India (Rohit 122*) beat South Africa 227 for 9 (Morris 42, Chahal 4-51) by six wickets
00:57
Whoooooooosh.
That’s the sound of ball beating bat. South Africa were not in control of nine of the first 12 balls that Jasprit Bumrah bowled.
Crrrraaaccckkkkkk.
That’s the sound of ball hitting bat. And breaking it. Kagiso Rabada made sure the entire world could hear it. But outside of that match-up, South Africa really had nothing to offer India.
They’d lost Dale Steyn. They don’t know when Lungi Ngidi will be fit again. And they can’t ask AB de Villiers to come back. Meanwhile, the other team had the world’s best batsman, one of the bowlers of this generation, and two highly-skilled wristspinners. Essentially, this game was like an Angry Bird fighting Thanos.
The impression hit home even further when Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav worked in tandem. From 78 for 2, it was quickly 89 for 5 as the revolutions those two put on the ball produced dip, drift and sheer magic.
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Rassie van der Dussen tried to reverse sweep his way out of trouble and was bowled. JP Duminy tried to play off the back foot, hoping to read the turn off the pitch. Out lbw. Even their captain, Faf du Plessis, couldn’t keep a slider from crashing into his stumps.
South Africa were on a recovery missing from that point on and though Chris Morris did rather well in the final overs, walloping 42 off 34 balls, the early damage was just too much. That is why Bumrah was the biggest influence in this game and watching him was a pleasure.
The fast bowler’s glare tends to go down in history. But it’s even cooler when they smirk. It’s almost as if they’re telling the batsmen, “heh, is it that easy to beat you?”
Bumrah’s upper lip curled several times in his first over on World Cup debut. He had Quinton de Kock – a legitimate contender for Man of the Series in this tournament – looking like a cardboard cut-out. Everything zipped past the edge and each time, the bowler just smirked. Each time, all he did was smirk.
A wicket looked around the corner, except it was Hashim Amla who fell, caught at first slip, off the first ball he faced from Bumrah. Du Plessis walked in with three slips behind him.
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The level of cricket at this World Cup is a function of the pitches being rolled out (and maybe the 10.30am start as well). Groundsmen all across England have been good enough to leave a little grass on the pitches – it was uneven in Southampton, resulting in several balls kicking up off a length – and that’s made the contest between bat and ball all the more compelling. So making runs here mattered. It signalled that you had the bottle to succeed. And Rohit Sharma showed plenty.
A few of his 122 runs came off mis-hits. He was even dropped on 1 when Rabada was in the middle of a scary good spell. But then, in the eighth over, he hit a glorious pull shot and never looked back. Braving through very difficult spells of fast bowling is a part of his game that doesn’t get enough credit.
“Couldn’t play my natural game,” Rohit said at the presentation. “You have to play out and see what the ball was doing and take your time to play those shots. Certain shots that I love to play, I had to cut it down and make sure I play close to the body and make sure I leave as many balls as possible in the initial spell. Those are the basics that you had to do on a pitch like that and that’s what I was trying to do.”
More to follow…
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo