Gerald Coetzee – Bulletproof Truth

Nortjé’s fab four fuels throwback T20I

“It’s been a while since I had figures like those.” – Anrich Nortjé

Telford Vice / Cape Town

REMEMBER T20 cricket before the 2024 IPL? If you watched Monday’s men’s T20 World Cup game between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Nassau County, you didn’t need reminding. It was all there in front of you.

The pitch was interestingly inconsistent, not flabby with flatness, the outfield was decently deep, not chronically cramped, the batting looked like batting, not hyperbolic hitting, the bowling looked like bowling, not tricksy tightrope-walking.

Doubtless Sri Lanka’s supporters didn’t want to see their team slump to their fourth-lowest powerplay — 24/1 — nor to their lowest score after 10 overs — 40/5 — nor to their lowest total, a sorry 77, nor to the lowest total yet made against South Africa by any opposition.

Doubtless South Africa’s fans weren’t banking on victory by six wickets with 22 balls to spare. Doubtless all could see that batting on this pitch wasn’t straightforward, so undue celebration at the result would be unwise.

Or perhaps South Africans feel as if they have been shot in the movie of their team’s World Cup failures too many times before. For instance, in the first game of the ODI World Cup, in Delhi in October, when South Africa piled up 428/5 and won by 102 runs.

Their opponents then? Also Sri Lanka. Their tournament outcome? Defeat by three wickets at the hands of their historical hangmen, Australia, in the semifinals. Doubtless the Aussies will loom large for them again sometime in the coming weeks.

But, for now, there will be something like satisfaction. At least, there will be until Saturday, when the South Africans return to this venue to play the Netherlands. Then there will be nervousness, because the Dutch have beaten them both times they have met in recent tournaments — in Adelaide in the 2022 T20 World Cup, and last year in Dharamsala in the ODI version.

Those results will quell any thoughts of an easy day out for Aiden Markram’s team, and the Netherlanders’ win over Sri Lanka in Lauderhill on Tuesday — albeit in a warm-up game — will add an edge of competitiveness to Saturday’s clash.

South Africa’s success on Monday started when Wanindu Hasaranga made the wrong decision at the toss. Why would you choose to bat first on a surface that had never seen an official international? Markram said then he would have fielded first, which clearly was the more sensible option.

Humidity helped the ball swing, and there was bounce for some deliveries but not others. Turn? Not a lot. So South Africa’s attack of Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Keshav Maharaj and Anrich Nortjé was spot on.

Nortjé was the fifth bowler used in three of the other 32 T20Is in which he has bowled. But never had he been introduced as late as the eighth over, as he was on Monday. By then Sri Lanka were 30/1.

Much has been made of Nortjé’s performance since he returned, in March, from the equivalent of six months on the sidelines because of a lumbar stress fracture. He endured an underwhelming IPL, playing only six of Delhi Capitals’ 14 matches and taking seven wickets at an economy rate of 13.36. Fifty-three bowlers took more wickets. Fifty-six were less expensive.

“When he plays, he’s going to bowl rockets,” Gerald Coetzee said in a video broadcast during Nortjé’s spell. It was exactly the kind of thing a younger player would say about a senior, particularly if both are also thoroughly decent blokes. But could Nortjé back up that faith?

He had a flicking Kamindu Mendis caught on the square leg fence with the fifth ball of his first over. By the time he was tossed the ball again, to bowl the 10th, the Lankans were 36/4 thanks to Maharaj — in consecutive balls — having Hasaranga easily stumped and nailing Sadeera Samarawickrama’s off stump with a straight delivery.

Nortje roared to 150 kilometres an hour in his second over, which ended with Kusal Mendis heaving a catch to deep fine leg. Charith Asalanka and Angelo Mathews were also in his pocket, caught at square leg and fine leg with deliveries that got big on them, as Nortjé banked career-best figures of 4/7.

“It’s been feeling good, it just hasn’t paid off in my last few games,” he told a television interviewer. “It’s been a while since I had figures like those. I felt off here and there, but the plan was simple.”

After Saturday, South Africa will be back at Nassau on Monday to take on Bangladesh. Then it’s off to the islands to take on Nepal in Kingstown in St Vincent five days later. And then, if all goes well enough, they’ll be into the Super Eights.

A simple plan, with Nortjé prominent and anchored on the way T20 cricket was played before this year’s IPL, will be key to South Africa’s success.

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Arise captain Rassie

“We feel he will be good in the leadership space.” – Rob Walter on Rassie van der Dussen.

Telford Vice / Franschhoek

NORTH West University and Vancouver Knights are among the teams Rassie van der Dussen has captained, along with Northerns and the Lions. Next week he will add another side to the list: South Africa.

Van der Dussen will lead the national team in three T20Is against West Indies at Sabina Park from Thursday to Saturday. Then he will make way for Aiden Markram for the T20 World Cup. Make way in every sense: Van der Dussen, the second highest runscorer in men’s T20Is this year, is not in the World Cup squad, much less the captain.

Yet he is the epitome of the followable player; an example in pads, a serious, thinking cricketer who looks, sounds and acts as if he has never made a rash decision. Indeed, South Africa’s mid-match, on-field committee meetings invariably include Van der Dussen. But, in the 612 matches he has played from his first-class debut in February 2008, he has led teams only 21 times. Or for 4.43% of his serious career.

How? Why? Because, it seems, someone else has always been in the way. Van der Dussen has played under nine different captains for South Africa. Faf du Plessis was in charge when Van der Dussen made his international debut in a T20I against Zimbabwe in East London in October 2018. Then he spooled through captains JP Duminy, David Miller, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Temba Bavuma, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj and Markram. Some of those players might be better leaders than Van der Dussen, others are decidedly not. But it will surprise no-one who has met Van der Dussen that he has agreed to step into the breach while Markram wraps up the IPL with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Because that’s what decent blokes do.

“[Van der Dussen] brings a wealth of experience,” Rob Walter told a press conference in Pretoria on Friday. “We feel he will be good in the leadership space.” Let no-one accuse Walter of over-statement.

Van der Dussen will be happy to have De Kock, Anrich Nortjé and Gerald Coetzee back from the IPL. They are proven performers, and they have been kept in good nick by playing in the tournament. Or have they? Thirty-five players have scored more runs than De Kock in the IPL and 45 have taken more wickets than Nortjé, who has an economy rate for the tournament of 13.36. At least Coetzee is among the top 20 wicket-takers.

