Afghanistan – Bulletproof Truth

Unseen, unheard, unknown: South Africa’s secret final

“I’ve always said that if South Africa reach a final they will win it.” – Herschelle Gibbs

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THE four people in a Cape Town barbershop didn’t betray any sign of knowing. Neither did a crew of around 20 roadworkers down the street contemplating a large hole where the pavement might have been. No-one behind the counter at a buzzing café, nor the clientele, further along the drag were any the wiser.

The staff at a gym didn’t know, perhaps because all of the seven televisions in the place were tuned to reruns of the previous night’s matches in the men’s European football championships.

Had you not known better, you would have thought South Africa’s men’s team hadn’t reached the final of a World Cup, the T20 version, for the first time not many hours earlier.

If any of those working out in the gym as Thursday morning turned towards afternoon knew, they didn’t let on. Most of them, anyway. Among the latter was Herschelle Gibbs, who held a series of frenetic conversations that must be what nuclear reactions made flesh would look like.

It was in the midst of these exchanges that Gibbs’ eyes caught those of someone he has known since his playing days. The two men stared silently at each other across the gym floor, and for some strange reason each held up an index finger. The expression on both of their faces was that of someone who had been kissed for the first time.

Gibbs admitted to Cricbuzz that he was “happy, excited and nervous all at the same time; it feels lovely”. He noted that, “I’ve always said that if South Africa reach a final they will win it.” Indeed, Gibbs made that assertion on radio as recently as Wednesday, when he also said he hoped Saturday’s final in Barbados would feature South Africa and India.

He was granted half that wish at 4.37am on Thursday, South Africa time, when Aiden Markram’s team completed a nine-wicket thrashing of Afghanistan in their semifinal in Trinidad. Had Gibbs watched the game? “Nah. When I checked the score Afghanistan were 23/5. There was no point, so I went back to sleep.”

England and India met in the other semi, in Guyana, later on Thursday. Were India still Gibbs’ favoured opponents? It was agreed that “once the Indians get going they’re difficult to stop”, but also that while England have quality spinners in Adil Rashid, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali, “Kensington Oval doesn’t turn”.

While he was talking, a woman old enough to be Gibbs’ mother — he is 50 — approached and interrupted the discussion. “Excuse me,” she said. Gibbs: “Yes madam?” She explained that she was struggling to adjust a nearby piece of weight training equipment. Could he help?

Without another word Gibbs accompanied her to the machine, repositioned a cable that had lost its way, set the weight to her desired level, watched her perform the exercise, and offered her tips on how to do so safely and optimally. Clearly clueless about who he was, she thanked him. He smiled and returned to his conversation companion.

Gibbs duly earned his reputation as a rock star cricketer who was never too far from trouble off the field. But, away from all that, he is steeped in basic human decency. His greatest gift isn’t that he played the game better than most people on the planet, and doubtless would have done in any sport of his choosing. Instead it is that he is the most unfamous famous person you could meet. Greet him once and the next time he sees you he treats you as a friend. When you do see him again and you ask how he is his answer is invariably a booming, “Tremendous!”

His good manners were on display on the night of March 16 2007, the day he hit every ball of Dutch leg spinner Daan van Bunge’s fourth over for six in a World Cup match in St Kitts. Gibbs stood dapperly at the counter of a beach bar, a veritable off-duty James Bond. He bought drinks for others and accepted drinks from others, all the while maintaining impeccable behaviour, until at least 2am. Four hours later he strode purposefully up a fairway on a nearby golf course, five-iron in hand.

Was David Miller’s constitution that strong? Just more than 10 hours after the semifinal ended he beamed out of a screen at an online press conference wearing team travelling gear and looking at least as dapper as Gibbs did all those years ago. It was 8.30am in Trinidad. How much sleep had he had?

“Three or four hours,” Miller said. “It’s early, but that’s pretty standard. We’ve had some weird timings. Fortunately, we steamrolled them and finished the game earlier than expected, which was a good result.”

Complaints over the hectic schedule teams have had to keep to make it to the six Caribbean grounds that hosted 36 of the 52 group and Super Eight games and will stage all three of the knockout matches have been rife.

“We haven’t really spoken about it as such,” Miller said. “There have been murmurs here and there, but if I told you exactly how our travel in the last couple of weeks has gone you would be shocked. So it’s been a monumental effort from the management and players to buy into where we are right now.

“It blows my mind that it felt like the tournament dragged on in the beginning, and then we played the Super Eights pretty much back-to-back on different islands. It doesn’t make sense. I think it could have been structured better. But it is what it is, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We certainly are stronger for it.”

South Africa’s four group games were spread over a dozen days, and the first three were played in Nassau County. Their three Super Eights matches were crammed into five days, and they had to go from Antigua to St Lucia and back to Antigua to play them.

But Miller was correct — South Africa were stronger for the experience. All that time on Nassau’s nasty pitch prepared them well for a similar surface in the semifinal.

Did their sudden status as finalists mean a more relaxed programme leading into Saturday’s decider? The question wasn’t asked, nevermind answered. “Apologies, but we have to check out in seven minutes to catch the bus,” the media manager said as she called a halt to proceedings.

Cricket is a major sport in South Africa, but far from the obsession it is in south Asia. Football is to South Africa what cricket is to India, even though the national football teams don’t often get far on the world stage. The Springboks have kept rugby’s profile high by winning a record four men’s World Cups since claiming their first title in 1995.

Cricket hasn’t helped itself by winning only two of their 11 men’s knockout games at World Cups. But, win or lose and particularly should they win, the game’s place in the public consciousness will be elevated on Saturday. Maybe then people will know.

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Hope soars as South Africa reach final frontier for first time

“There’s nothing to be scared of.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Cape Town

HOPE is the thing with feathers. It gets you out of bed when the alarm ends your night’s sleep at 2am. It explains brushing your teeth at 2.15am. It floods the black pools of your six-month-old kitten’s eyes as he stares at you through the winter darkness: you’re awake! Let’s play!

“Firstly, thanks for waking up that early, jeepers,” Aiden Markram told a press conference on Tuesday when he was asked for his message to the fans ahead of the men’s T20 World Cup semifinal against Afghanistan in Tarouba, which started at 2.30am on Thursday South Africa time.

Markram seemed surprised at the prospect of people harbouring enough hope to watch him and his team play at that hour. When you’ve won seven consecutive games you have soared, feathered or not, past hope. You know you can win because you have won.

But hope is all the fans have. Some of them have been willing you onwards and upwards since that soggy semi against England at the SCG in 1992. Others wouldn’t have been born then. Still others wouldn’t have been alive the last time you were in a semi in this format, more than 10 years ago. Before the sun rose on Thursday all of them, regardless of when they were born, knew this time would be different.

