Narendra Modi Stadium – Bulletproof Truth

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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Bavuma brightens bleak Benoni

“You want to lead with authority. You want to say the right things, but you also want to do the right things.” – Temba Bavuma

Telford Vice / Cape Town

BENONI is bleak even when the sun shines. It didn’t for most of Friday, and the bleakness hardened into a monochrome meanness under gunmetal grey skies that whistled with a nasty north-westerly wind. Cricket weather it wasn’t. At least, not in South Africa. In the Netherlands? Maybe.

You didn’t need to know it was cold to know it was cold, even if you were watching on television from a warmer place. Fielders betrayed an abrupt reluctance as they stabbed their hands at the onrushing ball. They were watched by a light dusting not of snow but of 1,800 fans, not many of them without heavy jackets, blankets and beanies.

It says plenty that Benoni’s most prominent living natives — Hollywood’s Charlize Theron, Grace Mugabe, despised widow of Zimbabwe’s despot former president Robert Mugabe, and Charlene Wittstock, once an Olympic swimmer, now princess of Monaco — don’t live there anymore. Oliver Tambo, a contemporary, colleague and comrade of Nelson Mandela who would shudder to see what a wretched rabble their beloved ANC has become, had the misfortune not only to have lived in nearby Wattville — since renamed Tamboville — but also to be buried there alongside his wife, Adelaide Tambo; national heroes both.

Willowmoore Park is in keeping with its squat, unambitious, prosaic surrounds. It seems a waste that, in December 1948, Denis Compton took to this unlovely stage to score 300 in a session-and-a-half. Also that it is here that South Africa should have to come to take the first of their last two throws of the dice to qualify directly for this year’s men’s ODI World Cup. The constant threat of rain remained unfulfilled for long enough, and the Dutch didn’t do much to stop the South Africans from banking another 10 World Cup Super League (WCSL) points on Friday.

Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd shared 58 before the visitors lost all of their wickets for 131 runs in 35.2 overs with Sisanda Magala and Tabraiz Shamsi claiming three each. Scott Edwards told a press conference that a significant chunk of the credit for that happening belonged to the visitors: “Everyone in our top six; I don’t think they got us out. Their better balls were actually missing, and we found ways to get ourselves out.”

South Africa reached their target of 190 in 30 overs with eight wickets standing, and with the unseparated Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram making 102 of those runs off 69 balls. Bavuma finished 10 runs shy of what would have been a fourth century in his last eight Test and ODI innings. “It gives you confidence,” Bavuma said of his purple patch. “As a leader you want to be able to lead with authority. You want to be saying the right things, but you also want to be doing the right things.”

The home side will have a last chance to advance their WCSL tally against the same opponents at the Wanderers on Sunday. If the result is similar only an unlikely 3-0 sweep by Ireland of Bangladesh at Chelmsford in May will force South Africa to go to a qualifier in Zimbabwe in June and July. Should that befall Bavuma’s team they could tell Grace Mugabe, in person, that Benoni does not send its regards.

While Friday’s match was going through its motions, some 7,200 kilometres away, across the Indian Ocean and the equator, the scene couldn’t have been more different. Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad was lit up like Willowmoore Park will never be for the sold out opening match of the IPL. More than 100,000 people — around 56 times as many as braved Benoni’s boundaries — watched Gujarat Titans take on Chennai Super Kings in the warm embrace of an evening that followed a 28 degrees Celsius day. David Miller and Magala would have been there, too. Instead, as per CSA’s understandable orders, they were wrapping up in Benoni.

Cricketminded South Africans would have planned to keep an eye on both games. But, on Thursday, SuperSport shocked the nation by announcing it would not broadcast the IPL after “unsuccessful commercial discussions with the rightsholder”.

Cue outrage from would-be warriors behind their keyboards. What do you mean you’re not showing the IPL? You always have, along with what can seem like every smidgen of sport — important or relevant or far from it — in the world. Besides, with the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation an unmitigated disaster of governance and delivery and everything else, what choice is there for sport-watchers who are no longer 12; or young enough to be able to hook up the dingle to the dangle to the dongle and latch onto a stream, legal or not.

These unfortunates seemed unable to understand the difference between the equivalent of the USD55 many of them pay monthly for the service’s premium package — expensive in South Africa but a pittance in global terms, considering the one-stop shop that is SuperSport — and the reality of the bidding process on the open market, and how that translates into what they see on their televisions. You get what you pay for. And sometimes you get more than what you pay for.

But, less than an hour before the start of the opening ceremony in Ahmedabad, came the happy news that, “following new conversations with the rightsholder”, the tournament would indeed be seen on the screens of more affluent South Africans. Thousands of keyboards groaned in relief — their hammerers were becalmed.

Normal service had resumed, off the field and on: suddenly no-one remembered November 6, when the Dutch put South Africa out of the T20 World Cup. Benoni is no-one’s idea of gracious Adelaide, but maybe it isn’t so bleak.

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