If the final India-South Africa One Day International in Mumbai on Sunday had been an actual fight, it would have gone something like this: Quinton de Kock starting it off with a delightful array of upper cuts and jabs, to first weaken India’s resolve. Faf du Plessis then stepping in to knee them in their stomachs and proceeding to knock the stuffing out of India’s bowlers. And finally, AB de Villiers moving in for the knockout punch, ensuring that there was no way back for the hapless victims.
South Africa run amok
If it sounds brutal, well, it was. India’s bowlers were punched, kicked, hammered, trampled and finally thrown into a heap by the end of a South African innings where the score read 438 in the allotted 50 overs. Unlike the other matches, India never even had a ghost of a chance; South Africa hurtled off their bases and only kept on intensifying their attack. If India fancied a breather when Quinton de Kock mistimed a tired heave over leg side with South Africa at 183/1 in the 27th, AB de Villiers was at his devastating best, creaming 11 sixes and generally looking intent on dispatching the ball into the nearby Arabian Sea. And when Faf du Plessis realised that the onset of cramps would stop him from scurrying the quick single, he took the next best option – sending the ball into different tiers of the Wankhede Stadium.
Of course, whenever any game sees a gigantic total of this nature, there are whispers about the batsman-friendly nature of the playing surface was, something which captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni alluded to in his post-match presentation ceremony when he suggested, “And we all know in Wankhede, there was a lot of runs." However, pitches generally do not change their inherent nature and a look at the statistics seems to suggest that calling the Wankhede wicket as “full of runs” is a travesty – in 20 games since 1987, only once before has a team scored above 300 at this venue and in that instance, it was New Zealand who scored 358 against minnows Canada in 2011. India’s highest score at this venue is 299, which came way back in 1987. The average score at the Wankhede tends to be around the 250 mark, which definitely does not suggest that it is a batsman's paradise.
Abominable bowling
So perhaps, it is time to lay the blame squarely where it belongs. This was a performance of abominable proportions by India’s bowlers. While it increasingly looks like pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma are only part of the attack to ensure that the ball gets old before the spinners can be brought in, today’s match demonstrated that even the spinners have no back-up place when the opposition is on the attack. Realising that India’s bowlers had spun a web around them in the previous ODI in Chennai, de Kock and du Plessis were positive from the start against India’s spin trio, continuously using their feet, chancing their arms and looking to dominate proceedings. Axar Patel and Amit Mishra were flat, dropping their lengths and completely bereft of ideas to figure out a way to stop the carnage. Harbhajan Singh looked a little more probing when he first came on, beating the bat a couple of times but soon joined the ranks of his compatriots.
To be fair, the loss of Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s most potent bowler who walked off in the first ODI with a side-strain, has been a big blow for Dhoni’s men and the fact they managed to recoup from that and win two games in the series is no mean feat. Conversely though, if one were to accept that, it says a lot about the bareness of India's bowling cupboard that without Ashwin, India did not have the requisite bench strength to win an ODI series despite playing in home conditions. South Africa may have lost two games in the series but the intensity of their bowling always remained a few notches higher than India’s. The loss of Morne Morkel, their best bowler should have affected them, but a young, hostile Kagiso Rabada stepped up time and time again to do the job on pitches that do not resemble South African pitches in the slightest. On the other hand, India have enough reasons to worry – if their bowlers cannot step up on home surfaces, it is not a good inkling for the future.
The only bright spot for India from this match, that is if it is possible to have a bright spot in a 214-run defeat, was Ajinkya Rahane’s scintillating batting in India’s doomed-from-the-start chase. Rahane’s 58-ball 87 was perhaps the only thing that kept the Wankhede crowd cheering as he mixed exquisite timing and big-hitting to offer a semblance of hope. Of course with no one offering any support around him, Rahane soon fell, in a desperate attempt to force the pace, but hopefully this innings should silence detractors who suggest that he cannot play at the pace required for modern-day One Day International cricket.
South African supporters, smarting from the semi-final loss to New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup on Saturday, may finally have a reason to smile with the Proteas winning their first-ever bilateral ODI series in India and reinforcing their reputation as the toughest travellers around. India will feel they put up a good fight, but the abject manner of their capitulation in this game will leave some unpleasant scars behind.
