OPINION
Follow UsTo quote a certain Michael Cole, “the streak………is over.”
After seven long months, team India have finally lost a T20 International.
And boy it took a special, special batting effort from South Africa to finally end the Men in Blue’s nine-match winning streak.
At the halfway mark of the chase, requiring 126 off the final 10, the Proteas needed a miracle to get over the line. As it turned out, Temba Bavuma’s side, quite astonishingly, got home with five balls to spare.
Arguably for the first time under Rahul Dravid, the Indian bowling unit had an off-day with the ball. Barring Avesh Khan, every other bowler had a night to forget — even the ever-so-reliable Harshal Patel, who was taken for 43 off his 4 overs. The fielding was sloppy too.
But, as much as anything, the loss on Wednesday was down to the brilliance of the South African batters. Consider this: in the history of T20 Internationals, only on one other occasion has a team scored more in the final 10 overs of a chase than what the Proteas did in the first T20I.
India were not faultless on the night, but as Rishabh Pant said post the game, “sometimes you got to give credit to the opposition.” Miller and Rassie hit god mode in the final 10 overs and India stood no chance.
In a format like T20, teams are bound to encounter nights and losses like these; it is the nature of the beast.
India, though, despite the defeat, should look back on their batting performance and feel that it is precisely the template they should be following while batting first not just in the rest of the series, but arguably all the way till the World Cup.
Despite statistically being the most dominant T20I side of the past half-a-decade, and despite boasting ludicrous depth and talent in the batting department, team India have often been accused — and dare I say guilty — of playing an ‘outdated’ brand of T20 cricket whilst batting first. The team loves its anchors, and its template whilst batting first is basically one or multiple players batting deep into the innings ‘anchoring’, with the rest chipping in with quick runs.
The general consensus, though, was that by adopting this strategy, the team was failing to maximize the batting potential in the side. In T20Is between Jan 1, 2018 and Jun 8, 2022, whilst batting first, India averaged more per wicket (32.4) than any other side in the world. Yet they scored slower than England, Afghanistan and New Zealand and at the same rate as Australia and South Africa. More often than not they left runs behind, and the team’s dismal showing at the T20 World Cup in UAE tended to suggest that the criticism of their approach was more than reasonable.
Only time will tell if what we witnessed at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday was the start of a systemic change in approach, or a mere aberration. But on Wednesday, the Men in Blue batted the way we've all wanted them to: fearless, carefree and devoid of any conservatism.
On the night, as many as five Indian batters faced 12 or more balls. All but one of those five players finished with a strike rate over 150. The only exception was Shreyas Iyer, but even he at no point looked to anchor; the right-hander was 24 off 10 balls at one stage before gradually losing momentum as his innings progressed.
The conditions were tricky when Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad walked out to bat. There was a fair bit of pace on the wicket, and the quicker bowlers were getting the ball to move under the lights ever so slightly. It was not one of those wickets where you could just walk in and start flaying the bowlers.
Fully aware of this, the Indian openers were willing to take their chances. At times, some of the rather ‘wild’ swings even bordered recklessness. But both Kishan and Gaikwad were rewarded for the clarity in their thought process in the form of luck as the team raced off to 51 inside the powerplay in seemingly tough conditions. It didn’t matter that 62% of the runs scored off the bat in the first six overs came behind square, predominantly off outside and top-edges.
Over the years, we’ve rarely been used to seeing Indian top-order batters ‘go for it’, not taking the foot off the accelerator at any cost. On Wednesday, they did that.
Gaikwad was not able to capitalize on his start, but the way he approached his innings made it clear that he was not looking to bat through. In his 15-ball stay, the right-hander hit as many as three sixes, and perished aiming to hit back-to-back maximums. In fact, in the last 4 balls of his innings, Gaikwad attempted to hit a maximum thrice.
Kishan did not strike the ball cleanly until after the powerplay, but once he did so, the southpaw was looking to bludgeon every single delivery. His last 22 balls yielded 45 runs, and at one point the left-hander was so obsessed with hitting sixes that he was visibly disappointed after hitting a four off Maharaj on the third ball of the over, after going 6 and 6 in the first two.
The supposed ‘anchor’ Shreyas Iyer was striking at 275.00 after 8 balls, and along with Kishan he played the match-up game to perfection: while Iyer took on the wrist-spin of Shamsi, the southpaw dealt with the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj.
Mid-game, Kishan explained how it was a conscious plan to be ‘smart’ when it came to match-ups.
“When the left-arm spinner came onto bowl, I told Shreyas that I will take my chances and told him that he can attack when Shamsi was bowling, because you have got to be smart at this level. We just planned and it went our way,” the 23-year-old said.
In IPL 2021, Pant the skipper was guilty of being conservative with the bat, but on Wednesday, the 24-year-old batted more like the IPL 2022 version that was focused on nothing but quick runs. No less aggressive was Hardik Pandya, who seamlessly transitioned back into the finisher role to propel the team beyond the 210-run mark.
The total proved to be not enough on the night, but that was not due to the fault of the batters. If anything, India’s batting effort almost sealed them victory on a wicket that, according to Pant, ‘got better in the second innings.’
In the 14 previous occasions India had batted first prior to the first T20I on Wednesday, they’d averaged 164, passing the 200-run mark just twice. Admittedly they did not exclusively play on batting paradises like the one at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, still there were occasions where the team was guilty of leaving runs behind owing to the strategy that made select batters put a significant price on their wickets.
India are already, by some distance, the best chasing side in the world, but by using their approach in the first T20I as a bat-first blueprint, they could potentially become the most formidable batting side in the shortest format.
