Cuttack – Bulletproof Truth

India on top except where it matters

“If he gets faster, great for him. If I get faster, great for me.” – Anrich Nortjé on the uncapped Umran Malik.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

INDIA have the top batter, the top three bowlers, and two of the top three totals in their T20I series against South Africa. What the home side don’t have is the series lead. Thus they have no option: deny the South Africans victory in the penultimate match in Rajkot on Friday, or endure the charade of a dead rubber in Bangalore on Sunday.

The visitors kept composed heads under the pressure of a record chase to reel in a target of 212 in Delhi, and they were efficiency on legs in limiting the Indians to 148/6 in Cuttack. But India found their feet — in the first half of their innings and throughout South Africa’s — to pull one back by a record margin in Visakhapatnam.

Considering the format’s reputation for dishing up nothing but empty calorie cricket, this has been an intriguing rubber; more like a clash between skilled, disciplined welterweights than the heavyweight slugfests T20 was allegedly designed to deliver.

Ishan Kishan, the series’ leading run-scorer, has hit the ball fearsomely hard but with as much elegance as power. No-one has taken more wickets than Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal. Bhuvneshwar, in particular, has made for riveting viewing with his unfailing ability to make the ball do his bidding on a bespoke length.

The South African subplot has been no less gripping. David Miller’s matchwinning credentials are well established, but who would have thought Rassie van der Dussen would have batted his way out of the wet paper bag that was the initial stage of his innings to be Miller’s most valuable partner in Delhi? In Cuttack, Quinton de Kock’s absence because of a hand injury conjured an opportunity for Heinrich Klaasen — who took it in style, making his career-best score to put the visitors 2-0 up.

That India found way to bounce back in Vizag was a blessing: one dead rubber would be bad enough; two would have been an awfulness that this keenly contested series wouldn’t have deserved.

And here we are, on the eve of another instalment in the unfolding drama. This one might include De Kock, who was busy in the nets on Thursday — an indication that his hand has healed enough to hold a bat. Might it also feature the as yet uncapped Umran Malik, who lit up the IPL by taking 22 wickets in 14 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad, most of them with deliveries closer to 150 kilometres an hour than 140? Given India’s resurgence in Vizag, where their attack did most of the winning, that seems unlikely.

But De Kock versus Malik … wouldn’t that be something to see.

When: June 17, 2022; 7pm Local Time

Where: Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot

What to expect: Only three T20Is have been played here. In October 2013, Australia’s 201/7 wasn’t enough to stop India winning by six wickets. Four years later New Zealand’s 196/2 proved 40 runs too good for the home side. India won by eight wickets after restricting Bangladesh to 153/6. So there are runs in this pitch, but clever bowling can curb big scores.

Team news:

India: With the series on the line, it’s unlikely the hosts will hand out any debut caps just yet. Unless a last-minute injury concern strikes, India could go in with an unchanged line-up.

Possible XI: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (c, wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal

South Africa: If Quinton de Kock returns, Reeza Hendricks is likely to sit out. Considering De Kock had a hand injury, Heinrich Klaasen might keep wicket. Aiden Markram has returned home after contracting Covid-19.

Possible XI: Temba Bavuma (c), Quinton de Kock, Dwaine Pretorius, Rassie van der Dussen, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortjé, Tabraiz Shamsi

What they said:

“I can’t worry about that because I can’t bowl as fast as Umran, plain and simple. I’ve never been an express fast bowler, so my focus has always been on developing skills around my bowling and whatever limitations and advantages I have. No matter how you do it, winning the game for the team is the ultimate goal.” — Harshal Patel on not trying to be Umran Malik.

“If he gets faster, great for him. If I get faster, great for me. I don’t think we’re competing to try and bowl the fastest ball. It’s about winning games and contributing.” — Anrich Nortjé on not trying to outgun Umran Malik.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Classy Klaasen no poor relation

“It’s a blessing from above that this innings came for me at this time of my career.” – Heinrich Klaasen

Telford Vice | Cape Town

THE poor man’s Quinton de Kock. It’s a slap in Heinrich Klaasen’s face to describe him in those terms, but he can take it. He’s had plenty of experience of being underrated and overlooked, of being doubted and damned by faint praise. And he’s still standing.

