IND vs SA: Not Bumrah, but THIS man was the difference, says Proteas coach Shukri Conrad in Ahmedabad
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "IND vs SA: Not Bumrah, but THIS man was the difference, says Proteas coach Shukri Conrad in Ahmedabad")
IND vs SA: Not Bumrah, but THIS man was the difference, says Proteas coach Shukri Conrad in Ahmedabad Photograph: (AFP)
Playing at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium, India won after the heroics of Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma; however, Shukri Conrad was in awe of Hardik Pandya, who played a match-winning knock.
South Africa coach Shukri Conrad was full of praise for the Indian team after they pocketed the T20I series 3-1 with a 30-run win in Ahmedabad on Friday (Dec 19). Playing at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium, India won after the heroics of Jasprit Bumrah and Tilak Varma; however, Conrad was in awe of Hardik Pandya, who played a match-winning knock. According to the Proteas coach, Hardik was the difference-maker for the hosts and will be a key weapon for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Conrad in awe of Hardik
“If I were brutally honest, in taking nothing away from Bumrah, I think Hardik’s been the difference between the two teams. I think his knock tonight was the difference between us winning and losing. I think he played a knock in the first one as well, where he just walked in, and we had him in a little bit of trouble,” Conrad said after the match.
Pandya led India's batting assault with his 16-ball 50 to set up a 30-run win over South Africa and clinch the series 3-1 in the fifth T20 on Friday. A punishing 105-run fourth partnership between Pandya, who hammered 63 off 25 balls, and Tilak Varma (73) swept India to 231-5 at the world's biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.
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In reply, South Africa started strongly thanks to a 35-ball 65 by Quinton de Kock, who played his 100th T20 for the national team, but the opener's departure triggered a collapse, and the Proteas ended on 201-8.
The win sealed India's eighth consecutive T20 series triumph, a streak that began in December 2023. South Africa began the tour with a stunning 2-0 triumph in the Test series, but the white-ball contests proved disappointing as they also lost the one-day series 2-1.
