Deepti Sharma Boosts India’s Bowling vs South Africa: At Chepauk on Sunday, rain ultimately got the last word. The forecast was for heavy showers, so the evening began with a menacing dark cloud hovering over MA Chidambaram Stadium and slowly moving over the stands. The crowd of more than 13,000 witnessed only a small improvement as South Africa’s batting innings were the only thing on display. The match was abandoned due to heavy rain, so India’s run chase never got started after the visitors made 177/6 in 20 overs.
Using the same pitch as the first game, South Africa batted first once more and finished with 12 fewer runs. However, there were some interesting shifts in those 20 overs.
To begin with, India’s fielding was superior to that of Friday, as they established a faster pace for ground play from the very first over. Fielding coach Munish Bali discussed how his players had improved following a day off while reiterating that they must put in a lot of effort in the workouts. One fielding error happened from Jemimah Rodrigues, who is perhaps the greatest outfielder in this Indian team; in the final over, she lost a catch that gave Annerie Dercksen a reprieve, which ultimately led to a hat-trick of fours.
Middle-of-the-road squeeze
The Indian bowling, however, showed the biggest improvement in the middle overs. South Africa finished the powerplay with 66/1, indicating that they were off to a great start. Tazmin Brits and Marizanne Kapp appeared to be in excellent form, but Laura Wolvaardt was the first wicket to fall despite her rapid start. At that point, India started to exert pressure when Deepti Sharma entered the game to bowl the seventh over.
Following a powerplay in the first Twenty20 International, South Africa lost just one wicket while scoring 101 runs in the next ten overs. On Sunday, however, between overs 7 and 16, India gave up just 65 runs. Deepti was the main contributor, concluding the evening with 2/20 in 4 overs. Her poor performance in the first appearance, when she was unusually costly (0/45 in 4 overs), was drastically improved upon.
Following the game on Friday, Radha Yadav had to admit that India’s bowlers had mishandled the lengths of the ball and that they need to have maybe adjusted the length a little bit. They succeeded in doing precisely that, with Deepti setting the example. Her deft use of the length back to elicit a false shot from the batsmen resulted in the wickets of Brits and Kapp, two important dismissals.
Later, middle-order batswoman Anneke Bosch of South Africa said that India moved flatter through the air and even reduced their speed further when they had a softer ball, which made it difficult to score runs. The British were impressive again, scoring consecutive half centuries, but India’s middle-over strategies were noticeably better. Much of that was undone, though, by the fact that they let up 31 runs in the final two overs.
Uma’s rollercoaster debut
Richa Ghosh was replaced behind the stumps by debutant Uma Chetry, one of India’s four changes. Replays revealed that the young Indian player had a small portion of her gloves in front of the stumps when gathering the ball, despite Chetry’s celebration of her first official dismissal in the second over. It was nearly as soon as the umpires intervened that Brits had returned to the dugout.
India lost a few runs as a result, but Chetry eventually stumped the British with Deepti’s bowling. The stumping miss from earlier and Chetry’s disappointment at his mistake were repeatedly aired on the stadium’s huge screens. But that evening, she received a small measure of atonement. Later, Munish Bali praised Chetry’s approach in training, saying that her intensity never wavered even during the Test match, when she filled in as a substitute outfield for a considerable amount of the game. For the Assamese wicketkeeper, who had been surrounded by teammates for the second time that evening for a dismissal that stood, it was a lovely little treat.
