The Indian men’s cricket team restored his lead in the ongoing four-match T20 2024 series against South Africa after beating the hosts by 11 runs in the third match at the Centurion on Wednesday.

World No. 1 India were sent into bat first and rode Tilak Varma’s maiden T20I century (107* off 56) to 219/6 at the SuperSport Park. The Proteas fell eleven points short despite Marco Jansen’s late heroics.

The win helped India take a 2-1 lead against the Proteas heading into the final match of the series, which will be played at the Wanderers on Friday.

Led by a Sanju Samson century, India won the series opener at the Kingsmead by 61 runs in Durban but the Proteas had leveled with a win in a low-scoring thriller in Gqebera on Sunday.

The Indian cricket team suffered an early blow as they lost Samson just two balls as Marco Jansen rattled the stumps of the Indian opener.

However, Samson’s departure for a duck brought Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma together in the middle. The duo added 107 runs for the second wicket before Sharma dismissed Keshav Maharaj in the ninth over, just after reaching his half-century.

However, Varma continued his rampage from the other end and achieved his maiden T20I ton in 52 balls.

Although Andile Simelane, the best of the Protea bowlers with figures of 2/34, managed to dismiss Indian T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav (1) and Rinku Singh (8) for cheap, handy cameos from Hardik Pandya (18 off 16 ) and Ramandeep Singh (15 off 6) helped India reach their highest ever T20I total against South Africa on foreign soil.

The South African response saw their top four hitters get starts but fail to convert them into big scores. Arshdeep Singh dealt the first blow by dismissing Ryan Rickelton (20).

Varun Chakravarthy, who scalped a fiver in the second match in a losing cause, sent Reeza Hendricks (21) and South African captain Aiden Markram (29) back to the pavilion.

Tristan Stubbs, South Africa’s match winner at Gqebera, also failed to repeat his heroics and was trapped by Axar Patel for a run-a-ball 12.

The hosts were reeling at 84/4 before a 58-run scoreline emerged between Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller. While Klaasen took on the role of the aggressor, Miller struck sensibly to anchor the other side.

But with the overs running out, Miller too started to open up and hit his first six of the match on the fourth ball of the 16th over, bowled by Hardik Pandya. It looked like he was destined for another delivery before Axar Patel took a stunning catch at deep midwicket.

Klaasen (41 off 22) also departed in the 18th over as he tried to chase Arshdeep to increase the scoring rate.

The two wickets seemingly knocked the wind out of South Africa’s chase, with the hosts needing 51 to win the final two overs. However, Jansen had other ideas and hit Hardik for 26 in the penultimate over to keep the hosts’ hopes alive.

Jansen (54 off 17) was at it again in the final over, bringing up his half-century with a six off Arshdeep’s second ball. However, he was trapped on the next delivery as South Africa eventually finished 11 behind the target.

IND vs SA T20 2024 3rd match short scores: India 219/6 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 107*; Andile Simelane 2/34) defeated South Africa 208/7 in 20 overs (Marco Jansen 54; Arshdeep Singh 3/37) by 11 runs.