Cape Town — South Africa are suitably chastened, embarrassed and will hope that it does not happen again anytime soon.
They will hope to leave Thiruvananthapuram and their batting catastrophe in the first T20I at the Greenfield International Stadium in their distance as they move on towards Guwahati, desperate to avoid a repeat in the second match against India on Sunday.
To be reduced to 9/5 within 15 balls of the innings is as unacceptable as it comes in international cricket. The fact that they rallied to 106/8 is merely a reflection of how inept they were against the moving ball up front.
Such batting collapses have become the way of the Proteas Test side. But not the men in colours, particularly those who take guard in the shortest format.
This is a squad that boasts batters filled with the confidence of winning five out of six series, chasing down record totals on their last visit to the subcontinent, and the self-assurance to bench an opener that has struck four half-centuries in his last five visits to the crease.
It’s also not like they did not know what was coming their way. Captain Temba Bavuma, who started the rot on his return to the side with a four-ball duck, called it correctly in the pre-match briefing when he acknowledged:
“They get the ball to swing and move quite a bit in the Powerplay. I think probably a little more than what we are accustomed to back home. The key is to limit the damage and not let those wickets fall.”
But knowing that it's going to swing, and then actually dealing with it, are two entirely different matters altogether, for South Africa duly obliged by providing a hapless response, which in many cases suggested that they had never before encountered lateral movement.
Bavuma was trumped in the simplest manner. Deepak Chahar dished out three out-swingers before landing the sucker punch with a beautiful inswinger that rattled the skipper’s stumps.
With the Proteas door opened, Arshdeep Singh burst through and immediately removed Quinton de Kock with the first ball of his spell before closing out the over with Rilee Rossouw and David Miller’s scalps.
South Africa were in all sorts, and it soon became worse, when R9.2 million man Tristan Stubbs edged his first ball from Chahar down to third man for the fourth duck of the innings.
It left Aiden Markram (25), Wayne Parnell (24) and Keshav Maharaj (41) with just too much to do in the hope of putting together some form of a total capable of defending.
With the required rate just 5.35 runs per over, India’s chase could always be measured and never hastened. They were able to absorb their slowest ever Powerplay in T20I cricket with just 17 runs compiled in the first six overs.
And even the loss of superstar pairing Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje respectively never had them fazed.
KL Rahul (51 not out) and the in-form Suryakumar Yadav (50 not out) controlled the chase with an unbroken partnership of 93 for the third wicket as the hosts comfortably hauled in South Africa’s paltry total to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Scorecard
South Africa: 106/8 (Maharaj 41, Markram 25, Parnell 24, Singh 3/24, Chahar 2/24, Patel 2/26)
India: 110/2 (KL Rahul 51*, Yadav 50*, Rabada 1/16, Nortje 1/32)
India won by 8 wickets, lead series 1-0
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