A cracking Sunday decider at Bengaluru to determine the winner of the five-match T20I series between India and South Africa ended after just 3.3 overs as persistent rain caused the abandonment of the fifth and final T20I. It was a pity that a series in which South Africa took the early upper hand before India made a comeback ended in shared honours, at 2-2.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
For Rishabh Pant, captaining India for the first time in international cricket, there were a plethora of positives, especially in the bouncebackability of the hosts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"It might get a little bit frustrating, but there are a lot of positives, especially the way the whole team showed character after the series was 0-2 down for us, was a huge positive," said Pant after the match.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Pant reiterated the new mindset of India playing T20I cricket, where the batters would strike the ball hard from the word go and is hell-bent on giving his best all the time as a captain as well as a middle-order batter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"We are trying to find different ways of winning matches; we are trying to play in a new way. Mistakes will happen, but we are going in the right way. I can only think about giving my 100% as a player and captain. It is for you guys to decide on how I am doing as a player and captain, I can only focus on giving my 100% every time I go on the field and keep improving."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the series, Pant wasn't able to win the toss even once, which doesn't bother him. But the youngster has now set his eyes on the Edgbaston Test from July 1-5 and putting in better performances with the bat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I think this is the first time I've lost this many tosses at the same time, but it's not in my control, so I'm not thinking about it too much. From a team point of view, it's now about winning the last Test match in England, and from a personal point of view I would like to contribute more to make my team win."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
From a South African perspective, stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj was sad about losing out on a chance to seal the series after missing out on Visakhapatnam and Rajkot. But the left-arm spinner insisted that the Proteas are a work in progress with T20 World Cup happening in Australia in October-November.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Very disappointed that we couldn't get a full game. It would have been an exciting end to an exciting tour, but we can't control the weather. I think if you saw the way we played the first few games, we tried a few combinations."<\/p>\r\n\r\n