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JOHANNESBURG: The ODI series wasn’t about India vs South Africa. It was about Virat Kohli vs South Africa, with the India skipper seemingly having a point to prove. Without him, his 558 runs, intensity and confidence in attacking with spinners and the desire to win that stemmed from the hurt suffered during the Test series, this series might have yielded zilch for India.
Kohli on Friday played like a man possessed, exposing the frailties --- the one-dimensional nature of hit-the-deck-kind --- in South Africa bowling. Likewise his bowlers, especially spinners, blossomed thanks to South Africa’s impatience to smack them T20 style. And, it wasn’t just spin. India’s seam bowling too troubled the Proteas, senior batsman Hashim Amla in particular. Except in Port Elizabeth, SA lost their most experienced batsman even before the spinners could come on.
The story, however, has been Kohli, who is just 14 centuries away from Sachin Tendulkar’s record (49 tons) of most tons and is within touching distance of getting to 10,000 runs (9,588). With his latest century, Kohli showed that intimidation through shortpitched stuff doesn’t work against him. You need to outthink him, he excels when pricked and that rubs off on the team.
Coach Ravi Shastri, who accompanied him to the postmatch presser, said, “You speak of intensity (in this team), where does the intensity come from? When you have a leader like that who leads by example, the other guys jolly well follow. Otherwise they know what to expect.”
As the team gears up for the T20 series, Kohli isn’t resting on the laurels just yet.
“I know for a fact that 90% of the people did not give us a chance after the two Tests. I was sitting in the same room giving a press conference. So we understand where we have come from. I am not going to live in a dreamland right now and accept all the praise and sit here and feel good about this, because it does not matter to me, honestly it doesn’t. It didn’t matter when we were 2-0 down and it doesn’t matter when we are 5-1 up because what matters is the change room, what team management thinks about me, what I think about the players and what they think about me. Headlines change day in and day out,” he said after the game.
It is perhaps a good sign for the tourists who have dominated the one-day series that Kohli is keeping the success in perspective and not letting it spill over.
The T20 series should ideally be more competitive. India fielding coach R Sridhar had earlier talked about how a game with reduced overs, like the Wanderers ODI, brings the two teams on even keel. In short, there is less dependence on skills.
Players like Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and Chris Morris, whose 20-30 ball cameos did little of worth in ODIs, will hold a lot more significance in T20 cricket than they did in the ODI matches.
However, former South Africa fast bowler turned commentator Fanie de Villiers feels that South Africa have not given enough importance to T20s. “They usually only play about four top players in T20s. I would have rather played top players in all formats in bilateral series against top teams like India,” he said. There is AB de Villiers though. He failed to get going in ODIs but his short knocks in the series would be good enough for T20s. While the hosts were favourites in the Tests and ODI series only to get jolted, India begin favourites in the shortest format.
Brief scores: South Africa 204 all out in 46.5 overs (De Villiers 30, K Zondo 54, A Phehlukwayo 34; Thakur 4/ 52, Bumrah 2/24, Chahal 2/38) lost to India 206 for 2 in 32.1 overs (V Kohli 129*, A Rahane 34*)