Might that create an opportunity to impress for Nqaba Peter, the 21-year-old leg spinner whose dazzling smile and 20 wickets at 9.50 illuminated the otherwise dull CSA T20 Challenge — and who has made the squad for the Windies series despite having played only 20 representative games across the formats?

“I’m happy about the way things have gone,” Peter said in an audio file CSA released on Thursday. “I’ve really put in time when no one’s watching, you know. I’ve focused on the basics, but those small adjustments make a difference, and I couldn’t be any more chuffed about the way the CSA T20 challenge went. I’ve met some amazing people who have added value to my life, and I feel like I can only go up from here.”

What did he do when Walter called him to tell him to pack for Jamaica? “I called my mom to let her know. I didn’t tell her I’m going to the West Indies, though, because I know she gets very emotional.”

So she should. But relax mom. With Walter and Van der Dussen in control, the kid’s in good hands.

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Ngidi loses out on IPL, wins on T20 World Cup readiness

“Continuously going to India and not playing can get tiring. His injury is a blow on one hand but a positive on the other.” – Rob Walter on Lungi Ngidi

Telford Vice / Cape Town

YOU would think Lungi Ngidi being ruled out of the IPL with a lower back injury would cause concern in South Africa. Instead there is relief among those more worried about the XI South Africa will field in the early stages of the T20 World Cup.

Last Friday, Anrich Nortjé played his first match, a T20, in the equivalent of six months out after recovering from a lumbar stress fracture. A groin injury has prevented Gerald Coetzee from bowling in a game since the first Test against India in Centurion in December. Despite that both will be at the IPL, where they will have to be carefully managed.

At least the South Africans will be able to keep an eye on Ngidi at close quarters. “It’s a pity this decision had to be made,” Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach, told Cricbuzz. “The medical team have been working tirelessly, in a smarter manner, to get him back on the park. But it was probably too late for Delhi to keep him, which is disappointing. The flip side and the plus side is when he’s fit to play he’ll be able to get stuck in with the Titans and get some domestic cricket under his belt.”

The IPL is scheduled to end in Ahmedabad on May 26. South Africa’s first match in the T20 World Cup is against Sri Lanka in New York on June 3. Ahmedabad is more than 12,000 kilometres from New York, which translates into 10-and-a-half time zones. The eight days between those dates will be a flurry of travel and recovery for South Africans attached to IPL sides who reach the final, and who are also in the T20 World Cup squad.

Five days after their opening match South Africa take on the Netherlands, followed two days later by a game against Bangladesh, both also in New York. The names of those opponents will send chills down South African spines. The Dutch beat their team to eliminate them from the knockout rounds of the 2022 T20 World Cup and the Bangladeshis’ win over them in their second match of the 2019 ODI World Cup put that campaign on the skids: South Africa won only three of their eight completed matches.

Their four group games at this year’s T20 World Cup — the fourth is against Nepal in St Vincent on June 15 — are crammed into a dozen days. One shaky performance could lead to another, and another. Players who have spent more than two months in the hurly burly of the IPL, and are suddenly transported across the world to confront new realities and put under different pressures in largely unknown conditions, could be more prone to errors than others.

South Africa’s IPL contingent this year amounts to 14, most of whom will be in the T20 World Cup selection frame. Besides Nortjé and Coetzee they are Quinton de Kock, David Miller, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, Faf du Plessis, Rilee Rossouw, Donovan Ferreira, Dewald Brevis, Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and Nandré Burger.

Those whose teams don’t make it to the sharp end of the IPL will have more time to return to match fitness for the T20 World Cup, but not as much as Ngidi. It is hoped he will be back in action during the second half of the ongoing CSA T20 Challenge, which reaches its midway point during the first week of April and ends on April 28.

Since Ngidi’s debut in the format in January 2017 no active South Africa fast bowler has played more T20Is than his total of 40, taken more wickets than his 60, or has a better strike rate than his 13.00. He would have been a significant figure in South Africa’s T20 World Cup plans without the complications created by the schedule. Now he is more so.

Despite that, Ngidi has not been a significant player in the IPL. He was on Chennai Super Kings’ books from 2018 to 2021 and has since been with Delhi Capitals. But he never played more than seven games for CSK in a single campaign and wasn’t picked at all in 2019. He was due to go into his third season with Delhi but has yet to feature in a single match for them. In his six editions of the IPL, in which his teams have played 91 games, Ngidi has featured in just 14. Rabada, by comparison, has played 69 of a possible 84.

“Continuously going to India and not playing can get tiring,” Walter said. “You can make strides but it’s always good to be able to implement them; to get into the middle and test yourself against quality opposition. He wasn’t getting that chance. His injury is a blow on one hand but a positive on the other.”

Friday’s news that Ngidi had been ruled out this year hardly raised a ripple of interest on the IPL side of the divide. But, in South Africa, the consolation was welcomed.

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It’s tough to bloom in Bloem

“Players now grow up knowing they will have to leave Bloemfontein, when previously they could have stayed here.” – Johan van Heerden, Free State Cricket chief executive

Telford Vice / Bloemfontein

BLOEMFONTEIN has a thing about pale grey brick. It’s everywhere from the walls to the pavements, lending the place a calming colourlessness. That said, this city of pleasant, polite, placid people wouldn’t be exciting even without its ashen moodboard.

It’s small, slow, quiet and flat; an oven in summer, a grave in winter; neither bustling nor burbling, but barely bumping along bang in the middle of the country. Take a deep breath of the still, clean air from its big, blue sky and sink deep into a featherbed of inconspicuousness.

You would need to go a long way from Bloem to find a nicer place. None of its attractions are singular or arresting, but it knows how to treat people with warmth and respect. It’s a pity cricket hasn’t reciprocated.

A combination of Paarl being awarded an SA20 franchise ahead of Bloem in October 2018, a 32% cut in CSA funding to their affiliates, and the relegation of Free State’s men’s provincial team in March last year has hit the game here like a hattrick of heartbreak. Bloemfontein, and Kimberley 164 kilometres away, would be forgiven for feeling as if they are places South African cricket has forgotten. Johan van Heerden, the chief executive of the Free State Cricket (FSC), didn’t argue with that: “There’s no doubt,” he told Cricbuzz on Friday. “Major businesses here ask what’s in it for them. It’s sad.”

