Just do a Google search about Rolls-Royce and its features and you will end up with a description, “makes cars that are big, heavy, powerful, and smooth, and drive like a cloud on the road”. The way the Indian team is playing in the 2023 World Cup, you just imagine watching a Rolls-Royce. In other words, this Indian side is powerful and functioning smoothly in different conditions.
South Africa seemed like that one side which could stop India’s juggernaut in the ongoing World Cup. The reality turned out to be vastly different. Virat Kohli equalled Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most hundreds in ODI cricket, while Shreyas Iyer (77 runs) and Ravindra Jadeja (five wickets) played pivotal hands as India steamrolled the second-placed South Africa by a massive margin of 243 runs. South Africa could muster a mere 83 in a chase of 327.
It was a complete performance from the Indian team. Rohit Sharma, who opted to bat, once again provided India with a blazing start. Marco Jansen was taken for 17 runs in his opening over. The tall left-arm pacer also struggled with the direction of his front-arm as he gave away seven wides in that over. Rohit continued to bring out the drives, whips and the occasional pull. Shubman Gill also played a few delightful shots, with India scoring at more than 10 an over. Against the run of play, Rohit was caught by Temba Bavuma off Kagiso Rabada at mid-off.
Gill and Kohli then joined forces and kept the scorecard ticking over. At 94 for 1, Keshav Maharaj gave South Africa something to cheer about as he spun one across the right-handed Gill to castle him. Somewhere in the Indian dressing room that dismissal would have encouraged another left-arm spinner.
Iyer, who replaced Gill, couldn’t find his touch early on in the innings. At the end of 23 overs, Iyer was scoring at a strike rate of less than 50. By then, South Africa had also wasted a review for caught behind against Kohli. It was perhaps in the next over that Iyer was able to adjust to the nature of the pitch as he lofted one through extra cover.
A few overs later, he smacked the erring Jansen for three boundaries to reach a fine fifty. Iyer and Kohli then combined to take advantage of a few dragged downs from Aiden Markram. Ultimately, Iyer was done in by Ngidi’s trademark off-cutter.
KL Rahul couldn’t make much of an impression, but Suryakumar Yadav (22) and Jadeja (29 not out) played a flurry of shots to power India past the 300-run mark. At the other end, Kohli couldn’t exactly find the top gear, but completed his much anticipated 49th hundred, creating history on his birthday.
The five-man Indian attack took over by ripping through the South African batting unit. There doesn’t seem to be any escape route while playing the Indian bowling line-up. Quinton de Kock inside-edged one from Mohammed Siraj, while Bavuma was cleaned up by Jadeja’s tossed up delivery that had enough revs on it. Markram followed the duo back to the hut by edging a good length delivery from Mohammed Shami to the ‘keeper.
On a track that was staying on the lower side in the second innings, Jadeja used his tried and tested methods of bowling with exemplary control, side-spin and straighter-ones to clean up the rest of the batting unit. India were spot on with the DRS as well. Rahul, the wicketkeeper, asked his captain to go for the review for an LBW against Heinrich Klaasen and replays showed it would rattle the leg-stump.
Jadeja finished with splendid figures of 5 for 33, his second five-wicket haul in ODIs. Shami and Kuldeep Yadav bagged a couple of wickets each while Siraj took one scalp. Curiously, Jasprit Bumrah, India’s pace spearhead, went wicketless. It just goes to show that India seem to have all the bases covered as far as the bowling unit is concerned.
South Africa’s sorry tale was encapsulated by the fact that Jansen with 14 turned out to be their top-scorer. David Miller, Van der Dussen and Bavuma were the other three batters to cross the double-digit mark. To make matters worse, Ngidi, one of their lead pacers, hurt his ankle while bowling.