If it isn’t there before a World Cup then there comes a point during all of them at which the Proteas are suddenly regarded as favourites, or at least among them. When it was pointed out to captain Temba Bavuma after Sunday’s thrilling victory over India, he scowled. “We came into the tournament under the radar,” he replied ... and that is where he wanted to stay.
He doesn’t get a say in who the bookmakers and the public regard as the most likely winners because the bookmakers odds are guided as much by how much money punters are prepared to part with in pursuit of a winning bet. And more money has been placed on Bavuma’s team than any other in the hours since their five-wicket win in Perth which saw them put at least one foot in the semifinals. From 9/1 at the start of the tournament, they are now 4/1, just behind India at 3/1 and New Zealand at 7/2.
Their penultimate group game, against Pakistan in Sydney on Thursday, is not a “must-win” affair. Unless they lose heavily and their final match against the Netherlands is washed out (or they lose that as well) they will line up against one of Australia, New Zealand or England for a place in the final.
SA hasn’t always reacted well to this “point” at World Cups. Every method known to sports psychologists has been adopted to manage expectations, stay relaxed and play to their ability. “SA display title credentials” and “Underdogs no longer” were just a couple of the headlines which would have greeted those players still reading the news on their devices.
The jokers, pranksters and icebreakers in the squad will slowly but surely become a little quieter and the energy they provide will feel just a little forced. Those who have seen it all before will recognise the signs but be reluctant to say anything for fear of alerting, and alarming, those who haven’t seen it before. Head coach Mickey Arthur was aware that something “wasn’t right” before the World Cup semifinal against Australia in 2007 but believed the potential downside of addressing the mood wasn’t worth the risk of addressing it.
The batting of Quinton de Kock and the middle order has been compelling and the fast-bowling quartet moulded itself into a fearsome, relentless weapon against both Bangladesh and India. It will be a less potent weapon in Sydney, for sure, and indeed Adelaide where the other semifinal will be played, but confidence is everything in professional sport and they will be brimming with belief.
Rilee Rossouw’s last five T20 International innings make an interesting sequence: 0, 0, 100*, 109 and 0. For some it captures the “all or nothing” approach they believe is necessary to win a World Cup. For others it is evidence of injudicious starts containing too many “big shots” too early in his innings. Either way, reputation counts for a lot in cricket and his is burgeoning on the biggest stage. The more players say it is a game “between bat and ball” and that cricketers “play the ball and not the man”, the more they are acknowledging that the man matters. If Rossouw has created even a fraction of doubt in bowlers’ minds before he has even faced a ball, it will be to his and his team’s considerable advantage.
The importance of body language cannot be overstated, too. When SA slipped to 26/3 chasing India’s modest 133/9, Aiden Markram and David Miller tiptoed the total to 40/3 at the halfway stage with stoicism and calm in equal measure. There was no frantic scrambling for singles, no lashes of panic. At every moment they looked as though leaving themselves a target of 94 in the final 10 overs of their match was exactly their plan.
It surely was not, but the self-assurance they exuded with the prospect of exiting the World Cup if they lost the match ranked among the top three partnerships in SA’s World Cup history. It may say as much about the paucity of pressure partnerships as it does about the 76 runs they added together, but it was India that blinked first by dropping Markram and then bungling a simple run out.
Much has been said and written about the plight of Bavuma the batsman, some of it unpleasant and unnecessary. It is impossible to quantify his value as a captain in the way it is to measure his lack of runs, but sports teams rally around those whom they admire and respect in the same way a platoon of soldiers will carry an injured soldier rather than abandon him.
It may well come to pass that the captain does not complete the tournament in the starting XI but that seems unlikely. The truth is, his early dismissals have not (yet) harmed the team’s fortunes as much as a longer innings using up more deliveries might. Cricket teams rarely change winning combinations, even if they’re flawed.
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