Steady rain washes out decider as series ends 2-2

No result India 28 for 2 vs South Africa

The deciding day of this series started with the teams locked at 2-2, and 2-2 it remained after rain had the final say. Persistent drizzle in Bengaluru delayed the start of the fifth match by 47 minutes, and initially reduced the contest to 19 overs a side, but only 3.3 overs were bowled. Despite the Chinnaswamy's stellar drainage system, the rain did not abate long enough for mop-up operations to begin for even a five-over shootout.

South Africa may be the more disappointed of the two sides after Lungi Ngidi, playing in just his second T20I in almost a year, removed India's openers in successive overs. Ngidi spent the whole of IPL 2022 on the bench but used the time to hone his craft and has developed a particularly good slower ball. He used it to remove Ishan Kishan, who was through his drive by the time the delivery arrived. It was full on offstump and took it out with Kishan perhaps still contemplating the 141kph ball that had been called wide just before. In his next over, Ngidi stuck to the offcutter. Ruturaj Gaikwad advanced down the track and tried to clear the inner ring but hit the ball off the toe-end of his bat, to Dwaine Pretorius at mid-on. Only one more ball was bowled when the rain returned and the players left the field.

The capacity crowd chanted "RCB" as they waited but not even the chant of their IPL franchise could bring their adopted home-town hero Dinesh Karthik to the crease. Karthik had scored his first T20I half-century in Rajkot and was keen to play in front of the Bengaluru crowd.

Doubtless so was Keshav Maharaj, who was captaining for the fourth time in his 13-match T20I career, after Temba Bavuma was ruled out of the match with an elbow injury. South Africa made three changes to the XI that lost two days' ago, one forced by Bavuma's absence.

Reeza Hendricks was brought in to open the batting, Kagiso Rabada recovered from a groin niggle to return to the attack in place of Marco Jansen and South Africa included Tristan Stubbs as an extra batter while dispensing with the second specialist spinner, Tabraiz Shamsi. Stubbs has yet to bat in international cricket after making his debut in the series opener in Delhi, where South Africa won the game without requiring him.

India played the same XI throughout the series, lost every toss and had to defend in all five matches. After losing the first two, they hit their stride and won the next two. If they had been victorious in this match, they would have become the first team to win a bilateral T20I series from 2-0 down. Instead, it's South Africa, who have held on to a record. They have never lost a T20I series in India, and have not lost a white-ball series in the country since 2010.