The television cameras settled on a splodge of yellow-shirted spectators in the stands. Australia supporters! By all that made sense, they should have been watching Mitchell Marsh’s men play South Africa in this semi. But Afghanistan have, in the best and most exciting way, made this tournament not make sense. Until this match, of course.

Their dismissal for 56 — their lowest total in all their 138 T20Is — in 11.5 overs was confirmed, on review, at 3.33am. Azmatullah Omarzai’s 10 was their highest score. Aside, that is, from the 13 extras. Kagiso Rabada bowled Ibrahim Zadran through the gate with his first ball of the match and did the same to Mohammad Nabi with his fourth, a sniping inswinger, which reduced the Afghans to 20/4 and erased their chances of posting a competitive total.

The essence of their nightmare was captured not by a delivery or a stroke, but by Naveen-ul-Haq arriving at the crease in the 10th over wearing neither helmet nor cap. When you’re taking guard at 50/8 who cares what’s on your head?

A heaving Quinton de Kock lost his off stump to Fazalhaq Farooqi and the 11th delivery of South Africa’s reply, and Reeza Hendricks and Markram sealed victory in 8.5 overs with an unbroken stand of 55 off 43. The target was chalked off by 4.37am. Next stop the uncharted territory, for this team, of a World Cup final. They will meet England or India in Barbados on Saturday.

Much of which will be overshadowed by a Brian Lara Stadium pitch on which even the outrageously fine player for whom the ground is named would have struggled to shine. Some deliveries took off, others refused to launch, all seemed to veer this side or that. There was seam. There was swing. There was turn. Nothing about batting on this surface was fair.

A case in point was the penultimate delivery of South Africa’s last powerplay over, which was bowled by the bearded flying fury on legs called Rashid Khan — whose googly to Hendricks pitched short and stayed resolutely low.

Maybe because he has had a difficult tournament, scoring 80 runs in seven innings before this match, 43 of them in one innings, and never looking fluent, Hendricks was equipped to deal with what he faced in that instant; he jammed his bat onto the ball. It wasn’t anything like as elegant as Hendricks often is, but it was effective.

Rashid fielded and followed through into Hendricks’ half of the pitch, looking at least as menacing as Dennis Lillee. He aimed a face as thunderous as his eyes were bolts of lightning at the South African, and underarmed the ball onto the stumps even though the batter was well within his ground. The bails and stumps lit up in apologetic sympathy.

“We might have played better than that but the conditions didn’t allow us to do what we wanted,” Rashid said on television after the match, adding bleakly, “But you have to be prepared for any conditions.”

Between innings, a television interviewer had approached Rabada on the outfield. “Hi KG,” you could lipread her saying, “I’m Laura McGoldrick, Martin Guptill’s wife.” Rabada told her on camera, “We 100% believe that this is the team [to win a World Cup]. Why play if you don’t believe it?”

Rabada was not part of the side beaten by McGoldrick’s husband and 10 other New Zealanders — one of them, Grant Elliott, born and raised a South African — at Eden Park in the 2015 World Cup semi. Those players no doubt also believed they could win. But Rabada was at Eden Gardens in November to endure another World Cup semi defeat, to Australia. He would have believed South Africa could win then, too.

Now they have earned only their second success in 11 knockout games, and their first in a semifinal. Dare they hope for one more win? “There’s nothing to be scared of,” Markram said for the cameras, his eyes unnervingly steady.

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” Emily Dickinson wrote as the opening line of a poem whose first verse continues, “That perches in the soul. And sings the tune without the words. And never stops at all.”

She was right originally, and on that wet night in Sydney in 1992, in Karachi in 1996, in Birmingham in 1999, in St Lucia in 2007, in Nottingham in 2009, in Dhaka in 2011, in Dhaka again in 2014, in Auckland in 2015, in Kolkata last year. And in Tarouba on Wednesday. Or Thursday, if you were among those who rose at 2am emptied of sleep but filled with hope.

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You too know South Africa still haven’t found what they’re looking for

“You’ll see a team who are hungry to win, and who are united to play for each other and represent the country in a respectful and a positive manner.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Cape Town

RATTLE and Hum is the title of an album of what would now be derided as flabby parental rock. It was released by U2 more than 35 years ago into a westernised world that has since gone gaga over Taylor Swift and whoever invented themselves on TikTok this morning. Rattle and hum also captures how South Africa have played at the men’s T20 World Cup.

The batting has rattled while the bowling has hummed, as Aiden Markram made plain during a press conference on Tuesday: “If the bowlers execute the plan it builds a lot of pressure through dots and results in wickets. A lot of credit has to go to the bowlers. They’ve won us games that we didn’t look like winning. That gives them confidence that any total we set they feel they have the ability to defend it.”

Part of South Africa’s shaky batting is explained by them playing their first three games on Nassau County’s notoriously difficult pitches. They had arrived as perhaps the most feared batting line-up in the tournament but have struggled to recover from their New York State experience. But India also played their first three matches at Nassau, and seem to have moved on from all that. South Africa and India each batted first three times after leaving New York, and the Indians scored 110 more runs in those innings.

South Africa’s overall batting strike rate as a team during the tournament, 106.19, is the lowest among the semifinalists. Their bowling economy rate, 6.63, is better only than England’s 7.48. South Africa’s average total batting first is 146.25 — behind India’s 168.33 and Afghanistan’s 151.25, while England have batted first only once. The South Africans have taken an average of 7.57 wickets per innings, compared to Afghanistan’s 9.00, India’s 8.33 and England’s 6.67.

So how do we explain South Africa reeling off seven consecutive wins to earn a semifinal against the Afghans in Trinidad on Thursday as one of only two remaining unbeaten sides — India are the other — of all 20 who started the World Cup? Maybe that isn’t explicable, at least not in numbers.

“The promise we make to each other as a team is to bring good energy and have a good attitude about the game and excitement about the opportunity to do something special,” Markram said. “We’ve all watched this game enough, but how you see those things happen is important. You’ll see a team who are hungry to win, and who are united to play for each other and represent the country in a respectful and a positive manner. And, ultimately, a team who are free to express themselves and try to be the best cricketers they can be.”

That will make many South Africans queasy. As will this, on the semi itself: “It’s exciting, it’s nerve-wracking, it’s all the emotions in one. But you want to be involved in games like this. It’s a great opportunity for us to take a step further to winning a trophy.”

What is all this touchy feely stuff? This glib statementeering? This baring of not quite the soul, but too close for comfort to that? That’s not the South African way, which is to stay stoic and silent and see to the task at hand. And which has not worked.

South Africa have won only one of their 10 World Cup knockout games in both formats; the 2015 quarterfinal against Sri Lanka at the SCG. Sometimes they have played below themselves — in a word, choked — other times they have been beaten by the better side, and still other times they have been undone by the weather.

