5 reasons why Team India lost at Durban

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not reflective of the website as a whole.

India came into the 2^nd Test riding on a strong show in the first Test and everyone expected the visitors to challenge the hosts once again with an impressive performance. After a dismal ODI series, India looked to have put the disappointment behind them and came out all guns blazing in Johannesburg to draw an ever swinging match. They carried the confidence to Durban and after winning the toss and electing to bat on a subcontinent type pitch; India put in a commanding performance on day 1 only to lose their way and handed over the Test and the series to the hosts. So where did the Indians falter? Where did they lose the plot? Here I set out to list 5 reasons where the Indians went wrong.

Lack of responsibility

Rohit Sharma had a forgettable tour

Promising players like Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja failed to score big in Johannesburg and once again in Durban, they failed to put on a big score. The responsibility of scoring the runs thus lied solely on the likes of the Kohli and the Pujara who tried valiantly but got caught up in the case of one too many. The sole mantra of occupying the crease vent in vain, and they got out to loose shots thus failing to apply themselves and failed to ensure the team got a big score. Be it Jadeja going for a 6 with the team at 172-7 or Dhoni playing a soft shot, Indian batsmen lacked ideas which eventually lead to the dismissal. No attack stance

Jacques Kallis

Other than Kallis, who scored a fine century, three other South African batsmen scored half centuries and three other missed out narrowly getting out in the 40’s. This goes to show that how comfortable their batsmen were and how they were allowed to set it. Hardly any edges happened and a gap was always on the offering to score easy runs. Never was a leg slip or a short fine leg employed to force the error. At one point, there was a skip missing which in a Test would indicate extreme defensive thinking. The Indians were surely guilty of letting the singles happen, bowling outside the off stump and not attacking enough which thus allowed the South Africans to capitalize.

Wayward pace bowling

Ishant Sharma

Except for in the first innings of the first Test, the pace attack of India never looked threatening enough. Even in Durban, the duo of Zaheer and Shami picked up only 4 wickets between them and Ishant Sharma had to go wicketless compared to six wickets taken by Ravindra Jadeja. They failed to extract pace and bounce from the pitch unlike their South African counterparts. They were guilty of bowling too wide off the off stump hoping for a poor shot instead of attacking the stumps and making the batsman play. Except for Shami, none of the two experimented with short pitch stuff or yorkers making it easy pickings for the inform batting line-up.

No plan to counter Steyn

Dale Steyn celebrates the wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara

Having picket up 9 wickets in the Match, Dale Steyn proved why he is one of the most feared bowlers in the world. After having a dismal outing in the first Test, he was back in full form and vigour as he ripped through the Indian batting. He managed to extract pace and swing from the pitch on the 2^nd day to hand the early blows after which the Indian team collapsed like a pack of cards. Even on the fifth day, his twin strike of Kohli and Pujara were instrumental in India losing the match. He constantly was at the batsman heads which allowed the other end bowler to experiment with the rattled back footed Indian batsmen.

Inability to play short stuff

Ishant Sharma avoiding a short pitched ball

The Indians were done quite often by the short stuff that the South Africans kept throwing at them. Rohit Sharma was hit on the head twice and so was Pujara. The tail was attacked with short pitched stuff and a short fine leg to rattle them. Except for Rahane no Indian batsman looked capable of facing the body blows which pushed them to the back in the crease. The SA bowlers thus gained upper hand by pitching up the ball to invite the edge. Extremely clever lethal bowling came to be the root cause of the Indian team’s fall.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not reflective of the website as a whole.