This time last World Cup, South Africa were already hurting from losses to England and Bangladesh. In 2015? One win and one defeat. If there is ever an anthology of assuring World Cup starts, this one should rank up there, along with 2011, 1999 or 1996. In the greater context of winning the World Cup, starts don’t and shouldn’t matter. But we are talking about South Africa, occasionally wrecked by nerve if not the strangest of mathematical calculations, in a long list of spectacular failures. So, every win matters.
You don’t have to look beyond 2019 to understand where the insecurity may stem from. Dale Steyn was ruled out early; AB de Villiers was committed to the team till he didn’t, creating an impasse before Ottis Gibson stood firm on not picking him. It was a recipe for disaster that unfolded in the form of three consecutive defeats before the wheels came off a disjointed campaign. In comparison, this has been a serene start for South Africa, underpinned by a brand of free-flowing batting that was expected from England.
Scoring hundreds in wins isn’t new for Quinton de Kock — 16 of his 19 ODI centuries have that tag — but this time he has looked absolutely convinced about every stroke. Hendrik van der Dussen’s stability has been the anchor South Africa has long sought but it’s really Aiden Markram’s turnaround — from a strike rate of 75.26 in 2019 to 165.3 now — that has injected life into South Africa’s campaign. So far, they haven’t broken a collective bead of sweat to put together wins against Sri Lanka and Australia.
“I think we just keep doing what we’re doing,” said South Africa captain Temba Bavuma ahead of Tuesday’s match against Netherlands in Dharamsala. “We’ll take it game by game as I always say. Every game will present different opportunities, different challenges, and it’s for us to man up to whatever those challenges are.”
Every World Cup has found a different way to ask the same question: if this is going to be South Africa’s time after all. A glance at the points table should calm the early nerves, but they can’t get carried away by this start. Never have South Africa not oscillated between being the favourites or dark horses, quality squads backing those claims before the world came crashing down on them. This time though, the expectations are at their lowest ebb, probably because this is a team without a tearaway fast bowler in Anrich Nortje, lacks the star quotient of previous Protea sides and is led by Bavuma, who hasn’t exactly owned this format.
But it has also led to an unconscious divestment of the past. So when the same team churns out 739 runs in two innings before obliterating Australia and Sri Lanka, it’s bound to cause a flutter. Bavuma believes the results are an accurate reflection of the mindset of a team acutely aware of its ability and backing itself to push the collective limits. “To go back to what has been said regarding our brand of cricket, us being opportunistic as batters, as bowlers, looking to take the game on,” said Bavuma.
“That obviously means the strike rates will be a bit higher. If you look at our top six, top seven, all of the guys really have been striking at high rates. Other guys are obviously exceeding in that department. But I think it’s just a matter of us keeping up the intent, looking for opportunities to put bowlers under pressure and backing our skills and execution. So, coming into the World Cup, nothing is going to be different. We’re going to keep going the same way. We’re going to keep backing that.”
Not everything, however, can hinge on intent and ability. So, for that extra bit of belief, South Africa can look back on a proud feat — stitching a 50% win record in ODIs, the best among all sides in India in the last 10 years. The bowling has looked more purposeful, but real change can be seen in the batting — not so much in the personnel as in the deployment of it. Some of it can be traced to their 2022 tour of India when Klaasen, Markram and Reeza Hendricks showed patience in reading difficult pitches, and the rest to IPL where de Kock and David Miller were bossing the bowlers.
All this makes for yet another fascinating edition of the great South Africa dream, one they have never realised. Only this time, South Africa are drawing a line between what happened before and what is happening now. For a side that has a history of panicking in crunch moments, South Africa have displayed unusual calm in two landmark wins. If they continue to fly under the radar while stitching wins like this, a last-four berth could be the least of their concerns.