Whatever. The truth is that the South African way — booming fast bowling, aggressive fielding, conservative batting — has failed when it has mattered most. When it hasn’t mattered as much, in the preliminary stage of tournaments, they have won 67.57% of their matches. Only Australia, who have a success rate of 71.43% in those games, have been better.

The difference is the Australians have won 18 of their 26 playoff games. They have made it to the knockout rounds of 14 of all of the 21 white-ball World Cups played before this tournament. When they reach the final, look out — they’ve done that 10 times and won seven of them. That’s the Australian way, albeit it didn’t stop them from exiting the current competition earlier than usual.

South Africa haven’t followed the Aussies’ template this time. Not many teams could. But they have ditched the South African way — particularly in a batting sense. They have been content to stay on thin ice, scoring just enough runs to bowl at or by chipping away at a target unemphatically. The ice hasn’t cracked under them despite defeat looming in six of those seven wins, testament to a quality that hasn’t always been evident in their approach: composure.

It is, Markram said, the cricketing equivalent of a sourdough starter: “We can take a lot of calmness from the fact that in this competition we’ve been involved in quite a few close games. So it’s not going to feel like anything new. We also take a lot of belief from knowing that we have not been in ideal positions but we’ve been able to get the job done. That offers you calmness as a team. If you’re operating in that space you take calmness and confidence in your decision-making.”

Markram has led from the front on that score, making canny bowling changes — sometimes involving himself — and taking outrageous catches. And all the while looking like he is sat on a park bench holding an ice-cream in one hand and a good book in the other. Do not be fooled by the image he projects.

“The mind is going quickly and sometimes it’s all over the place, but you don’t want that to rub off on the players,” Markram said. “It’s the old cliché that a bad plan you commit to is better than a good plan that you’re not really committed to. So committing to something while we’re out there, whether it’s right or wrong, helps a lot. Sometimes things look calmer than they are out there, but if you can keep calm it allows you to think clearly and come up with decent plans.”

Planning is one thing, execution distinctly another. But players as disparate and different in skills and experience as David Miller, Ottneil Baartman, Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi and Marco Jansen have stepped up to deliver matchwinning performances in the past three weeks.

Maybe that’s the value of, in the squad of 15, only Ryan Rickelton, Bjorn Fortuin and Baartman not having been to a senior World Cup before. But that must mean the remaining dozen have brought a lot of excess baggage. De Kock and Miller were in the XIs that crashed out in the semifinals of the 2014 T20 World Cup, and the 2015 and 2023 World Cups. Last year’s semi also featured Heinrich Klaasen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Jansen, Rabada, Shamsi and Markram — who are all back for more. How have they managed to lose their luggage so successfully?

“That’s a tricky one,” Markram said. “There’s nothing clear and evident that you could put your finger on and say this is the exact difference. We have been together as a group for quite some time, and that experience and the environment you’re able to create in the changeroom and off the field plays a big role in how things look on the field. That probably is a big difference.

“The guys have a lot of trust in each other and are willing to put everything on the line for each other. Once you’ve established that in a team it goes a long way in what you see on the field from an actions and effort point of view.”

You too can surely see that, through playing helter-skelter cricket, South Africa have generated the required desire and pride, even though they still haven’t found what they’re looking for. How far they are from putting a bullet in the blue sky above this World Cup is about to be revealed.

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Reality rockers meet the A-team

“You don’t not have confidence if you manage to win games the way that we have.” – Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ONE word. Four syllables. Starts with A. It’s the name of your opponents in the 2024 men’s T20 World Cup semifinals. Had those clues been given to South Africa’s players before the tournament, their answer would in all likelihood have been that other team whose name starts with an A.

You know — those guys who have limped home among the 16 also-rans who tried and failed to reach the knockout rounds. That’s right: Australia. Instead, Afghanistan will be South Africa’s opponents in Trinidad on Thursday. And they will be taken just as seriously as any bunch of Aussies. That’s what beating New Zealand, Australia and Bangladesh in the space of 18 days gets you: respect.

Along the way the Afghans were thumped by West Indies and India, while South Africa have won all seven of their matches. But Afghanistan are surfing the World Cup wave so impressively — and that as a side from a landlocked country, no less — and South Africa’s history in knockout games — played nine, won one — is so skewed that it would not be outlandish to make Rashid Khan’s A-team favourites.

Indeed, in Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran they have two of the top five runscorers in the tournament, while Fazalhaq Farooqi, Rashid and Naveen-ul-Haq are among the leading five wicket-takers. South Africa’s top batter, Quinton de Kock, is sixth on the list and their most successful bowler, Anrich Nortjé, is joint eighth.

The difference between these South Africans and those who have been to the semifinal rodeo before is that they wouldn’t struggle to agree with the assertion that Afghanistan go into the match holding the upper hand. Because Aiden Markram’s charges are also riding a wave. Its one-word name also has four syllables but starts with R. As in reality.

Here’s a flavour, courtesy of Rob Walter when he was asked during a press conference on Monday if he felt sorry for batters considering the conditions they have had to put up with for much of the tournament: “The world of professional sports doesn’t allow for much sympathy, but it does allow for understanding.”

Afghanistan, too, are living in the real world. That was clear from Rashid’s answer to the question of when he thought the victory over Bangladesh in St Vincent in the wee hours of Tuesday morning had been secured: “The only time I believed we had won the game was when we took the last wicket.”

Out there in the really real world, many will hope for a sign or at least an acknowledgement from the Afghans that they represent the women and girls of their country — who are barred by the repressive Taliban regime from so much that is available to men, including playing cricket. Until 1994, South Africa’s teams also flew the flag of a society ruled by unfairness and fear.

The issue then was apartheid. Now it is gender apartheid. Then as now, cricket — and cricketers — cannot be allowed to look the other way.

When: Afghanistan vs South Africa, June 27, 12.30AM (June 28) GMT, 8.30PM Local, 2.30AM (June 28) SAST, 6AM (June 28) IST

Where: Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, Trinidad

What to expect: A cool, clear evening. And low scores. Papua New Guinea were bowled out for 95 — by the Afghans — and 78 at this ground, where West Indies’ 149/9 was enough to beat New Zealand by 13 runs.

Head to head in T20 World Cups: Afghanistan 0-2 South Africa

Team Watch:

Afghanistan

This isn’t a cricket team. It’s a movement, and its time is now.

Tactics & Matchups: In Rashid Khan, closer to a one-man XI than an allrounder and captain, Afghanistan trust.

Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (capt), Nangeyalia Kharoti, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi

South Africa

So far so shaky, and so unbeaten. They have sailed close to defeat in almost every game, and won them all.

