India vs South Africa 3rd ODI: Why Indian batters want to make the second powerplay count

The biggest factor in India’s second-powerplay explosion has been Virat Kohli. He has shown a different side of his batting texture. Although not as aggressive as Rohit in the first powerplay, where he was winning games within the first 10 overs, Kohli has appeared bolder with his approach. Having shown aggressive intent at the start, even in the middle-overs when Kohli of the old would have put his head down and scrambled for singles and twos, he has shown the desire to be aggressive. Both his hundreds boasted a 100-plus strike-rate. The pace was steady, rather than bursts of aggression at the beginning and end.

The rest too have taken a cue. They stride out with an urgency, be it Ruturaj Gaikwad or KL Rahul. It comes with difficulties—the field is more spread out, the ball gets older, and accumulation becomes as important as aggression. But those factors have not shackled them. Rahul’s 60 in Ranchi came off only 56 balls, even though the ball was holding up and not coming onto the bat. His Raipur 66 came off only 43 balls.

Accumulating runs is perhaps the chief theme, but they have not been shy in going for the big hits, and not necessarily of bad balls. As many as 10 sixes and fours were hit in Ranchi. The count of fours could be normal, but the number of sixes were extraordinary in this period. The figures in Raipur were 19 fours and four sixes. A bigger ground invariably meant fewer maximums. But the crux remained the same. More runs in the second powerplay.

It’s not a straightforward task, points out assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate. “There’s an element of responsibility that comes into it. Obviously, you don’t want to go too early and as you say and expose the tail to the last five-six overs. And I think we’ve done pretty well with that,” he said.

Missing piece: Lower order

India could have sought higher gears if they had a deeper lower-order. This team, sans Hardik Pandya, is short on firepower to finish. It did not help that both Washington Sundar and Ravindra couldn’t hit the strap straightaway in Raipur. With Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh being the ones slotted from No 8-11, once India lose their top four, they have appeared to be a batting unit that had to apply breaks when they were on full throttle. At Raipur, they were 283/3 at the end of 39 overs before they lost Kohli and Washington in successive overs, which meant Rahul and Jadeja chose safety over losing quick wickets and scored only 74 off the last 10 overs.

Ten Doeschate explains: “I think the slight slowdown you saw in both games in terms of the run-rate was a combination of the wickets slowing up a little bit as the ball got older. And then obviously when you lose wickets it does take a little bit of time to get settled.”

But there was a clear plan to endorse a more attacking brand in the usually meandering powerplay phase. “We spoke about it at exactly that point how are we going to manage the tail and how we can go a little bit harder,” he said.

“Having said that, I think the two scores we posted, we did take into account the dew-factor, and we sort of did put a premium on them by the runs that we wanted to get. The dew-factor is so big here, it’s obviously not our fault, but it is our responsibility to find a way to get around that,” he added.

A strong lower order is a liberty South Africa has. Even their No. 10 Nandre Burger could strike a few lusty blows. Marco Jansen and Corbin Bosch, slotted at 7 and 8, are genuine white-ball all-rounders. India simply don’t have the firepower. In this facet, India’s options are limited. But dew or no dew, this is the future of ODIs. Maximising the second powerplay has become the norm with teams not thrusting the finishers with the heavy-lifting duties. And how well India manage the phase could decide the outcome of the Vizag ODI on Saturday.