No-one saw the magnificent mayhem of day one of the World Test Championship coming on Wednesday because no-one really, if they are honest, knew what to expect.
The hype that had been ramped up ahead of the match was met with hype turned up to 11 on the dial on the field.
The snark aimed at the Proteas for the manner in which they qualified for Lord’s was answered by the calm, controlled ferocity of Kagiso Rabada.
He epitomised the attitude of his coach, Shukri Conrad, and captain, Temba Bavuma, when asked, yet again (sigh), in the build-up as to whether they deserved to be here, having had an “easy” path to this final as they hadn’t played against either of Australia or England.
To paraphrase Rabada in his first media appearance after the coke adds strife episode, this is a team that was “not going to be ‘Mr I Apologise,’” not here, not at Lord’s, not on the biggest Test of the year. Sorry, not sorry.
There has been an honesty about SA’s approach to this final and that, knowing the man, emanates from the candour and authenticity of Conrad as a coach and a human. His handling of the Rabada incident was done with disappointment, compassion and humour.
“I often adopt a fatherly role with these players,” he said in an interview. “Your initial reaction is to have him in front of you and smack him over his head, and then ask him ‘are you OK? How are we going to help?’ That’s the initial reaction. When I was asked about how the international media would react, for me it’s simple. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
“KG owns his cock-up that he made. He’s dealing with it. I’m not scared that this will break down [the team]. I think it will galvanise the unit if we need something to galvanise us.”
One report described Conrad as burlesque, which may have been a typo and was supposed to be “brusque”. Conrad is neither a “literary or dramatic work that seeks to ridicule by means of grotesque exaggeration or comic imitation” nor someone who uses “theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits and sometimes striptease acts”.
The only strips he tears off are when he gets asked a stupid or repetitive question when he is of a mind to be “brusque”, but it’s his honesty that is sometimes mistaken for that.
South Africans, Conrad maintains, “should never be considered underdogs”. Conrad has taken his beloved Liverpool’s slogan “this means more” and turned it into a team ethos.
“We want it a lot,” said Bavuma. “For the team, for myself, for the coach, for the country, that is something we really want. Maybe there is desperation around it. We don’t need to skirt around that. But it’s from a healthy point of view. It’s not do or die.”
This column is being written as the first session starts on day two and the first hour could decide whether the Proteas do or die. It was sunny and then overcast and then sunny again in London on Thursday morning as Bavuma and David Bedingham walked to the crease.
It is unlikely this Test will go the five days considering the overwhelming strengths, wisdom and guile of Rabada and Marco Jansen, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
The sense is that neutrals want the Proteas to win or at least push Australia as hard and for as long as they can. There was more green and gold than gold and green at Lord’s on Wednesday, as there was on Thursday and should be for the days remaining at Lord’s.
On commentary, the talk turned to players overthinking things. Kevin Pietersen suggested to Graeme Smith that the great Jacques Kallis was not one of cricket’s great overthinkers.
“The man could stare at a wall for four hours,” laughed Smith. “He had a great ability to keep the main thing the main thing. To keep things simple. Batters fail more than they succeed.”
The Proteas and ICC finals, it’s the never-ending story, the question asked first. Does this feel different? The WTC final, wrote Australian Geoff Lemon in The Guardian, “has felt increasingly like something that counts”.
“If instead [SA] can take it up to Australia again, as they did in the first session, they will solidify fondness in the hearts of neutrals, for the match as much as the team. Beyond parochial views, this is what a global final should be about. The concept is right, but there is more vindication to achieve.”
For Rabada, Bavuma and Conrad vindication is achievable if the batters can learn to stare at a wall for four hours. For the Proteas, this means more.
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