Tactics & Matchups: It’s a seamer’s pitch, but Tabraiz Shamsi could be counted on to bamboozle.

Probable XI: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortjé, Tabraiz Shamsi

Did you know?

— Of the 51 wickets taken by bowlers at this ground during the tournament 41 — 80.39% — have fallen to seam bowlers.

— Of the 67 individual innings begun at Tarouba during the tournament only one has reached 50. Gulbadin Naib was 49 not out when Afghanistan clinched victory over Papua New Guinea.

— Thirteen of those 67 innings have resulted in ducks: a quacking 19.40%.

What they said:

“I think we deserve to be in the semis.” — Rashid Khan feels the same way as everyone else who has watched his team in the tournament.

“You don’t not have confidence if you manage to win games the way that we have. And then there’s certain parts of the game that we know we need to brush up and tighten up on. We’re working through that continuum the whole time and being real about the things that we need to do better, being real about where we are in certain aspects of our game, and celebrating the stuff that we’ve been getting right.” — Rob Walter on the new South Africa.

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Job done, but at what cost to Bavuma?

“They did give him the option to go off for a period and come back so he could open the batting. But not once did he say he’s going to go off.” – Rassie van der Dussen on Temba Bavuma.

Telford Vice / Narendra Modi Stadium

HOW big is a crowd? As big as a piece of string is long. So the 10,927 or so who made themselves as snug as they could be in The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium to see South Africa labour to victory in their men’s World Cup match against Afghanistan on Friday formed a crowd. Technically.

They constituted a piddling 8.278% of the capacity of a venue that holds the equivalent number of spectators as all five of South Africa’s major venues combined, plus another full Wanderers — the country’s biggest ground — with room to spare. Or more than the record horde yet to have watched cricket at the MCG added to the largest that could cram into Lord’s.

They saw Azmatullah Omarzai stopped, by the running out of Naveen-ul-Haq to end the innings, three runs shy of what would have been a defiant century. They saw Gerald Coetzee show, despite the nothingness of a match that in all likelihood would not change the semifinal equation, an elevated level of competitive seriousness. Coetzee claimed a career-best 4/44 to take his total for the tournament to 18 — the most by a South Africa bowler in any single edition of the World Cup.

Quinton de Kock became the only wicketkeeper to take as many as six catches — most of them straightforward — in the first innings of a World Cup match. Sarfaraz Ahmed also held a half-dozen, against South Africa at Eden Park in 2015, as did Adam Gilchrist, against Namibia in Potchefstroom in 2003. But they did so in the second innings.

The crowd also saw Temba Bavuma tweak his right hamstring after nine balls of the match and limp through most of Afghanistan’s innings. And Lungi Ngidi leave the field with an ankle problem midway through his third over and return to bowl another 51 deliveries.

Bavuma started South Africa’s reply, with De Kock, despite hobbling because of the effects of his injury. He struggled to reach the other end of the pitch, twice almost falling over, before holing out to deep square leg in the 11th — which came as a relief to all watching, Bavuma perhaps excepted.

Why had he batted at all, or even stayed on the field during Afghanistan’s innings, considering he had to lead a team in a World Cup semifinal against Australia mere days after Friday? What did his team make of that?

“They did give him the option to go off for a period and come back so he could open the batting,” Rassie van der Dussen said. “But not once did he say he’s going to go off and letting the other guys bat. He wanted us to chase, he wanted us in that situation. And even though he was on a half-a-leg he was still keen to go up front and see off the new ball and play, so the guys know the type of character is.

“Luckily we’ve got a few days and we’ll see what happens, but our squad system has been so good. So if he’s not there like a guy like Reeza [Hendricks] has put his hand up, so we know we have a really capable replacement if it’s needed.” Hendricks scored 85 against England and 12 against Bangladesh, both at the Wankhede, standing in for Bavuma earlier in the tournament.

In a television interview after the match Bavuma said: “The leg is a bit sore. I don’t know to what extent but it will have to be fine [for the semifinal against Australia]. As much as it was our last league game, and it didn’t have a big bearing in terms of our playoff, I still wanted to be out there with the guys and have an opportunity to spend time in the middle.

“So I didn’t want to let that go. But I also wanted to keep leading the guys, keep marshalling out in the field, keep strengthening those relationships with the bowlers. It was a bit risky, but that’s what I felt was right.”

The Bavuma situation, which team management said had been diagnosed as a strain, wasn’t the only troubling factor for South Africa. They have been unstoppable when they have batted first in the tournament, putting up totals ranging from 311/7 against Australia in Lucknow to 428/5 against Sri Lanka in Delhi. They have exuded confidence and creativity, winning five games without blemish.

But they have been a different, unconvincing, fractious proposition when they have chased. They can look as if any target, however manageable, is out of their reach. The Dutch bowled them out for 207 in search of 246, and against Pakistan they lost 5/54 before Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi took them to the required 271 with a solitary wicket standing. On Friday they had to dig deeper than they would have liked to get past the Afghans’ total of 244.

After De Kock and Bavuma had shared 64 off 66, South Africa needed Van der Dussen at his flinty, fastidious finest. He saw De Kock trapped in front by Mohammad Nabi 13 deliveries after he arrived at the crease. Then Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller started innings they didn’t finish.

When Andile Phehlukwayo walked out to bat for the first time in the tournament, South Africa needed 63 off 78 with five wickets in hand. While Van der Dussen scraped and scrapped his way further down the rabbit-hole of his innings, keeping the faith of another win alive by consuming the pressure and taking whatever runs he could score, Phehlukwayo played exactly like a man who had spent eight matches watching cricket. His challenge was not eased by the fact that he took guard just as the Afghan spin attack sensed, with several overs left in their collective quiver, that control of the match was within reach.

The equation had become 31 off 27 when Phehlukwayo hammered Naveen-ul-Haq — the only seamer he faced — down the ground for six in the 46th. It was the 31st ball he had faced and the first one he had hit with any authority. The stroke seemed to jolt Phehlukwayo’s memory of the attacking threat he can be, and he clinched the match, by five wickets with 15 balls remaining, by putting consecutive deliveries from Naveen over midwicket for six, through extra cover for four, and over square leg for another six.

The pearl in the oyster of Phehlukwayo’s 37-ball 39 not out was that when the time and chance came for him to take the pressure off Van der Dussen and win the game, he did. Van der Dussen’s unbeaten 76 off 95, a monument to commitment, would not be in vain.

As helter-skelter as that might have seemed for the crowd, it wasn’t for Van der Dussen: “We wanted to put ourselves in that situation. So if we won the toss we would have bowled, especially knowing they’ve got a really strong spin attack. It was largely controlled. There were one or two nervy moments but it always is in chases like that.

