A hard-fought triumph was lost amidst the heavy hearts of the Indian cricketers and their ardent fans.
A victory by the narrowest of margins — one run — was secured, but the larger goal was missed as India defeated South Africa, yet crashed out of the ICC World Twenty20.
Prior to the Super Eights Group II match at the R. Premadasa Stadium here on Tuesday, India’s net run-rate (-0.452) was far below leader Australia (+0.464) and second-placed Pakistan (+0.273).
To surpass that gap, India had to defeat South Africa by a margin of 31 runs or more after scoring 152 for six.
The Proteas replied with 151 in 19.5 overs and accompanied M.S. Dhoni’s men towards the exit gate.
The early part of the South African chase pointed towards a rousing night. Zaheer Khan nailed Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis failed to clear the inner-circle and Man-of-the-Match Yuvraj Singh castled South African captain A.B. de Villiers.
At 46 for three, seemingly hurtling towards another loss, South Africa found belated cheer in Faf du Plessis’s 65 (38b, 6x4, 2x6) which also dented India’s chances.
Drafted into the South African playing eleven ahead of Richard Levi, du Plessis hoisted Zaheer and Rohit Sharma for a six each and heartily tucked into an Irfan Pathan over.
The tail added a furious twist but the ignominy of a loss was prevented with L. Balaji conceding two sixes, but claiming two wickets in the contest’s last over.
Earlier, boxed into a corner after Pakistan defeated Australia, India needed its batsmen to fire once de Villiers elected to field.
The top-order, however, failed, but Suresh Raina (45, 34b, 5x4) propped up the innings. Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli failed while Yuvraj offered minor relief through sixes off Johan Botha and Robin Peterson.
The southpaw, however, failed to dig out a Morne Morkel yorker and then Raina and Rohit shared a 44-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
Raina clouted the spinners, picked a four each off Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn and later hustled the runs with Dhoni before India resigned itself to an anguished night.
Scoreboard
India
Gautam Gambhir b Morne Morkel 8
Virender Sehwag b Peterson 17
Virat Kohli c de Villiers b Kallis 2
Rohit Sharma lbw b Peterson 25
Yuvraj Singh b Morne Morkel 21
Suresh Raina run out 45
Mahendra Singh Dhoni not out 23
Extras- (10lb, 1nb) 11
TOTAL- (for six wickets) 152
Overs- 20.
Fall of wickets- 1—23, 2—30, 3—36, 4—68, 5—112, 6—152.
Bowling- Dale Steyn 4—1—26—0, Morne Morkel 4—0—28—2 (1nb), Jacques Kallis 3—0—24—1, Robin Peterson 4—0—25—2, Johan Botha 3—0—30—0, Faf du Plessis 1—0—3—0, JP Duminy 1—0—6—0.
South Africa
Jacques Kallis c Sharma b Pathan 6
AB de Villiers b Singh 13
Faf du Plessis c Raina b Singh 65
JP Duminy c Gambhir b Balaji 16
Farhaan Behardien c Raina b Khan 13
Robin Peterson b Khan 10
Albie Morkel b Balaji 10
Johan Botha c Raina b Ashwin 8
Dale Steyn not out 0
Morne Morkel b Balaji 6
Extras- (3lb, 1nb) 4
TOTAL- (all out) 151
Overs- 19.5.
Fall of wickets- 1—0, 2—16, 3—46, 4—95, 5—107, 6—127, 7—127, 8—138, 9—145.
Bowling- Zaheer Khan 4—0—22—3, Irfan Pathan 3—0—26—1, Yuvraj Singh 4—0—23—2, Rohit Sharma 1—0—13—0, Ravichandran Ashwin 4—0—27—1 (1nb), Lakshmipathy Balaji 3.5—0—37—3.
Keywords: 2012 World Twenty20
The notable feature of the Indian team is the return of Yuvraj. It is not just a cricketing success but an exceptional story of true human spirit. That story is yet to be told and told well.
Global cricket has become highly competitive sport. It demands physical fitness of highest level. Gambhir, Sehwag and Zaheer don't have it any more. It is better if Gambhir and Zaheer play just in tests for India and Sehwag along with Tendulkar retire from all formats.
Rohit Sharma is young and he has talent. It is better to lose matches with younger players than the old and the non-fit. India probably had a chance to win the Cup if they had picked younger and fitter opening pair of batsmen.
It is about time that India starts assessing the usefulness of MSD as
a captain. His on-field tactics were puzzling at best; no conscious
efforts were made to contain singles that were freely available when
the total to contain SA was a paltry 121. The SA struggles against
spin and our captain, who did wonders for India, still dropped
Harbhajan. This can happen only in India. Gambhir, Sehwag and Rohit
Sharma and MSD were total failures and yet, we still find comfort in
winning 4 of 5 matches.
Pakistan was lucky to go through but they delivered in style when it
mattered the most. Sri Lanka has been a consistent performer for a
long long time. I hope they lift the trophy, which they truly deserve.
As far as India is concerned, it's probably time for a change of guard; however, there isn't any suitable alternative. Nevertheless, a few important home series are coming along, which would give the new leader to build to gain confidence ahead of the next few seasons and 2015.
(1) With Indian team’s exit from ICC Twenty 20 World Cup tournament, time has come to reassess our batting strength which is very good on paper but in not good enough when it matters. (2) Poor or below par batting performance by top order, especially of Gautam Gambhir, Sehwag and Rohit Sharma in the Super eight matches has once again demonstrated that we fail as a team and those who under-perform generally get away without much punishment.(3) Obviously time has come to reassess our strength and think of a new strategy for upcoming Test matches series.
I dont see any need for any Indian heart to break.After crushing Pakistan to an ignominos defeat and beating the south Africans though by one run Indians can return home with their heads held high.
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