India’s batting against SA: Dr Jekyll turns into Mr Hyde!

The disgusted look on Gary Kirsten’s face said it all. After all, India revealed their Jekyll and Hyde side in the span of one innings, and that after having the opposition ate out of their hands for the better part of it.

There is no other way to explain how India gave up their hold on the match they seemed to have firmly in their grip.

That the aggression was not limited to one bowler alone showed how dominant and merciless Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar had been on the South Africans, forcing them to bowl in areas that are bread and butter to the Indian batsmen. Bowling half volleys way outside the off stump or feeding Sehwag on his legs were certainly not what South Africa would have planned in their team strategy. But the ferocity of the shot making and the speed with which the scoreboard was rattling had clearly unnerved the South Africans. Graeme Smith, at one point, would have thought he had no one to turn to anymore for respite.

India’s projected score read 427. Despite Sehwag’s dismissal, brought about by a combination of his own adventurous streak and some common sense bowling by Faf du Plessis, India still had it in them to push towards the magical 400 as Tendulkar was there to propel the sublime force of the juggernaut. But once Tendulkar was dismissed in the 40th over, things changed dramatically.

If the first 18 overs went by in a daze for the South Africa, the final 10 underlined why they have been such a strong force to reckon with over the years. In the subcontinent, where acceleration in the final 15 overs is as vital as going for glory at the final slog with wickets in hand, India committed the cardinal sin of being individually overambitious only to underachieve.

Sensible running between wickets was not an option. Instead injudicious shots became the order of the day. At one point in the match, it seemed it was a toss-up between Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli as to who would take Sehwag’s blitz further. However, the dominance for the better part of 30 overs was quickly banished from the minds as the Nagpur crowds bore witness to the fall from grace as batsman after another tried their hand at personal glory ahead of sensible running between the wickets to ensure Mahendra Singh Dhoni had the maximum opportunity with the strike.

For South Africa, if the vociferous Nagpur crowd was too much to take in the heat, their deafening silence was sweet music at the end of it all. Dale Steyn, who had a rare rank bad day at the office early on, emerged like a Phoenix to claim five of the nine Indian wickets to fall for the mere addition of 29 runs.

India were barely lucky to tie with England after similar transgressions in Bengaluru. They certainly cannot afford to surrender the initiative too often if they want to be counted amongst the best teams and go on to win the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

Source: http://www.cricketcountry.com/cricket-articles/India-s-batting-against-SA-Dr-Jekyll-turns-into-Mr-Hyde-/1172?utm_source=P%3DCB&utm_medium=300*600Html&utm_campaign=300*600Html