“You’ve just got to communicate well with the guys coming in. One thing we did well is we never lost wickets in clusters. Everyone who came in helped put up a bit of a partnership and edged us closer. By doing that they were never really in the game. Even though it might have looked like it when we needed about 50 off 50, with five wickets in hand you’re going to get there nine times out of 10.”

Jonathan Trott, too, approved of how the South Africans had gone about beating his team: “This win will probably give them a lot of confidence going forward, because they were able to play on a wicket that was assisting spin. It’s about accepting the pressure and having clarity in how you’re going to go about knocking off the runs or how you’re going to score against the opposition.”

And what of the 10,927? They went home happy; maybe less so the Afghan supporters among them. But it isn’t every day you get to watch a match at The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium.

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Behold, the throne of games

“Say that cricket has nothing to do with politics and you say that cricket has nothing to do with life.” – John Arlott

Telford Vice / Ahmedabad

DIFFICULT as it may be to believe, The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium sneaks up on you. Once the tangled traffic of Ahmedabad’s centre is sloughed off, head northwest on good roads for Motera and see a street of villas here, a school there, a hospital somewhere else, a temple or two, or three, and a metro rail above it all.

Anything vast enough to accommodate 132,000, each in the splendour of their own plastic seat, seems far away. Then, suddenly, it looms. Rather it sprawls squat and fat like some kind of massive primordial slug fallen on its side, foot curled to head. Once within its billowing innards you could be anywhere. Think the Gabba. On steroids.

Those who prefer their cricket on a maidan, at a club, in a village or a meadow, near a beach or a tree, under the gaze of a mountain or a gasometer, or in front of a starring pavilion and a supporting cast of stands, are unlikely to feel at home here.

This is a stage for cricket as spectacle, a place to come and bay for and against gladiators, and where the batting of an eyelid — much less a ball — can and will be analysed by the 132,000 watching on the big screens until it has been drained of all meaning, real and imagined. Is it a place fit for a men’s World Cup final, white-ball cricket’s spectacle among spectacles? Indubitably.

On Friday it will be the scene of, comparatively, a much smaller deal. Afghanistan and South Africa will play their last league match of the tournament here. Barring events that would make Bollywood scriptwriters blanche in disbelief, the Afghans are going home. The South Africans have secured a semifinal against Australia at the Eden Gardens next Thursday. This is as dead as dead rubbers get.

But it will be watched nonetheless — most keenly if South Africa bat second, a role in which they have failed to convince so far in the tournament. Should they bat first, the contest could well be decided by the time the sun sets over Ahmedabad. South Africa have won 62.57% of all ODIs in which they have batted first, and 65.52% of all those they have played in India when they have batted first. This year they have 90.91% of those in which they have batted first. Ergo, South Africa have been significantly more successful when they have batted first.

Also to be noted, considering Ravindra Jadeja took 5/33 against them in Kolkata on Sunday, is how they cope with Rashid Khan and the rest of Afghanistan’s crack spin attack. Whatever they do, the South Africans won’t want to make a bad memory at a place they hope to return to for the final on November 19.

Afghan supporters will look for signs of life in the wake of Glenn Maxwell hammering an undefeated 201 against them at the Wankhede on Tuesday. Not only did Maxwell hit his way into cricket’s big book of classic performances, he also took away from Afghanistan what looked for all money like their fifth win in eight matches as well as their fourth victory over teams considered stronger than them. With that went much of the credit the Afghans had earned for beating Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka, former World Cup champions all.

And Afghanistan, not only as a team but as a country that is in the news alarmingly often for horrific and harrowing reasons that go way beyond cricket, can use all the positivity it can find. One such reason is the treatment of women in that society. It would seem an obvious topic for questions asked of their players at press conferences — until the likely consequences of their answers for family members in Afghanistan is considered.

There is politics at play, too, in the very existence of The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium in this far flung place in western India, far from the brighter lights of the bigger cities. Which is not to necessarily cast aspersions on how it, along with the rest of the solid new infrastructure rising all over Ahmedabad, came to be here. Would that more elected representatives, if they reach high office, remember where they came from and who put them there.

“Say that cricket has nothing to do with politics and you say that cricket has nothing to do with life,” John Arlott said. He knew more than a little about cricket, politics, life, and everything else. What he might have made of The World’s Biggest Cricket Stadium would have been good to know.

When: November 10, 2023 at 14:00 IST

Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

What to expect: Plenty of dry heat, a touch of turn and not a lot of swing. Anticipate a first innings of around 280 — even England managed that — when the team in the field aren’t India, who blitzed Pakistan for 191 here.

Teams:

Afghanistan

Fazalhaq Farooqi could return at the expense of Noor Ahmad, although Mujeeb Ur Rahman might need compassionate leave in the wake of dropping Glenn Maxwell on 33 in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Tactics & strategy

A slow burn with the bat, a strong turn with the ball. The Afghans aren’t flashy at the crease, but they have been solid enough after being dismissed for 156 by Bangladesh: 272/8 and 284 against India and England, both in Delhi, 291/5 against Australia at the Wankhede. Much has been made of their spinners, but the seamers have claimed 21 of the 48 wickets taken by the bowlers.

Probable XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Ikram Alikhil, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq

South Africa

Andile Phehlukwayo is the only member of the squad who has yet to play a game in this World Cup.

That’s an arbitrary fact, but the South Africans attracted unwanted attention — politically and otherwise — when Aaron Phangiso was the only one of their players who rode the bench throughout the 2015 edition.

Tactics & strategy

Bat first and bat big. There is no longer uncertainty over South Africa’s preferred way of going about things. That doesn’t mean they can’t chase or that their quality attack can’t hurt opposing line-ups if they field first, but they do better when the batters have already bullied a welt of runs into the scorebook.

Probable XI: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Gerald Coetzee.

Did you know?

— Pace has taken almost double the amount of wickets as spin — 28 versus 15 — at this venue and at a better average — 32.04 versus 37.93 — during the World Cup.

— Pakistan and the Netherlands have conceded 300 in the tournament three times each, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka twice, and England and South Africa once. Afghanistan? Zero.

— Since these teams played their only ODI against each other, at the 2019 World Cup, Afghanistan have won 43.90% of their matches in the format and South Africa 56.86%.

What they said:

“As a team we feel proud. We are happy with what we did in this World Cup. But, as a captain, I wanted and I expected more. We should have done better.” — Hashmatullah Shahidi rues his team’s squandered chance to beat Australia.

“It’s just that it’s being compared to what we have done batting first, which has been exceptional. We haven’t been horrific chasing; it’s one or two games where we’ve slipped up, which is part of the game.” — David Miller doesn’t believe South Africa are more beatable when they bat second.

