Bengaluru: The margin of victory was big but South African captain Quinton de Kock was equally impressed with the manner in which his team fought back to win the third T20 International against India and level the series.
India were cruising at 54 for one in six overs before the Proteas staged a remarkable comeback. ‘They got off to a great start but I am very impressed with the way the guys fought back, they read the conditions very well, they stuck to their plans, they just kept up the pressure on India,’ de Kock said at the post-match media conference.
The skipper top-scored with a blazing 52-ball 79 to engineer his team’s nine-wicket victory at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. But it was not that easy for the visiting batsmen initially. “They put aĀ lot of pressure on us in the first four overs, kept it very tight, didn’t give us a lot of bad balls, ball was swinging. We just stuck to our guns upfront, just tried to soak up the pressure.”
Playing in his first game of the series, left-arm fast-medium bowler Beuran Hendricks returned impressive figures of 2/14 in his four-over spell. “Beuran, in our T20 local league back home, he bowled really well in that tournament. Coming into this game, he has worked really hard on his skills. He deserved the chance and he took it with both hands,” de Kock said.
He was also pleased with the performance of left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, who picked up 2/19 in three overs, saying he mixed up his deliveries cleverly. “Bjorn is a bowler for the big occasions, we have seen so many times back home but maybe not enough international crowd have seen that.”
Asked if Rishab Pant’s was a well-thought-out dismissal by Fortuin, vice-captain Rassie van der Dussen responded in the positive. ‘It was a clear plan against Pant, we know when he tries to look for boundaries he goes for long-on, looks for a slog sweep. So when he tries to attack, the spinners always look to take him on. Bjorn executed that perfectly.”
‘No risk, no gain’ is Kohli’s mantra
His eyes trained on next year’s T20 World Cup, skipper Virat Kohli is willing to take risks in order to mould his India players into an ‘unfazed’ unit, one that is able to ‘take toss out of the equation’.
His bold but surprising decision to bat first in a venue always known to favour the chasing teams may have backfired during the third T20l against South Africa, but Kohli said they will have to take risks to find the best combination.
“Look, we will have to take risks. Even when you want to win a game of cricket you have to take risks, so nothing is a given, nothing is a guarantee before you start playing,” Kohli said at the post-match press conference here late on Sunday. “I think as a team if we are willing to get out of our comfort zone a lot more, then we will be unfazed with what happens at the toss. That’s our basic idea: trying to take the toss out of the equation as a side.”
“Mentally, if we put ourselves in a situation where we are ready to do anything rather than wanting to do one thing, we will be in a better position as a side to capitalise on any situation that we are in. Unless you do that, unless you start taking those risks, you are always going to be put under somewhere or the other. We want to make sure that we iron all those out before we head into the World Cup.”
No team had ever chosen to bat first in six previous T20Is at this ground, but Kohli wants his team to also become stronger in defending totals. 134 was not a good score on this surface, admitted Kohli but refused to be harsh on his bowlers after the big nine-wicket drubbing. “We didn’t have enough runs on the board, so the bowlers are always under pressure knowing that one or two overs can take the game away from you. But I think they have done decently well (in the series overall), we will have to be patient with the combination we are playing at the moment. We
will have to strengthen one or two things.”
He acknowledged the South Africans executed their plans better. “Not to take anything away from South Africa, they hit the right areas, they bowled really well, understood the pitch. So it was a combination of good bowling, not great decision-making but, as I said, these kinds of games will keep happening,” Kohli said. “As long as we are wanting to come out of our comfort zone and putting ourselves in situations which could be the case in a big tournament.”