Sakyasen Mittra
Melbourne’s famous China Town is just a kilometre away from the main entrance of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Knowing Indians’ affinity for Chinese cuisine, one can fully expect that restaurants there to be choc-a-bloc after their team’s massive 130-run victory over the South Africans, Sunday. Ninety per cent of the 86,786 spectators at the MCG were supporters of the Men in Blue and after the first victory over the Proteas in a World Cup game celebrations certainly will certainly go on late into the night.
It was a game dominated by the Indians in all departments. They batted aggressively, bowled to a plan and above all fielded like the South Africans usually do. What also made it a memorable match was MS Dhoni’s astute leadership. He attacked the South African batsmen all through their innings, changed bowlers judiciously and never left the game drift. Sourav Ganguly always used to say during his playing days that ‘a captain should make things happen’. Dhoni did exactly that.
Shikhar Dhawan (137, 146b 16×4, 2×6) laid the foundation of the Indian innings with two solid partnerships. The first of 127 runs for the second wicket with Virat Kohli (46, 60b, 3×4) and then another 125 for the third wicket with Ajinkya Rahane (79, 60b, 7×4, 3×6). But more than the runs, it was the way that the Indian batters build the innings. Circumspect at the start they build the momentum during the middle overs and virtually took the game away from the South Africans between the 35th and the 44th overs.
Dhawan in the process recorded his seventh century in the ODIs, and his second against the South Africans. Hashim Amla will certainly rue the straight forward catch he dropped when Dhawan was on 52. It was a catch that South Africans usually take and the Delhi left-hander took full advantage of that to punish the South Africans.
Left-handers have that languid grace and Dhawan was no exception. But he demonstrated ample power also when he hit Imran Tahir over the square leg boundary. But more than Dhawan’s innings it was Rahane’s blitzkrieg that really took the game away from the Proteas. He played shots all around, but two straight sixes, one off Dale Steyn and the other off Tahir were really standout shots. It is never easy to hit a bowler of Steyn’s pace to hit over the top on the rise, but Rahane did just that, nonchalantly.
South Africa were always on the backfoot after the early departure of Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla. De Kock played the drive a shade too early and holed out to Kohli at mid-off off Shami. The bearded Amla fell to the hook, caught at deep-fine by Shami.
Then came South Africa’s most fruitful partnership as Faf du Plessis (55, 71b, 5×4) and Abraham Benjamin de Villiers (30, 38b, 3×4) put on 68 runs for the third wicket. That ended when Mohit Sharma (2/32) did some wonderful work in the outfield to catch the South African skipper short of his crease.
Du Plessis may have top scored, but was never at ease against Umesh Yadav’s pace. He was surprised by Mohit’s bounce and holed out to Dhawan at mid-off. And when David Miller was run out due another brilliant piece of work in the outfield by Yadav, the writing was clear on the wall.
There was no stopping team India then and they duly completed the formalities with Ravi Ashwin (3/41) running through the middle-order and the tail.
India innings:
R B 4/6
Rohit Sharma r o (de Villiers) 0 6 0/0
Shikhar Dhawan c Amla b Parnell 137 199 16/2
Virat Kohli c du Plessis b Tahir 46 60 3/0
Ajinkya Rahane lbw b Styen 79 60 7/3
Suresh Raina c sub (Roussow) b Morkel 6 5 1/0
MS Dhoni c De Cock b Morkel 18 11 3/0
Rabindra Jadeja r o (De Villiers) 2 4 0/0
Rabichandran Ashwin n o 5 5 0/0
Mohammed Shami n o 4 5 1/0
Extras (lb-2, w-6, nb-2): 10
Total (for seven wickets, 50 overs) 307
Fall of wickets: 1/9, 2/136, 3/261, 4/269, 5/278, 6/284, 7/302
Bowling: Dale Steyn 10-1-55-1, Vernon Philander 4-1-19-0, JP Duminy 7-0-39-0, Morny Morkel 10-0-59-2, Imran Tahir 10-0-48-1, Wayne Parnell 9-0-85-1.
South Africa Innings:
R B 4/6
Hashim Amla c Shami b Mohit Sharma 22 50 2/0
Quinton de Cock c Kohli b Shami 7 15 1/0
Faf du Plessis c Dhawan b Mohit 55 71 5/0
AB de Villiers r o (Mohit) 30 38 3/0
David Miller r o (Yadav) 22 23 2/0
JP Duminy c Raina b Ashwin 6 15 0/0
Wayne Parnell n o 17 28 1/0
Vernon Philander lbw b Ashwin 0 2 0/0
Dale Steyn c Dhawan b Shami 1 7 0/0
Morne Morkel b Ashwin 2 5 0/0
Imran Tahir lbw b Jadeja 8 10 1/0
Extras (lb 1, wd 6): 7
Total (all out in 40.2 overs): 177
Fall of wickets: 1/12, 2/40, 3/108, 4/133, 5/147, 6/153, 7/153, 8/158, 9/161, 10/177.
Bowling:
Umesh Yadav 6-0-34-0, Mohammed Shami 8-1-30-2, Mohit Sharma 7-0-31-2, Rabindra Jadeja 8.2-0-37-1, Rabichandran Ashwin 10-0-41-3, Suresh Raina 1-0-3-0.