Neither does it help that South Africa’s men’s team — cricket in the country’s major drawcard — don’t visit often. They played four ODIs against England and Australia here last year, but from the first men’s international in Bloem, an ODI against India in December 1992, South Africa have been to town for 35 matches across the formats. In that time, they have played at the Wanderers 97 times, and 88 times in Centurion. Newlands, Kingsmead and St George’s Park have had between 52 and 24 more games than Bloem.

Free State’s relegation “had a serious effect on us”, Van Heerden said. “I don’t believe the system is the right way to control domestic cricket, because the guys who got us in the mess all got contracts at other provinces. So what was the purpose of being relegated apart from putting a beautiful ground like this at risk?”

Van Heerden wasn’t being melodramatic. Cricket in the region is indeed facing an existential crisis. With money not coming in from the usual sources, the chance of the game out of business here was real. Until, that is, FSC sold the ground to a local developer. “The sale is not yet finalised, but it’s in process,” Van Heerden said. “If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have seen Free state Cricket survive. Our maintenance cost alone is R2.7-million [USD142,000] a year. We’re not out of the woods yet, but with the partner we’ve got we’ll get to 2027. Hopefully by then cricket would have normalised.” South Africa are due to host the men’s World Cup in 2027. For cricket in Bloem, it’s about hanging on until that ship sails in.

That didn’t mean Van Heerden had reconciled himself with Bloem being shut out of the SA20. “It still hurts”, he said. “Where do our guys develop? How do I keep Grey College and Saints [St Andrew’s School] on the go? Players now grow up knowing they will have to leave Bloemfontein, when previously they could have stayed here.”

Gerald Coetzee is a case in point. He was born in Bloem and went to both of the above schools, which are firmly among the elite institutions that fuel cricket and rugby with quality talent in South Africa and beyond. Coetzee played for Free State at under-13, under-15 and under-19 level, and made his first-class debut for the Knights — the Free State franchise under South Africa’s previous domestic system — in October 2019. All 14 of his first-class matches before he took his bow in Tests, against West Indies in Centurion in March last year, were for the Knights or Free State. He is as Bloem as Bloem boys get. But in May last year, after Free State’s relegation had been confirmed, he moved to the Titans.

“If we’re back in the first division and we have an SA20 franchise here, why would guys like Coetzee go,” Van Heerden said. “His family’s here, he wants to be here. But the system doesn’t allow him to be here.”

Given his express pace and ebullient showmanship, Coetzee could be seen as a successor to another of Bloem’s best. Cricket has undergone a revolution since Allan Donald played, but it bears pointing out that all 78 of his provincial first-class matches in South Africa were for Free State. He was involved — albeit sparsely because of international commitments — in two of the three first-class championships Free State claimed in the 1990s, and in five of their six one-day titles from 1988/89 to 1995/96.

Cricket was different then. Donald won six fewer Test caps than he played first-class matches for Free State. Coetzee has played more than three times as many white-ball games as his 21 first-class matches, internationals included. Of Kagiso Rabada’s 82 first-class games, only 20 — less than a quarter — were not Tests. Of Donald’s 776 senior representative matches, just two were T20s.

Ah yes, T20; the thing that’s eating cricket as we know it alive in realtime at a ground near you in South Africa. That’s if you aren’t near Bloemfontein. “If you look at the quality of the venues being used in the SA20, you can see they’re under strain,” Van Heerden said. “There’s too much cricket being played on those grounds, and here we sit with very little.”

Was it crazy to wonder whether some of the fixtures, even in the current competition, could be moved to Bloem? “We’ll be ready, if anybody wants to come and play here.”

As he spoke, Van Heerden stood at a window in his office at Mangaung Oval that afforded him a view of a glorious summer scene. Between a canopy of the bluest blue strewn with cottonwool clouds and a field of deep green velvet, the US and Ireland played a men’s under-19 World Cup match.

Watched by a smattering of Ireland fans in green — mostly the players’ family members — and a significant number of bussed-in schoolchildren, the Irish produced an aggressive bowling and fielding performance to bundle out the Americans for 105. Ireland won by seven wickets in the 23rd over.

Even so, Arya Garg, the US’ mop-topped, wiry, lively left-arm fast bowler made an impression with his pace and passion, and took 2/31 in five overs. Mostly, at home, he has to make do with whatever facilities he can find. What did it feel like to be able to roar in to the bowling crease on a proper cricket ground? “It makes a huge difference,” Garg said. “We feel a lot more energised here, because we’re used to playing on outfields that have really long grass. And we don’t have a lot of natural turf pitches.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the haves from the have-nots, especially in places like Bloem.

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Wanderers won’t leave us wondering

“Nobody knows who is going to the World Cup.” – let’s not get ahead of ourselves, says Tabraiz Shamsi.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

AT least it shouldn’t rain at the Wanderers on Thursday. Considering the first match of this men’s T20I series, at Kingsmead on Sunday, was lost in its entirety because of the weather and Tuesday’s game at St George’s Park was curtailed after the skies leaked again, that’s no small thing.

Cricketminded fans of the electrical thunderstorms that grace the Highveld during South Africa’s summers — and there are many — would concede that the match must take precedence over even the epic show the weather puts on in Johannesburg. With both teams playing only four more T20Is before the World Cup in the format in the Caribbean and the United States in June, they need all the gametime they can get.

Many of the players involved will turn out for a host of T20 franchises before the World Cup, but nothing polishes on-field and dressingroom dynamics like playing together. It’s what turns collections of cricketers into teams who win tournaments.

On the admittedly scant evidence of the Tuesday, when South Africa won by five wickets with seven balls to spare, the home side are tightening those nuts and bolts better than the visitors. Neither side handed down a masterclass in a match that was messy from start to finish, but one of them found ways to win while the other lost their way.

Maybe India are still getting over last month’s rude awakening at the ODI World Cup, which around 1.4-billion people seemed convinced they had some divine right to win. Until they didn’t and Australia did, because sport doesn’t work that way.

The South Africans haven’t had to face that challenge: no-one expected them to come home with the World Cup. Indeed they performed better than anticipated to reach the semis.

