Gradually, it came down to 48 off 42 balls. With six wickets in hand, the game was sitting in South Africa’s dug-out. A classy hundred from Aiden Markram and a Dewald Brevis blitzkrieg had all but pulled off a memorable run chase for the Proteas. But Matthew Breetzke and Marco Jansen got out in quick succession and India hoped.
Tony de Zorzi jarred his hamstring while taking a second run and although the equation still favoured the tourists – 27 required off 30 balls – a tail-ender, Keshav Maharaj was at the crease to accompany Corbin Bosch. South Africa went on to win the game by four wickets with four balls to spare to square the three-match series. Only the second time, India lost an ODI after scoring 350-plus batting first.
The dew factor made the spinners almost redundant. The ball was like a soap cake and the seamers had to make an impact. Arshdeep Singh went at less than six runs per over in such a high-scoring game. Harshit Rana wasn’t bad either. Prasidh Krishna took two wickets, but his profligacy – an economy rate nor 10 – cancelled out those scalps. India would have won this game if they had a better third seamer. Is Mohammed Shami even worse?
Earlier, it felt like circa 2018 all over again, when the world was his oyster. Seven years ago, Virat Kohli was in his prime. At 37 years of age, he is an old warrior now. The master is having a second wind.
In the first ODI against South Africa in Ranchi, Kohli scored his 52nd ODI hundred. Here in Raipur, in the second ODI, he collected his 53rd. His batting has once again started to feel like music with the lightness of touch. Can he last till the 2027 World Cup? The question would border on the juvenile at this moment in time.
Every time Kohli walks out to bat, he creates his own bubble. By his own admission, his cricket now is completely “mental”. To be in the right headspace has always been a priority for him. Little wonder then that he looked unfazed even after India lost two quick wickets on a highway-like pitch on the heels of losing another toss and being asked to bat first in a game where dew would play havoc in the evening.
South Africa’s fast bowlers, Nandre Burger and Lungi Ngidi, put on an exhibition on bowling wide balls before settling down, but Rohit was looking good before he got a feather to a Burger delivery that angled away. Yashasvi Jaiswal fell on the pull against Jansen. The hosts were scoring at a fair clip but 62/2 in the 10th over wasn’t a pretty-looking scoreboard, given the conditions. Kohli, though, had already created his bubble which insulated him from the opposition bowling and even the “Kohli, Kohli” chants from 60,000 fans.
A typical Kohli innings revolves around singles during its formative part. In this series, South Africa’s counter-ploy has been to keep mid-on, mid-off and cover at least 10 yards inside the circle to cancel out the comfort. The veteran, though, is outsmarting them by going aerial. In Ranchi, during his 120-ball 135 he had hit seven sixes. Today in Raipur, his 93-ball 102 had two maximums and a few boundaries that he deliberately didn’t hit along the carpet.
Bosch tried to peg Kohli back by hitting what is called hard length these days. The great batsman manufactured his own length by advancing and upsetting the bowler’s plan. Once he drilled it so hard that Ruturaj Gaikwad at the non-striker’s end almost had his head knocked off. Kohli was playing chess in a bigger arena – calm, assured and in total control.
Spare a thought for Gaikwad, the man who by now has resigned to the fact that he would always live in someone’s shadow. At Chennai Super Kings, MS Dhoni is the main man despite Gaikwad being the captain. Here, he was batting with a Galactico. After his early struggles against Jansen, short ball to be precise, he grew into the game and refused to play second fiddle, at times even outbatting and outscoring Kohli.
He lined up Maharaj. It was the 28th over during India’s innings, and a sweep for a four was the prelude. Gaikwad then danced down the track and launched Maharaj a few rows back over deep mid-wicket. The left-arm spinner, a seasoned campaigner, looked clueless. He bowled a long-hop which Gaikwad happily dispatched to the wide mid-on boundary. India’s makeshift No. 4 looked a class act again spin, notwithstanding that he was batting on a belter.
The mind raced back to a few days ago in Guwahati, where the Indian batsmen were caught in a spin web on a surface that got the “road” moniker from Kuldeep Yadav. Yes, it was Test cricket, entirely different. But if one is allowed to be constructively critical, the team management and the selection made an error by not including Gaikwad in the squad for the second Test against the Proteas. Dhruv Jurel at No. 4 in Shubman Gill’s absence looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
That’s water under the bridge now. Gaikwad probably wouldn’t have been in the ODI squad also if Shreyas Iyer were fit. In the first match in Ranchi he fell to a Dewald Brevis stunner. In this game, he has shown he belongs.
Gaikwad scored 105 off 83 balls, his maiden ODI hundred. Together with Kohli, he stitched a 195-run third wicket partnership in 156 balls. In fact, the youngster was the real story in India’s innings, for he offered something for the future.
KL Rahul’s 66 off 43 balls provided enough firepower to India’s death-overs batting to take the score 358/5 in 50 overs. It proved to be not enough.
Brief scores: India 358 in 50 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 105, Virat Kohli 103; Marco Jansen 2/) lost to South Africa 362/6 in 49.2 overs (Aiden Markram 110, Matthew Breetzke 68, Dewald Brevis 54; Arshdeep Singh 2/54) by 4 wickets.
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