India on path to World Cup glory

India arrived on the big World Cup stage on Sunday as the defending champion to fear. Beating Pakistan last week was a historical certainty. In progressing from there to break the jinx and lay open the ‘mauka mauka’ joke about the firecrackers, Team India has made a statement that they are the team to beat if anyone wishes to take the cup away from them. Everything fell in place on Sunday. A flat pitch as bare as a newborn baby’s butt as Bishen Bedi loves to put it and as dry as a Kotla wicket in a high Indian summer, sunny conditions and Dhoni’s magic with the toss gave India the advantage.

The advice to stay calm may sound like another of grandmother’s tips. No one has, however, used the state of calmness to greater effect than Shikhar Dhawan, a batsman woefully out of form in Australia in the lead-up to the World Cup. In compiling an innings of limited-overs brilliance even during that ultra sedate start by Rohit Sharma against Dale Steyn, Dhawan became the toast of a nation willing to forgive and forget his poor form Down Under. He repaid the faith the team had placed in his ability to come through on the big occasions. While he did that capably enough against Pakistan at the start of the World Cup, against South Africa he batted like an artiste who knew all the angles at which to play the new ball down to and then assumed the role of a run machine willing to bat on and accumulate.

Even so, India may have owed more to Ajinkya Rahane who provided the thrust at just the right time. Dhawan had settled in after an early flurry of boundaries and the fall of Kohli represented a flash point in the match. Rahane put South Africa out of it by steering a partnership that assumed gigantic proportions within the confines of 50 overs. The second string Protea bowlers were just not good enough to check Rahane. In fact, their choice of a fifth bowler in Wayne Parnell proved South Africa’s death knell. Dhoni had warned once about finishing the innings well in the slog overs, particularly in the light of the field placement restrictions in the World Cup in which only four men can be outside the circle in the last 10 overs.

The middle order were once again ignoring Dhoni’s caution of 2011 of having to play for the country rather than be a batting galactic and to finish unsatisfactorily from the high of 227 for two at the 40 over mark was a distinct possibility. Dhoni showed his team how to do it by taking on the task in the end overs himself with three cracking fours, all moving like tracer bullets, and getting the team up past the psychological barrier of the 300-run mark. With a total backing them for the second time in the competition, the bowlers were efficient to begin with. They bowled a line rather than striving too hard for wickets and granting any giveaways early. This was strategically important as the new ball bowled at pace became easier feed off.

South Africa adapted India’s approach of super caution against the new balls. It didn’t work for them because none who took the time stayed to build an innings that would matter like Dhawan’s. De Villiers seemed capable of taking on the challenge until a smart throw from Mohit Sharma, also India’s best seam bowler on the day’s showing, titled the match completely in India’s favour. What pressure does to even the best of international teams was made obvious in how ragged the South Africans became in the field in the face of an onslaught Hashim Amla dropped Dhawan when he was on 53 and how the Indians were in greater control.

The verdict is India have now joined favourites Australia and New Zealand as the teams most likely to win the Cup in five weeks’ time. Looking at the recent history of the World Cups, it is apparent the best batting team won the last three events while bowlers to win the cup last were the Australians in 1999. So, it can’t be a bad thing to be a strong batting team, especially on drop-in pitches that seem readymade for good batting Indian style and some controlled fast medium swing bowling, again Indian style rather than batsmen with bludgeons backed up by the super quicks who come on nicely to the bat.