India vs South Africa 3rd T20I: Full List of Award Winners, Man of the Match, Post-Match Presentation

Visakhapatnam, June 14: The Indian team bounced back with a comprehensive show to hand South Africa a 48-run defeat and keep the five match series alive.

The bowlers, who failed to defend the total in the previous two games, guided India to a massive win in the third T20I in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. Harshal Patel led the bowling attack picking up four wickets and turning out his best figures in T20 for India. This was Rishabh Pant's first win as India captain.

After being invited to bat first, India's innings was a tale of two halves. While the first half saw the openers put up a stand of 97 off 60, the second half saw the hosts struggle to build on the strong start as they lost quick wickets. Hardik Pandya's (31 off 21) cameo at the end saw India post 179/5.

In reply, South Africa struggled from the onset as they lost their skipper early. Axar Patel handed India the breakthrough to reduce South Africa to 23/1 in four overs. Harshal Patel struck on the last ball of the powerplay to remove Reeza Hendricks (23 off 20) and reduce South Africa 38/2 at the end of six overs.

The visitors kept losing wicket as the run rate creeped up. The Indian bowlers who failed to defend in the first two games, came through to keep the series alive.

For India, Patel picked up four and Yuzvendra Chahal pocketed three to bowl South Africa out for 131.

Earlier, after being sent in to bat, openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ishan Kishan handed India a flying start. The duo stitched together an opening stand of 97 off 60 to set the hosts up for a big total.

Gaikwad was in stellar form as he brought up his first half-century off 30 deliveries. But shortly after his maiden fifty, Keshav Maharaj handed the visitors the breakthrough as he took a superb diving catch off his own delivery to end Gaikwad's (57 off 35) knock.

India kept the series alive, as SA lead the five-match series 2-1.

Full list of awards (All awards carry Rs 1 lakh)

Ambuja performer of the match award: Reeza Hendricks (92 metres six)

Dream11 Game Changer: Ruturaj Gaikwad

LIT performer of the match: Yuzvendra Chahal

Man of the Match: Yuzvendra Chahal

Post Match Comments:

Rishabh Pant, Winning Captain: I had talked about the execution, I thought we were just a little off about the execution in the previous games. Today it was spot on from the bowlers and the batsmen too. We thought we were about 15 short but we weren't thinking too much about that; the bowlers did a fantastic job. (Same Team) I think specially in India when you play the spinners play a big role. In the middle overs they contain the batsmen and take wickets, so the pressure is there on spinners, but in such matches when it comes off, this is what happens. (Middle over) I don't think it's a good thing, but we will try to improve and whosoever is going in they should finish the game with a big margin.

Temba Bavuma, Losing Captain: I think as a collective unit it wasn't our best effort today. They were definitely the better team today. With the ball they did very well and put us under pressure. Probably could have done more, batting didn't pitch up, we couldn't get any partnerships or momentum. This game, yes, our fielding wasn't up to scratch. There have been some improvements. We have been among the best in the world but I won't judge us only on this game. While batting we always try to have a look at the first two overs and then get some momentum. We couldn't do that, and we came under pressure after losing three early wickets. Quinton is an integral member of the team, unfortunately we don't have him. But Reeza's the guy we back at the top. We can't cry over Quinton not being there but Reeza's there and we back him.

Yuzvendra Chahal (Man of the Match): In the previous game I was bowling too many and quick sliders. I spoke to Paras sir and coaches about it. So I tried to bowl quick legbreaks, but with a different seam position today. I want to turn and dip the ball, I couldn't do it the last time so they were able to hit through the line. I tried to get some turn and change the line of the ball. I was trying to bowl to my strengths today. When you get middle-order batsmen out in the middle overs, the pressure is on them. Batsmen try a lot of sweeps and reverse sweeps these days so we have to be prepared for that too, as bowlers. In the last game too there was some help for spinners but I didn't bowl that well. Thankfully, the ground is big in Rajkot!

Harshal Patel (4/25 in 3.1 overs): Yeah feels pretty good! We wanted to execute certain plans. It didn't work out in the last two games. It was a must-win game for us so pretty happy with the way it turned out. We have certain goals as a bowling group and we want to continue to achieve the goals. It was about adapting the way they were playing the game. It was slower than Kotla and easier to bowl hard lengths. (Keep his form going) One game at a time!