Watch: Ishan Kishan involved in heated exchange with Tabraiz Shamsi after smoking flat six off South Africa spinner
Tempers flared between Ishan Kishan and Tabraiz Shamsi after the India batter smacked a flat six off the South Africa spinner during the third T20I in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
Tempers flared between Ishan Kishan and Tabraiz Shamsi after the India batter smacked a flat six off the South Africa spinner during the third T20I in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. The incident took place in the 9th over of the Indian innings after Ishan, the ball after the six, reverse swept but couldn’t get it past the fielder at point. Thankfully, it was all a passing affair and things did not escalate much.
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After Ruturaj Gaikwad took a single to reach a fifty, giving the strike to Ishan, the dynamic left-handed batter slog swept an overpitched delivery from Shamsi for a six over midwicket. The next ball was a full-toss, which Ishan hit to the fielder. As he went down on his knee ruing the missed opportunity, the camera with an above-the-shoulder shot, showed Shamsi muttering a few words to Ishan.
As expected, Ishan did not hold back and gave it back to Shamsi, mouthing a few words of his own. From there, Ishan decided to let his bat do the talking, reaching a fiery half-century off 31 balls. In fact, the next time Ishan faced Shamsi, he dealt the SA spinner an even severe punishment, smoking him for 4, 6 and 4, the last of which was a late cut and brought him the second T20I fifty of his career and the series.
Earlier, after being put in to bat, Ishan and Gaikwad gave India an explosive start, taking the score to 97 inside 10 overs. Gaikwad sizzled and peeled off his maiden fifty for India. The India opener scored 53 off 32 balls with five fours and two sixes. The duo took the score to 57 at the end of the powerplay and added 40 more. It was India’s best opening wicket partnership against South Africa in T20Is.
India did stumble in the middle-order as the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik failed to get going but an unbeaten 31-run cameo from Hardik Pandya took the hosts to 179 for 5. The total proved to be more than enough as spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and medium pacer Harshal Patel shared 7 wickets betweeen them to bowl South Africa out for 131 in 19.1 overs.
The 48-run victory kept India alive in the series. The 4th T20 will be played at Rajkot in June 17.