India vs SA - 2nd ODI Jan 2011

Both the teams would be baffled at the end of this match. No doubt it was a thrilling encounter, and an extraordinary comeback by the Indian bowlers, something so rare in world cricket. But the bottomline remains the same - batsmen from both the sides were baffled and shocked at the end of the match.

Indian batsmen are geniuses of batting, and I am not sarcastic when i say that. But they aren't as professional as SA bowlers are. Virat Kohli, Dhoni, even Yuvraj and Gambhir to some extent are gritty when they face adverse conditions, but not as professional and certainly not as trained on South African pitches. Murali Vijay hardly knows what professionalism is, as he simply neither has the technique nor the charisma to play bowlers like Steyn and Morkel in an ODI. Sachin was extremely unlucky, as he always has been, and perished to Botha of all people after seeing off the new ball. The strategy was to see off the new ball, without losing too many wickets. That is not supposed to come at a runrate of around 3 an over no matter what. The batsmen simply could not score against the fantastic and hostile South African pace attack. And that is why I have used the word baffled. In spite of the batting geniuses that they all are, they simply lost a higher quality of bowling, which was infact natural for the home team. The visitors’ cricket lost to the South African cricket. Their bowlers reigned supreme through most part of the test innings and through both the one-dayers so far. Yuvraj could be termed as unlucky here as he spent most part batting sensibly and at a just acceptable strike rate given the situations, and was out probably just because of a momentary loss of concentration. Dhoni had to give away his wicket trying to force the run rate up and the rest of the batsmen were simply too inept to bat.

Graeme Smith must have felt a part of what Clive Lloyd must have felt in the ’83 final (pardon my comparison). His batting team had little to overcome to chase down that target of 190. And now full credit goes to Dhoni for he kept attacking without putting too much pressure on his bowlers. The wickets kept coming at regular intervals, Amla as early as second over, and Ingram and DeVilliers by the end of the second powerplays. Now the wicket was anything but unplayable because Graeme Smith was easily getting the occasional boundary and the team run rate was a healthy 5 inspite of all the wickets falling at the other end. Duminy came and left quickly and then Munaf netted the big fish with a beautiful slower delivery. Ha. Gotcha South Africans. Pace Pace Pace. Day and night are you guys used to batting at balls doing 140s and 150s. Didn’t you know that there are slower balls in cricket too. India took full advantage of this fact throughout the test series and once again did the same in this match. Miller and Botha fell in succession and soon the target all so far away. The Indian team psyched out the rest of the batsmen, really funny the last two batsmen were out in one over and Dhoni’s boys captured the accolades of the night. The South African batsmen were baffled at the way Dhoni’s way came back on a batting pitch, with some clever bowling and defended the score of 190 by just one run.

While Dhoni and his boys will have a ton of psychological advantage going into the third match, something I am really happy about, SA will have to overcome their demons and face a team, who may not be champions when it comes to the pure sum total of their bowling strength, but definitely champions in heart and mind, and a champion captain to lead them through any situation.