Vi rat goes early, Pan dey fights back
SECOND T20I South Africa started well but India batsmen rally after skipper Kohli fails to reach double figures
CENTURION: It has been difficult to fathom the approach of the South Africa bowlers in this series against India.
After being punished seven consecutive matches – six ODIs and a T20 -- for bowling too short to Indian top order batsmen on dead tracks, they again began to make the same mistakes before sanity prevailed in the second T20 at SuperSport Park. At the time of going to print, India were 106/4 in 13 overs.
South Africa bowlers had allowed the Indian top order to get easy starts in the ODIs and let them get off to a flier in the first T20. And once again, they wilted after getting off to a good start.
Seamer Chris Morris, bowling the first over, offered the blueprint of what line the Proteas new bowlers should have kept. Morris was never used as a new-ball bowler and with his first over, it appeared it had been a poor decision not to have given him the new ball earlier.
He trapped Shikhar Dhawan in front of the stumps off the first ball, but the decision was overruled as the batsman had nicked it. But the delivery was of perfect length, testing the batsman and jagging back into him. Morris bowled a similar length the entire over as Dhawan, used to pulling regularly and who got 33% of his runs in the first match through that shot, kept trying to pull but repeatedly failed.
At the other end, pacer Junior Dala removed Rohit Sharma off the first ball of his over, leg before for duck. Dala bowled some good deliveries and Suresh Raina was fortunate to get a four past the cordon.
However, what Morris did in the next over perhaps was not forgivable. After having Dhawan under his thumb, he gifted short deliveries on a platter. Dhawan took 20 runs off that over, with two sixes and two fours, playing the pull shots with great comfort.
Skipper JP Duminy took Morris off and brought himself on and began with a short ball which was dispatched to the fence. However, when he pitched it up next, a low full toss, Dhawan gave a simple catch to mid-on.
Soon, Virat Kohli was caught behind to a delivery that rose from length and got his glove. It was this length the Proteas had never thought of throughout these matches.
The early wickets set India’s run rate back – although Manish Pandey and Suresh Raina, who eventually fell leg before to Andile Phehlukwayo, made sure it remained at over eight.