That’s not to read too much into the last game of a rubber India can no longer win. Besides, they have claimed only two of the 15 bilateral series they have played in South Africa across the formats. But one of those was a T20I series, in February 2018.

Gerald Coetzee, South Africa’s most successful bowler on Tuesday with a haul of 3/32, has been taken out of the mix (see below) and Tabraiz Shamsi, whose Gqeberha economy rate of 4.50 was easily the best in both attacks, might be less effective on a Wanderers pitch.

So, theoretically, the Indians have a better chance of winning than on Tuesday. Also, the Wanderers is the only regularly used international ground in South Africa where India haven’t lost more matches than they’ve won. They’re level at 5-5 in Joburg.

But the South Africans know how to win at the Wanderers, where they have been victorious in 65.98% of their matches, regardless of format, in which a positive result has been reached. Only in Centurion are they more successful on that score, and just 0.29% more.

For all its reputation as a fast bowler’s venue the Wanderers is a good place to bat, especially in white-ball cricket. So will Suryakumar Yadav celebrate retaining the top spot in the T20I batting rankings with an innings as bristling with aggression as his 36-ball 56 on Tuesday? Will Rinku Singh convert his unbeaten 68 off 39 in the same match into something bigger? Or will potential debutants Nandré Burger and Ottniel Baartman (again, see below) deny them by announcing themselves in style?

As always before a match, questions hang in the air like rain clouds. That’s better for cricket, of course, than real rain clouds hanging in the air.

When: December 14, 2023; 5pm Local Time (8.30pm IST)

Where: The Wanderers, Johannesburg

What to expect: A willing pitch, a small, fast outfield, and little chance, according to the forecast, of rain.

Team news:

South Africa:

As per the squad announcement, Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee won’t be available for this match to enable them to prepare for the coming Test series. That could mean debuts for Nandré Burger and Ottniel Baartman.

Possible XI: Reeza Hendricks, Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram (capt), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Andile Phehlukwayo, Nandré Burger, Lizaad Williams, Tabraiz Shamsi, Ottniel Baartman

India:

Shubman Gill might make way for Ruturaj Gaikwad, who didn’t play on Tuesday due to illness. Ravi Bishnoi looks set to crack the nod ahead of Kuldeep Yadav.

Possible XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar

What they said:

“Nobody knows who is going to the World Cup, and the way this new Proteas team is approaching things we don’t look too far ahead. At the moment our focus is on the Wanderers.” — Tabraiz Shamsi keeps his eye on the ball.

“It’s always good to play in South Africa; it’s quite challenging. We are well-prepared for these conditions, and we have actually batted well in a tough situation.” — Tilak Varma has faith in India’s ability to play out of their comfort zone.

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Get up from the floor, because another World Cup looms

“It was a disappointment that will be difficult to move on from, but the show must go on.” – Suryakumar Yadav on India’s failure to win the men’s World Cup.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

CAN teams move past the blow of failing to win an ODI World Cup with success in mere T20Is? India’s men’s side have offered an answer to that question by claiming four victories in the five T20Is they played against Australia in the past not quite three weeks.

That followed the Australians finding a way to humble hitherto unbeaten India in the ODI World final in Ahmedabad on November 19. South Africa, who lost their semifinal against the Aussies at Eden Gardens three days earlier and haven’t played since, will start rebuilding on Sunday when Kingsmead hosts the first of three T20Is against India.

If this seems an abjectly modest way to reenter the fray, remember that both teams have only six T20Is to sort themselves out before another World Cup — the T20I version — looms in the Caribbean in June. If that seems a stretch of credulity across time, space and formats, consider that several members of South Africa’s XI for semifinal, and of India’s selection for the final, are in the current squads.

One of the South Africans is Gerald Coetzee, who sent down eight overs unchanged at the cost of 32 runs and was rewarded with the wickets of Steven Smith and Josh Inglis. At the end, his energy spent — even 23-year-olds aren’t immune to exhaustion — and his body cramping, he melted into a puddle of tears and sweat in David Miller’s brotherly embrace. How had Coetzee bounced back from bowling his heart out, and his lungs, in his preparation for the coming series?

“The world saw that he gave his all and some more,” Aiden Markram said. “It would have been tough for him to deal with — it was tough for everyone — but he has been good the last few days. He is back up for it and it’s been good to see. He loves bowling, he loves performing and he loves competing. For him, it’s a new series and he’s looking forward to what he can do for us.”

Had the Indians dealt with the shock of losing a game everyone, including millions of their compatriots, thought they would win? “It was a disappointment that will be difficult to move on from, but the show must go on,” Suryakumar Yadav said. “We had a nice T20I series against Australia. It was a different format, but we really enjoyed it and it was a big boost for the boys who came in and won that series for us.”

Still, a cruelty lingers around this scenario, as it does around Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj — the other players in the T20I squads who featured in their teams’ last matches at the World Cup.

As much as it might appear otherwise, high-calibre cricketers are as human as the rest of us. How, exactly, do you lift yourself from the floor so soon after being flattened while a global audience looked on? Perhaps we should be quietly grateful and relieved that, unlike big-name cricketers, we usually have the privilege of enduring our failures in private.

When: December 10, 2023; 4pm Local Time (7.30pm IST)

Where: Kingsmead, Durban

What to expect: A slowish but fair surface, which could be enlivened by the 15 millimetres of rain that has been forecast for a stormy morning. Anticipate, also, a farewell for Wilson Ngobese, who joined Kingsmead’s groundstaff in 1975 and has been the head curator since 1999. This will be Ngobese’s last international pitch.

Team news:

South Africa:

Lungi Ngidi’s withdrawal with a sprained ankle on Friday further erodes the experience in a fast bowling department that is already without the rested Kagiso Rabada and the injured Anrich Nortjé. The batting lineup is without Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen.

Possible XI: Reeza Hendricks, Matthew Breetzke, Tristan Stubbs, Aiden Markram (capt), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Gerald Coetzee, Nandré Burger, Tabraiz Shamsi

India:

This game — and the series — sees the return of some of India’s regulars who took a break during the T20Is against Australia that came right after the ODI World Cup. Axar Patel, who played against Australia, isn’t part of the T20I squad now, making way for Ravindra Jadeja’s straightforward return.

