In their crucial Super 12 encounter in the Men's T20 World Cup against South Africa, India was supposed to draw on their knowledge from a ten-day camp in Perth that began in early October. But everything went against South Africa, save for Rohit Sharma choosing to bat first and fast bowlers holding them to 24/3 in 5.3 overs.
In addition, they had to contend with the fact that Dinesh Karthik, their first-choice wicketkeeper, had to leave the field during South Africa's run-chase owing to a lower back injury despite making six runs with the bat. For the remainder of the game, Rishabh Pant assumed keeping responsibilities in his place.
"He was having some back problems. After this, I never ran into him (match ended). Whatever the physio's report is, we'll find out what's going on once we return to the hotel "said veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the news conference following the game.
The four-man pace attack, led by Lungi Ngidi's 4/29, made India's batting fears come true as their score of 133/9 in 20 overs demonstrated. South Africa's bowlers called the strokes with good usage of the short ball and mixed with pace, making for a dangerous combination.
India had some opportunities to return to the field by catching, a position South Africa had dominated in the first innings, while Aiden Markram and David Miller were shifting gears in the second half of chasing 134.
But India missed out on opportunities due to costly errors in the field, where the team's catching and fielding were subpar. In the 12th over, a juggling Virat Kohli lost a straightforward catch at deep mid-wicket, giving Markram a large slice of luck at 35. Markram received another reprieve in the following over as Miller called for a close single after captain Rohit Sharma missed an underarm direct smash at the striker's end of the stumps.
Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian team's batting hero, missed the stumps at the striker's end as Miller asked for a quick single in between the two chances that India blew. A few overs later, Markram reached his fifty in 37 balls and had a 76-run stand with Miller off 60 balls as his pull sailed between two leg-side fielders in the deep.
"Yes, it is a different situation if you include those catches. The matches are, of course, won by catches and strong fielding. So, if we had taken those chances, things may have turned out differently."
"The catches we missed or the run-out opportunities we missed did not directly cause the momentum to change. But we were aware that things may have been different if we had been able to make those changes. But I don't believe there was a certain time when we could declare that things turned in their favour "the right-arm pacer was inserted.
However, India's forgettable night began with their mediocre batting performance before to the fielding. The four-man pace attack of South Africa and India's batters were expected to square off in this game. As Ngidi & Co. had a good time on a pitch that suited them well and provided them extra bounce, eight batters failed to reach double figures and six batters fell while playing the pull shot.
A case in point, the other Indian batters scored a total 57 runs off 80 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 71.25, compared to Suryakumar's 68 off 40 balls, which featured six fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 170.
"We are all aware of how challenging the pitch is to bat on. If you consider how the competition has gone thus far, par scores have been around 130 or 140, which is not exactly par but close enough. We were aware that even 140 offered a chance for us to succeed in such an endeavour. You can see that the game is going down to the final over; we anticipated that it would be close "The right-arm pacer said.
In a match where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, Arshdeep Singh's brace of scalps with the new ball would give India the assurance that something did go their way.
"It was a really strong spell, and those two wickets brought us into the game on the first ball of the second over. We entered the game early thanks to his first two wickets. From the perspective of our team, Arshdeep's bowling was good "Bhuvneshwar put an end to it.