“I decided that if I get out today I’d rather go my way and try to be positive,” Klaasen told a press conference in Cuttack on Sunday after scoring a career-best 81 off 46 balls to guide South Africa to victory in the second T20I, and with that a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. “It was just one of those days that it came off. It’s a blessing from above that this innings came for me at this time of my career.”

Among South Africa’s current players, only De Kock, David Miller, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma have scored more runs in the shortest format — all of them except Bavuma in more innings than Klaasen. Only Aiden Markram has a higher strike rate than Klaasen.

And yet Klaasen, who made his debut in February 2018 and has captained South Africa in seven T20Is, has played in only 54 out of a possible 134 matches for South Africa across the formats. He has featured in 21 series, but been involved in all the games in a rubber only 10 times.

Some of Klaasen’s absences are explained by injuries, and it doesn’t help his cause that he is competing for game time with De Kock, the leading South Africa batter of his generation and one of the best wicketkeepers in the game. That teams have at least four vacancies for middle order batters like Klaasen, only two for openers like De Kock — in white-ball matches — and only one for ’keepers like De Kock and Klaasen, complicates the issue. If someone can keep and open the batting, that’s two important boxes ticked.

But De Kock’s retirement from Test cricket in December didn’t earn Klaasen, who has scored 4,893 runs at 45.30 with 11 centuries in his 127 first-class innings, more cracks of the nod. Instead the vacancy was filled by Kyle Verreynne, who is almost six years the 30-year-old Klaasen’s junior and had a first-class average of 51.05 when he made his Test debut a year ago. So it’s up to Klaasen to take whatever chances that come his way, like the one he was given by De Kock being ruled out in Cuttack because of a hand injury.

Sometimes, there has been room for De Kock and Klaasen in South Africa’s XI. De Kock opened the batting and Klaasen kept wicket in the third Test in Ranchi in October 2019 — Klaasen’s only match in the format — and De Kock has been behind the stumps with Klaasen in the field in 24 white-ball internationals. But South Africa’s team isn’t big enough for both of them to play together more regularly.

Bavuma wouldn’t have chosen to be without the devastating De Kock on Sunday, but he was happy he had Klaasen on hand. “It was a fantastic innings by ‘Klaasy’; fantastic ball-striking by him,” Bavuma said in an audio file released by CSA on Monday. South Africa were chasing just 149, but with Bhuvneshwar Kumar in sniping form they had slumped to 29/3 when Klaasen came to the crease in the sixth over. When he holed out to long-on to the last ball of the 17th, South Africa needed only five more runs to win. Klaasen’s eagle eyed, sweet swinging hitting — more than 70% of his runs were smote in fours and sixes — dominated stands of 64 off 41 balls with Bavuma and 51 off 28 with Miller. “I tried to hang around as much as I could and allow a guy like ‘Klaasy’ to get himself in, kind of play around him,” Bavuma said.

Besides a big bat, Klaasen brought sharp thinking to the equation. “I said to Temba that the spinners were the guys we needed to target,” Klaasen said. “The seamers were a little bit up and down, so we could take less risks against them. If we could take the spinners down properly, that’s most of the work done.” Thanks largely to the stellar Bhuvneshwar’s 4/13, India’s economy rate in the 13 overs of seam they bowled was a sparkling 6.00. Their 5.2 overs of spin were more than twice as expensive: an economy rate of 13.13.

“A freak injury with ‘Quinnie’ and his hand [put Klaasen in the XI], and ‘Klaasy’ took that opportunity with both hands,” Bavuma said. “He’s a big player for us in the middle of the innings. We know what he can do. We back him 100%. We have a lot of belief in him, and he showed again why he’s a part of this team.”

Team management have told Cricbuzz that De Kock underwent scans on his hand on Monday, but that his status won’t be confirmed before the third T20I in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. So Reeza Hendricks seems set to open the batting again and ’keeper Klaasen is likely to be given another go in the middle order, and that with the series waiting to be won. If Klaasen delivers another performance like Sunday’s, India will struggle to keep the rubber alive.