Possible XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh

What they said:

“You’d like to know them on a deeper level before going into the series with them. We’ve had a few good days together trying to get to know them and understanding what makes them tick. The nature of cricket is that series come thick and fast and there’ll be times when new guys are in and they are going to have to find their feet quickly, and we are going to do our best to help them settle down and be as relaxed as they can be in the environment. It’s a tricky one but the group we have here is a great bunch of guys.” — Aiden Markram on captaining the relative strangers in his team.

“The guys I’m watching in T20 cricket right now are very expressive. They don’t have a lot of fear of failure. Whatever happens — if they do well or if they don’t get runs on that given day — their attitude remains the same on and off the field. That balance is really important when you play this sport.” — Suryakumar Yadav on the irresistible impetuousness of T20’s younger players.

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The hype, hope, happiness and hurt of South Africa’s World Cup

“It’s not a great feeling; it’s a bit hollow.” — David Miller

Telford Vice / Kolkata

A 34-year-old respected for his tenacity rather than his athleticism flies through the air with, apparently, the greatest of ease. He is horizontal when he gets both hands to the ball, and hangs on as he crashes to earth like a windmill felled by lightning in a Free State cornfield.

A 23-year-old pushes even his formidable physical and mental limits by bowling eight consecutive overs in the muggy soup of a Kolkata night. He knows he has to because the heart of the attack is popping painkillers for a bruised heel that will take four overs out of his quota. By the end of the game it’s difficult to know how much of the wetness that has soaked him is sweat, and how much tears.

Who are these people and where do they come from? They are Rassie van Dussen and Gerald Coetzee, the oldest and youngest members of South Africa’s men’s World Cup squad. But that doesn’t tell anything like the entire story of where they come from — a place equal parts hype, hope, happiness and hurt.

To know this deep in your South African bones you only had to see Van der Dussen underarm the ball in the general direction of the umpire after he took the catch, in the covers, to remove Mitchell Marsh for a six-ball duck. It was the eighth over of Australia’s chase after a target of 213 to win the semifinal at Eden Gardens on Thursday, or when South Africa still had a chance to reach Sunday’s final against India in Ahmedabad.

Van der Dussen’s vicious hurl towards the non-striker’s end shimmered with all the hype, hope, happiness and hurt we carry everywhere in our hearts. Even across the equator and 8,000 kilometres away from home in India. It was a beautiful thing.

You could feel the same emotions in Coetzee’s changing expressions as the game slipped away from the South Africans. He went from firebrand to feisty to fragile to finished. By the time he disappeared into David Miller’s arms, when Australia’s three-wicket win with 16 balls to spare was complete, Coetzee knew what it meant to play for this team. And what it will still mean when he is as old as Van der Dussen.

At 33 Miller is a stalwart of this inner and outer struggle. He is a veteran of seven World Cups in both white-ball formats spread over more than nine years, none of those bids triumphant. So Miller knew the hype, hope and happiness of scoring not just the only second-innings century among South Africa’s nine hundreds in the tournament, but their sole ton in five World Cup semis. He also knew the hurt of finishing on the wrong end of the equation despite his 116-ball 101, which he made after being summoned to the crease in the 12th over. Only eight times in his 147 innings in the format has Miller batted earlier.

“‘Quinny’ mentioned, with his four hundreds, that he wouldn’t mind if he didn’t score any runs and we win the trophy,” Miller said. “It’s the same kind of thing. You want to get to the final and have a crack at the trophy, but it wasn’t to be. But I’m happy that we hung in there and put up a total we all thought was defendable.”

It wasn’t, and South Africa’s moonshot at winning this World Cup — they narrowly avoided having to qualify their way into the tournament, and were not considered among the major threats — was over. They won seven of their nine league games but Thursday’s result means they have not won six of their seven World Cup knockout matches.

“It’s not a great feeling; it’s a bit hollow,” Miller said. “It’s been such a great campaign. The team have been consistent throughout and individuals have stood up and done exceptional things. We’ve fought together, so to lose this is part of the game … but it’s really frustrating.

“Before the tournament we spoke about having great memories. A career in the game of cricket can go by quickly, so we need to enjoy the journey. I think we did. We ticked a lot of boxes off the field, had some great memories and moments. We can look back and say it was a great time, but it doesn’t help losing the semifinal. But the guys showed a lot of character and they should be proud.”

Among South Africa’s subplots was their improbable loss to the Netherlands in Dharamsala in their third game, after they had swatted aside Sri Lanka in Delhi and Australia — yes, Australia — in Lucknow. Chasing 246, they shambled to 89/5 on their way to 207 all out.

Thursday’s game offered parallels, as Miller highlighted: “I said to ‘Klaasie’ [fellow middle order marauder Heinrich Klaasen], ‘The guys are batting really well up front, and we need to keep training with the new ball because it’s going to come to a stage where we’re going to be in a bit of dwang. So just stay sharp.’ And the next game was against the Netherlands, and we were 30/4.

“Today it was more a case of really good bowling by Australia in the powerplay [when South Africa were restricted to 18/2]. Anchoring the innings, I felt like I wanted to hit fours and sixes the whole way through. But I soaked up a lot of pressure. It was more about the partnership [of 95 with Klaasen] at that stage. Every run counts in a semifinal, so we tried to salvage some sort of total.”

Another sideshow was the fitness of Temba Bavuma, who carried a hamstring strain into the match — an opportunity for his horde of haters to vent their spleens impotently on social media. Bavuma scored 145 runs at an average of 18.12 in eight innings at the World Cup, but went into the tournament as South Africa’s best batter this year with 637 at 79.62 in 10 trips to the crease. And that’s besides his contribution as captain.

“I told him how proud I am of him,” Rob Walter said minutes after his conversation with Bavuma on the field in the moments following the match. “He marshalled the troops unbelievably well to get the [semifinal] close. Strategically the way he operated, with the senior heads around him on the field, creating different pressures through field placings, was an excellent effort to try defend that score.

“Beyond that, it’s not easy to walk through a tournament when you aren’t delivering yourself but the batters around you are. He was the lead man who got us into this tournament in the first place. People forget that. So I wanted to make sure he was aware how important he is in this team and how proud I am of his efforts and the way he led throughout the tournament.”

