Faster spin, slower pace thrive at Chinnaswamy's alter ego

Faster spin, slower pace thrive at Chinnaswamy's alter ego







Beuran Hendricks and Bjorn Fortuin were at the centre of South Africa pulling off an India on India

Having arrived in India short on experience, the T20I series was a lot about drawing parallels for South Africa. Rassie van der Dussen had said in Mohali how he found the city's weather similar to Durban. In Bengaluru, he would reveal how "Wanderers" was the buzzword thereafter. A lot of batting chat was around Chinnaswamy being a venue similar to the Wanderers back home, and how they were looking to approach it similarly.

Flat pitch, short boundaries, thin air, high shot percentage they thought. Chinnaswamy was anything but that on Sunday. It was anything but itself. The spin needed to be quicker, and the pace from the fast bowlers slower.

It was the last ball of the 16th over, Andile Phehlukwayo to Hardik Pandya in the first innings, and the leg cutter spun so big that all Pandya could do was smile. India were 104 for 6 then, reeling on a pitch van der Dussen had come anticipating flat. The promise of a whirlwind finish remained but the real damage had been done.

From being 54 for 1 after six overs, and 62 for 1 after seven, India would go on to tally only 134, failing not for the first time after the back to back dismissals of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli.

And gnawing at India's vulnerable middle order were Bjorn Fortuin and Beuran Hendricks, respectively the spinner and pacer of the left-arm variety from South Africa.

Fortuin bowled much like how Ravindra Jadeja does. Flat, quick, top of offstump. He opened the bowling and could have had both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma with his arm balls. Returning later, he bowled wide from round the wicket to Pant and had him caught in the deep. On seeing Shreyas Iyer use his feet, he darted it quicker down leg and had him stumped.

We have seen that from Jadeja and India before.

"It was a clear plan against Pant," van der Dussen would reveal about bowling wide to Rishabh Pant. "When he tries to go for boundaries, he looks at long-on, cow corner for the slog-sweep. So when he tries to attack, the spinners also try to attack and Bjorn executed that plan perfectly.

"He is a bowler for the big occasion," van der Dussen, who played with Fortuin at the Lions, added. "We've seen it a lot of times back home and maybe now the international crowds are seeing that."

On a pitch such as this, India were so unlike themselves that they called in Jadeja as the sixth bowling option, and gave him only two overs. It probably was to allow a fair share of overs to Krunal Pandya, who just got to bowl the one over in Mohali, but this was a pitch crafted for Jadeja. Even with a wet ball in hand, he'd bowl two overs for only eight runs. Krunal conceded 40 in his 3.5 overs in comparison.

Besides Fortuin, South Africa also found a hero in Hendricks, who too seemed to have picked the right things from India's bowling in Mohali. When Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje were dishing it out short there, hoping to intimidate India by pace, Deepak Chahar and Hardik Pandya had bowled back of a length and slow, bringing into account the longer square boundaries of the IS Bindra Stadium. Chinnaswamy isn't as big a ground by any means but the exaggerated variations available off the pitch meant that the tactic could be replicated. And Hendricks's left-arm angle ensured that the tactic played out even better.

"I think we read the pitch a lot quicker and played the way it allowed us to. The ball was swinging and sticking in the wicket," Quinton de Kock said. "Beuran bowled really well in our T20 local league back home. He's worked really hard on his skills and he deserved a chance, and he took it with both hands."

Bengaluru was a whole lot about South Africa trying to mimic the India they lost to in Mohali. And they managed to catch the hosts on one of their indifferent days. Kohli chose to bat, trying to push India out of the "comfort zone" they have become used to, and South Africa didn't need another invitation. They could be the India they wanted to, with India not keen on being themselves.