South African skipper JP Duminy asked his teammates to treat the game as 'a semi-final' and take the series to Newlands, the venue where the series had commenced and is going to end. In contrast to the previous South African sides, Duminy's men responded well to the burden of a 'semi-final' and decidedly defeated India to set up a mouth-watering 'final' at Cape Town. Series is leveled 1-1.

As spectacular as the latter half of the South African innings was in Centurion thanks to an extraordinary innings from Henrich Klaasen and a matured hand from Duminy the start was just as dull. Opener JJ Smuts' struggles in international cricket continued while Reeza Hendricks could hardly make an impact. It was only after Hendricks' dismissal that India were pushed against the wall in the chase.

Throughout the ODI series, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal made the opposition batsmen dance to his tunes; beating them in air, going through their defence with a googly or deceiving them cleverly with his subtle variations. But Chahal endured a horrid night at Centurion he was taken apart for 64 runs in his four overs and also considered 23 in an over.

There is a school of thought that believes the South Africans have responded well against spin in the T20I series but it is important to remember that Kuldeep Yadav has not featured in both the games. His absence has highlighted his importance to Chahal, and India might want to bring back the Chinaman without dropping Chahal, given that the team management have always accepted that wrist-spinners can have off days in pursuit of wickets.