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George Bailly’s propaganda during the week was all about blasting India away with the quicks. This pronouncement had shades of the disastrous 2011 World Cup campaign, where Aussie pace was going to triumph on the dust of central Asia.
They stumbled in the quarter finals.
George probably didn’t count on a pitch which took lots of spin in the early opener between South Africa and Pakistan and which should have sent a giant tap on the shoulder as to how the Premadasa strip was going to play.
Pakistan used Raza, Hafeez, Ajmal and Afridi (Shoab Malik didn’t get a roll as Arafat and Umar Gull bowled two overs each), but the possibility almost turned probability of all 20 overs being sent down by the slower brigade.
Akmal (K) and DeVilliers (AB) were kept busy with the gauntlets and the T20 average score at the ground of 160 looked way too many.
The Proteas used Botha, Peterson, Duminy to bowl slow.
This pitch had the scat of a sub-continental slow turner, the sort of surface that clever teams can defend 120 or so.
But George wasn’t paying much attention, and although wisely he opened the attack with Glenn Maxwell’s off spin against the two left handers, Irfan Pathan, sent on a pinch hitting mission, finally top scored with just 31.
No Indian batsman got a feel for the conditions and into any sort of stride on this pudding.
However, it wasn’t the Australian slow bowlers who did the trick in restricting the 50 over World Cup Champions to 140 but the slower deliveries of all the seamers, who did play their part.
There was scant swing for any bowler, which seemed unfair in such steamy weather.
Pat Cummins sent down some sharp stuff, topping out at 147 kph, and Mitchell Starc was in the high 130s with a best right on 140.
The beauty of 20 over cricket for fast bowlers is that the faster your top speed is, the more effective your slower ball will be.
Brett Lee struggled early in his limited overs career because his slower ball was around the 110kph mark when he was topping in the 150s. That is too much of a difference and he only really had success against the bottom order, who probably had their eyes closed in any case.
When Bing sped up his slower ball, he became much more effective.
All of the Australian bowlers mixed the pace cleverly.
Mitchell Starc’s around the wicket jaffa to get Rohit Sharma was a beautiful thing of pace and seam movement. No change up required.
Funky Miller’s love child, aka Glenn Maxwell, sent down only one more over after bruising the brand new aspro, and Brad Hogg bowled all 4 of his allotment.
The ageless former postman will probably ask for an umpire who isn’t a former spinner next game. The ex-Sri Lankan offie now joined the dark side.
Kumar Dharmasena was not in a giving mood as Pathan survived two LBWs in the Chinaman’s opening over that any self-respecting DRS operator would have jumped through the screen to give.
David Warner was later to escape in a Zaheer Khan over on Englishman Richard Kettleborough’s interpretation of ‘benefit of the doubt’.
Both need to see a good Optometrist and Bill Harrigan first thing Monday morning.
Watson was swashing more buckles than Keith Miller and Warner rode the luck in a fashion typical of a batsmen with his attacking weapons.
India got flustered with batting and the officiating and bowled below their best.
Having picked the leggie Chawla, he got away to a long hop over backward square start and wasn’t required for a second over.
The boundaries looked way too short when Watson got going and Warner’s rank mis-hit off Harbajhan sea gulled for 6.
With Australia getting 100 off 10, India were feeling no pain, which happens when your entire body goes numb.
I had to check whether Warner was still batting when Watson stroked Sharma straight for 6 – look up the replay, this was shot of perfect technique coupled with precise timing and three days a week in the gym.
Keith Miller would have approved (not the gym part).
Bailly persevered with a rarely sighted slip through to the 17th over, which is a tribute as much to Brad Hogg’s unpickability (Dhoni and Dharmasena didn’t know which way they were going) as to the pitch’s character.
Dan Christian was specialising in the cross seam delivery and taking spectacular catches. He is now starting to make the speccies look mundane when he tumbled to snare the important Kholi off Cummins in the 7th.
It was good to see Yuvraj Singh suited up after his dice with cancer, but he fell to a short ball once again.
Every time he has to get the bat vertical for leg side strokes rather than horizontal, the odds turn in the bowlers’ favour and Watson wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip.
Another scalp for the seamers on a turner.
This was a good old-fashioned thrashing, achieved by using Plan B: “Bugger the spinners, we’ll go over the top with the quicks”. And that they did.
South Africa went within a whisker of defending 133, when spin was dominant. Australia won by 9 wickets with seam bowling on the exact same strip.
It’s a funny game cricket made for all sorts of skilful players.
Maybe the spinners will win the next one.