5th ODI: South Africa (438/4 in 50 overs) beat India (224 all out in 36 overs) to win by 214 runs and win the series 3-2
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South Africa run amok
If it sounds brutal, well, it was. India’s bowlers were punched, kicked, hammered, trampled and finally thrown into a heap by the end of a South African innings where the score read 438 in the allotted 50 overs. Unlike the other matches, India never even had a ghost of a chance; South Africa hurtled off their bases and only kept on intensifying their attack. If India fancied a breather when Quinton de Kock mistimed a tired heave over leg side with South Africa at 183/1 in the 27th, AB de Villiers was at his devastating best, creaming 11 sixes and generally looking intent on dispatching the ball into the nearby Arabian Sea. And when Faf du Plessis realised that the onset of cramps would stop him from scurrying the quick single, he took the next best option – sending the ball into different tiers of the Wankhede Stadium.
Of course, whenever any game sees a gigantic total of this nature, there are whispers about the batsman-friendly nature of the playing surface was, something which captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni alluded to in his post-match presentation ceremony when he suggested, “And we all know in Wankhede, there was a lot of runs." However, pitches generally do not change their inherent nature and a look at the statistics seems to suggest that calling the Wankhede wicket as “full of runs” is a travesty – in 20 games since 1987, only once before has a team scored above 300 at this venue and in that instance, it was New Zealand who scored 358 against minnows Canada in 2011. India’s highest score at this venue is 299, which came way back in 1987. The average score at the Wankhede tends to be around the 250 mark, which definitely does not suggest that it is a batsman's paradise.
Abominable bowling
So perhaps, it is time to lay the blame squarely where it belongs. This was a performance of abominable proportions by India’s bowlers. While it increasingly looks like pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma are only part of the attack to ensure that the ball gets old before the spinners can be brought in, today’s match demonstrated that even the spinners have no back-up place when the opposition is on the attack. Realising that India’s bowlers had spun a web around them in the previous ODI in Chennai, de Kock and du Plessis were positive from the start against India’s spin trio, continuously using their feet, chancing their arms and looking to dominate proceedings. Axar Patel and Amit Mishra were flat, dropping their lengths and completely bereft of ideas to figure out a way to stop the carnage. Harbhajan Singh looked a little more probing when he first came on, beating the bat a couple of times but soon joined the ranks of his compatriots.
To be fair, the loss of Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s most potent bowler who walked off in the first ODI with a side-strain, has been a big blow for Dhoni’s men and the fact they managed to recoup from that and win two games in the series is no mean feat. Conversely though, if one were to accept that, it says a lot about the bareness of India's bowling cupboard that without Ashwin, India did not have the requisite bench strength to win an ODI series despite playing in home conditions. South Africa may have lost two games in the series but the intensity of their bowling always remained a few notches higher than India’s. The loss of Morne Morkel, their best bowler should have affected them, but a young, hostile Kagiso Rabada stepped up time and time again to do the job on pitches that do not resemble South African pitches in the slightest. On the other hand, India have enough reasons to worry – if their bowlers cannot step up on home surfaces, it is not a good inkling for the future.
The only bright spot for India from this match, that is if it is possible to have a bright spot in a 214-run defeat, was Ajinkya Rahane’s scintillating batting in India’s doomed-from-the-start chase. Rahane’s 58-ball 87 was perhaps the only thing that kept the Wankhede crowd cheering as he mixed exquisite timing and big-hitting to offer a semblance of hope. Of course with no one offering any support around him, Rahane soon fell, in a desperate attempt to force the pace, but hopefully this innings should silence detractors who suggest that he cannot play at the pace required for modern-day One Day International cricket.
South African supporters, smarting from the semi-final loss to New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup on Saturday, may finally have a reason to smile with the Proteas winning their first-ever bilateral ODI series in India and reinforcing their reputation as the toughest travellers around. India will feel they put up a good fight, but the abject manner of their capitulation in this game will leave some unpleasant scars behind.
5th ODI: South Africa (438/4 in 50 overs) beat India (224 all out in 36 overs) to win by 214 runs and win the series 3-2