South Africa win thriller at Nagpur
By Suneer Chowdhary
Nagpur: Mar 12, 2011
With the tournament drawing towards the knock-out stages, one can say much about which team has actually peaked well enough but with the number of thrillers leading up to the quarter-finals, it can only augur well for the audiences. Another game was decided in the last over of the game and South Africa edged India by three wickets and with two balls to spare.
For reasons unknown, South Africa have known to convert pressure chases into lot closer than they should by allowing the pressure to build from the start. One can think of two instances in recent times, all in the T20 format, but distinctly similar as today’s game against India, where the batsmen have left the chase till very late; the semi-final of the ICC World T20 in 2009 and their last Super Eight game in the 2010 edition of the same tournament.
This time the strategy worked well for the South African side.
It was an easy track to bat on, as Nagpur pitches usually are and with an average scores of more than 300 on it, 297 was not going to be too difficult.
Graeme Smith has struggled in the tournament so far, and apart from a half-century in the series leading up to the World Cup, there was nothing of note. Zaheer Khan, his nemesis, failed to get him out in the manner he usually does – bowled or lbw – but had him caught trying to smash the bowler to mid-off. It was an uncalled for stroke given that he had already hit a four in the over and having seen off four and half overs from Zaheer, one would have thought that Smith could have played out his spell.
That only brought Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis to the crease. The pair have had some good times against India on this ground and they continued to make merry. Both ended up with half-centuries but it was surprising to see them bat a tad slower than what one would have thought. The South African strategy had been to simply to hold the wickets and tee off when the time would arrive.
It was Harbhajan Singh who went for a few runs in his opening spell but managed to pouch the usually dangerous Amla. 127 for two in the 28th over.
Around this stage, it was evident that the ground had begun to become wetter due to the dew and the spinners were finding it difficult to get as much grip and turn. The ball was changed as expected but with advent of AB de Villiers, the runs had begun to flow much quicker. In fact, given the manner de Villiers bats, it is a surprise that he has not been tried higher up in the order while chasing reasonable challenging totals.
A tiring Kallis was then run out while going for a second run but that proved to be a veiled blessing. In JP Duminy, de Villiers found a partner who could not only run quickly enough but also give it a tonk when needed. The Batting Powerplay was immediately taken at 173 for three in 36 overs and the South Africans took full toll.
Not too many risks were taken by either batsmen and yet, 45 came off the first four of the Powerplay. This included a Zaheer Khan-over which cost 17 and with the asking rate having reduced to less than eight in the last ten, the game looked sealed.
And then, there was another twist as Harbhajan was first reverse-swept for a four but when AB attempted the conventional sweep, he could only accord Virat Kohli a catch.
Soon after that Harbhajan had his third wicket when a fumbling Dhoni stumped Duminy. However, even with Morne van Wyk departing to an lbw to Munaf Patel, a cool Faff du Plessis (25) and a seven-ball 18 from Robin Peterson won the South Africans the game. 13 runs had been needed off the last over and Ashish Nehra gave away a four and a six off the first couple to seal the fate.
Earlier, India’s batting stalled after a brilliant start to their innings. At one stage, it seemed like 350 was very achievable and some optimists were even baying for 400.
After Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag had toyed with the South African bowling, Gautam Gambhir had ensured that the side was 267 for one in the 40th over. By this time, Sachin Tendulkar had completed his century and Gambhir had laid the foundation to get to his.
It was exactly what captain Dhoni had said he required from the top order, to bat long. The Batting Powerplay was then taken. And it went all haywire for the batsmen. This time, it was the turn of the middle-order to give way.
In a bid to utilise the Powerplay, Tendulkar played across and spooned up a simple catch while Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan departed off the next over from Dale Steyn. In a situation that was reminiscent of the collapse against England, India lost nine wickets for a meagre 29 runs. Clearly, for the second game in the tournament, India’s batting in the slog had failed miserably.
Brief scores: India 296 all out in 48.4 overs (Sachin Tendulkar 111, Virender Sehwag 73; Dale Steyn 5 for 50, Robin Peterson 2 for 52) lost to South Africa 300 for 7 in 49.4 overs (Jacques Kallis 69, Hashim Amla 61; Harbhajan Singh 3 for 53, Munaf Patel 2 for 65)
Man of the Match: Dale Steyn
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here: @suneerchowdhary)
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