It was Bhuvneshwar Kumar for India who kept his calm and defended 19 runs in the final over. India was in control of the match before debutant Christiaan Jonker (49 off 24) gave the visitors a late scare. Debuting at 31 years of age, allrounder Christiaan Jonker came close to pulling off a memorable T20 win for South Africa at the Newlands Cricket Ground here on Saturday evening, his fiery 24-ball 49 single-handedly changing the course of a game that looked India’s to take for most part of the evening.

However, Jonker’s effort came a little too late in the evening after the game had already tilted India’s way when they batted first, put 172-7 on board, and shackled the hosts’ scoring opportunities with a neat line early in the second innings. Jonker’s knock came after South Africa skipper JP Duminy’s 41-ball 55 alone had kept the home team in the chase but the target seemed too daunting for the hosts towards the end as they lost the match by seven runs and the series 1-2.

If the hosts came into this final T20 believing they finally had got a hang of India’s wrist-spin post the Centurion win, the visitors stayed a step ahead in the contest, switched from Plan A to Plan B, rested both their wrist spinners and went back to pace. South Africa picked three fulltime spinners in Tabraiz Shamsi and Aaron Phangiso, alongside Duminy whereas India didn’t bother bowling their own fulltime spinner Axar Patel his full quota of four overs.