South Africa are stronger when De Kock is in the mix, but they aren’t weaker when the poor man’s De Kock plays instead. Not for nothing, ‘Klaasy’ rhymes with classy.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Klaasen king in Cuttack

“A lot of people were gunning for my head and a lot of staff members have backed me. This is one way to say thank you to them.” – Heinrich Klaasen

Telford Vice | Cape Town

UNTIL the last two overs of India’s innings on Sunday, it seemed South Africa were set to continue their brief but charmed relationship with Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium. The visitors had played there only once before — in a T20I in October 2015 — but their six-wicket win was India’s only loss in their last nine completed games at the ground going back to January 2007.

Here we go again, the South Africans might have been thinking after 18 overs. India had dwindled to 118/6, and Dinesh Karthik had faced only 14 balls and Harshal Patel just four. Anrich Nortjé and Dwaine Pretorius, who would bowl those last two overs, had taken 3/46 in the six overs they had sent down between them: an economy rate of 7.67 and a strike rate of 12.00.

The full house of 45,000 were restless with unease. India have played on 49 grounds at home. Only on nine of them do they have a better win/loss ratio than at the Barabati. But the national team had last visited the ground in December 2019 for an ODI against West Indies, and before that in December 2017. Were the crowd’s lesser spotted guests to let them down? Only three of India’s first 18 overs had yielded 10 or more runs each, and eight had gone for five or fewer each. Was something not much better than the 92 all out — India’s total in that 2015 T20I against South Africa — on the cards?

The nervous murmuring in the stands only grew as Nortjé limited Harshal and Karthik to singles off the first four balls of the 19th. Karthik pulled and cut fours off the last two deliveries, which were separated by a wide. Pretorius began the last over with an off-side half-volley, which Harshal duly clubbed through mid-off for four. Harshal missed a big-eyed slash at a widish leg cutter, and took a single to cover off another. That allowed Karthik into the frame to launch consecutive sixes over mid-off and down the ground, mighty blows that flew far into the suddenly giddy crowd. A mere single trickled off the bottom edge of Karthik’s bat to end the innings, but he had done his bit with a 21-ball 30 not out. Those last two overs had gifted the total 30 precious runs.

Considering India had lost 4/50 from the seventh to the 14th overs, showing the wisdom of Temba Bavuma not deploying a spinner until the ninth over and for only four overs in all, their 148/6 represented a significant recovery. The fans seemed if not happy then at least satisfied that their team were putting up a fight. They probably hadn’t factored in that only in a dozen of India’s 62 T20Is at home have their recorded lower totals.

The odds were surely tilted in India’s favour by a pitch that wasn’t ill-suited to the occasion, but which did demand the full attention of all who batted on it — a surface that required perfect timing and steady application; qualities that aren’t always apparent among batting successes in this format. As David Miller said in his television interview: “If it’s keeping low every now and again, it does get into your head. You’re never sure whether to go forward or back.” Quinton de Kock’s absence because of a wrist injury further complicated South Africa’s task, and was keenly felt when masterful swing bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar did for Reeza Hendricks, Pretorius and Rassie van der Dussen inside the powerplay with only 29 runs scored. Bhuvneshwar “got the ball to talk” Bavuma acknowledged on television.

Enter De Kock’s replacement behind the stumps, Heinrich Klaasen, to play perhaps the innings of his life and certainly his first for South Africa since October 2021. Invariably a cool head under pressure, Klaasen went several degrees cooler still in a stand of 64 off 41 balls with Bavuma and an effort of 51 off 28 with Miller. That the cussed, curatorial Bavuma should have scored only 15 runs with Klaasen is no surprise for a selfless soul who is content to get the job done without fanfare. But it takes some doing to overshadow the marauding Miller, who faced just six deliveries fewer than Klaasen while they were together but contributed exactly half as many as the wicketkeeper-batter’s 32 runs to the partnership.

