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One of the easiest, and laziest, explanations for Saturday’s escape to victory is complacency and arrogance. It’s tempting to attribute India’s spectacular collapse to a feeling of superiority against an honest but not-too-threatening United States attack, but that can’t be farther from the truth.
As Axar Patel, the vice-captain, acknowledged more than once after the 29-run victory in their World Cup opener, this wasn’t the usual Wankhede Stadium strip, benign but true and of even bounce.
Right from the first over from Saurabh Netravalkar, it was apparent that there was reasonable juice in the form of considerable lateral movement, but that wasn’t the only threat to batters.
The ball often sat in the pitch, making hitting through the line fraught with danger. There was grip and turn for the spinners. For batters accustomed to shirtfronts, these were different but not insurmountable challenges.
India didn’t try to brazen or muscle their way out of trouble. They scaled down their expectations of the par score very early in the piece, and largely played the ball on its merit in the Powerplay, until Shadley van Schalkwyk picked up three wickets in five deliveries in the sixth over with different kinds of balls.
These things can happen when one hasn’t encountered such tracks too often.
India were quick to understand what was happening but too slow to adapt. Fortunately for them, Suryakumar Yadav was around, using his legendary calm and poise to resuscitate a gasping, floundering innings from 77-6.
Having bossed over South Africa and New Zealand in the last two months, this was a wake-up call of sorts.
India will be thankful, having bagged the two points, that it came this early on in the tournament; it should facilitate being quicker on their mental feet so that there is no encore, which will be punished by a more established and experienced outfit.
Boss Gambhir hails Surya’s masterclass
India head coach Gautam Gambhir hailed Suryakumar Yadav’s match-winning knock of an unbeaten 84 against the USA as a “masterclass”, calling it one of the finest T20I innings played under pressure.
Six
No of wickets India lost for just 77 runs — their third-lowest score at the fall of the sixth wicket in T20 World Cups, after an identical 42-6 against Australia in 2010 and New Zealand in 2016
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