World Cup Nostalgia: Shikhar Dhawan lights up MCG with sparking century, Ajinkya Rahane takes the skin off South Africa

Despite not entering the 2015 edition in the best of forms, India dominated South Africa in their World Cup opener.

India had spent two and a half months in Australia, between December 2014 and February 2015, without a single international victory. They'd surrendered the four-Test series against the hosts 0-2 and were beaten in three of the four games in a triangular one-day tournament with England as the third team, rain helping them avoid a clean sweep.

Shikhar Dhawan's century saw India smash South Africa by over a 100 runs. (Getty)

Expectations weren’t very high, therefore, when India began their World Cup campaign against old foes Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men lifted themselves on the big stage, turning in a powerhouse performance to outclass their neighbours by 76 runs on the back of a Virat Kohli century.

Their second Pool B fixture was on February 22, exactly a week after their conquest of Pakistan, against the other strong contenders from the group, South Africa. The magnificent Melbourne Cricket Ground was the stage for what was expected to be a stirring battle in front of more than 80,000 expectant supporters, more than 95% of them sporting the India ‘blue’, waving the tri-colour and creating an atmosphere of electric excitement.

Over the years, India had shown themselves to be calmer than most teams in crunch games with so much riding on the outcome. Never was calmness more imperative than at the MCG, especially after India lost Rohit Sharma in the third over to a run out.

South Africa were a gun team with a fabulous batting line-up, a magnificent bowling attack helmed by Dale Steyn, and Mr. 360, AB de Villiers. To arrest an alarming trend of underachievement at World Cups, they had roped in Gary Kirsten, India’s head coach when they won the title in 2011, and Mike Hussey. They believed this was their time to shine, but they were rudely shown a mirror to reality by an outstanding all-round Indian performance of staggering brilliance.

India’s top order rallied superbly to offset Rohit’s early loss with Shikhar Dhawan embracing the enforcer’s role, Kohli sailing along in his wake and Ajinkya Rahane unleashing a ferocious counter-punch that netted him 79 off just 60. South Africa’s nerves started to betray them, their cuteness in employing bowling options reflecting their tension. Hashim Amla dropped Dhawan on 53 and watched with mounting frustration as the Delhi left-hander breezed to three-figures, relishing the ball coming on to the bat as he peppered the boundary. The fielding went to pieces with misfields galore and more than the occasional overthrow. South Africa eventually fought back towards the end to keep India down to 307 for seven, but they needed to bat out of their skins to secure full points.

India made sure that didn’t happen. Where South Africa’s bowling was wayward, India’s quicks were on point with Mohammed Shami leading the way and the rest following suit. Disciplined and stringing together dot ball after dot ball, they pushed South Africa to a corner. More importantly, they comprehensively out-fielded South Africa, which isn’t something one can say every day.

It was two of their faster bowlers who showed tremendous agility and excellent game awareness in catalysing the run outs of de Villiers and David Miller, the two dangerous middle-order batters. Mohit Sharma, at sweeper cover, hared to his left, swooped on the ball and fired in a return adjacent to the stumps for Dhoni to catch de Villiers short of his ground, no mean accomplishment given how fleet-footed the latter is. Some three-quarters of an hour later, it was Umesh Yadav’s turn to showcase his athleticism at deep square-leg, a bullet throw to Dhoni accounting for Miller. India’s quicks haven’t historically been regarded as the most agile or committed, but Mohit and Umesh went some distance towards correcting their perception around tight spells that gave nothing away.

As team efforts go, this was pretty comprehensive. Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin feasted on a mounting required run-rate and South Africa’s indecision against the turning ball to chip away at the batting, and there was no let-up in the intensity even when the game was clearly in the bag. Victory might have seemed one-sided and it was so, but this was a game to savour. It was India at their awesome best, a formidable South African unit swatted aside without breaking a sweat.

Brief scores: India 307/7 in 50 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 137, Virat Kohli 46, Ajinkya Rahane 79; Morne Morkel 2-59) beat South Africa 177 all out in 40.2 overs (Faf du Plessis 55, AB de Villiers 30; Mohammed Shami 2-30, Mohit Sharma 2-31, R Ashwin 3-41) by 130 runs. Player of the Match: Shikhar Dhawan.