Image copyright: Getty Images
South Africa tour of India
Twenty20 International Format
1st T20I
India v South Africa
Greenfield International Stadium
Thiruvananthapuram, India
Wednesday, 28 September 2022
South Africa will be seeking their first
T20I series win over India since 2015 when they travel to the subcontinent for the first of three games on Wednesday, September 28.
The Proteas toured India as recently as June with their five-match series ending in a 2-2 draw, while their previous visit three years earlier also saw the spoils shared between the two teams.
The Men in Blue triumphed 2-1 on their last trip to South Africa in 2018 as they redeemed themselves after losing the previous series 2-0 on home soil three years earlier.
Mark Boucher's side got off to a fine start three months ago, taking a 2-0 lead in the series before the hosts bounced back to win the next two encounters, with the fifth T20I having being washed out.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was named player of the series after taking six wickets - registering his best figures of 4/13 in the second T20I.
Image copyright: Getty Images
With the T20 World Cup just around the corner, Boucher doesn't want to reveal too much to India as they are both in the same group and will square off in Perth on October 30.
"We have got to be mindful of the conditions that we are going to be playing in. It's more about not getting too many cards out, especially in India because they are in our pool as well, so we are going to meet up with them at some stage," he said.
"There are quite a few games that we play against them, the venues that we are going to, we are not sure what we will get."
India are currently involved in a series with Australia, having lost the first T20I by four wickets. After setting the tourists a target of 208 in their allotted 20 overs, Rahul Dravid's men failed to deliver with the ball as Australia reached 211 with four balls to spare.
Skipper Rohit Sharma blamed the bowlers as he felt they should have defended the target.
"I don't think we bowled well. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn't take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but the bowlers were not quite there," Rohit said.
Image copyright: Getty Images
"There are things we need to look at, but it was a great game for us to understand what went wrong. We know this is a high-scoring ground. You can't relax even if you get 200.
"We took wickets to an extent, but they played really well. They played some extraordinary shots. If I was in that changing room, I would expect to chase that total."
Head-to-Head (T20)
Matches - 20
India - 11
South Africa - 8
Draws - 0
No result: 1
T20 World Rankings
1 - India
3 - South Africa
Bet on local and international cricket
Bet on all international and local cricket action all year round as we bring you the best online cricket betting platform. We offer a variety of Bet Types you can bet on, these include: Match Result, Team with Top Batter, Will there be a tie, Top Bowler, Coin Toss, Any Player to Score a Milestone, Total Runouts. Join Betway now & bet on cricket.
For all the latest sports news, betting tips and promotions follow Betway on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Download the Betway App.