The sweat shook off Klaasen as his innings wore on, and some of his singles were hobbled rather than run because of cramp. But he kept swinging sweetly and connecting crunchily, hitting seven fours and five sixes in his 46-ball 81 — which was ended just five runs away from victory when he holed out to Harshal to end the 17th. Had being able to study the pitch at close quarters during India’s innings helped him come to terms with how to bat on it, he was asked on television. “It always gives you an indication, but that didn’t make it easier.”

Klaasen has played 54 matches for South Africa in all formats, always done a solid job in the gloves and pads, and made a white-ball century along with seven half-centuries. But, in a cricket culture that is frequently dazzled by the emphatic and that doesn’t often appreciate the understated, Klaasen is the kind of player too readily deemed expendable. “A lot of people were gunning for my head and a lot of staff members have backed me,” he said. “This is one way to say thank you to them.”

The gratitude to Klaasen for this win, nailed down by four wickets with 10 balls to spare, and meaning South Africa need only one more from the three remaining games to claim the series, should go a lot further than the dressing room.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Bavuma bats for water, not beer

“Once you’re in the game you’ve got to try and stay in the battle, and hopefully your body keeps up with everything.” – Temba Bavuma on playing in India’s heat.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

SOUTH Africans and sunshine are hardly strangers, but Delhi has dazzled, dehydrated and dessicated Temba Bavuma and his squad ahead of their series of five T20Is against India that starts in the capital on Thursday.

“We expected it to be hot, but not this hot,” Bavuma told a press conference on Wednesday, when the temperature reached 46 degrees Celsius. “We’re fortunate that the games are being played at night, when it’s bearable. During the day guys are trying to look after themselves as much as possible and drinking a lot more water than the normal beer they drink at home. [They’re trying] to just keep as mentally fresh as they can.”

The heat had already soared past 40 degrees when the South Africans arrived at 9.30am (IST) on Thursday. It rose to 47 in the hours that followed. Since then, the recorded high has not been lower than 45. The forecast says it will be 43 when the teams take the field at 7pm (IST) on Thursday, when 47 is the apex.

A smidgen of rain — 0.1 millimetres, or not enough to fill a thimble — is predicted for Saturday, but so is a high of 46. By then, the teams will have journeyed 1,260 kilometres to the east for Sunday’s match in Cuttack — where the temperature is set to peak at 40 degrees on match day, the lowest it’s been there this month. It is set to climb to 48 on Saturday, when the players will complete their preparations for the second T20I. And to think Bavuma and his players jetted out of Johannesburg with the mercury reading 19. Compared with Wednesday’s wave of warmth, that’s 27 degrees of separation.

“It’s not something we’re used to at home,” Bavuma said. “Cramping, hydration and fatiguing are big things. You can only get used to it by actually playing in this type of heat.” His advice to his players was to “hydrate yourself as much as you can, manage your energies as much as you can, try and recover as well as you can in and around the games.” Because, hot or not, there’s a match to be won: “Once you’re in the game you’ve got to try and stay in the battle, and hopefully your body keeps up with everything.”

But the visitors had familiarised themselves with other elements of the conditions: “We got to play a practice game on one of the side wickets. [The bounce] was a bit lower than what we’re used to back home, but it didn’t really spin more than it stopped. It felt like it got better to bat on as the night went on.”

The series will mark the first time the teams have met since January, when South Africa won a home ODI series 3-0 after rallying from losing the first of three intensely contested Tests to claim that rubber 2-1.

South Africa have won and drawn their two previous bilateral T20I series in India, and would seem to have a good chance of adding to their successes. They have arrived with a full strength squad, but India have rested Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, who played in all of their teams’ IPL fixtures. On Wednesday, KL Rahul — who was to have stood in for Sharma as captain — and Kuldeep Yadav were added to an injury list that had already featured Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav. Rishabh Pant will now lead the home side.

But Bavuma knew he wasn’t in Kansas anymore: “We were able to get the better of India a few months ago, but these are different looking guys. There’s a lot of younger, fresher faces in the team, guys who have a big point to prove, guys who would like to stake a claim for their position in the Indian team. We won’t be expecting anything easy. We’re not here thinking everything is going to happen the same way as it did in South Africa. We know we’re going to have to play good cricket.”

And drink plenty of water. Not beer.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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