India vs South Africa T20 World Cup: Why it gets serious now

Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s coach, has been around cricket for a very long time. When you listen to him speak, he comes across as part philosopher and part coach. But, through it all there is a twinkling sense of humour learnt in the school of hard knocks.

When it was put to him that his team may be feeling the heat ahead of playing India in their first game of the Super Eights, Conrad measured his words. “Pressure is a big thing but it’s pressure both for us and them,” he said.

“I think we all talk about the pressure of playing against the top side, but we’re not quite aware of what the pressures they are under. I’m not, for one, suggesting that a guy that has three ducks in his last three matches comes under pressure for his place in his side. No.”


Abhishek Sharma does not need reminding that he has not scored a run in the tournament yet, but it’s not something that can be avoided. Suryakumar Yadav confirmed that the team were not worried in the least, saying that “last year he covered for us, now we must cover for him.”

But, Surya did not deny that his team were under pressure coming up against a South African team that has a bowling unit that can exploit the conditions well. “See, it’s very difficult to say that there’s no pressure, or it’s easy to handle. When you’re playing such a big event on your home soil, you definitely feel pressure. You meet so many people in the hotel, when you are travelling … the same goal: to win the World Cup,” explained Surya.

“Every individual has a different plan to deal with it. We’re trying our best to be in present, to keep our feet where we are. Like, for example, when we were playing the league stage, we got a good wake-up call when we played against the US. So since then, we’ve not been thinking about too much, like how we start a Super 8 campaign from tomorrow. Think about tomorrow, then take one step at a time.”

Surya acknowledged that the batting had not exploded as it could have, that finger spinners in the opposition have done their job, but insisted that there was no concern within the ranks.

“We are trying to explode from the start because everyone knows their game, everyone knows their template of T20. But at the end, we don’t have to be a team that keeps hitting and hitting. Sometimes, we can get into a situation where we lose two wickets quickly, or three wickets quickly,” said Surya. “So, in the middle overs, you have to respect the game and keep your main game to the side. The team has to play according to the requirements that the team has.”

The best aspect of India’s batting not simply playing one way, and perishing in the process, is that it has made the more cohesive. Now, there is responsibility vested with the bowling unit as well. India will feel they can collectively do the job when they have 170 on the board.

When the tournament began there were expectations of 300 and talk of individuals scoring double-hundreds. Reality has been significantly different.

In that process, however, India have played like a team where the responsibility of driving towards a result is a shared one, a common goal. This is exactly what the coaching staff would have wanted as the team goes deeper into a tournament.

Peaking at the right time is not just about batsmen scoring big when needed most or bowlers hitting rhythm just as the opposition batsmen get better. It is about a team pacing itself through a tournament, growing tighter as a unit and believing more and more surely that they will be the ones to go all the way.

While winning four games on the trot gave India the base they needed, the experiences they took — struggles against finger spin, the lack of a big start, the challenge of having so many left-hand batsmen — ensured that there was thoughtfulness and purpose to their campaign.

In that sense this is the perfect moment for them to face strong title contenders such as South Africa. Or, put another way, everything India have done so far, whatever they have gone through, has prepared them perfectly just for this moment.