South Africa vs India 2013: 5 talking points from the 1st ODI

Quinton de Kock took the attack to the Indian bowlers

When you lose the first match of a 3 match series, it is always hard to come back from there. Even more so, when the first match is lost as badly as India lost to South Africa in the first ODI of the series at the Bullring in Johannesburg. India, in the coming games, would want to show that they’re a better batting unit than the one that put up a sorry excuse for a batting display today. Here are 5 major talking points from the first ODI.

1. South Africa got off to the perfect start

South Africa’s achilles heel in recent ODIs has been the fact that their openers have not given them the starts for the power-packed middle-order to carry on from. Very often, the likes of JP Duminy, AB de Villiers and David Miller have been burdened with having to rescue the innings after a top-order collapse.

But, that was not the case today. Some ordinary bowling at the start, by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in particular, and very intelligent batting ensured that Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock got South Africa off to just the kind of start they would have so craved for. The score read 152 when Amla was dismissed and that ensured that the middle order could come out and do what they do best.

2. India are still a poor death-bowling side

When you concede 135 off the last ten overs, 84 of them in the last five, you know that there is something going woefully wrong there. Mohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami got it all wrong at the death and were punished by Duminy and de Villiers. As much as the Indian bowlers were poor in executing their skills, credit also has to be given to the South African duo for the way they took advantage of some horrendous bowling to make sure that the platform laid by de Kock and Amla didn’t prove to be futile.

3. Dale Steyn v Rohit Sharma was a mismatch

In an opening spell that spewed venom, Dale Steyn could’ve had Rohit Sharma out atleast a dozen times. Steyn stuck to his off-stump channel, generated that late swing and cranked up the pace as well, leaving Rohit clueless. Rohit was so much at sea, that it took him until the 17th ball he faced – all from Steyn – to score his first runs. If those opening 3 overs from Steyn to Rohit were a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the bout and awarded it to Steyn.

Rohit better come to terms with Steyn’s tricks or India might face a similar situation in the remaining two ODIs and the two tests that follow.

4. Yuvraj Singh – Major cause for concern

Yuvraj Singh’s place in the team is in doubt

2 balls. That is all he lasted for his 3rd duck in his last 8 ODI innings. Yuvraj has certainly had better phases in his ODI career. The two balls he faced: The first one, a bouncer that was uncomfortably fended off the glove into the short leg region. Ryan McLaren followed that delivery up with the sucker punch, bowling a full one, catching Yuvraj on the crease and knocking his stumps over.

Right now, Yuvraj is on borrowed time, and it might not be long, before we see him being replaced by Ambati Rayudu or Ajinkya Rahane.

5. Dhoni makes a statement

Once all those wickets fell, not even the great ability of MS Dhoni could’ve brought India back into the game. But, what Dhoni’s 65 atleast did, was send a message across to the Proteas that the leader will stand tall. More importantly, it put across the message to his troops that there were no demons in the wicket, and if the demons in the head could be combatted, all could go right.

Dhoni shielded the tail, struck some lusty blows, and was prepared to fight it out before playing an innocuous delivery from Steyn on to his stumps. The skipper will certainly hope that his innings sent a message across to the troops.

It was maybe the pitch, maybe the lack of proper time to acclimatize to the conditions, but India are certainly a better ODI side than the one that showed up at The Wanderers, and Dhoni will be looking for a sharp response come Durban on Sunday.