Proteas confident of fighting for a draw against India

They can no longer win the series, but experienced middle-order batter Henrich Klaasen says the Proteas can take some momentum into the fourth and final T20 International against India, as they aim to hit back at the Wanderers on Friday (5pm).

With the tourists having won the third game in Centurion on Wednesday, they enter the last fixture with a 2-1 series lead, and the best South Africa can hope for is a 2-2 draw.

The Proteas looked dead and buried for most of their run chase in their midweek clash at SuperSport Park, after being set a target of 220 runs to win, but Klaasen hit 41 runs off 22 deliveries to claw his team back into contention, and all-rounder Marco Jansen bashed 54 off just 17 deliveries.

Jansen reached his first T20 International half-century off just 16 balls – the second quickest fifty by a Proteas player – but it was not enough in the end as the hosts lost by 11 runs.

‘Lots of positives’

Klaasen insisted afterwards that they had never really given up hope, and he said their performance had given them confidence going into the series decider.

“We can take a lot of positives from this (third) game,” Klaasen said.

“Chasing 220 is never going to look pretty and it’s always going to be a big task. We’ve done it before here, so the confidence was up, and even when Plankies (Jansen) at the back end started smoking them we believed we were right up there.

“So it’s a tough loss but there are a lot of learnings we can take out of it.”

Batters finding form

While the Proteas batting line-up had been frustrated by soft dismissals in the first two games of the series, Klaasen felt they had improved in the third match, and they were eager to hit their straps at the Wanderers.

“We take a lot of pride in our performances and the way we go out, but we had good chats in our different groups and it’s getting better,” Klaasen said.

“It is part of the game, and if it’s not going for you it’s very difficult in this format to get that momentum back.”