It’s the last week of Varsity exams and, unlike some of their friends and colleagues, the Proteas have done as much revision and research as possible. There is always a chance the examiner might deliver “that” question that sneaks through your best work and stumps you, but now it’s time to relax. They are ready.
Semifinals week for Aiden Markram and his team is a busy time. As much as they might like to chill in their hotel rooms between gym sessions and trips to the lobby coffee shop, there are marketing and commercial commitments to fulfil, organised by people well qualified to turn a 30-minute assignment into two hours. Those five-second clips you see on screen during match coverage? Half an hour each.
They won’t mind one bit. They have no bogeymen and, on the one occasion they did choke, against Afghanistan, they unchoked themselves in spectacular style and still won. India’s T20 team is invincible in bilateral series and one of the best teams yet in the format. But World Cups are different and Markram’s team hammered them by 76 runs, diluting the one doubt they may have had.
When Graeme Smith’s team reached the semifinal of the 2007 World Cup in St Lucia they had the inconvenience of facing the world’s best team. Australia’s monopolistic domination of the South Africans in the biggest games had yet to be broken and Smith’s team was packed with players who had no experience of beating Australia when it mattered.
India’s T20 team is invincible in bilateral series and one of the best teams yet in the format. But World Cups are different and Markram’s team hammered them by 76 runs, diluting the one doubt they may have had.
Coach Mickey Arthur later recalled in his autobiography the feeling of dread he experienced the night before the game. The team meeting was “flat” and some of the players had a “distant” look in their eyes. Others tried to lift the mood and many of the right things were said: enjoy the occasion, believe in yourselves and so on. But they were just words.
The Australians themselves weren’t really spoken about. Like a domineering uncle at a family gathering, the opposition was largely ignored. What happened the next morning was subsequently couched as an attempt to tackle the greatest danger head-on: Glenn McGrath. The truth is, it was born out of panic and doubt rather than courage. Before they knew it they were 27/5 and the game was pretty much over before many fans could get through the malfunctioning turnstiles.
Markram has scored 268 runs at a punishing strike rate of 175, endorsing Conrad’s insistence that he return to the top of the order after “loitering” in the middle for a while. Conrad believed that Markram is the sort of leader who leads best from the front.
There may be an element of coincidence about the games in which he has filled in for Temba Bavuma, but his captaincy record at ICC global events stands at an extraordinary 22 wins from 23 matches — starting with the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, which his team won with a perfect 6-0 record.
At this World Cup it stands at a perfect 7-0, the only unbeaten team remaining. Jokers are using various platforms to describe the semifinal between England and defending champions India as a contest to “decide who gets beaten by South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday”. How times have changed.
Like India, New Zealand have already been comprehensively dismantled by the Proteas in this tournament. But in Rob Walter the Kiwis have a coach intimately acquainted with the South Africans. Indeed, a year ago he and Conrad were co-workers.
If either of their excellent fast bowlers, Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry, is in the XI for Wednesday’s match it may be more in body than mind. Both were granted parental leave for childbirth in the tournament. It is a reflection of the close, empathetic relationship New Zealand has with its players that both were selected in the first place but also indicative of the prevailing attitude towards a tournament that takes place every two years rather than four.
If England somehow prevail against the mighty Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday most South African supporters will fancy their chances even more for a maiden title — if they get past New Zealand. But as every student knows, all you can do is prepare as well as possible and then trust yourself.
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