Port Elizabeth: Knocked back in the previous match, India will look to crush a South African revival before it becomes a threat to their pursuit of a maiden ODI series triumph here when the two sides clash in the penultimate game of the six-match ODI series, Tuesday.
The Men in Blue still have a two-match cushion as they lead 3-1 after winning the first three games. The Proteas however bounced back strongly by winning the rain-curtailed and lightning-struck Pink ODI in Johannesburg.
India’s wrist-spinners versus South Africa’s batting line-up is still the key contest going ahead in this series. At Johannesburg, the dual rain intervention affected India’s momentum with both the bat and ball.
More importantly, it reduced the target sufficiently despite AB de Villiers’ relative early dismissal, the home batsmen didn’t have much trouble getting past.
The T20-mode of that second innings, coupled with the best batting surface of the series, allowed David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen to attack the wrist spinners and take the game away.
Yet, a rain-truncated innings is hardly enough evidence that South Africa have learnt how to contend with the wrist spin of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Additionally, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were not used to great effect as Virat Kohli chose to rely on the spinners, even when they were unable to respond to the Proteas’ concentrated attack.
In this light, India’s team selection will come into focus in St George’s Park, where they lost all the five games they played. There are still question-marks about the fitness of Kedar Jadhav, who missed the previous game following a hamstring injury.
Albeit a part-timer, in his absence, India lose a reliable bowling alternative particularly if Hardik Pandya takes some stick and cannot complete his quota of overs. In summation, Jadhav’s bowling is being missed more than his batting ability despite a troublesome middle-order and it indicates India’s team balance is still not optimal.
Ajinkya Rahane has scored 11 and 8 since making a comeback 79 at No.4. Pandya’s forgettable tour with the bat (since the first Test in early January) continues, with scores of 14 and 9 in his last two outings. MS Dhoni’s unbeaten 42 was the only saving grace for this shaky middle-order as India struggled to finish well at Johannesburg.
The series score-line has conveniently hid the fact that India have a top-heavy batting order, despite the poor form of Rohit Sharma, who has scored 40 runs in the first four ODIs.
Kohli (393 runs) and Shikhar Dhawan (271) have scored nearly thrice the number of runs put together by the remaining batsmen (239) and it ought to be a cause of major worry for the Indian think-tank.
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