"Batting with S/R of 60 and dreaming of replacing Virat Kohli at 2024 T20 WC"- Fans react after Tilak Varma's sluggish 52 in 3rd IND vs SA ODI

Team India youngster Tilak Varma faced the wrath of the fans for his sluggish knock in the 3rd ODI against South Africa on Thursday (December 21) at Boland Park in Paarl. He eventually scored 52 runs from 77 balls in the series decider.

After being asked to bat first in the match, Team India got off to a decent start as debutant Rajat Patidar scored runs quickly by hitting three fours and a six. South Africa managed to make a comeback in the fifth over when left-arm pacer Nandre Burger dismissed Patidar to give the hosts their first breakthrough.

Fellow pacer Beuran Hendricks also sent Sai Sudharsan (10) to the pavilion soon after to reduce India to 49/2. Captain KL Rahul (21) then stayed at the crease for a while and gave company to Sanju Samson, who got off to a good start.

After a 52-run partnership for the 3rd wicket, Rahul departed in the 19th over against the run of play to an innocuous delivery. Tilak Varma walked in at the number 5 position and went into a shell, playing out two maidens against Keshav Maharaj. He could score only nine runs from 38 balls at one stage, which mounted pressure on his partner Sanju Samson.

He finally managed to get out of the shell with a straight six against Aiden Markram in the 33rd over. Tilak shifted gears to score at a decent rate after that and reached his maiden ODI half-century in the 41st over. He perished immediately in the next over, trying to up the ante.

Fans were not happy with the tempo of Tilak Varma's innings and expressed the same through their reactions on X. Here are some of them:

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"Me and Tilak stuck it out and went strong at the end"- Sanju Samson

Team India reached 296/8 in the first innings of the 3rd ODI on the back of a magnificent century from Sanju Samson. At the mid-innings break, Samson reflected on the first innings and said:

"When Rahul got out, the momentum shift happened where Maharaj bowled well in those 5-6 overs, but me and Tilak stuck it out and went strong at the end and came back well after capitalizing spending time in the middle. It's a challenging score on this track."

On his knock, Samson added:

"Feels really interesting, going through the emotions still, but happy for it. I have been putting in a lot of work on the background, mentally and physically but the result has finally come in."

At the time of writing, South Africa are batting at 76/2 after 15 overs.