Miller concurred: “He wasn’t 100% [fit on Thursday] but the leader that he is, he’s really stood up since he’s been captain and taken our one-day cricket to another level. As his performances show, he’s done really well. He didn’t get the runs he wanted, but to have the leader there is always important. Everyone gravitated towards that and we pulled in. He was fit to play in our eyes and he did a great job.”

Miller is among nine members of the 2023 squad who are unlikely to play in the 2027 edition of the World Cup, which South Africa will host. What of South Africa’s next steps?

“We’re on the right track,” Miller said. “There’s been a real emphasis and focus on getting the big moments right. We’ve gone about it the right way in taking care of each game and not focusing too far ahead. South Africa always wants people fighting for a good cause, and putting up a great fight. That’s what we did well. That lays the path for the guys for the future.”

Along that path will be South Africa’s ancient touchstones of hype, hope, happiness and hurt. They will want the last of them to be the smallest and smoothest, and who could begrudge them that.

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South Africa beaten, not scarred

“India! India! …” – the Eden Gardens’ crowd look forward to Sunday while watching Australia beat South Africa.

Telford Vice / Eden Gardens

POWER banks, chewing tobacco and “offensive/political signage” are among the 21 items, or categories of items, spectators are banned from bringing to matches at the men’s World Cup in India. Reporters, too, sometimes have to explain what should be covered by the accreditation pass hanging prominently around their necks.

“But why do you need a laptop,” a deeply suspicious man on the gate in Dharamsala asked a duly accredited journalist trying to get into the ground to cover the match between the Netherlands and South Africa. Maybe he knew something we didn’t. Adequately analysing the South Africans’ abject failure to launch in that game would need more computing power than could reasonably be carried in a backpack.

The question wasn’t asked of the media as they reported for duty before the second semifinal at Eden Gardens on Thursday. Perhaps it should have been, and for the same reason. It was again difficult to make sense of South Africa’s performance.

When you’ve seen them not play like they did in a match of Thursday’s stature too often, that is. A team who had disappointed too many times in the past did not do so. They lost, by three wickets with 16 balls remaining, but they were not scarred. They will be unhappy they didn’t win but satisfied that they gave it their all in that cause. Most importantly, they did not play below themselves. The other team, who have won five of the dozen World Cups yet contested, who have something like the Springboks’ killer instinct, simply played better.

But first there was reason for them to be buoyant. Temba Bavuma seemed to give the coin extra heft — or was it hope? — as he flicked it into Kolkata’s sludgy sky. “Heads,” Pat Cummins called. It came down tails up. The Australians, Cummins said, would also have taken guard first. All present knew South Africa had yet to lose batting first in the tournament.

That truth aged about as well Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram did at the crease. South Africa’s top four had made seven centuries between them in the tournament going into Thursday’s match: they were dismissed in 11.5 overs with only 24 runs scored.

Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood settled on a challenging length immediately and found swing and seam movement to burn. They were ably supported by a fielding unit that threw themselves about with abandon and commitment. Consequently South Africa eked out 18/2 in their powerplay, their lowest score in the first 10 overs since March 14, 2008. Or 266 ODIs ago.

It was that long gone that the match involved Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen, who cobbled together 32/1 in the opening 10 against Bangladesh in Dhaka. The one-day game was different then, largely because the IPL was a month away from exploding most ideas of how to bat in white-ball cricket. Besides, the South Africans were chasing 144 that day. They coasted home by seven wickets inside 35 overs.

Things were more complicated on Thursday. Bavuma edged Starc stiffly and was caught behind off the sixth ball of the match, or before any assessment could be made on the state of his hamstring. In the sixth Quinton de Kock skied Hazlewood to long-on, where Cummins waited an age to take a catch that was a fine study in focus.

South Africa have lost their first two wickets earlier in the innings during the tournament, but never with only eight runs on the board. One of those two partnerships have been century stands four times, and two of them were worth 200. Indeed, De Kock and Van der Dussen put on 154 against almost the same Australian attack in Lucknow on October 12.

This time South Africa were 44/4 after 14 overs when the merest shower of rain delayed play for 45 minutes. We knew the interruption’s moments were numbered when Michael Gough, the reserve umpire who was on the field doing whatever it is reserve umpires do on the field during breaks for rain, furled his umbrella and used it to practice his golf swing.

David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen were both 10 not out when the rain came. They didn’t tee off anywhere near as easily as Gough imagined he was in a stand that grew to 95 off 113 before Klaasen played past a delivery from Travis Head that he should have had covered. Head’s next ball turned sharply to trap Marco Jansen in front.

With that a part-time off-spinner wearing Allan Border’s moustache ended South Africa’s recovery and jolted them back to the reality of their predicament. At 119/6 a total that would give their bowlers something to aim at was far away. Lucknow’s conditions are different to Eden Gardens’ but it bears saying that Head’s inclusion — ahead of Marcus Stoinis — was the only difference from that XI.

Still, as long as South Africa had Miller they had a reasonable chance to post a respectable lump of runs. He stayed until the 48th, when he heaved Cummins to Head on the square leg fence. Two balls before, one of them a wide, Miller put Cummins away for six to reach a century that deserved to be remembered for more than the fact that it was scored in a losing cause.

Miller doesn’t often come to the crease as early as the 12th over, and when he does the opposition are on top. So his opportunities to score centuries are sparse. But it’s one thing to be given the opportunity and another to take it, especially on so big a stage and against such high quality bowling and fielding. His 116-ball 101 was a masterpiece of mature, measured strokeplay. It was also the first time a South Africa player had scored a century in a men’s World cup semifinal and only the fourth instance of them reaching 50.

But Miller couldn’t stop South Africa from being dismissed for 212 — a single run fewer than they had made in the famously tied 1999 semifinal against the Aussies at Edgbaston. Would the ghosts of 24 years ago be set aswirl despite both camps saying they had been exorcised?

That didn’t seem likely while Head and Warner were indeed teeing off like Gough in their stand of 60 off 38. But when another part-time offie, Markram, turned his first ball past Warner’s bat and into his stumps, and Kagiso Rabada had Mitchell Marsh stunningly caught in the covers by a diving Van der Dussen — at 34 the oldest player in the squad — Australia were 61/2 in the eighth. Something was swirling, surely. But what?

Head was there to steady the innings with what became a belligerent half-century. He slapped the second ball, bowled by Jansen, from one knee for a four that bounced close to the cover point boundary. He was dropped by Reeza Hendricks — who was on the field for Rabada — rushing forward and low off Gerald Coetzee’s first ball of the match. Then he sent a delivery from Tabraiz Shamsi screaming just past Klaasen at slip.

