Well the last and the final match of the ICC T20 world super eight between India and South Africa was not only a formality for both the teams playing out there but at the end of the day, one could come to the conclusion that the opposite of India is South Africa. For, if South Africa had won all three matches in the super eight stage, the other team namely India lost all of its three matches that it played in the super eight. Whether India could have won the match or not being a different issue altogether, there was no reason as to why South Africa despite being cautious in their batting could not cross 150 run mark.
The South African team lost just 5 wickets at the end of their batting innings. And there was a time in the South African batting innings when they had been without a boundary for as many as 55 balls. And the entire South African batting never saw the ball clearing the ropes. On the other hand, team India could do this on two occasions, one by Harbhajan Singh and the other by Yuvraj Singh. Though India could not as a team score more runs than South Africa, they could score more number of sixes and bowl just one wide delivery as compared to the 4 wides bowled by South African bowlers.
After the match against South Africa, the Indian team join hands with New Zealand who could just beat minnow teams like Ireland and Bangladesh and that too in the initial and inconsequential stage of the tournament. New Zealand had wins only against Ireland and Scotland and were no match either for Pakistan or for Sri Lanka. In fact, Ireland could pose some trouble for Sri Lanka than the New Zealand could do. However, India came close to winning matches against both South Africa and England where the margin of victory was too little. A little bit of initiative from Dhoni as a captain and as a batsman could have made things comfortable for team India I suppose.
Both South Africa and India in this particular match were playing for pride with India trying to convince its fans back home with a consolation win and South Africa maintaining their winning streak and extend their winning tally to 7 in a row (2 against Australia,1 each against India, West Indies, New Zealand, England & Scotland). It was fascinating to see the strike bowlers for India viz Zaheer Khan R P Singh being dictated by the South African batsmen while lesser known bowlers in Suresh Raina taking the wicket of Jean Paul Duminy. Yuvraj bowled 4 overs while Zaheer bowled 3 and R P Singh bowled just 2. Nevermind Dhoni for not giving the ball to the hands of R P Singh.
Similarly, Harbhajan Singh scored a six and a four when Yousuf Pathan, Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself could not cross the double digit mark successsively. I think that this is the ghost haunting India and in turn responsible for their debacle in this world cup. Bowlers are forced to turn batsmen and batsmen need to take wickets. Should one feel happy for the batting skills of bowlers or is there a need to make the players realize where their real talent lies is still an unanswered question.
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