India vs South Africa, T20 World Cup: Men in Blue didn’t do much wrong in Perth, Proteas were simply better – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

As Pakistan finished a dreary win against the Netherlands at the Optus Stadium, the Indian team had arrived at the ground and was warming up. Along with South Africa, the players were in the nets, with pre-match rituals underway. A little snippet made its way to the press box – Deepak Hooda was batting hard in the nets.

‘Make of that news what you will’ was the general consensus. Even so, there was more to it. Hooda batting in the nets was nothing special. Often team reserves and the 12th man undergo rigorous training sessions to stay ready. But, this development on match eve? This development seemed different.

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Then, the players made their way onto the ground and got into their respective bowling, fielding and batting drills. Where was Hooda? He was practicing bowling in tandem with R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. That was the first big hint, an obvious one at that. The second one came when Axar Patel seemed to be loitering around without his usual pre-match intensity. It was more or less confirmed at that point – India had made an unusual, if not overall surprising change to its playing eleven.

Here’s the obvious question. Did it make sense? Yes, indeed.

On pre-match day, India had an optional training session. Skipper Rohit Sharma did not bat or participate in training otherwise. But he still did visit the ground to take a look at the pitch. Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid had a long look at the wicket, and decided that it was going to be a bowler friendly one. Even the Pakistan-Netherlands game proved as much with batting proving difficult for both sides on the day.

No disrespect, but Pakistan only had to contend with the Dutch attack. India faced a stronger attack in proposition – arguably the best pace bowling attack in all competition. It was a perfect situation in which to strengthen the batting line-up, and Axar Patel was the obvious fall guy. Quite simply, the conditions in Perth replicated much of those on the previous Sunday at the MCG against Pakistan. Spin, therefore, wouldn’t have much of a role to play on the night.

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More so, it was in keeping with how this tournament is progressing. Spin isn’t the underlying theme here, with little to no help for the tweakers at most grounds. In fact, the games in Sydney are the only ones that exhibited this quality. Whether it is replicated in Adelaide this coming week, as the T20 World Cup bandwagon rolls there next, remains to be seen.

Back in Perth, and India went full-on with their new strategy. If you are playing an extra batter, then you need to make it count by batting first. There were no surprises that India chose to bat. But did they choose the right ‘seventh’ batter? The argument can be made that Rishabh Pant could have had more impact than Hooda in similar circumstances. He has more experience with Australian conditions, has a more attacking approach, and if Hooda wasn’t going to bowl, then what sense did it make keeping Pant on the bench?

This debate is not one of merit though. The conditions were such that Pant could have met the same fate as Hooda, and thus, rendered moot in terms of conjecture.

And so, you only ask what went wrong? Why weren’t seven batters able to counter the South African bowling line-up?

Pace. And bounce. There’s your answer, of course. The Proteas unleashed a most concentrated attack on the Indian top order, and the better team won this match-deciding contest. The likes of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi unleashed serious pace on a very helpful deck. So much so, watching from the media box, it was astounding when the speed gun repeatedly read 138-141 clicks for these bowlers. The ball just seemed to be coming on way quicker.

Also read: ‘Conditions are not an excuse,’ says Rohit Sharma

South Africa’s ploy became very obvious from the word go. In the very first over, Rabada tested Rohit Sharma with a short delivery. It was a tad too short, and Rohit being the compulsive puller, went for it. The ball was delivered at mega speed, and it went over the fine leg fence at the same speed. It was brilliant cricket, but South Africa knew what they had to do – pull down their lengths just a bit!

Ngidi did this in the most precise manner. Built like a tank, the lanky pacer has a natural short-of-length delivery and on this pitch, at that pace, it was hurrying the batsmen into playing a split second too early. Rohit’s next pull didn’t work out; Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya pulled straight into Rabada’s hands at fine leg. KL Rahul, well, that was simply a confused T20 batter struggling with movement.

Was 133 enough on that pitch? Yes, and no. As aforementioned, the early spring start to the tournament in Australia is proving to be quite tricky. It has brought pace to the fore, more than spin, or even T20 cricket’s traditional selling point – batting.

This is not going to be a one-trick chase-and-win tournament. Nor is it going to be a tournament where the par score will rise above 170-180. And so, teams that make use of the conditions on offer will be able to defend par or sub-par T20 scores. Moreover, India’s ploy of picking seven batters and batting first could be a precursor to a shift in strategies given the prevalent conditions.

This is where the ‘no’ comes in. While South Africa’s pacers regularly cranked up the pace, only two Indian pacers were able to do it. Shami and Pandya used the bounce on offer to good impact, with both clocking 138 clicks repeatedly. That Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh relied more on movement than outright pace and bounce is where India’s attack fell a tad behind. Singh provided a belligerent start with his movement. It was two vital misses in the field that undid most of the good work.

Pace against pace, India’s fast bowlers stood up on the day. From a neutral perspective, it was an awe-inspiring sight as four pacers let it fly on a bouncy Perth wicket. That’s what pitches in this part of the world do, right? But for two vital misses in the first, the story could have been different. For, India didn’t do much else wrong on the day. South Africa were just the better side, by an excruciatingly fine margin.

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