This was supposed to be a battle between a ravaging juggernaut and a bunch of middling, fledgling spin bowlers. It was anything but that. The Indian batting was harassed, strangled and then executed. The resistance was brisk, the kind that doesn’t get you anywhere in a tournament of this magnitude. After a point, the gallows seemed imminent.
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In November, Ravichandran Ashwin had skittled out South Africa twice in three days on the same Nagpur pitch that was the scene of the carnage on Tuesday. Thankfully for India, AB de Villiers did not have Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi to call upon in that game. The Kiwi spin trio picked up nine wickets in India’s defeat on Tuesday. Cricket, after all, has a cruel way of hitting back.
It was as stupid as it was cruel. Shikhar Dhawan attempted an atrocious sweep shot against the off-spin of McCullum in the first over of the Indian chase. Umpire Kumar Dharmasena raised his finger and would have probably also offered “a man fixing a pipe cannot be plumber than that” explanation later. Dhawan was so dead in front.
Rohit Sharma danced down to a loopy Santner delivery and tried to carve it through mid-wicket, only for Luke Ronchi to disturb his furniture despite initially fumbling the ball. And, Virat Kohli attempted an audacious cover drive against Sodhi when he wasn’t even close to the pitch of the ball. Sodhi, most Indian fans would be thinking, should never have left Ludhiana - the city he left for New Zealand in 1996.
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Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja all fell to innocuous deliveries by going at them with hard hands on a pitch that was gripping, resulting in soft dismissals. Hardik Pandya did the same.
Maybe, the Indian batsmen do not play spin as well as they think. Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar showed that in 2012, Rangana Herath at Galle in 2015 and the Kiwis last night. Hopefully for India, no more painful reminders will be served.
For all the success that India has enjoyed in recent weeks, it’s fair to say that their opponents haven’t been the strongest. They crushed an Australian side that comprised a bunch of newbie fast bowlers, and a Sri Lankan team that was so depleted that it had to summon 39-year-old Tillakaratne Dilshan to lead the batting. And, the Asia Cup was barely a stern examination. New Zealand was the first real test and India tripped.
It would be unfair to say that India took New Zealand lightly. At the halfway-mark, with just 127 to chase down, this was taking the shape of another savage, commanding performance from the best T20 side in the world. The bowling was disciplined and purposeful, the fielding electric, Dhoni’s captaincy top-notch. The batting though, in just word - shambolic.
In a group that also includes Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, recovery won’t be easy. Moreover, this heavy loss will have a battering effect on India’s net run-rate. At the 50-over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand last year, India reached the semi-finals after listless performances against Australia and England in the build-up, a period during which they went winless.
In the last few months, India has shown that they have an invincible edge about them, an unflinching desire to be the best. Surely, that can’t be a bad thing. Mounting a title challenge from here definitely isn’t beyond India. Dhoni, earlier this week, spoke about the Indian team being in “auto-pilot” mode. The plane has firmly landed now; it has thudded right into the ground in fact. The broken windowpanes and doors must be examined; the emergency exits double-checked. It flies again on March 19 against Pakistan.