It took Keshav Maharaj’s first delivery for Australia to lose their Head. The ball zigged through the gate and bowled him, and then a curious thing happened. Maharaj, who in March celebrated taking a wicket in a Test against West Indies at the Wanderers so fervently he ripped his Achilles asunder, did nothing of the kind. Instead he walked demurely towards mid-on. There were no ghosts in his head.

Shamsi had Steven Smith spilled, a difficult chance for De Kock, and looked on his way to a game as deflating as his outing against India at the same ground on November 5, when he lost his line and took 1/72. And more so when he had a referral for Marnus Labuschagne’s wicket turned down because the impact of the ball on the pad was deemed outside the line by dint of umpire’s call. But Shamsi had his revenge when Labuschagne, given out lbw trying to reverse sweep, stayed that way — also by dint of umpire’s call, this time because the ball would have trimmed leg stump.

A bellow to the sky was how Shamsi greeted that success, but it was as nothing compared to what he did in his next over after he nailed a pulling Glenn Maxwell’s leg stump — when he set off on an Imran Tahiresque roaring run into the outfield. Shamsi’s joy at having taken out of the equation the kind of monster from the bog innings Maxwell visited on Afghanistan at the Wankhede, where he scored an undefeated 201, was plain.

When Smith hoisted a steepler off Coetzee, which was well held by De Kock, Australia were six down and still 39 runs away. And 20 away when the same bowler — who bowled his last eight overs unchanged — splayed Josh Inglis’ stumps. Again something swirled. But what?

Another trip to the final for Australia, it turned out. Maybe going all the 1,617 kilometres from Kolkata to Ahmedabad to be smashed, probably, by a side who haven’t yet looked like losing isn’t worth the bother.

Who were they again? An Eden Gardens crowd that numbered 47,825, many of them dressed in the same colour of blue that coursed up the pillars in the stands, chanted their name: “India! India! …”

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Flying the flag for fixing fractures

“Not everybody would necessarily know what the Protea badge stands for, but you can’t go anywhere in the country and find someone who doesn’t know the flag.” – Rassie van der Dussen

Telford Vice / Kolkata

YOU know South Africa’s society is fractured and fissured along many lines with little light at the end of the still separate and unequal tunnels. But, if you’re not from there, you might struggle to understand the complexities. Here’s a flavour, in the cause of adding context to South Africa’s men’s World Cup semifinal against Australia at Eden Gardens on Thursday.

On Wednesday the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) issued a statement criticising as “unfortunate and ill-advised” comments in the media on several cases of corruption, some of them involving former president Jacob Zuma.

The remarks in question were made on a television show by South Africa’s chief justice, Raymond Zondo — the father of Khaya Zondo, who has played five Tests and six ODIs. Casac’s executive secretary is Lawson Naidoo, who also chairs CSA’s board.

On October 22 in Johannesburg, at a function where he accepted a “rising star” award, 18-year-old David Teeger, South Africa’s under-19 men’s team captain, said “the true rising stars are the young soldiers in Israel”. Teeger spoke as the death toll in the Israeli government’s attacks on Gaza neared 5,000. By Wednesday more than 11,000 had been killed by Israel in retaliation — widely condemned, including by the United Nations — for the Hamas terror attacks on October 7 that claimed the lives of 1,400 and saw more than 200 taken hostage.

South Africa is home to a significant Muslim community, who identify with the Palestinian struggle more strongly than some of their compatriots and have been angered by Teeger’s assertion. Cricbuzz was alerted to the saga by a brown lawyer who has successfully defended white clients on racism charges. Like we said, South Africa is complex, fissured and fractured.

Even the Springboks, the men’s rugby union team who won a record fourth World Cup in Paris last month, do not inspire blanket unity. On November 5, Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, a relentlessly populist political party that offers little substance to back up its outlandish claims, told a rally in Johannesburg that the “Springbok is an apartheid symbol”, that “the Springboks must fall”, and asked why “are we being forced to salute the emblem that was saluted … by murderers who were killing our people wearing the same jersey in celebration of butchering of black people?”

The Springbok was indeed among the most potent symbols of the racist system of apartheid. But its commercial value — estimated at USD117.2 last month — the team’s perennial and enduring success, which builds support and popularity, and the fact that the team now brims with star black and brown players, means the badge is unlikely to be scrapped anytime soon.

Does anything round South Africans up, point them in the same direction, and make them at least imagine they are united in any cause? There is. It’s red on top, blue on the bottom, and has an angular arrangement of black, yellow, green and white running through the middle.

Or, in the strange language of heraldry, it’s “a horizontal bicolour of red and blue with a black isosceles triangle based on the hoist-side and a green pall, a central green band that splits into a horizontal Y, centred over the partition lines and was edged in both white against the red and the blue bands and yellow against the triangle, in which the arms of the Y ends at the corners of the hoist and embraces the triangle on the hoist-side”.

It’s the flag, and it is beloved like nothing else in South Africa. You see it everywhere you go in the country, which might sound normal for people from other places. But other places are not irredeemably divided South Africa. You also see the flag on the front side of both shoulders of the South Africans’ playing shirts at this World Cup. It makes for a striking design element, but does it add weight to their shoulders?

“Representing your country and playing for the Proteas is always about something more,” Rassie van der Dussen said. “Wearing the [Protea] badge and the flag puts a certain responsibility on us to carry the hopes of the people of our country. So, in this instance, the flag does not make that more or less relevant. We already know who and what we’re playing for.”

But that didn’t mean everybody did. Van der Dussen had that covered, too: “Not everybody would necessarily know what the Protea badge stands for, but you can’t go anywhere in the country and find someone who doesn’t know the flag.”

At 34, Van der Dussen is the oldest member of the squad and spent more than the first five years of his life in an apartheid state. His father, Nico van der Dussen, was among the relatively few whites who joined Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress to fight injustice.

What did Gerald Coetzee, at 23 the youngest South Africa player at the tournament, who was born more than six years after apartheid ended officially, think of the flag on the shirt?

