Kolkata: On a cold Sunday night at Dharamsala, India bowled bruisingly fast to shock South Africa before the spinners came in to wipe out the lower order and ensure a seven-wicket victory that gave India a 2-1 lead in the five-match T20I series.
Arshdeep Singh (2/13), Harshit Rana (2/34), Hardik Pandya (1/23) and Shivam Dube (1/21) bowled full tilt, making the ball zip and zoom in a coordinated assault before Varun Chakravarthy (2/11) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/12) dismissed South Africa to a paltry 117. Abhishek Sharma once again reminded the world of his destructive ways with an 18-ball 35 that knocked the wind out of South Africa’s sails to set up an emphatic victory.
Aiden Markram was the only South African to walk away from this defeat with his head held high, thanks to a nicely paced 46-ball 61. Donovan Ferreira and Anrich Nortje were the only other batters to get to double figures as the only partnership worth mentioning came for the eighth wicket when Markram and Nortje added 36 runs to get them across 100 from a precarious 77/7.
From 25/3 in the powerplay to 44/4 at the halfway mark, South Africa did remarkably well to reach 117. In the context of the game, especially considering the heft of India’s batting, it was never going to be enough. And that was largely due to the early inroads by India’s pacers.
Sign of early dew prompted India to elect batting and it worked quickly in their favour, chiefly to Arshdeep Singh who bowled a probing spell where he constantly induced the false shot when he wasn’t getting the edge. Reeza Hendricks got beaten on the outside edge two balls in a row before the left-arm pacer ball got the ball to nip in the third time, setting up a near-perfect leg-before appeal. Second ball of the next over, Rana bowled length from around the wicket and brought the ball sharply into Quinton de Kock and trapped him leg-before.
The first blows were dealt by a sensational 3-0-9-1 initial spell from Arshdeep. Rana too was on a roll, dismissing the dangerous Dewald Brevis who dragged a 144kph ball from outside off on to his stumps trying to cover drive him. Runs had dried up and it was not until Markram scored two fine boundaries off Rana in the sixth over that South Africa tried to recuperate from the early losses.
In came Hardik Pandya and surely enough he struck in his first over, removing Tristan Stubbs off the last delivery with a ball that was shaping away and induced an edge playing a loose shot to complete 100 wickets in T20Is. Corbin Bosch gone first ball of the 11th over and South Africa were 44/5, a start India were only too glad to accept on a day Axar Patel couldn’t play due to illness and Jasprit Bumrah had to return home due to personal reasons.
It could have been a more comprehensive win but for India’s fielding. Markram was on 34 when he inadvertently sliced Shivam Dube while attempting to clear the rope. Force of habit pulled Harshit Rana away from the boundary, only to realise that it was going over him. Not only did he miss the catch, the ball bounced inside the rope to give South Africa a boundary. Markram went on to add 23 more runs on his way to scoring 61 before being dismissed by Arshdeep in the 19th over.
There were more. Like in the 13th over, when Ferreira pulled Dube over midwicket, prompting Arshdeep to run in from long-on and dive forward, only for the ball to ricochet off his hand. Earlier, in the 10th over, Chakravarthy made Corbin Bosch swat the ball hard to Abhishek at midwicket, but the ball went in and went out. South Africa couldn’t capitalise on these errors, but these were glaring drops alright.
Probably spurred by that drop, Abhishek came out swinging. First ball, Lungi Ngidi strayed down leg and he immediately got inside its line and helped himself to a six with an effortless pull. Fifth ball of that over, he gave Ngidi the charge and slapped him over covers for a flat, one bounce, four. A thin inside edge saved Shubman Gill from being dismissed for a duck but he regained composure by caressing Marco Jansen through wide mid-off for a boundary. Abhishek was on a mission though, picking Jansen over fine leg for four before skipping down the pitch and lofting him over deep cover for six.
Gill helped himself to three boundaries after that before Abhishek raised India’s fifty in 4.1 overs, slashing Ottneil Baartman over deep cover for another six. By the time he was dismissed, India had cantered to 60 in five overs. And even though Gill slowed down before being dismissed for a run-a-ball 28, that initial momentum allowed Tilak Varma to recalibrate the chase a bit and complete it with 25 balls to spare.
The fourth T20I will be played in Lucknow on Wednesday.
