India are favourites: Morne van Wyk raises questions over South Africa’s adaptability in T20I series

Former wicketkeeper-batter Morne van Wyk feels that India are the “favorites” heading into the final T20I and lauded Indian batters for their shot selection in the last two games against South Africa. Van Wyk, who represented South Africa in 17 ODIs and eight T20Is between 2003 and 2015, pointed out that the SA batters have struggled on a surface that has had variable bounce.

After losing in New Delhi and Cuttack, the Rishabh Pant-led side resisted the temptation of making any changes to the eleven and, with better execution of plans, registered victories by 47 runs and by 82 runs in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot respectively. The decider will be played on Sunday at Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the Men in Blue have won only two of their five T20Is.

“India definitely are the favourites. There are question marks over the South African team in terms of adaptability. They’ve been unable to find the winning recipe since the third game and have lost momentum. The surfaces have become slower as the series has progressed, but you should give full credit to the Indian batters for their shot selection in the last two matches,” Van Wyk told Sportskeeda.

For South Africa, who quickly took a 2-0 lead in the series, being comprehensively outplayed in the last two matches will cause them concerns ahead of the Bengaluru decider. While the Proteas would want to seal another series win in India, the hosts have successfully demonstrated enough firepower in their bounce-back abilities and, who knows, after taking the series to a decider, they might even win it. The stage is set for an enthralling finale to an exciting series between India and South Africa.