Dharamsala: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that two or three bad overs that saw too many boundaries being leaked cost them the first cricket Twenty20 International against South Africa here.
Indian bowlers were unable to defend their 199-run total at the HPCA Stadium as South Africa took lead in three-match series with a comfortable seven-wicket win.
Young left-arm spinner Axar Patel was hammered around the park with Man of the Match Jean-Paul Duminy (68 not out) hitting him for three sixes in the 16th over, collecting 22 runs. Dhoni said it was imperative for the bowlers to make a strong comeback after being taken to task but that did not happen.
“Looking at the conditions it was more of a war of batsmen. At times you have to take pressure off the bowlers, definitely the sides will hit big shots. Once you get hit, how you come back and bowl the next delivery that is very important. You can’t get hit for three sixes or boundaries in an over that gives a lot of runs and gives momentum to the opposition batsmen” Dhoni said after the match.
The captain though was not too unhappy with his bowlers, considering the favourable conditions for the batsmen, but said two or three bad overs intermittently hurt them badly.
After Patel’s poor 16th over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded a six and a four in the first two balls of the penultimate over and that took the game away from India.
“There were phases in the game, at least two phases of four deliveries each where we gave away lot of runs. That actually put a lot of pressure. Overall I think, when you score 200 on a good wicket, there will be considerable pressure on the bowlers to defend because opposition will also look to chase down the total.
“The effort was good, 200 was close to par score but we could have done slightly better in bowling. You can not give too many runs in those six balls. You have bad overs but you have to restrict it to may be 12 or 15 runs and that helps the bowler coming after you. You have to keep choking the batsmen to win a game like this,” he said.
Duminy said the 16th over in which the visitors gathered 22 runs turned the opening T20 cricket match in their favour. “The start was crucial for us. I think the key was that we did not lose wickets in the six overs. And the way AB and Hash (Amla) played was exceptional. The turning point was the 16th over. We tried to find a big over and that was 16th,” the left-hander, who hit his eighth T20 half-century, said after the match.
South Africa lost three wickets in quick succession after the openers put on a 77-run stand but Duminy then combined with Farhaan Behardien (32 not out) to stitch 105-run unbeaten partnership for the fourth wicket.
“We tried to stay in the moment and understand what was required at particular time. We have batted together a few times and our understanding has improved. The focus was to build partnership, the required run-rate was 14-15 at that time,” he said.
Duminy said he got into rhythm very quickly and playing well in the warm-up game in Palam helped him in a big way. “The warm-up played a big part. Having two months off, you want to start off with a bang. I enjoyed the break and the warm-up game was my first in two months. I needed to read the ball quickly. That worked for me in this game,” he said.
