India registered another bilateral series win as they defeated South Africa by a 2-1 scoreline in the three-match series. Having won the first two T20Is and sealed the series India rested Kohli, KL Rahul and Arshdeep Singh from the third T20I, in which they went down by 49 runs.
South Africa piled up 227 runs on the back of a century from Rilee Rossouw (100* off 48) and a half-century from Quinton de Kock (68 off 43). No Indian batter could play a long innings as de Kock and Rossouw did with Dinesh Karthi ending up as the top-scorer with 46 off 21 balls followed by Deepak Chahar who scored 31 off 17.
Rahul Dravid keeps his cool while answering journalists’ question
As South African batters ensued carnage in Indore, India kept hiding Axar Patel. Axar was the Man of the Series in the previous series against Australia. But in the third T20I against South Africa, Axar was called up to bowl only one over, in which he conceded 13 runs as left-hander Rossouw hit him for a six. Axar had also leaked 53 runs in the second T20I.
After the loss, a journalist, in a surprisingly aggressive manner, queried India head coach Rahul Dravid about why Axar only bowled one over in the game. The journalist raised the question of the negative match-ups of Axar – to left-handed batters de Kock and Rossouw – saying that are India emphasising too much on the match-ups.
Rahul Dravid calmly listened to the question and politely asked the journalist to look at the stats deeply of match-ups. The Indian head coach asserted that not only they, but all teams focus on match-ups and often refrain from bowling left-arm spinners to left-handed batters.
“Match-ups are important, there are important to us. Whether they are more important or not, it’s for you guys to dig deep and look at what stats tell you about some match-ups, about numbers of left-hand batsmen against left-arm spin. Maybe, you find them answers in that,” Dravid replied.
“A lot of teams use match-ups, not only us. Like us, I am sure other teams delve into stats and look into numbers. Think if you delved into some of those numbers, you might get answers. I would really request you to look into those numbers, deeply. As deeply as we do.”
Fans lauded Dravid for explaining the decision to bowl only one over of Axar, and also for his composure to answer the question.
— Yoloapp (@Yoloapp2) October 5, 2022
And yes, it is quite true: that Axar is better at bowling to right-handers than to left-handers. Cricviz’s Ben Jones highlighted this piece of statistic that justified India not bowling Axar more to the two left-handed South Africans.
Axar Patel in T20 cricket last five years:
v LHB – 8.4rpo
v RHB – 6.5rpoA case Axar should could bowl regardless of the LHB pair, because it’s wrecking India’s deployment. But it’s a) a fact that he’s worse v lefties, but b) nobody is saying he should *never* bowl to them.
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) October 4, 2022
