Hundred hero Rossouw remained confident through failures

Proteas top-order batsman Rilee Rossouw believes his self-belief was a major factor in achieving a maiden T20 international century in their 49-run victory over India in the third and final match in Indore on Tuesday.

Rossouw, coming off the back of two ducks in the opening two matches, provided the perfect response by smashing an unbeaten 100 off just 48 balls including eight sixes and seven fours.

That victory, albeit in a 2-1 series defeat, got the Proteas back on track with their preparations for the ICC  World Cup in Australia starting later in October.

Rossouw, whose previous best of 96 came against England a few months ago, said it was a good feeling to finally tick off the milestone.

“It was a special innings for me, something you dream of as a little boy and I am very proud to have played that innings,” he told Cricket SA communications.

“As a professional sportsman, you are going to have bad times. It is just about backing yourself and having confidence and belief in your ability, no matter what form you are in because those are two separate things.

“I had a chat to our assistant coach about form and confidence, which is something I really believe in [because] confidence plays a big role in scoring runs,” he said.

Rossouw said it was also pleasing to see Quinton de Kock find form again.

“What actually got me in the mood was one of the shots he played where he stepped across and hit it for six.

“That got my spirits going, that’s [where momentum shifted] and I felt like tonight is going to be something special,” he said.

Rossouw said they learnt some lessons from the first two matches and were able to harness them in almost perfect harmony in the final encounter.

“In the first game we were a bit shell-shocked with how India swung the ball, so we went back to the drawing board as to how we would approach the next couple of games.

“In the second game we learnt a lot with the ball, and tonight [Tuesday] we put that performance together with bat and ball as the coach asked for. So there are certainly a couple of lessons we took from this series,” he said.