India endured an embarrassing start to their Super 8s stage, courtesy a mammoth 76-run drubbing at the hands of South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday (February 22). Chasing a strong target of 188, India's chase never took off at all as they fell apart completely with just one batter (Shivam Dube) getting past 25 for the defending champions.
The win was set up by South Africa's middle order after they had lost three wickets inside the first six overs. David Miller (63 off 35) and Dewald Brevis (45 off 29) repaired the innings with a well-paced partnership of 97. Miller was the aggressor and looked in ominous touch from the get-go while Brevis was a mixed bag during his knock.
The innings did nosedive a bit after the partnership was broken but Tristan Stubbs (44* off 24) ensured a superb finish to the innings, capping it off with successive sixes to take South AAfrica to 187. Generally, this has been a fine total at Ahmedabad with the team batting first having won all four games where the score was 185-plus. Also, this was a black soil pitch that was a bit on the slower side.
Abhishek Sharma escaped the 'duck jinx' but his partner Ishan Kishan couldn't as India suffered another poor start to their batting innings. However, they could have taken a leaf out of South Africa's innings where they had also recovered from early jitters. That said, the pressure of a run chase alongside being defending champions and the home side is a really heavy combination to tackle mentally.
South Africa's bowlers were on the money and used the pitch to their advantage by mixing up their pace and lengths cleverly. Also, the lack of dew meant that batting was tougher on a slowing surface. If not for Dube's 37-ball 42, India would have ended with a far bigger margin of defeat.
This heavy defeat is a big jolt to India and their net run rate has also taken a severe beating. They have matches against Zimbabwe and West Indies to follow, and it does seem like net run rate could play a massive role in determining the semifinalists. As for South Africa, they did everything right, from the toss where they surprised everyone by opting to bat but it was the right call.
