India Come A Cropper Against South Africa

Having played all but one of their games in the ongoing World Cup here, the Proteas proved they had a better idea of the conditions at Narendra Modi Stadium by wriggling out of a tight spot early on to turn tables on the crowd favourites.

Having posted 187 for 7, they schooled Suryakumar Yadav’s boys in blue to bowl them out for 111 in 18.5 overs, severely affecting their net run-rate.

None of the Indian batsmen, barring a chancy Shivam Dube (42), was up to the task with the South Africans turning the screws one twist at a time. At 31 for 3 in 6 overs, India were struggling. With the score reading 57 for 5 at the half-way stage, they were gasping. At 88 for 8 after 15 overs they were on the ventilator before the Proteas pulled the plug.

Marco Jansen led South African bowlers with 4 for 22. Keshav Maharaj got 3 for 24 while Corbin Bosch chipped in 2 for 12.

Earlier, South Africa’s impressive total was built on brilliance from their middle-order. Dewald Brevis (45), David Miller (63) and Tristan Stubbs (44 not out) bolstered the boat that was rocked by three early strikes.

India had begun well. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh stuck to the line and kept South Africa quiet in the first over, conceding only four runs off it. Quinton de Kock swatted Bumrah through the off-side on the fourth ball of the second over to bring up the first boundary of the match but lost the line and his wicket on the next delivery while trying another big hit.

Captain Aiden Markram followed his opening partner back to the dugout in the next over as he played Arshdeep uppishly to Hardik Pandya at mid-off. South Africa 12 for 2 in the third over. Ryan Rickelton, the other danger man, was gone soon as well. After smacking pacer Arshdeep into the stands, he fell to a slower one from Bumrah that took his leading edge and landed in Shivam Dube’s palms at mid-off as SA slipped to 20 for 3 in the fourth over. The top three batsmen lasted a mere seven balls each to score a collective 17 runs.

Then, Brevis and Miller got together to repair the damage with a bold counterattack that led to a blazing 97-run partnership for the fourth wicket off just 51 balls. The two went about their task in daunting fashion and kept finding the boundaries.

Brevis departed in the 13^th over, to a slower ball from Dube that he skied to Abhishek Sharma at deep mid-wicket as he went for his fourth six. Stubbs then stepped up and switched into top gear straightaway. Miller too was in no mood to relent and brought up his half-century by dumping Dube in the stands. His 35-ball knock was ended by a catch from Tilak Varma off mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who conceded 47 runs in his four overs for that one wicket.

But Stubbs kept scoring at a fast clip to push South Africa close to 200.

Earlier, Proteas won the toss and decided to bat first. India went with an unchanged XI, persisting with off-spinning allrounder Washington Sundar at the expense of vice-captain Axar Patel. It proved too costly.