Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!
India plummeted to an embarrassing 76-run loss, while chasing South Africa’s 187/7, after having reduced Aiden Markram’s men to 20/3. Bumrah’s spell of 3/15 was all the home crowd could cheer for. All of India’s frailties and insecurities surfaced from the moment they decided to drop their designated vice-captain Axar Patel for Washington Sundar calling it a ‘tactical’ call.
It was meant to be a highly tactical match from the word go. South Africa had better plans and execution as Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav looked on seemingly lost for ideas in the park. With the net run-rate taking a beating, Surya will walk out with greater pressure in the next two matches against Zimbabwe and West Indies.
Everything India feared could go wrong going into this match went wrong. Abhishek Sharma’s tumultuous tournament continued, Surya and Tilak Varma’s scratchy middle-order batting could not find any rhythm either as India’s newest nemesis Marco Jansen matched Bumrah’s performance with a spell of 4/22. The most telling outcome of the match was the missing Plan B if either of Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy endured an off day.
South Africa have been here in Ahmedabad for a good 10 days. They spent the last two days practicing drills to curb the hard-hitting and left-hander-heavy Indian batting lineup. Through the course of the chase, it appeared the South Africans were only replaying the drills, starting with Markram opening the bowling with his off-spin and dismissing India’s only in-form batter Ishan Kishan in the first over. The unraveling of India’s chase seemed too predictable as they struggled against the quality pace of Jansen, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi. The big-hitters Hardik Pandya and Rinku Singh once again fell short against the skillful left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj.
Earlier, India’s new-ball bowlers had threatened to run away with the game inside the Powerplay. Then Miller happened. India played catch-up for most part of the rest of the innings. The first two crisp boundaries off mere punches through the cover region showed he took guard completely aware of his game. He played the perfect mentor to the exuberant Dewald Brevis as the duo conjured 97 runs in the next 8.2 overs before Brevis fell for 45 off 29 after miscuing pull off Shivam Dube. That brought Tristan Stubbs to crease and play out a perfect finisher’s role with an unbeaten 44 off 24 balls.
With every six Miller and Brevis chipped into the sea of blue in the stands, they were punching holes into the Indian bowling attack. The crowd was stunned into silence when trump card Chakravarthy was ripped apart with utter disdain. Chakravarthy, for once, looked like just staying away from the hitting arc instead of looking for wickets. The mystery spinner’s figures of 1/47 left captain Suryakumar Yadav at a wit’s end.
This is where Washington plays his IPL cricket. It didn’t matter for Miller. His T20 cricket revived at this venue playing for Gujarat Titans in 2022. Eventually, Washington could not be bowled for more than two overs.
The animated gestures started to come from Surya once Miller and Brevis feasted on Dube, taking 32 runs off his two overs. The run-rate soared at a faster pace than Surya’s plans. Miller’s forehand swat off Dube’s bouncer off the front foot deep into the long-on stand, much like Virat Kohli’s famed hit off Pakistan’s Harris Rauf at MCG in the 2022 T20 World Cup, must have shaken the Indian camp.
Falling back on Bumrah was the lone option left for Surya. Just eight runs off his last two overs did put the brakes on the scoring for a while. But, Stubbs showed that South Africa were ready to play the waiting game and take the game deep even as they looked like finishing fair way short of a par score on a historically high-scoring surface. He calmly saw off Bumrah and Arshdeep, testing Surya’s leadership skills. Hardik insisted on bowling the last over of the innings. Stubbs maintained his composure to seamlessly collect 20 runs to tilt the momentum in South Africa’s favour.
