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“They are a little old-fashioned when opening the
innings, aren’t they?” “Too conservative in the middle overs. The
world is leaving them behind.”
You would have assumed India was being mentioned right
away if these words had been used four years ago about a serious World Cup
contender. South Africa is another formidable competitor playing that style of
cricket, but India is not even close to appearing like that team during this
World Cup—in fact, they are even stronger candidates. In reality, South Africa
at the 2023 World Cup is a team that, if any team might be an enlarged version
of the Rohit Sharma template that brought him double-hundreds.
But Rohit has destroyed that formula by putting up a
slow start, moving himself to base, and then steadily picking up speed as the
innings go on. In the World Cup* powerplay, he is the fastest batsman after
Travis Head, who has only played one over, and Jos Buttler, who has faced just
12 balls in the first ten overs. He is also lofting his left-arm nemeses over
the infield and dancing down to the fastest of bowlers. In addition, Rohit is
the player who scores runs during the powerplay the most frequently.
In the powerplay, only Australia is faster than India;
South Africa is even slower than Pakistan. South Africa continues to increase
the heat in pursuit of that strong base. India wants to get things going fast
and then simply adapt as needed. When the final overs arrive, South Africa
transforms into formidable opponents, surpassing the next-best squad by 24 runs
on average during those overs. India has already won the game by the time the
final overs are bowled, hence their numbers at the end cannot be compared.
Despite this, India’s bowling statistics at the end of
the game are significant because they have been the best team to finish with
the ball, averaging just 5.4 an over and a wicket every 12.72 runs. India has
reversed the ball more than any other team, which ultimately makes Mohammed
Shami deadly. In any case, they have Jasprit Bumrah, the bowling god, at the
very end. Their spinners have bowled 13 death overs at 2.88 an over, bowling in
the 40-45 band since teams are starting to target 35-40 to take advantage of
the pitch limits.
In this absurd universe, Heinrich Klaasen, a veritable
spin killer, and David Miller, a greatly improved batter against spin, are two
of the five fastest batters in this universe Cup who are South Africans. They
also have this hitter of hard lengths, Aiden Markram, in the middle.
Perhaps Kuldeep Yadav should inform them that they
haven’t yet encountered a spinner who appears to have been put together in a
crazy scientist’s lab. In addition to bowling at a tempo that prevents you from
recovering, he possesses an extremely unusual skill: left-arm wristspin.
Despite this, he never leaves the stumps.
But have India, even after crushing most of the major
opposition, ever seen an assault that bowls with such velocity and accuracy as
a unit? With a wicket every 16 balls during the powerplay, Marco Jansen—in this
form, the closest thing to Kuldeep’s lab-assembled pace-bowling
counterpart—always gets South Africa off to a strong start. He is taller than
6’9″. He bowls quickly, swings the fresh ball, and avoids falling into the
trap of using his height but still gets disconcerting bounce
Kagiso Rabada is displaying his class in a format
longer than just 20 overs, and Lungi Ngidi is making good use of his experience
with both India and CSK. Every game, on average, they each have a maiden.
Keshav Maharaj’s role as a banker allows Gerald Coetzee the true freedom to be
the eccentric.
In an ideal world, you would want South Africa to bat
first and not be more than two down in 35 overs just to see what really happens
when the best death batters face the best death bowlers. And then see how the
best chasers react against a hostile bowling unit. In these conditions, though,
chances are the bowlers of either side might upset that pattern.