“We had no right to get so close.” – Heinrich Klaasen
Telford Vice | Cape Town
MAYBE the plan was to deny Babar Azam a chance to dazzle again by not putting up a big enough target. And it worked in that South Africa were dismissed for 144. Only three times in the 77 T20Is in which they have batted first have they been bowled out for fewer runs.
So, unlike on Wednesday, when Babar went after the bowling in a cold fury to score 122 off 59 balls, an innings that defined T20I batting itself, on Friday he was content to lean on his bat and allow the runs materialise as if by osmosis.
Linda Evangelista, the model, famously said she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than USD10,000. You could imagine Babar thinking to himself as he pottered away at the same Centurion crease from which he had brandished his light sabre so brilliantly on Wednesday, you didn’t get the runs. Why should I bother?
Perhaps he should have. Pakistan were 92 for the loss of Babar’s wicket — heaved to deep third off Lizaad Williams — in the 10th over when Fakhar Zaman flubbed a catch to backward point off the same bowler to end his 34-ball 60. Nine overs later they had lost six wickets for 37. They needed 16 off the last eight balls when Sisanda Magala overstepped. Then he overstepped again, and showed his frustration by flicking off the bails at the non-striker’s end as he walked back to his mark. It was South Africa’s eighth no-ball of a series in which they also bowled 16 wides. Pakistan? A solitary no-ball and two wides. Magala got away with a single from the first free hit, but Mohammad Nawaz hit the second a long way into the darkening sky beyond square leg for six. Six were required off the last over, bowled by the plucky Williams, and Nawaz settled the issue when he launched the fifth over square leg for six.
“If you are going to lose games, that’s probably the way you want to lose them,” Rassie van der Dussen told an online press conference. But Heinrich Klaasen had already ventured nearer the truth in his television interview: “We had no right to get so close.” That was fair comment from the captain of a team that had lost five wickets for 13 runs in the space of 20 balls. Hasan Ali and Faheem Ashraf shared six wickets, but the real story was that the South Africans kept hitting the ball in the air and hoped the Pakistanis wouldn’t catch it. They did.
And that was only one of the problems experienced by a side that struggled in all departments at different stages of a rubber they started without five of their best players — who are involved in the Indian Premier League — and that lost their captain, Temba Bavuma, and their most in-form batter, Van der Dussen, to injury before the series started. Bavuma never played. Van der Dussen missed the first two games,
But absences, for whatever reason, are not excuses. So concerns will swirl. Friday’s result confirmed Pakistan’s first series win in the format in South Africa, which followed only their second ODI success. Of the dozen matches they have played against Pakistan in all formats since the last week of January, they have lost nine. In the past 13 days alone they have suffered the slings and arrows of two of the finest white-innings yet played: Babar’s 122 and Fakhar’s 193 in the second ODI international at the Wanderers. Under Mark Boucher, who was appointed coach in December 2019, South Africa have won 12 of 32 completed games.
Boucher openly questioned his team’s mental toughness during an online press conference on Thursday, saying, “It’s almost like we get onto the field and we take a step back.” He was particularly concerned with South Africa’s attitude in the field. The players seemed to have taken that to heart, and they were rasping with noise and aggression when Pakistan’s innings started on Friday. So much so that Klaasen, standing up to Bjorn Fortuin bowling to Babar in the third over, was heard to say on the stump microphones, “Don’t swear at him. You mustn’t swear at him.” Who was or wasn’t swearing at whom wasn’t clear, but what was certain was that Fortuin and Babar were having words. Happily, the moment fizzled out.
Pakistan’s victory was seconds old when their squad lined up on the outfield under a crescent moon, ready to perform the Maghrib prayer. Iftar would, of course, follow. Never would a date taste so sweet.
First published by Cricbuzz.
Bulletproof Truth 