Eden Gardens variety

Tribune News Service

Rohit Mahajan

Kolkata, November 5

The match against South Africa, billed as India’s toughest challenge in the tournament — the Indian camp seemed to think so, as Virat Kohli indicated today — turned out to be the dampest of all squibs. South Africa, who had topped 300 runs five times in their seven previous innings, were bowled out for 83 in 27.1 overs. The very dangerous Quinton de Kock, scorer of four centuries in seven innings, was rocked for five off 10 balls. The top-6 of the formidable line-up contributed 5, 11, 13, 9, 1, 11. Not one batsman managed to reach 20 runs, the top-scorer being Marco Jansen with 14.

The loss, by 243 runs, brought the South African batting line-up down to earth, and again underlined the potency of India’s bowling line-up, in both pace and spin, with Ravindra Jadeja picking up five for 33. India had got to 82 runs in nine overs, at nine runs per over. South Africa were bowled out for 83 in 27.1 overs, three runs per over — a wicket lost every 16 balls. That sums up the lopsided nature of the contest.

The blazing style of the Indian openers, after Rohit Sharma won the toss, had given no indication of the carnage that would be witnessed in the evening. Rohit blasted a four through a loft over the covers on the fourth ball of the innings; left-arm paceman Jansen, having lost his compass, gave 17 runs in the second over, including five wides down the legside, and two boundaries by Gill on both sides of the wicket. Thirteen runs came in Lungi Ngidi’s third over, with two fours by Rohit and one by Gill. The South Africans were pitching up the ball and also giving space, inviting drives on both sides of the wicket. Rohit struck Ngidi for two sixers in the fifth as Ngidi bowled too full, too much on the legside. But Rohit fell against the run of play when he stepped out and smashed Kagiso Rabada straight to captain Temba Bavuma at mid-off. With 40 off 24 balls, Rohit had whetted the appetite of the capacity crowd, but the main course — served by Kohli — was not fast enough, though the crowd loved it.

In walked Kohli and began to stroke the ball beautifully — a punch past extra cover fourth ball got him going, and he raced to 18 off 14 with four fours. But Gill was to fall soon, to an excellent ball from Keshav Maharaj in the 11th over, and suddenly, the brakes were on; as the ball began to grip the surface, somewhat damp after days of overcast skies, Shreyas Iyer and Kohli were extremely circumspect. From 91/1 in 10 overs, India’s scoring rate began to fall steadily — by the end of the 23rd over, below six an over, at just 134/2. The boundaries were few and far between, and Iyer was hitting most of them; when Maharaj ended his spell (10-0-30-1), bowling unchanged, India were steady but unspectacular at 170/2 in 29 overs, run rate 5.86. But then Iyer took off — from only 27 off 49 balls, he got to 77 off 87 before falling — his last 50 runs came off 38 balls. No blast was created by Kohli, though, and he was just about passable with 24 runs off the final 24 balls he faced. At the other end, Suryakumar Yadav and Jadeja contributed 51 off 29 balls, and their effort took India significantly over 300. The total of 326, according to Kohli and Jadeja, was above-par for this wicket — and that it did prove to be.

Kohli, 35 today, and having equalled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries, was the unanimous choice to be the Player of the Match — if that were not enough, he got a golden bat from the Cricket Association of Bengal.

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