Arshdeep Singh had not taken an ODI wicket in three matches before today. Now, he has five.
A devastating new-ball spell of 4 for 23 in seven overs drained the colour from South Africa on Pink Day and showed that even without Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, India can still field a quality attack. The same depth was not as evident in South Africa's line-up, who were without Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma and looked as hapless as they were at Eden Gardens little more than a month ago. Then, India bowled them out for 83 in the league stage of the World Cup - their lowest total batting first in an ODI. Today, they were dismissed for 116, their lowest at home. It was also their ninth-lowest ODI total overall.
Three of those nine have come at India's hands, which says as much about the problems in South Africa's batting - their inability to get forward was glaring in this match - as it does about the skills of India's quicks. Arshdeep and Avesh Khan took nine of South Africa's ten wickets and the first eight inside 17 overs. They got an unexpected amount of movement on a used surface, but the standout feature of their bowling was their discipline. They rarely strayed from a good length outside off and let the pitch do the rest.
"The plan was to just keep it simple, hit good areas, extract some bounce and look for a little movement off the seam," Arshdeep said at the post-match conference. "We knew if we could get movement inside or outside of the bat, we could get nicks or lbws. That was the plan: to keep it simple and challenge the batters to score off tough balls.
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