Time was when South Africans would will away approaching thunderstorms, not wish that they would break over their heads immediately.
Telford Vice | Centurion
AT a minute to 10 o’clock on a crystalline Highveld morning, all that moved on Centurion’s perfectly green outfield was Jasprit Bumrah. He shuttled this way and that both sides of his mark as he waited restlessly, arms whirling low and loose with eager energy. Presently, Adrian Holdstock lowered his left arm, and Bumrah set off from the West Lane End on that now famous hold the egg carefully, mind the speedbump, homage to the Statue of Liberty, herky-jerky run …
Only to be halted a few steps in by Temba Bavuma’s not quite readiness at the Hennops River End. Bumrah glanced behind him to see if there was a sightscreen issue. Satisfied there wasn’t, he held an upturned hand towards the batter and jutted his chin at him. As if to say, “Dude!”
Bavuma dug in once more. Back foot. Bat upturned against his aft clavicle, like an unadorned flagpole leaning on a fence. Front foot. The gentlest of kisses from bat to pitch. A respectful address of the front shoulder towards the onrushing bowler. A pointy backlift. A barely perceptible bounce of the knees. A coiled presence. And … defended. Bat met the first ball of the day as surely as the sun had dazzled the horizon hours earlier. Bumrah’s irresistible flurry was met by Bavuma’s immovable calm, and the defused delivery trickled harmlessly to earth.
Twice more in his first spell Bumrah was interrupted after he had leaned into his lurch toward the wicket. The first time it was movement near the sightscreen in an ostensibly empty ground that disturbed Dean Elgar. Bumrah acquiesced. The second time it wasn’t clear why Elgar had pulled away. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t good enough for Bumrah, who reacted by underarming the ball along the ground and up the pitch. Officially, he was asking for it to be shined. Unofficially, he was spitting mad. There was no mistaking neither the anger with which he slung the ball in the direction of the cordon nor the fact that he had aimed it at Elgar.
When Bumrah came round the wicket to trap Elgar in front, a shriek escaped his violently shuddering body as he catapulted forward; every muscle torqued to surely a dangerous degree. The slow motion replay revealed a white butterfly floating, zen-like and out of focus, high above the scene.
Doubtless by then Bumrah had been forgiven his petulance. His strike meant India were locked and loaded for victory, and even those who have diamonds on the soles of their shoes break a lace now and then. The soles of Bumrah’s shoes should be insured for vast amounts. To watch him bowl, and not bowl, is to see the human spirit distilled into tangible form. It is a rare privilege.
Less so seeing South Africa shamble to another defeat, their third in the six Tests they played this year. And their fifth consecutively to India, a barren run that started at the Wanderers in January 2018 — when Virat Kohli’s team overcame close to impossible odds to launch their rise to the top of the world.
There is no shame in losing to cricket’s finest team, but playing below your own standards is another matter. South Africa did that on the first day, when the three wickets they took came at the outrageous cost of 272 runs. Their bowling was listless and directionless, and the extent of the damage caused was apparent when they took 7/55 once play resumed on Wednesday after the washed out second day. India’s last 17 wickets fell for 43 fewer runs than South Africa squandered in claiming the first three. Then they shambled to a reply of 197 — the only time they had been dismissed for fewer than 200 at this ground, until Thursday’s effort of 191 — with the first wicket tumbling to the fifth ball of the innings and the last five going down for 64.
By then, the Indians knew they could switch to cruise control. So there shouldn’t be any heart taken from the fact that South Africa bowled them out for 174 in the second innings.
That left Elgar’s team a target 56 runs bigger than any yet reeled in at Centurion. About that: this was only South Africa’s third loss at a ground where they have won 21 of their other 26 Tests. There was, then, something shocking about the keen interest from onlookers in the build-up of cumulonimbus clouds in the distance. Time was when South Africans would will away approaching thunderstorms, not wish that they would break over their heads immediately.
Elgar was out 46 minutes into the day’s play for 77 and Bavuma spent 133 minutes defying and delaying the inevitable and leaving unbeaten with 35 hard-fought runs. In the 84 minutes of play that started when Elgar got out and ended when Ravichandran Ashwin snaffled Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi with consecutive deliveries to seal India’s win by 113 runs, South Africa lost 6/61.
Among those unfortunates was Quinton de Kock, who played his second poor stroke of the match and edged Mohammed Siraj onto his stumps. In the first innings, he did the same facing Shardul Thakur. Few South Africans would admit it, but it’s another indication of how much things have changed that there is unspoken relief that De Kock, their only world class batter, will take no further part in the series because the birth of his and his partner’s first child is imminent.* Rather let Kyle Verreynne have a go. He, at least, is not in a funk. At least, as far as we know.
South Africa’s New Year will not be happy. They have just three days to figure out how to stop India from winning at the Wanderers — where Kohli birthed his dynasty almost four years ago, where he will go to try to lead an India team to a series victory in South Africa for the first time, and where no India side have yet lost.
And where Bumrah, the bejewelled bowler, will again wait restlessly, arms whirling low and loose with eager energy.
* De Kock announced his retirement from Test cricket after the match.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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