Bowlers come to the party as India open account
Axar Patel returned with figures of three for 39. (Source: PTI)
MANY must have been surprised when Mahendra Singh Dhoni picked Axar Patel over leggie Amit Mishra for the second ODI in Indore. A few had wondered whether this gamble will pay off and others insisted that it was a defensive move. It’s not to say that it’s a fool-proof plan that could always work in the future, but on a day when everything that he touched turned gold, just like so many days he has had in the past, Dhoni saw Axar Patel share five wickets with Harbhajan Singh and help defend a modest 247.
Incidentally, both Axar and Harbhajan also chipped in with crucial runs with the bat that had allowed Dhoni to stretch the score towards respectability. Three men who haven’t had the best of the times recently did the job for India.
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After a long while, Dhoni had a day when things rolled in his favour. Firstly, he got back amongst the runs with an unbeaten 92 and then saw his bowlers bowl with admirable control to restrict South Africa. At the end of the day, Dhoni talked up his bowlers, saying that it was them who gave India this victory, not just with the ball but also with their vital contribution with the bat. When India were tottering at124 for 6, Dhoni found enough support from his bowlers to add another crucial 123 runs.
The Indian captain said he wasn’t sure whether the total was enough to defend but the bowlers ensured India script a thrilling win at the Holkar Stadium. Especially, when you consider the confident start South Africa had made. The openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock added 32 runs in five overs and things looked rather dire at that point. The ball wasn’t doing much on this track and it was then that Dhoni decided to call his most experienced offie Harbhajan Singh, and followed by Patel from other end.
Double spin attack, in the end, proved the difference. Patel is bit quick in air while Harbhajan comes with plenty of variations and together the spinners managed to get wickets at regular intervals. With a little bit of help from the South Africans. Two balls after he had charged Patel for a four, Amla went for a repeat, but this time Patel had bowled it a touch slow and also, got it to turn a little. Amla was left stranded as Dhoni did the rest.
It was then the turn of Harbhajan to lure de Kock. He tossed one across and de Kock took up the challenge but he couldn’t quite go as much inside-out as he would have liked. Instead, he ended up lobbing the ball to long-off. Still, it seemed South Africa were in firm control as Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy looked completely assured in the middle, and it still seemed that it would end up an one-sided affair. They kept rotating the strike, and took attack to the seamers.
Pushed to the wall, Dhoni again called up his spinners. And Patel responded to his captain’s call by trapping Duminy, who had gone for a sweep shot and was hit on his pad in front of the stumps. Patel wasn’t done yet; a over later, he had du Plessis chipping straight to Kohli at cover – he had come down the track and was looking to chip it over Kohli but couldn’t find the required elevation. Axar Patel had taken three and suddenly, the momentum was with India.
However, there was that man AB de Villiers still left. When he charged Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who had just forced David Miller to edge behind, for a four and a straight six, Dhoni brought on Mohit Sharma. De Villiers tried to force a shot, going too hard and almost flat-batting it, and ended up not getting the timing or the placement right and Kohli took a good tumbling catch to his left at cover to put India firmly on the top.
De Villiers later blamed himself for that soft dismissal that had turned the game. There are not many limited-overs game in Indian tracks where the bowlers can go back happy and proud but Wednesday night in Indore was one such night.
