.
The fifth and final T20I between India and South Africa at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru was abandoned due to rain. With this, the series stays level at 2-2 and will be shared by both sides.
“Very disappointed we didn’t get a full game for the end of an exciting tour. We started pretty well, pity we could not see the outcome. We can’t control the weather. We tried a few combinations. Still a work in progress for Australia. You may still see changes,” said Maharaj after the match got abandoned.
“I am sure the future series against India will be interesting like this one. We were disappointed with our performance in the last two games. We carried our confidence from past tours at the same time we didn’t want to take anything for granted,” he added.
Before the action was interrupted by rain, India were 28/2 in 3.3 overs, with Shreyas Iyer (0*) and Rishabh Pant (1*).
Put to bat first by South Africa, India was off to a bad start. Under the first four overs openers, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad were back in the hut after scoring 15 and 10 runs respectively. Proteas bowler Lungi Ngidi gave a big blow to the Men in Blue as he dismissed both the openers under the powerplay.
Notably, in the 4th match of the series, India defeated the Proteas by 82 runs to level the series. Put to bat first, India posted 169/6 in their 20 overs, largely powered by the efforts of Dinesh Karthik (55) and vice-captain Hardik Pandya (46). In reply, SA was bundled out for just 87. Avesh Khan was the star for Men in Blue with the ball, taking 4/18.
After facing defeats in the first two games of the series, Team India showed a massive comeback in the next two games and levelled up the series by 2-2.