Squads:

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Naveen ul Haq

South Africa: Temba Bavuma (capt), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Rassie van der Dussen, Marco Jansen, Andile Phehlukwayo, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lizaad Williams

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If it’s Friday it must be Ahmedabad, not Kolkata

“Eight out of eight victories for India! India victories in line! Quickly click number nine!” – The Great Indian Tambola

Telford Vice / Ahmedabad

HOW much about their performance against India at the Eden Gardens on Sunday can South Africa have shrugged off in Kolkata? The West Bengal capital is 1,617 kilometres from Ahmedabad, where Temba Bavuma’s team play Afghanistan on Friday in their last league match of the men’s World Cup. In India you need to go further than that to escape your demons.

You could travel 2,933 kilometres from east to west in this country. Or 3,214 kilometres from north to south. The three-hour direct flight the South Africans took to reach Ahmedabad — longer than any they could board at home — won’t have put enough daylight between them and their abjectly poor performance in Kolkata for it to fade from memory by Friday.

Indeed, their disappointing display is grist for the ongoing media mill of Diwali delights, which includes Fever FM’s Great Indian Tambola blasting loud and clear from cab drivers’ radios in Ahmedabad. Tuesday’s midday edition had the announcer booming forth in a manner Ravi Shastri himself would have appreciated.

Listeners, voluntary and others, were treated to a salute to Virat Kohli for scoring 101 not out to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s world record of 49 ODI centuries: “Virat, congratulations aplenty! Number 20!” There was also a nod to the bigger picture: “Eight out of eight victories for India! India victories in line! Quickly click number nine!” Victory number eight was emphatic, more so because it was achieved against the second-best side in the tournament.

Denied the opportunity to flex the muscles they had built by batting first, their proven strength, South Africa conceded 91 runs for the meagre reward of a solitary wicket during India’s powerplay. Keshav Maharaj’s introduction in the 11th changed things. He produced a ripper with his third ball, a delivery so good Shubman Gill couldn’t believe it had bowled him after drifting beyond leg, where it pitched before zagging past his outside edge to nail the top of middle. Neither, it seemed, could Kumar Dharmasena and Paul Reiffel credit what had happened: they referred.

Maharaj didn’t go for more than three runs in any of his first five overs, and — with the help of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Tabraiz Shamsi — he kept the damage in the second 10 overs of the innings down to 33 runs. The next 20 overs yielded 115; not watertight but tidy.

Only for 87 to come off the last 10, which took India to 326/5 — a target well out of the South Africans’ reach against India’s crack attack. They crashed to 83 all out in 27.1 overs to suffer their heaviest defeat in all 667 of their ODIs.

“The boys are hurting because it’s not what we stand for,” Maharaj said after Sunday’s match. “But it’s a good eye opener for us. It’s probably a good thing, a blessing in disguise to make sure we iron out the glitches in the system.

“We played four good games on the bounce [to beat England, Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand], which is not to make excuses for this performance. But it’s an indication of what we need to do better in this tournament as we build up towards the semifinal.”

South Africa seem bound for a semi against Australia in Kolkata next Thursday. If that is how the cookie crumbles, Eden Gardens won’t be filled with fans passionately supporting India. Would that make the prospect of a return less daunting? “I don’t think it was intimidating,” Maharaj said of the atmosphere at a ground where Sunday’s game was the first World Cup fixture involving India since the 1996 World Cup semifinal against Sri Lanka was ended prematurely because of crowd violence. “You have to embrace it. It’s something that we’re not used to, and that’s even more reason to soak it up.”

South Africa were criticised for picking Shamsi, who didn’t help his own cause by straying down leg too often and conceding eight runs in wides and no-balls in his return of 1/72. He has not been more expensive in any of the 24 ODIs in which he has bowled all 10 of his overs. But Maharaj said selection wasn’t the issue: “The pitch did turn and was quite slow. So the decision [ti include Shamsi] was correct. The execution, at various points, was where we could have been a lot better.

“We bowled too many bad balls, which gave them too many scoring opportunities and took the game away from us for a period. On the batting front we showed a lack of intent from the start, and there were a few soft dismissals. We get paid to play cricket, so we’ve got to find a way.

“It was a good trial run, if we do progress from the semifinal, to identify areas where we can get better.”

What if they do make the final and their opponents are, gulp, India at Ahmedabad’s gargantuan arena that can accommodate, gulp, almost double the number of spectators as the Eden Gardens? “India find a way to play really well in their conditions,” Maharaj said. “Everyone knows their gameplan and they’re executing really well. They do look like a force to be reckoned with.”

They do, and they will be again if they reach the final. As, ominously for South Africa, they should. They can leave the defeat at the Eden Gardens, but good luck discarding in the dressingroom reminders of that dark day/night. No matter how far it is from Ahmedabad.

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Slick England down exciting, erring Afghanistan

“We need to get better at playing a full 40 overs.” – Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan coach

Telford Vice / Perth Stadium

THE arc the ball took before clattering into one of the 60,000 plastic seats at Perth Stadium on Saturday shouldn’t be likened to the path a missile follows to make its terrible mark. Because the language of war has no place in sport at the best of times, and particularly not when Afghans are playing.

But a freshly unleashed missile is what sprang to mind when, with scandalous nonchalance, Rahmanullah Gurbaz eased onto one knee to flick Chris Woakes over his shoulder for six. What had been the ninth delivery of the match flew flat and furious into the stands, carving a cordite path through the spring evening air. Happily the seat that served as a target was, like most in the vast cauldron, unoccupied.

The stroke was cheered heartily by the largely Afghanistan-supporting crowd, among them two women who held the national flag between them as they jumped for joy, their long, dark hair and wide smiles bouncing unfettered and uncovered in floodlit lustre. Their faces mirrored the freedom Gurbaz had unfurled to play his audacious shot.

It seemed the electronic scoreboards, each of them 340 square metres big, refused to believe what had happened. Until two overs into the match they were still stuck on zero and claiming not a ball had been bowled. And deliveries were indeed being bowled — rapidly, what with Mark Wood quickly surging to and sometimes beyond 150 kilometres an hour.

The Afghans never flinched in their first T20I in Australia, where they have played three ODIs. Maybe they lacked finesse as they threw their hands, bats and hearts at the ball with no thought of safety first, or maybe they really weren’t considering the consequences of getting it wrong. Either way, it was thrilling to watch such unafraid batting. It would be too far a reach and too glib to wonder whether living in Afghanistan’s real world puts mere cricket into perspective, but doubtless that will be wondered regardless.

Had they not been up against a team as slick as England, who can say how much closer the match might have been. Knowing the batters would chase whatever they served up, England’s attack kept their efforts short and wide enough to exploit the catches waiting to be taken in the region of the cavernous square boundaries. Sam Curran laced rising deliveries with yorkers to claim 5/10 — three of them in four deliveries — and became the first Englishman to earn a five-wicket haul in the format at this level.

