Explosive tons from Sanju, Tilak hand India T20I seires against South Africa

After the explosive centuries from Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma and posing the highest team total (283) in South Africa, immaculate swing bowling helped India clinch the T20 series 3-1 at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday.
In the fourth and final match of the series, the visitors beat Proteas by 135 runs as the home team was allout for 148 for 18.2 overs. A record-breaking, 86-run fifth-wicket partnership between Tristan Stubbs and David Miller was not enough in the end.

India had a perfect start with the ball when Arshdeep Singh bowled a back-of-a-length delivery that curved back from outside off to knock Reeza Hendricks' stumps in the third ball of the innings.
Then Hardik Pandya got the other opener, Ryan Rickleton, to nick one to Sanju with a ball that pitched short but went with an angle.  

Next over, Arshdeep got South African captain Aiden Markram to mishit one, which Ravi Bishnio held on, and then trapped Heinrich Klassen for a golden duck. With four wickets down in three overs, the hosts were looking down the barrel. Nothing went well for the hosts then on, despite Miller's short-lived fireworks, in which he hit the longest six of the series.

Marco Jansen, too, threw his bat around, but the target of 284 was too much for the young side to surmount. 

Earlier, Sanju remained unbeaten on 109 off 56 while Tilak, who was declared the player of the match, made 120 not out off 47. Together, they clubbed 19 sixes and 15 boundaries. Tilak became only the second Indian batter, after Sanju, to score consecutive T20I centuries. 

Suryakumar Yadav won the toss for the first time this series and opted to bat. Both sides were unchanged from the previous match, which India won by 11 runs.

Sanju survived a few nervous moments against his nemesis, Marco Jansen, who had dismissed him for consecutive ducks in the series. Sanju edged the third delivery, but it missed the slip fielder. The Kerala batter was relieved to get a single and avoid a hat-trick of ducks.

Sanju took off in the next over by launching Gerald Coetzee for a six over deep mid-wicket and hitting a boundary past backward point. India got to 68/0 inside five overs with Abhishek Sharma being the aggressor.

Tilak arrived at the fall of Abhishek (36) and continued his spectacular form from the third T20I that culminated in his maiden T20I century. Sanju was on 28 off 17 when Tilak arrived but after 15 overs the duo was tied on 93 each.

Brief scores:
India 283/1 (Sanju Samson 109 not out, Tilka Varma 120 not out) beat South Africa 148 in 18.2 overs (Tristan Stubbs 43, David Miller 36, Arshdeep Singh 3-20, Varun Chakravarthy 2-42, Axar Patel 2-6) by 135 runs.