KHURRAM HABIB
CENTURION: India have stood out in the limited-overs series, and while their batting and spin bowling have been discussed elaborately, they have stolen the show from South Africa in fielding and catching.
Leaving aside their slip catching in Tests, India have grown in stature as a fielding unit. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was alert enough to keep the ball in play while returning from beyond the boundary rope to take a catch, getting rid of Hashim Amla in the third one-dayer at Cape Town.
Jasprit Bumrah almost took a stunner at the boundary rope in the first T20, which India won comfortably at Johannesburg to go 1-0 in the series. Only his foot slightly touching the boundary rope as he tried to drop the ball inside the field resulted in a six.
Suresh Raina didn’t score many runs at No 3 on his comeback, but contributed on the field by taking three good catches.
However, while India, pushed by skipper Virat Kohli’s athleticism, have been a picture of commitment, South Africa have not kept up their usually high standards. There have been occasional streaks of brilliance like Aiden Markram defying gravity to get rid of Hardik Pandya in the third ODI, nothing consistent.
“The standard we set for ourselves, we know we have to take those opportunities. But the game of cricket is that when you are down and out there are certain things that don’t go your way, and those kind of things tend
CENTURION QUICK FACTS
South Africa have won three and lost as many T20 matches at Supersport Park in Centurion.
This will be India’s first T20 here.
Virat Kohli is 18 runs away from becoming the third batsman to reach 2,000 runs in T20 cricket. He has scored 1982 runs at an average of 52.15 in 52 innings of 56 T20 matches. Kohli, who scored 870 runs at an average of 87.00 in 13 innings of 10 matches on this tour, needs 130 runs to become the second player to score over 1000 runs on a tour.
Viv Richards scored 1,045 runs on the 1976 England tour.
With any gameplan, if you don’t execute well, it always looks bad. As bowlers, we were honest with each other. But perhaps we didn’t execute the plan well enough. It boils down to execution.
JUNIOR DALA, On SA’S short-pitched bowling VIRAT KOHLI’S ODI RATING POINTS ARE ALSO THE HIGHEST IN THE
LAST 27 YEARS, SINCE AUSTRALIA’S DEAN JONES HAD 918 POINTS IN 1991.
that they didn’t execute it properly.
“With any game-plan, if you don’t execute well, it always looks bad. As bowlers we were honest with each other. But perhaps we didn’t execute the plan well enough. It boils down to execution.”
India won the match in the first few overs as they raced to a huge total. And although Dala did reasonably well in his first two overs, conceding 18 runs and picking up two important wickets of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina, it was Dane Paterson who leaked runs at the other end. Paterson gave away 31 runs in his two overs. MUMBAI: Virat Kohli has become the second batsman ever, after South Africa’s AB de Villiers, to achieve 900 rating points in the ICC rankings for Tests and ODIS concurrently.
The India skipper, who has had a great run in both formats on the current South Africa tour, also became the first Indian batsman to breach the 900-mark in ODIS, extending his lead over De Villiers. Kohli has 909 points to De Villiers’ 844.
Virat Kohli’s ODI rating points are also the highest in the last 27 years, since Australia’s Dean Jones had 918 points in 1991.
De Villiers enjoyed the 900point double in 2015 – he had 902 points in ODIS and 935 in Tests. Kohli’s rankings landmark follows his world record aggregate of 558 runs in the just-ended ODI series versus South Africa – the first time a batsman crossed 500 in a bilateral series. Averaging a mind-boggling 186, the India cricket team captain struck three centuries and a half-century in the six ODIS, being dismissed only thrice in India’s 5-1 win.
“Kohli has thus moved ahead of Brian Lara in the all-timers’ list, having also overtaken him in the all-timers’ Test list last month. Kohli is now seventh in the ODI list of all-time rankings that is led by Viv Richards with 935 points and the India captain is now 22 points clear of Sachin Tendulkar, whose ODI career high of 887 points came against Zimbabwe in January 1998. Kohli’s aggregate is the best since Lara reached 911 points in March 1993,” the ICC said in its release.
India’s Jasprit Bumrah and Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan with 787 rating points each occupy the top spot among ODI bowlers.
With 323 runs in the South Africa series, opener Shikhar Dhawan rose four spots to 10th among ODI batsmen.
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who took 16 wickets in six matches, is up eight places to 21st and Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has moved up 15 spots to 47th.
“Pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah’s eight wickets have lifted him two places to take the joint first position,” the release said.
RASHID SURGES AHEAD
Rashid Khan played a key role in Afghanistan’s ODI series win against Zimbabwe, grabbing 16 wickets in five matches.
“Rashid has joined Bumrah at the top with 16 wickets in the series against Zimbabwe, which Afghanistan won 4-1 to become the youngest to attain top ranking.
“His 51 runs in two innings in the series, including a brisk 43 in the final match in Sharjah on Monday, has also helped him break into the top-five in the list of all-rounders while he has also moved up 11 slots to 114th among batsmen,” the ICC release said.
While the ICC release shows them as joint first, the list on the website placed Bumrah first and Rashid Khan second.