Asked if he had found an extra dash of pace, Curran smiled and said, “Maybe it’s just a bit of alignment stuff, but maybe it’s Australia and they like to crank up the speed guns. It’s my first time playing here, and I’m really enjoying the bounce and pace, and you can use the dimensions of the ground.”

Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid made fiendishly difficult outfield catches look straightforward, and Jos Buttler flew metres down the leg side to latch onto another. After all that, when Alex Hales, at backward point, dived but dropped Fareed Ahmad off Woakes, it looked like a clumsy mistake and not the fine bit of fielding it was. “When ‘Livvy’ took that catch it set the standard — we knew we were here to scrap for every run in the field,” Curran said.

This key difference between the teams was first illustrated in the fifth over of England’s reply, when Hales hammered Fazalhaq Farooqi to backward point — where Qais Ahmad couldn’t hold a hard-hit chance that an England fielder probably would have clung to, considering what had gone before on the night. Three overs later Mohammad Nabi came roaring around the boundary from long-off but spilled another opportunity, this one earned by Mujeeb Ur Rahman, to dismiss Hales. Nabi redeemed himself at short cover in the 14th, when he held Dawid Malan’s smashed drive off Mujeeb. Normal service resumed two balls later, when Livingston cover drove Fareed for four through a dozing Rashid Khan.

Afghanistan’s innings ended in a frenzy of five wickets crashing for three runs across a dozen deliveries. “We need to get better at playing a full 40 overs,” their coach, Jonathan Trott, said. “There’re times when we play 32 to 33 overs well, and then we let the opposition take the game away or we put ourselves in a position where we really have to chase the game.”

The Afghans have been bowled out only four times in the 64 T20Is in which they have batted first, and although their 112 was their highest total in those terms it was never going to be enough to hold ambitious England. They sealed their first win of the tournament with five wickets standing, 11 balls to spare, and a net runrate of 0.620.

If there was something to quibble with about England’s performance, it was that they took too long to dispense with the small target. “We knew it would be a tricky chase and that we had to respect the Afghanistan bowlers, but we won and that’s the most important thing,” Curran said.

Immediately ahead of England are two games at the MCG — against Ireland on Wednesday and Australia, who were bossed by New Zealand by 89 runs at the SCG on Saturday, on Friday. “[Ireland are] a dangerous team with some matchwinners,” Curran said. “We’ll focus on them but there’s no hiding that Friday’s going to be an epic game. Hopefully we can go into that game having won on Wednesday. It would be great for us and it might put the Aussies in a tricky position.

England’s display on Saturday, especially in the field and with the ball, befitted Australia’s newest international cricket venue, a place sleek with ruthlessly clean design, strewn with tasteful art, unsullied by pylons — the lights ring the inner edge of the stadium roof — and so close to the Swan River you fancy a six could come back soggy. At least, it could if the surrounding stands didn’t tower quite so high or so steep.

Across the river in the dark, it’s monstrously squat towers stubbing into the sky like six middle fingers, the WACA broods still, no longer used at this level but loved by those who remember how bowlers used to rule there. People used to talk about missiles then, too. But the targets were batters’ bodies and heads.

Times change. Venues change. But not the fact that batting like Afghanistan did on Saturday, as watchable as it always will be, doesn’t win matches. And that cool competency, as demonstrated by England, does.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Why teams, not countries, play cricket

“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do.” – John Lennon

Telford Vice | Cape Town

A Tongan, a Hongkonger and 11 Pakistanis walk into three different dressing rooms. Which teams do they play for? A clue: neither Tonga, Hong Kong nor Pakistan.

To that list of nationalities add 17 South Africans, eight Indians, seven Englishmen, two each from New Zealand and Australia, one from West Indies and another from Ireland. These are players who were born in countries other than those they were picked to turn out for at the men’s T20 World Cup. They add up to 51 of the 240 — not counting the reserves — who started the tournament on October 17. That’s 21.25%: more than a fifth of the total playing personnel and not far from a quarter.

Some teams are more prone to this phenomenon than others. A dozen of the Netherlands’ 15 are not from there. They include Scott Edwards, a Tongan. Sufyan Mehmood, from Muscat, is Oman’s only homegrown player. The rest of their squad consists of nine Pakistanis and five Indians.

Of the 12 sides who reached the second round, only Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies did so using solely home-born players. So half of the Super 12 squads featured players from elsewhere, including all four who made it to the semi-finals.

Australia’s Josh Inglis drew his first breath in Leeds. England captain Eoin Morgan is a Dubliner, Tom Curran a Capetonian, Chris Jordan a Bajan from Christ Church, and Jason Roy a Durbanite. At least, they used to call those places home. New Zealand harbour two South Africans — Devon Conway of Johannesburg and Glenn Phillips, an East Londoner — Hong Kong-born Mark Chapman, and an Indian, Ish Sodhi, a native of Ludhiana in Punjab. Pakistan? Imad Wasim hails from Swansea in Wales.

Something similar is true of the backrooms. Ten of the original 16 sides have foreign-born head coaches, including all four of those who didn’t make it to the Super 12. Seven South Africans started the tournament in this capacity. Six of them survived the opening round — Ireland’s Graham Ford was the exception.

This will no doubt come as a blow to those who want cricket to function as a blunt instrument of nationalism; war minus the shooting, in George Orwell’s enduring phrase. The other side of this coin is to wonder whether failure to reach the final four has something to do with a lack of diversity: none of the six purebred sides in the Super 12 stage made it to the semis. Or to think about whether, unlike what the nationalists and the marketing people want us to believe, cricketers play for nothing and no-one except their paycheques, the lure of winning, themselves, and each other. In the words of John Lennon, “Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do.” The social media abuse meted out to Mohammed Shami during the T20 World Cup makes another of Lennon’s lines pertinent: “And no religion, too.”

In South Africa we know all about people trying to claim cricket for whites. Or for English-speaking whites, as opposed to white Afrikaners. Or to consign football to blacks and rugby to white Afrikaners. Brown South Africans — many of whom’s first language is Afrikaans — are accepted, sometimes grudgingly, as sport’s supreme allrounders. Except that all of the above play all of the above, and have done for centuries.

Cricket in England is currently trying to confront racism, as the game continues to do in South Africa. Doubtless all societies where cricket is prominent need this kind of catharsis. Where the dividing line is not race it could be religion, class, culture or caste. This shouldn’t be taken to mean the game is a particularly poisoned island of inequality in an otherwise just world. We know the world isn’t just, and that injustice has infected cricket as much as it has everything else.

