India played their third and final T20I match against South Africa in Bengaluru on Sunday. India, who went into the match leading the series 1-0, failed to capitalise on their advantage and lost to South Africa by nine wickets. India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and much to everyone's surprise, chose to bat first at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, a venue that is known to favour teams that bat second. "Yes we wanted to go for a big score, exactly why we batted first. In the past we've felt we've been 20-30 runs short batting first in T20I cricket which has cost us the game. The idea was to come out of our comfort zone, and try to get that big score because we're batting till No. 9. But we quickly realised the pitch didn't allow us to do that," Kohli said while speaking at the post-match press conference. Photo by S Eshwar/MMCL
India's opener Shikhar Dhawan top-scored for India with a 25-ball 36 (4x4, 6x2), while only three other players managed double-digit scores. Dhawan came out all guns blazing and after Sharma was dismissed, shared a 41-run stand with skipper Kohli before getting caught at long-off by Temba Bavuma off Tabraiz Shamsi's bowling in the eighth over of the innings. Photo by S Eshwar/MMCL
Left-arm spinners Bjorn Fortuin and Tabraiz Shamsi complemented Beuran Hendricks superbly to chip away at India's middle order. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant both failed to leave a mark as they were dismissed by Fortuin in the 13th over, off consecutive balls. Pant (19) gave an easy catch to Andile Phehlukwayo while Iyer was stumped after scoring five runs. "The start we got, I think we could have reassessed to 170 instead of thinking of 200. The pitch didn't allow us to get to that total. We kept losing wickets, not taking anything away from South Africa. They bowled the right areas, it was a combination of good bowling, not great decision making," Virat Kohli said at the post-match conference. Photo by S Eshwar/MMCL
Rohit Sharma failed to leave a mark in the match - scoring just nine runs in eight balls - but playing in the match itself meant that he had equalled former India caption MS Dhoni's record of playing the most number of T20I matches for India. Sharma had played 97 T20I matches before stepping out on Sunday. Now he has equalled Dhoni's record of 98 T20I matches. Suresh Raina is at second place with 78 T20I appearances for India. Photo by S Eshwar/MMCL
South Africa captain Quinton de Kock opened the innings alongside Reeza Hendricks. De Kock and Hendricks (28 off 26) put on a rapid 76 off 61 for the opening wicket on a friendly batting surface. India got their first break in the 11th over when Hardik Pandya dismissed Hendricks. But de Kock's unbeaten 79 off 52 balls powered his side to a nine-wicket victory with more than three overs to spare. Photo by S Eshwar/MMCL
With the first T20 match being washed out in Dharamshala, and India winning the second T20 match in Mohali, the series is now level with India and South Africa sharing the T20 trophy. Kohli is hopeful of the team's chances in the run up to the T20 World Cup to be held in October 2020. He said that India needs to find ways to battle tough conditions and set up good totals going into the tournament. "That's exactly what we wanted to do and that's going to be the template we'll follow for the games we have before the World Cup. The mindset has to be flexible to try out things when situations are stacked against us. We will have games like this where we don't execute what we want. But as long as the intent is there to improve, we'll be in a good zone," said the India captain. India will play a three-test series with South Africa starting from October 2 in Visakhapatnam. Photo by S Eshwar/MMCL