“My dad and my mom [Johan and Liz Coetzee] have sacrificed their time so I can play cricket,” Coetzee said. “I play for them first and then for the country. We’re very patriotic as South Africans, as we see in all sports. We want to do well for the country and make the country proud. It’s such a beautiful and magnificent country and we want to represent that.”

Reeza Hendricks concurred: “I do really like the shirt. It means a lot to the country and it’s quite special to have the flag on it. It’s a proud moment every time we step out onto the field to represent the country. This shirt is special one, and we all like it.”

That included David Miller, whose enthusiasm got the better of him as he tried to put into words how much he liked the shirt: “Most of the time, because of the angle of the TV cameras on us, it’s going to be fully on screen. We’ll keep that wave flagging.” He meant keep that flag waving, of course.

But Quinton de Kock, ever the clear-eyed see-ball, hit-ball, see-nothing-else, hit-nothing-else player and person that he is, looked past all that warm fuzziness: “I wouldn’t say it’s the shirt. It’s what I represent having the shirt on. I don’t really see a shirt. I know what I represent and the people I represent, and the team I’m representing.”

Even in the squad, then, there are thoughtfully expressed differences of opinion about the flag and its presence on the South Africans’ shirts. But, at Eden Gardens on Thursday, it will help round them up, point them in the same direction, and solidify their unity in the cause.

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South Africa’s long road from Eden Park to Eden Gardens

“Our bowling line-up is so strong. Someone has to take the wickets, and the other guys play crucial roles – Keshav, KG, Lungi, Plank – Marco, sorry – anyone can take wickets on their day.” – Gerald Coetzee

Telford Vice / Kolkata

A 14-year-old Bloemfontein boy, tall for his age, singular in his ambition, watched Grant Elliott launch Dale Steyn down the ground for six at Eden Park to send South Africa crashing out of another World Cup. In the coming days he would read about CSA’s crass and thoughtless interference in the selection of the XI for that semifinal.

Four years later in England, when the boy was just old enough to vote and drink beer legally, South Africa shambled through their worst performance at a World Cup, losing five of their eight completed matches. They have also failed to win any of the three editions of what is now the men’s T20 World Cup since the now 23-year-old has been paying attention.

And yet Gerald Coetzee, who grew up so obsessed with cricket that he played no other sport from the age of 11, hasn’t been scared away by events on and off the field from trying to help win the country’s first senior global cricket title. “Not at all,” Coetzee said. “It’s a great opportunity. You want to be put in those positions. We cannot wait for Thursday.”

This Thursday, he meant, at Eden Gardens — where South Africa will take on Australia in the second semifinal of this year’s tournament. “We’re talking about winning a World Cup, but we understand that it’s cricket and that’s a difficult game,” Coetzee said. “There’s no dishonour in losing. We’re coming to play. Whatever happens will happen. That is out of our control. But we’ll pitch up and play our best cricket. If we lose, we lose. If someone wants to call us chokers, that’s outside our control. But we’re playing to win.”

The 2015 clash with New Zealand was the first World Cup semifinal Coetzee watched: “Everyone backed the Proteas to win the World Cup that year, and they didn’t. Someone has to lose on the day, and they played really good cricket. It’s the beauty of sport. That’s why people keep coming back to watch it.”

Coetzee beamed with positivity and energy as he spoke, a cocker spaniel puppy in human form. First-hand veterans of that helter skelter, harem scarem night in Auckland eight years ago couldn’t help contrasting Coetzee’s bright and bouncy presence with the wreck of a human being AB de Villiers was at the post-match press conference.

The 2015 script was written immediately CSA’s bloodless suits demanded that Kyle Abbott, South Africa’s most successful seamer at that World Cup, be axed in favour of a half-fit Vernon Philander. Both players were victims of that stupidity. Some of the authors of the catastrophe have moved on. Others, incredibly, still prowl CSA’s corridors of sheltered deployment, nameless, shameless, and, as far as they’re concerned, blameless for the mess they made.

De Villiers retired from international cricket in May 2018, but the story of his all too casual offer to make a comeback at the 2019 World Cup — without a commitment to play in South Africa’s matches before the tournament — broke during the tournament and helped derail that campaign. Unlike everyone else involved in the saga, De Villiers walked away unscathed.

It will help Coetzee’s state of mind, and that of all the seven members of the current squad of 15 who were not there in 2019, much less in 2015, that they don’t carry the scars of those dramas. Similarly, the infamous tied semifinal against the Australians at Edgbaston in 1999 would barely register with them.

They probably have a better idea where they were when Springbok captain Siya Kolisi lifted the Webb Ellis Cup after the rugby World Cup final in Paris in 2019 than when Lance Klusener and Allan Donald got themselves into a fateful tangle trying to take — or not take; it wasn’t clear — what would have been the winning run in Birmingham 20 years previously. Coetzee has no memory of one of those events: he wasn’t born until October 2000.

But he does know, having been told, that his haul of 18 wickets is the most by a South Africa bowler in any edition of the World Cup. “It feels special, but when you come to a World Cup you don’t play for those accolades,” Coetzee said. “They’re nice, but you hope to continue to make an impact for us to win the World Cup.

Besides, he didn’t say, “Our bowling line-up is so strong. Someone has to take the wickets, and the other guys play crucial roles — Keshav [Maharaj], KG [Kagiso Rabada], Lungi [Ngidi], Plank — Marco [Jansen], sorry — anyone can take wickets on their day.”

Indeed, Plank is one strike away from equalling Coetzee. Maharaj is just four of that pace. On the other side of cricket’s eternal equation, Quinton de Kock needs one more century to equal Rohit Sharma’s World Cup record of five, set in 2019.

A World Cup semifinal would seem a good place to see how far the South Africans can stretch that narrative, and a semi against Australia better still. Besides the 1999 epic the teams also met in the final four in 2007, when the South Africans were reduced to 27/5 on their way to a total of 149 and defeat by seven wickets.

Coetzee does not, cannot see things that way. He is living another reality, one founded on the truth of South Africa winning the last four of the six ODIs they have played against the Australians since the first week of September this year — most recently in Lucknow on October 12. “There isn’t a lot of mystery about what’s lying ahead,” he said. “We can get calmness out of that, knowing what to expect.”

It’s a long way from Eden Park to Eden Gardens. In kilometres, 11,179. In attitude, immeasurable. In South Africa’s World Cup narrative? We’ll find out on Thursday.

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