When you watch the T20 World Cup final in Dubai on Sunday, know that you aren’t watching Australia play New Zealand. That’s too simplistic, and an insult to all involved and the planning and work that has taken them this far. What you will see is 22 fine cricketers drawn from squads that include players from five countries split into two teams who have managed to survive until now. That’s the best reason there can be to call the tournament a World Cup — it is more than the sum of its mapped parts.

Neither the Aussies nor the Kiwis can nationalise that truth, and many won’t try. Because we shouldn’t stoop so low as to conflate cricket with patriotism. What we want is a decent contest. Nothing else matters.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Proof of SA’s pudding bowl of talent running over being eaten at T20 World Cup

“Teams like Afghanistan and Scotland attract the type of guy who wants to move his career forward and is probably blocked from doing so in South Africa.” – Ray Jennings on the slew of SA coaches at the tournament.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

EVEN by South African cricket’s singular standards, it’s been an interesting few days. On Saturday, CSA managed to congratulate Lungi Ngidi alone on his team’s triumph in the IPL. On Sunday, Ray Jennings highlighted that the head coaches of seven of the 16 teams at the T20 World Cup were his compatriots.

Also on Sunday, Chris Greaves — a former delivery driver and current golf course greenskeeper who went to the same Johannesburg school as Graeme Smith — rocked and rolled with bat and ball for Scotland. And Curtis Campher — who went to another Johannesburg school, which was also the alma mater of Kagiso Rabada — took four in four for Ireland.

On Monday, under the radar of all that, Temba Bavuma made a stolid rather than spectacular return to action after 50 days out with a broken thumb. And CSA’s Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings resumed with rebuttal testimony from some of those implicated in the first round of cathartic, necessary, long overdue scab-picking.

“Congratulations Lungi Ngidi on claiming the 2021 IPL title with Chennai Super Kings,” CSA posted on social media, despite the fact that CSK’s squad also featured Faf du Plessis and Imran Tahir. Du Plessis, whose 59-ball 86 clinched the final against Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai on Friday and made him the tournament’s second-highest runscorer, justifiably responded: “Really???”

David Wiese, these days of Namibia, blasted the snub as “absolutely shocking”. Dale Steyn came off his long run in a series of posts that included a description of the message as “disgusting” and warned CSA were “opening a can of worms for themselves”. He also offered advice: “Delete the post and add all the men involved, save yourself the embarrassment and ridicule.”

CSA did just that: “Congratulations to all the South Africans who competed in and claimed victory in the 2021 IPL Final with Chennai Super Kings. Notably Faf du Plessis who put in a man of the match performance.”

By then the toothpaste was well out of the tube — and, not for the first time, all over CSA’s face. That Ngidi didn’t play a single match in this year’s IPL only made the damaging episode more difficult to understand. Neither can the mess be explained away by the fact that, unlike Du Plessis and Tahir, Ngidi is contracted to CSA. If the suits consider worthy of their recognition only those who are currently in their employ then they have shambled to a new low. It also doesn’t wash to argue that, of the three players, only Ngidi is at the T20 World Cup. Any discussion on that topic would have to start with Du Plessis’ shocking omission from the squad. With depressing predictability, social media’s bottom feeders didn’t need long to posit the poisonous nonsense that Ngidi was named because he is black and Du Plessis ignored because he is white.

There was something of that ugly narrative in the reaction to Jennings, also on social media, doing the math on the nationality of head coaches at the tournament; Mark Boucher, Russell Domingo, Graham Ford, Mickey Arthur, Lance Klusener, Shane Burger and Pierre de Bruyn are in charge of South Africa, Bangladesh, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia.

Asked to elaborate, Jennings told Cricbuzz on Monday: “There’s been a period of time where people like Lance Klusener, Pierre de Bruyn and Shane Burger have gained quite a lot of experience as coaches. They’re recognised at a certain level. Teams like Afghanistan and Scotland wouldn’t attract top international coaches. They attract the type of guy who wants to move his career forward and is probably blocked from doing so in South Africa.”

Blocked by what? Essentially, by an overabundance of excellence. The country’s elite schools produce more quality talent than the comparatively inadequate professional system is able to absorb. The same holds true for coaches, so they go elsewhere. Still, there are anomalies. Like Jennings himself. Days after returning from the UAE in 2014 with the under-19 World Cup trophy in his squad’s luggage, CSA said his services were no longer required. Cue more clumsily squeezed toothpaste.

Regardless, the proof of South Africa’s pudding bowl of talent running over was there to be eaten in Oman and Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Greaves, until recently an Amazon driver and — according to his LinkedIn page — still a greenskeeper at St Andrews, came to the crease with Bangladesh having reduced the Scots to 52/5 inside 11 overs. His 28-ball 45 set them up for a respectable total of 140/9. Greaves then took 2/19 in three overs of sniping leg spin to clinch a famous six-run win. Not bad for someone who might have remained firmly out of the limelight had he not, while bowling to England’s players in the Wanderers nets in January 2010, told Jonathan Trott his mother was British.

If that sounds familiar it might be because word that Campher’s grandmother was Irish became part of dressing room conversation during a game between an Easterns and Northerns Combined XI and Ireland in Pretoria in February 2018. With that the course of the former South Africa under-19 player’s career was rerouted to the northern hemisphere. For him, there would be no emptying trucks of parcels or keeping the fairways fabulous to earn a crust. And he showed why by dismissing Colin Ackermann, Ryan ten Doeschate, Scott Edwards and Roelof van der Merwe with consecutive deliveries to wreck the Netherlands’ innings and set up Ireland’s seven-wicket win. Here’s the twist: Ackermann, Ten Doeschate and Van der Merwe were all born in and made their way in cricket in South Africa.

Bavuma’s first innings since September 2 didn’t have a hope of competing with the drama of those plots, unless he sustained another injury. Happily, he didn’t. But his return couldn’t have come in less auspicious circumstances: a T20 World Cup warm-up match against Afghanistan on an unhelpfully sluggish pitch at Abu Dhabi’s Tolerance Oval, one of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium’s out grounds. Bavuma batted in accordance with the lowkey script, facing the first dozen balls of the match for a solitary single, and needing 22 deliveries to reach double figures. He had made 31 off 38 when he swiped at a wide delivery from Mohammad Nabi, and turned on his heel and walked without waiting for the umpire to confirm the edge to Mohammad Shahzad. It wasn’t as pretty as Bavuma’s batting usually is, but it will do for now.

Across the equator and far away, some of South Africa’s domestic administrators were going chapter and verse through claims of racist treatment made against their organisations at the SJN. Where previously the room had been filled with the white-hot emotions of those who had been wronged, this was all about coldly calculating another version of what had happened during the game’s troubled past. Some sins were admitted, others denied, and still others cast as fiction.

Interesting. But probably no more than the next few days.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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