South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad has heaped praise on Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya, saying he is the difference between the two teams in the T20I series. Pandya was named the man of the match after his breathtaking innings of 63 off 25 balls in the fifth and final T20I of the series.
He also claimed the crucial scalp of Dewald Brevis (31 off 17), finishing with figures of 1/41 in his three overs. After his match-winning performance, Shukri Conrad hailed Pandya’s effort as the real difference between the two teams, rather than Jasprit Bumrah’s economical spell of 2/17.
“To be brutally honest, by not taking anything away from Bumrah, I think Hardik was the difference between the two teams. I think his knock today was the difference between us winning and losing. I think he played a knock in the first one where he came on and we had him in a bit of trouble,” Conrad said during the post-match presentation.
Conrad ranked Pandya among the best all-rounders in the world and said he would be surprised if he was not awarded Player of the Match.
“Look, I think there’s a reason why he’s one of the best in the world in this format. So yeah, his performances have been right up there. I don’t know who the man of the series is there, but I’ll be very surprised if it’s not him. So I think he’s been the difference between the two sides,” he added.
However, it was not Pandya but Varun Chakravarthy who won the Player of the Series award for being the highest wicket taker on the rubber with ten wickets from four innings. On the other hand, Pandya was the third highest run scorer with 142 runs and also scalped three wickets in the series. It turned out to be a comeback series for Pandya, who was injured ahead of the 2025 Asia Cup final, forcing him out of the Australian tour and the ODI series in South Africa.
Meanwhile, India will take on New Zealand in a three-match ODI series starting on January 11, followed by a five-match T20I series.
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Issued by:
Rishabh Beniwal
Published on:
December 20, 2025
