'We're coming here to win in traditional South African way' – Rassie van der Dussen
After the first T20I of the three-match series was washed out, India won the second game by seven wickets. Van der Dussen admitted that his side is wary of the challenge of facing "one of the strongest teams in the world" and wants to "play hard" in the final outing.
Virat Kohli was in imperious form with the bat yet again today in Mohali.
— ICC (@ICC) September 18, 2019
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"We are coming here to win in the traditional South African way," he said on the eve of the final T20I in Bengaluru. "We play hard, even though we have young players in our squad, we are not going to stand back to anyone.
"That’s the emphasis, even if results are going your way or not. Sometimes on the day, you’re not sure what's going to happen. We knew it’s going to be tough, India is one of the strongest teams in the world."
In the second T20I in Mohali, India's top three batsmen – Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Virat Kohli – accounted for 124 of the 150 runs India had to chase down. That was despite Rohit amking only a run-a-ball 12, as after his dismissal, Dhawan notched up a 31-ball 40, while skipper Kohli made a match-winning 72* off 52 balls.
Van der Dussen said that his young bowlers should give their best "to nullify these types of players", and strategise to dismiss them early and put pressure.
"Virat and Rohit are the two leading run-scorers at the moment in international T20s. It’s a great challenge for young bowlers coming here to bowl to those type of guys. We know what challenge is all about, there is a lot of challenges coming to India, and we are honest to ourselves and saying that if we are going to win, we have to be at our best to nullify these types of players.
22 and counting.
— ICC (@ICC) September 19, 2019
No cricketer has passed 50 more times in T20Is than Virat Kohli. pic.twitter.com/w965wAUFdH
"We got Rohit early other night, Shikhar played well, though again, we didn’t have a score to put pressure on him and Virat, and the partnership was massive. Come tomorrow, we can play to execute our plans and get in the situation so that we can put those guys under pressure".