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SA bounce, poor fielding undo India
Virat Kohli drops a sitter, Rohit Sharma misses run out as Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant knock goes in vain against South Africa, who go top of Group 2 with five-wicket win at Perth
If you still can’t believe it, well, it happened. Virat Kohli dropped a catch. A sitter. Nine out of 10 times he would have taken it with eyes closed. This was an aberration India would have least expected from him. Shaking his head, smiling, Kohli looked distraught. Shocked too, like bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, and Indians in the stadium and everywhere else.
It was that kind of a day. As unbelievable as it was, Kohli dropping a catch like that, equally jaw-dropping was Kagiso Rabada’s catches that dismissed him and Hardik Pandya. That dropped catch, a few more direct hits landing on target and the result could have gone India’s way.
Rarely would you hear this, but India lost because of their fielding, not because the bowling wasn’t good enough to defend 133. Or the batters should have lifted India to at least 150. Halfway through their innings, South Africa were 40/3, staring at an asking rate of 9.4. Ten balls later, Aiden Markram—already handed a reprieve in the ninth over after Sharma missed the stumps from cover—was given the life by Kohli. Markram and David Miller added 76 for the fourth wicket, and that was that for India.
“We were a little poor in the field,” Sharma said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “We gave so many chances and we weren't clinical. We were just not good enough. The last two games, we were pretty good on the field. We couldn't hold our chances, we missed a few run outs too.” With the win, unbeaten South Africa moved to the top of Group 2 with five points from three matches. On four points, India are in contention for the semi-finals but must win the next two games against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
The match wouldn’t have gone to the wire but for Suryakumar Yadav’s resilience and Arshdeep Singh’s brilliant opening spell. Nine balls of play and miss was broken with a massive pulled six by Sharma till he fell to a similar pull, only this time he was cramped to execute it. Same over, KL Rahul was nabbed at first slip after his attempted glance went horribly wrong. Deepak Hooda quickly found himself out of depth against this level of bowling, but the most telling blow came when Kohli was snapped up inches off the ground by Rabada at fine-leg.
He could have probably left it. Banging it in short, Lungisani Ngidi got Kohli into a tangle as he tried to pull going across the stumps, only for the ball to get big on him and take a thick top-edge. Till that stunning catch, Kohli had looked infallible. India had finished the powerplay on 33/2 but with two sublime boundaries, Kohli was looking to get on with the game. Ngidi tried a good length ball but he leaned into it and drove it wide of extra-cover for four. Next ball, Ngidi erred and bowled a half-volley that Kohli whipped through midwicket for four.
Half the side was out by the ninth over, all falling to the rising ball. From 59/5 at the 10-over mark to 101/5 in the 15th, it was a Yadav show. He stuck to his game without compromising on his range of shots to score 68 off 40 balls. He got inside the line of the ball to whip Anrich Nortje behind square to perfectly place a six between two men in the deep, used Ngidi’s pace to collect another six over fine-leg before beautifully straight-driving him past non-striker Dinesh Karthik for a four. As long as he was on song, India maintained a decent run-rate. But when he needed support the most, Karthik—the slog overs expert—fell first ball of the 16th over after miscuing a pull, his first aggressive shot after scraping his way to six off 14 balls.
A win still looked possible when Arshdeep got Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw in the space of three balls in the second over. If South Africa’s fast bowlers were all about bouncers and back of the length, India punched holes with Test lengths. De Kock was caught at slip trying to drive a full, away swinging ball while Rossouw was hit on the back-leg by a deceptive inswinger.
Once skipper Temba Bavuma was caught after a streaky 10 off 15, the game was again wide open. But South Africa were given several lives, once by Sharma in the ninth over, then by Kohli in the deep before Sharma again missed despite having three stumps to aim at from close. Yadav’s shy at Miller’s end too would have been interesting if it had hit.
Fast bowlers reigned supreme so it was the turn of the spinners to take some stick. Between Keshav Maharaj and Markram, South Africa conceded 33 runs in four overs. But Miller carted Ashwin for two sixes in the 14th over before again hitting him for consecutive sixes in the 18th to take South Africa to the verge of a much-needed win.
