‘Such small mistakes should not happen’- Kapil Dev decodes reason for India’s loss against South Africa

India faced their first loss of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 against South Africa on Sunday. The Proteas won the match by five wickets while chasing a small target of 134 runs. Apart from the Proteas’ impressive bowling performance, as well as David Miller and Aiden Markram’s batting brilliance, it was the Indian team’s poor fielding that determined the outcome of the match.

While Virat Kohli dropped a sitter at deep midwicket to allow Markram to survive at a critical point in the game, India skipper Rohit Sharma missed an easy run-out opportunity against the same batter later in the game. Former India captain Kapil Dev believes that if a team’s players blow such opportunities, the team will lose the game.

“If you miss run-out chances and catches in T20 cricket then you could not win. When you are defending a low total, your enthusiasm should increase to 100 per cent,” Kapil said on ABP News

While admitting that any player can misfield, Kapil stated that such incidents have an impact on the intensity of the team’s other players. “Such small mistakes should not happen. I can understand, every player drops catches, but when the match comes in such a situation and you drop such a catch, it somewhere lets the team down.

“For the run-out, I won’t say all the three wickets (stumps) were completely visible. I would say 70 to 75 per cent wickets (stumps) were visible from 6 yards… You can say that those were the two important aspects that could have changed the game,” said the former India skipper.

India takes on Bangladesh next

In the meantime, the Men in Blue have a chance to redeem themselves against Bangladesh today. The match is scheduled to begin at 1:30 PM (IST) at the Adelaide Oval. If Rohit Sharma’s team wins, they will advance to the tournament’s semi-finals. Bangladesh, on the other hand, has very slim chances of making it to the next stage of the tournament.