3 instances when no-balls have hurt the Indian team
- A look back at the marquee days in recent past where a no-ball cost India the game.
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In cricket, just as in life, there is a list of things you commit which are unpardonable and a bowler bowling a no-ball tops it by a country mile. A bowler bowling a no-ball is a testimony to his indiscipline and a repetition of which shows the lack of game sense and the willingness to improve, something which subtly differentiates an accomplished player from a good one.
Indian bowlers in recent years have developed an insatiable love for bowling no-balls at crucial junctures on momentous occasions that proved to be the gaffe of epic proportions for the team.The Pink ODI at Johannesburg was an instance which had presented India an opportunity to win four games in a row in the Rainbow Nation, a feat they have never achieved before.
As Yuzvendra Chahal's bowled two no-balls, it helped David Miller and the Proteas to stage a comeback at the Wanderers.
Here's a look at the recent past where the Indian bowler's bowling no-ball at a crucial juncture cost India the game.
#3 South Africa vs India, 4th ODI (The Pink ODI) Wanderers, Freedom Trophy 2018
It was turning to be an encore of the first three ODIs with India putting up a competitive total of 289-6 on the board and then had the South Africans on the tenterhooks, with the wrist spinners bamboozling their batsmen.
In a rain-curtailed game where the Proteas needed 202 runs in 28 overs, the batsmen took an aggressive route while tackling the wrist spinners. Chahal had been taken for 17 runs by AB de Villiers in his first over, but the leg-spinner came back roaring in the next over, only to see David Miller being dropped by Shreyas Iyer at the deep fine-leg.
South Africa had been reprived. But Miller looked completely at sea against Chahal as he played across the line to a flighted delivery only to see his stumps rattled. The bowler let out a roar, more out of relief, but his confidence plummeted to a new low when replays clearly showed he had overstepped the line.
South Africa was at 106-4 when Miller got a reprieve. He replied with three successive fours off Hardik Pandya in the very next over. Miller was ably supported by Heinrich Klaasen, who himself who smoked the Indian wrist spinners to all corners of the Bull Ring. Chahal bowled his second no ball in his fourth over, an over which was taken for 15 runs and possibly shifted the momentum decisively towards the South Africans.
In conditions less than ideal for spinners, coupled with it being a shortened game, the team that committed the least mistakes would always win.
Result: South Africa won by five wickets (D/L).
