An eye-opener is how India captain Harmanpreet Kaur described India’s five-wicket loss in the third Twenty20 International in South Africa.

It wasn’t an abject loss with a massive margin of defeat. It was well-fought contest, with India in it at times. It wasn’t an unexpected loss either, the Proteas are a very strong T20 side and nobody expected them to go 3-0 down at home. Nor was it a series defining loss for the visitors as they still lead the five-match contest 2-1.

It wasn’t even about the loss as such, but the manner in which India lost. The first televised match of their tour was gone in a span of a few overs, even before the second innings began. It was lost in those 14 balls when India lost their last five wickets for nine runs. It was lost in the 13 balls that India did not play after a collapse saw them dismissed for 133 in 17.5 overs.

Indeed “eye-opening” was a succinct way to describe it, because it highlighted an important learning curve for Harmanpreet & Co – fighting it out when the illustrious top-order falls, riding out on the wave when faced with challenging spell, waiting out the balls, even if it meant a few more dots.

In a team where the top-order consist of the likes of Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur, the lower-middle order would not get as much time in the middle. But when they do, it is important to build on the foundation.

As the skipper said after the match, India needed to utilise their good start. “We got a good start but couldn’t capitalise on the momentum. We didn’t play too much T20 in the last 15 months but we played well in the first two games. Smriti and Mithali played pretty much all the 20 overs in both the games, so the rest of our batsmen didn’t have that much of batting. This is an eye-opener for us.

A strong start

On a pitch where a target of 150-160 would be considered par, losing out on two full overs after having 130+ on board was always going to prove costly. But even more so given the prolific start India enjoyed.

Dane van Niekerk won the toss for the first time in this series and put India in to the bat after they won chasing the first two times. The start didn’t bode well with Marizanne Kapp starting with a wicket maiden dismissing Mithali Raj for a duck. The Player of the Match in the last two matches was out without adding to the board, a tricky situation.

But Mandhana and Harmanpreet didn’t let that affect India’s innings, putting together a partnership of 55. With the right-left combination scoring fluently – the captain with all her attacking control and the southpaw with all her striking grace – 160 looked very much on cards.

Even when Mandhana fell in the eight over, Harmanpreet kept up the attack with a blitzkrieg of two sixes and three fours in a span of nine balls. India were set for a good score with the captain on 48 off only 30 deliveries. And then came the over that turned the tide.

New ball bowler Shabnim Ismail was brought back. She had conceded 17 runs in her first over, second of the innings, and was under pressure. But she ended up with the wickets of Harmanpreet and Jemimah Rodrigues, triggering a collapse.

India would be all out by the 18th over, adding only 40 runs to the score.

Importance of playing 20 overs

With Harmanpreet back in the hut, the onus was on Rodrigues and Krishnamurthy to play out the pressure situation and keep the scoreboard ticking. They had done it remarkably well in the first match, with a lot more pressure then with India chasing 165. And they certainly had the potential to do it again.

But the teen was dismissed a ball later, trying to drive though covers and miscuing straight to the fielder. A procession of similar, avoidable dismissals followed, the last five in a span of less than two overs.

While Ismail’s breakthrough of Harmanpreet was a good ball, none of the last seven wickets that fell were a result of exceptional bowling, but because the batters tried to go big without really thinking of the match situation. With due credit to Proteas and Ismail, it was the nerves that got to the Indian lower-order, as much as it was her fast bowling and the team’s improved fielding.

When the need was a patient game, most batter tried to go on the offensive, and lost their wickets. There was no target to chase, yet there seemed to be too many risky shots. It looked like there was a lot more focus on getting to the target of a par score, than on making sure the wickets were intact. After the double-wicket over, the goalposts should have shifted with the aim of playing out the 20 overs first, and taking the runs that would invariably come off the bad balls.

The captain alluded to it as well, stressing the need to bat out the 20 overs.

Here’s how the sequence looked:

Over 11.2: Harmanpreet Kaur, on the verge of a half-century, gives away a thick outside edge and it’s an easy catch for the keeper.

Over 11.4: Rodrigues, who has shown great temperament in the series so far, doesn’t get the right distance and elevation on her drive and it goes straight to cover.

Over 13.5: Anuja Patil, handy with the bat, attempts a pull and completely mis-times it.

Over 15.4: Veda Krisnamurthy, the last proper batter in the mix, is looking in good touch with her attacking game. She is already on 23 off 14 and has hit Moseline Daniels for two consecutive fours in the over. A dot ball later, she comes down the track to try and hit a full delivery and misses. It goes crashing into the stumps, leaving the tail exposed.

Over 16.1: Teeanged wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia tries to slog going down on a knee but doesn’t middle it and it gets no distance.

Over 16.3: Shikha Pandey, another player who is good with the bat, plays the wrong line. She gets an outside edge which is safely caught behind.

Over 17.3: A short ball and Poonam Yadav can’t read it. She swings hard but all it gets is a edge and wicket-keeper Lee takes a simple catch.

Over 17.5: Rookie Pooja Vastrakar is the last one standing and she holes it out.

Lesson to be learnt

With only 133 on the board, India had to play out of their skin to defend it. The bowlers, especially the spinners, did a terrific job of keeping a hold on it. But once Chloe Tryon, the big-hitting lower order batter got going, it was only a matter of time.

Despite the loss, this match will be an important step for India’s T20 team with the World Twenty20 on the radar. The batting order is young and they are brimming with potential. With the experience of playing crunch situations the match awareness and how to handle situations after losing the top-order would surely improve.

With everything to play for in this series, the onus is on the batters to make sure this eye-opening match is a lesson to remember.