Follow UsIt has been a while since India last played at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack but whenever they have, the reception for the home team has been reverberating. On Sunday, after 903 days, India would be at the receiving end of plenty of collective loud roars at the venue as many players of the South African team will face the daunting crowd for the first time.
“There are two things that India does really well: one is cricket and the other one is hospitality. It's been really awesome being here,” said Wayne Parnell but with how South Africa are playing, they have made India doubt their cricketing skills.
At the Arun Jaitley Stadium, South Africa extended their unbeaten run against India this year, with a win for the ages, perhaps even more special than it was considering they were one batter short. However, as one-sided as the scoreboard might suggest, India’s batting approach was rather refreshing.
India, throughout the innings, continued to attack the Proteas bowlers, with contributions throughout the batting order for the Men in Blue, with a strike-rate of 130+ for the entire batting unit barring Dinesh Karthik.
On the other hand, South Africa dominated the proceedings in the second half. Giving no respite for the dropped chances, the trio of Dwaine Pretrorius, Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller launched the perfect counter-attacking assault.
The result was a simple win for the Proteas.
The van der Dussen threat in front of India
David Miller was the Player of the Match, Dwaine Pretorius played a proper cameo that went unnoticed. But in between the blitz of the two stars, there was Rassie van der Dussen. Off his first 20 balls at the crease in New Delhi, the charismatic right-hander only scored 19 runs, with a strike-rate of 60 in the first ten deliveries and 130 in the next ten.
Till the time he was dropped by Shreyas Iyer in the deep, it was a major struggle for the right-hander. But once he got the extra life, he made things extremely uncomfortable for India, with 46 runs in his next 16 deliveries, where he smacked five fours and four sixes.
Barring Avesh Khan, the right-hander found his ‘A’ game against the rest of the Indian bowling unit. While he hasn’t played a lot of T20Is against India, Rassie showcased his skills against the Men in Blue in the 50-over format, where he averages 120 against them.
India have a very big question to answer, which is how do they get rid of Rassie? With Rassie strong against spin, Rishabh Pant would once again toss the ball to the speedster Avesh Khan, who hits the back of a length, an area where the South African batter struggles, with 15 of his dismissals in that zone.
India’s batting approach, pretty refreshing
If you have watched any bit of cricket in the last two months, the term ‘match-up’ would be reverberating in your ear. That’s how much T20 cricket has evolved, with match-ups becoming part and parcel of encounters. But in between being uber-aggressive and being over-conservative, India found themselves in plenty of trouble in the past.
What we saw in the first T20I though is what could be a defining factor for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup. Batting first, India’s run-rates across phases read: 8.5, 11 and 12.2. Never in any of the three phases during the first T20I did India’s run-rate diminish and more so, they played just a combined 59% of dot-balls in phases from 7-20.
In T20s since 2020, India during the middle-phase have averaged an impressive 31.5 runs/wicket but only at a strike-rate of 129.2. Since Rahul Dravid has taken over as a coach, India’s strike-rate in the same phase reads an impressive 142.8, with the dot-ball percentage reading just 26. So, India have identified concerns with their batting approach and perhaps, that is where we can see a difference between the two sides.
Another interesting aspect during the first T20I was how the two batters – Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer – played the match-ups to perfection. Against the ball coming in, the left-hander hit 40 runs off just 20 balls, including collecting 36 runs off Maharaj’s 15 deliveries, in an over of destruction. On the other hand, Iyer too was proactive in the match-up, with 21 runs off seven balls against Tabraiz Shamsi.
Dwaine Pretorius, star goes unnoticed
South Africa have been home to some of the big-name all-rounders in the past but Pretorius is not one of them. Despite playing 23 T20Is, the Lions all-rounder goes under the radar with his all-round performance. In T20Is since 2020, the all-rounder has picked up 17 wickets from overs 14-20, in which 14 of them have come at the death.
For the Proteas too, the all-rounder has been amongst the wickets, being the third-best bowler for Temba Bavuma’s team. But what was interesting is how the Proteas used Pretorius with the bat. In his short T20I career, the right-hander has mostly batted at No.7, where he has struck at 160. Only on two occasions has Pretorius batted at No.3.
On both occasions, South Africa have been on the winning side of things. The first of the two came in 2019, against Sri Lanka, where he scored 77 off 42 balls. Against India the other day, Pretorius played his role to perfection, scoring 29 runs in just 13 balls. The fact that he gets off to a quick start and the lack of extra batters, given Aiden Markram has been affected by COVID, we might get to see a lot of Pretorius over this series.
Team Combination and Predicted XI
Barring any last-minute injuries, India would not want to change around too much with their combination given how they performed at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. While they might consider switching Deepak Hooda with Axar Patel, it might not be such a straightforward move
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuveshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal
South Africa are still a batter short but will they want to change a winning combination? That is the big question for the visitors come Sunday.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje