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Veteran wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik'S fiery 50 helped India to a competitive score, and his contributions earned him the Player of the Match award. But one player who really come to his own in the fourth T20I against South Africa was Madhya Pradesh pacer Avesh Khan, who picked up four wickets, including three in the same over, and used the opportunity to celebrate by wishing his father for his birthday.
The Proteas were bundled for 87 runs, courtesy of Avesh's deadly bowling. He finished his spell with fours wickets and giving away just 18 runs in his spell of four overs. After the match, he said that June 18 (Friday) is his father's birthday and he wanted to dedicate this performance to him.
Avesh said after the match, "Today is my father's birthday and I want to dedicate this performance to him. The plan was to bowl ahead and attack the stumps. There was also a double bounce in the pitch. I was sent back to the fine leg to get Van der Dussen out. Rishabh told me to bowl a slow delivery after bowling and I got two successes on that. We are playing well as a team. We are doing well in fielding and bowling. Now we will move to the final match. Whoever wins the last match, the series is named after him, then we would like to do our best."
Meanwhile, Karthik's 55 runs, his first half-century almost 16 years after his T20I debut, helped India post a challenging score of 169 on what was a bowling track. In response, South Africa's team was bundled out for just 87 runs, with Avesh scalping four wickets. The fifth and final T20I will now act as the series decider and will be played in Bangalore on June 19.
