India vs South Africa 5th T20I: Pacers, Middle-Order Make Hosts Favourites In Decider

A lot of grey areas are yet to be addressed but a young Indian team, with an admirable collective temperament, will start as favourites in the series-deciding fifth T20 International against South Africa in Bengaluru on Sunday. In a space of eight days, this Indian team has played four games. It fielded an identical XI, which is in sync with Rahul Dravid's "school of continuity", seen the nadir in the first two games, only to break its own record of highest margin of victories over the Proteas -- by 47 runs in the third game and by 82 runs in the fourth.

With Dinesh Karthik doing exactly what is expected of him and Harshal Patel and Avesh Khan also hitting the straps, the Indian fans would want to see Yuzvendra Chahal perform a trick or two at his IPL home ground in a match that matters the most.

Therefore, when the teams step out on the M Chinnaswamy Stadium turf, the side that looked jaded and overcooked in the first two games will start as overwhelming favourites as the South Africans have already lost the plot.

If Temba Bavuma is unable to recover, they will miss a leader more than the batter. And suddenly in the last two games, the batting has looked iffy on tracks that have variable bounce, which has made this Indian attack look way more lethal.

Call it strangely pleasant, but it remains a fact that in this series a lot of things haven't exactly gone as per plan but yet India have managed to level the series after being 0-2 down.

A young captain who, perhaps, would have liked a few days in his hometown in Rourkee had there not been a pressure from one of the stakeholders to have at least a few stars in the absence of safe 'box-office' bets like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Jasprit Bumrah.

Neither has Pant's