India remain unbeaten as South Africa forget to bat

Notes on India's powerplay and death batting, Kohli, Iyer, and left arm spin.

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Ravi Jadeja had himself a game. With the bat, he came out with India stuck in molasses, and he smashed the ball around. And then with the ball he trapped Bavuma on the crease, took down Heinrich Klaasen and ended David Miller’s recent run against spin. South Africa were over and he’d barely warmed up. 

But in this World Cup, India has been so good they have made Jadeja back into what Sanjay Manjreaker might call a bits-and-pieces player. Not because Jadeja has been bad, but because so many Indian players are in form, they haven’t needed him. 

Jadeja would be the first name on the team sheet of almost every team for a World Cup on Indian pitches, and the home team is playing so well that he’s like a third nipple for this team. 

It is worth looking at what the Indian bowlers are doing this World Cup. Outside of Mohammad Nabi, India has the three best bowlers this tournament. Mohammed Shami is the best striker, and Jasprit Bumrah and Jadeja taking wickets while not being hit at all. There is nothing wrong with Kuldeep Yadav numbers at all. Even Mohammed Siraj has been fine. 

Earlier India didn’t need Shardul Thakur. The Lord played in three matches, and didn’t face a ball, and only delivered 17 overs. Against Pakistan, he bowled two, and obviously wasn’t needed with the bat. India turned their magical Lord into the kid who comes to every game, so you let him play, with no intention of using him. 

They have certainly used Jadeja, and he has been good - even before this game - in the tournament. But he has often been used more as a holding bowling as they attack at the other ends. That was not the case today. When the conditions were in his favour, India used him early on. Before this match, he had only delivered 138 balls in the first ten overs. 

Today he was brought on because of what Keshav Maharaj had done earlier, and he was bowling early despite Quinton de Kock being at the crease. Even Bavuma is a good player of spin, although he does struggle a little more against slow left-arm. Calling Jadeja slow is an oxymoron. This ball spun four degrees, but it did so at almost 100KPH. That is some serious heat to get the ball off the straight four degrees. 

Heinrich Klaasen was next. A man paid a lot of money because of how he plays spin. And has been smashing it everywhere. Not only that, but he enjoys the ball spinning away. But when Klaasen gets down to sweep what he probably assumed was a ball down legside. It wasn’t, and one of South Africa’s best weapons against spin was gone. 

There was a time when David Miller couldn’t play spin well. A few years back he made some changes, got better at sweeping, and has gone from a slightly below-average player to someone who can smash it. At 59/5, Miller walks across his stumps and tries a second paddle sweep. This time he misses it and he is gone as well. 

From there, it doesn’t go very well. There is this very vicious SLA on SLA crime. And Ravi Jadeja then takes his fifth wicket. 

Over a third of his World Cup wickets in one game. But it wasn’t as if he was bowling poor earlier, it was just he wasn’t needed this way, and then once he was, he activated strike mode and South Africa were gone. 

But while he was good with the ball, he also played well with the bat. 

And that is important, because when batting the India team has the second-best average ever of any team.