New Delhi, November 14, 2024.
Marco Jansen, all big heart and long limbs during his 17-ball-54, just couldn’t take the Proteast the last few steps, as they went down by 11 runs, falling short of India’s 219/6 at Centurion in the T20 series.
There was a flying ant attack and Tilak Varma almost violently landed on his neck -while preventing a boundary, and dived in vain two balls later as the Saffers threatened to overhaul the Indian target with Heinrich Klaasen(41) smacking some mammoth ones. But Varma had done enough with 107(56) when India batted, as his team ultimately prevailed.
Varma batted like free-flowing ferocity was his birthright. With 107 off 56, the 22-year-old marched to his maiden ton in T20Is. Neither the fluency of Abhishek Sharma who first pushed the hitting gears, nor the abysmally stuttering struggles of his seniors Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh, that Varma witnessed from the other end, threw the youngster off his fearless focus with silken steely savagery that took India to 219/6 at SuperSport Park.
