India VS South Africa 2015: Bowling lets down Men in Blue

Not too long ago, a total of 200 was considered safe in T20 cricket. Not anymore, and certainly not with the Indian bowling attack.

Notwithstanding the sheer audacity and freedom with which batsmen play their shots these days, the dew factor at Dharamsala, or the featherbed on offer at the picturesque ground, MS Dhoni – and a certain Rohit Sharma – would've hoped 199/5 was enough runs for his bowlers to play with. Instead, South Africa looked in total control right from the time Hashim Amla clipped Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a boundary off the first ball of their run chase.

The seven-wicket victory for the tourists in the first T20 International on Friday sent out two important messages for the hosts: A. the South Africans mean serious business, B. batting alone won't win India too many games.

It's the latter that is likely to give more headaches to Dhoni as the series progresses. It's alright for a bowling unit to concede runs in T20s, for that's the name of the game in the modern era. But the number of boundary balls dished out by the Indian bowlers ensured South Africa crossed the line with relative ease. And that irked the Indian captain.

"Looking at the conditions, it was more of a war of batsmen," Dhoni said at the post-match press conference. "At times you have to take pressure off the bowlers. Definitely, sides will hit big shots. But once you get hit, how you come back and bowl the next delivery 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."

There was a message in there for the young Axar Patel, who gave away 22 runs in the 16th over. JP Duminy, who scored a match-winning 68*, smashed Patel for a six over deep midwicket in the third delivery. The left-arm spinner responded by bowling the next two balls flatter and shorter, and Duminy was all the more happy to inflict the same damage. Not the kind of comeback Dhoni was talking about.

In fact, there were only four overs out of the 20 in which the hosts did not concede a single boundary. Save R Ashwin, all the other bowlers – Bhuvneshwar, Sreenath Aravind, Mohit Sharma and Patel – went for 10 runs or more in an over.

"There were phases in the game, at least two phases of four deliveries each where we gave away lot of runs. That actually put lot of pressure.

"The effort was good. (A score of) 200 was close to par but we could have done slightly better in bowling. You cannot give too many runs in those six balls. You have bad overs but you have to restrict it to maybe 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," Dhoni said.

That's the second time the skipper stressed on not leaking too many runs. Are the Indian bowlers listening?

N ZONE
4
No. of overs out of the 20 in which the Indian bowlers did not concede a single four or a six during the South African run chase

67
No. of runs India gave away in the first six overs, the most they have leaked in the powerplay without taking a wicket in T20I

20
No. of sixes hit in the match, which is the most in a T20I in India. South Africans hit nine, while the Indians smashed 11

Disappointing we couldn't win the game: Rohit

Rohit Sharma, who slammed a scintillating 66-ball 106 on Friday, said he was disappointed that his century wasn't enough for India to win the match. "Any hundred you get for your country in any format is always special and I will cherish this. Unfortunately it didn't come in a winning cause, which is disappointing. It doesn't matter how many runs you score. You are not happy if your team doesn't win at the end of the day. But personally, I felt good batting out there," Rohit told bcci.tv.

The opener, who became only the second Indian batsmen to score a ton in the shortest format of the game, said the team management had discussed the need for a top-order batsman to stay till the last phase of the innings. "The idea behind my batting has been to push myself forward and keep batting till the end. We had a chat within the team that one batsman from the top four has to bat till the 16th or 17th over. I am glad I could do that," he said.