8TTA Boys! India thrash South Africa by 243 runs for 8th win; Virat hits 49th ODI ton

At the very start of the game, it became clear that this Eden Gardens pitch was on the slow side. It was not as though the ball was stopping and coming, but clearly, this was a surface where you had to allow the ball to come to you before choosing your stroke, rather than going at the ball with hard hands.

Rohit Sharma has taken on the responsibility of being the aggressor and putting the pressure on the bowlers early on and he continued in that vein, racing off to 40 off 24 before holing out to mid-off. From there on the platform was set for Virat Kohli to take the game deep while the others batted around him.

There was an air of inevitably about Kohli’s 49th One-Day International century, but it wasn’t always clear how much India would be able to put on the board. Shreyas Iyer took his time early on, but once he had a sense of how the pitch was playing he unfurled some gorgeous shots, not least the lofted long ball over the off side.

Shreyas (77) and Kohli added 134 for the third wicket and Kohli kept his end up till the 50 overs were bowled, reaching an unbeaten 101. India had 326 on the board, and, given the conditions, this felt like a bridge too far at the halfway stage.

Just how big of an ask it was became obvious when South Africa’s batsmen came out under lights. They were simply unable to get Jasprit Bumrah away and Mohammed Siraj reaped the reward. Quinton de Kock, on whom so much depended, fetched a wide one outside off and only managed an inside edge.Temba Bavuma got a good ball from Ravindra Jadeja — used as the first change bowler thanks to the conditions — and could only watch in slight disbelief as a dipping, slow delivery gripped the pitch to slide past the outside edge and knock back the off stump.Mohammad Shami then steamed in with good rhythm, opening up Aiden Markram with a delivery that left the right-hand bat after pitching. A bad start became a horrible one as Heinrich Klaasen and Rassie van Der Dussen fell to straight deliveries that won the LBW decision, leaving South Africa at 40 for 5.

India’s bowlers were good, and the pitch was sluggish, but neither of these justified South Africa’s timid approach with the bat. There was no attempt to hit the bowlers off their lengths and there certainly seemed to be no plan against the spinners.

When you let an attack of India’s quality come at you, ball after ball, building their plans and executing them, survival is simply not an option. While most teams have struggled against India, the only one who looked more abject than South Africa was Sri Lanka. And in the case of Sri Lanka there is a psychological edge at play, especially after the recent Asia Cup.

South Africa tend to have one genuinely bad day in each tournament and often for them, it has come in knockout matches. Here, they have got it out of the way in the league phase, being bowled out for only 83.

For India, the dream lives on. With eight wins from as many matches, this team is beginning to look like the dominant Australian ODI sides of yesteryear who would blow through a World Cup like a gale force, winning everything in front of them till they had the trophy in hand.