Even before the four qualifiers to the Super 12s were identified, it was obvious that South Africa were in the tougher pool at the T20 World Cup. Alongside them in Group 1 were defending two-time champions West Indies, England, the reigning 50-over World Cup winners, and Australia, a perennial threat at global competitions.
When this quartet was joined by qualifiers Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to complete a glittering sextet of Test-playing nations, the possibility of an ‘easy’ game – if there is any such entity at a World Cup – immediately evaporated.
The race to the semi-finals was guaranteed to be intense, hard-fought, uncompromising. South Africa, like the other five, were up against it. More than the others, some might say. Their last semi-final appearance at an ICC event was at the 50-over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2015.
They didn’t threaten the last four at the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, or the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup, both in England. For a team accustomed to the business end of tournaments without grabbing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it must have been a particularly bitter pill to swallow.
Several reasons were proffered for South Africa’s decline as a cricketing stronghold, not least the exodus of key personnel as an immediate aftermath of the selection policies designed to right the wrongs of the past. Despite the migration, though, there was enough quality at their disposal. All they had to do, particularly in the T20 format, was embrace the smarts.
No variant of the sport relies on data analysis and backroom support more than the 20-over shootout. That might sound paradoxical because T20 cricket would appear to encourage instinctiveness. The reality is that data geeks pore over numbers and head-to-heads and pitch maps and scoring areas and preferred hitting zones and uncomfortable lengths to throw up execution blueprints on which coaches and captains have come to rely massively.
South Africa, it can be safely said two matches into their campaign, have come impeccably prepared. Their execution was slightly awry in the opener, and against a team like Australia, that can only lead to one result. Course correction was swift and impressive. On Tuesday in the first of many must-win clashes, they played the near flawless game to consign West Indies to a second heavy defeat on the bounce.
What stood out was how Temba Bavuma used his bowling resources. Aiden Markram, the former skipper, was entrusted with new-ball responsibilities, ostensibly to keep left-hander Evin Lewis in check. The non-regular off-spinner hadn’t bowled a single ball in the five-wicket loss to Australia but turned in two tidy overs until Lewis got stuck into him in his third. In one fell swoop, Bavuma had attained two objectives – to tie up the free-stroking Caribbeans in the Powerplay, and to get some insurance overs under his belt in case one of his regulars had an off-day.
Markram’s three overs at that stage also meant the skipper could preserve his heavy artillery, read Anrich Nortje, for the later overs, against a power-packed middle-order that included Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell. It’s a line-up designed to send chills down the spine of the best bowling attacks, but South Africa had come prepared.
Their reading of the pitch was exemplary; Nortje and Kagiso Rabada used the middle of the deck to great effect, bashing the ball in and allowing the slowness to ask the batsmen to make their own pace. Not even the boundary-philes in the West Indian ranks could confidently take on the larger side of the ground.
There was a concerted effort to stay away from the hitting arc of the batsmen, a ploy that worked against everyone bar Lewis. After a slow start, the opener came into his own with a series of typically flamboyant strokes that sailed over the long boundaries, but in the attacking stakes, he was ploughing a lone furrow. His opening partner Lendl Simmons’ inexplicable 35-ball sucked the innings dry of any momentum, and South Africa feasted on Caribbean desperation in the middle overs through their left-arm spinners, the orthodox Keshav Maharaj and wrist-operator Tabraiz Shamsi, the No. 1 T20 bowler in the world.
West Indies still did seem primed for a late onslaught with many of their big guns still in business with going into the last four overs. South Africa still had a couple of sleeves up their ace, including death-overs specialist Dwayne Pretorius. It takes some character, not to mention skill, to come on to bowl for the first time as late as in the 18th over. Pretorius is a master at that stage, with his cutters and off-pace deliveries and a sharp strategy that involved having a fielder directly behind the umpire, at the edge of the 30-yard circle, for both Pollard and Russell.
Both right-handers tend to hit the ball head-high in that region, and narrowly missed Nortje on either side of the fielder once each. South Africa and Pretorius weren’t to be denied, though; off the second ball of the last over, Rassie van der Dussen dived forward to take a sharp, smart catch in the ultimate vindication of the planning process.
The first half of the afternoon had gone to script, but there still was work to be done even if there was no great firepower or mystery to the Caribbean bowling. Again, South Africa knew exactly what they wanted to do, and how they’d go about it. No. 3 van der Dussen would be the anchor around which the stroke-makers would flourish. First Reeza Hendricks, a late replacement for Quinton de Kock who pulled out for personal reasons, and later Markram provided the fireworks to coast home unchallenged, untroubled.
This eight-wicket win was a triumph on the field for trusting the work off it. It’s a template the Proteas are certain to adopt for the rest of the competition.
R Kaushik is a Bengaluru-based freelancer who has been writing on cricket for 30 years. He has reported on more than 100 Test matches and is the co-author of VVS Laxman’s autobiography, 281 And Beyond.