The Gateway to India

And to the World Cup semi-final?

    It all seemed a little surreal, slightly too perfect for South Africa to be true. When was the stumble? It wasn’t when Quinton de Kock edged the second ball of the match to Jos Buttler. The second wicket partnership added 121with Reeza Hendricks making 85 from 75 balls despite being told he was playing ten minutes before the toss. Not even a ‘maybe’ from the management before that. “I had no idea about Temba’s illness,” Hendricks said after the game.

    South Africa would have accepted a scrambled victory by a couple of wickets or five runs before the start of the match, anything to recover from the Dutch debacle, but posting England’s highest concession in an ODI and then concluding their heaviest ever defeat? Almost too much to digest. Almost.

    Rassie van der Dussen is in heaven. Criticised for slow starts in T20 Internationals and his obdurate membership of the ‘that’s the way I play’ club, he has now been given as much time as he likes in the 50-over team as long as he steers the team as close to the 30-over mark as possible when the T20 monsters can take over.

    His response has been to score at a run-a-ball, consistently, which is all that was being asked of him in the first place. Having devoured dot balls when asked not to, he is now spitting them out when told he can have as many as he wants. You’ve got to love RvdD, he’ll do anything and everything for the team as long as you ask him for the opposite.

    Klaasen, however, may be the most straightforward cricketer to represent South Africa in the modern era – and there have been many. A year ago he shattered the pathetic taboos about they should and shouldn’t say in public when he spoke about team selection following an ODI against England in Kimberley won the back of his ***. “The coaches want us to play brave, attacking cricket but when we fail we’re dropped and go back to sixth in the queue. It doesn’t work like that,” he said at the time.

    He was reminded about that ‘outburst’ after his astonishing 109 from 67 balls at the Wankhede Stadium: “We have had the same group of guys in the team since then and we’re seeing the results now,” he said. Quite so. Aiden Markram has benefitted just as much, if not more from Klaasen’s ground-breaking ‘speak out’ than the man himself.

    The Proteas face Bangladesh in the next game, at the same venue, on Tuesday. A victory will leave them requiring two wins from their remaining four matches against Pakistan, India, New Zealand and Afghanistan to ensure a semi-final place.

    Dear old friend, Dean Wilson of the Daily Mirror, offered perspective from an England point of view: “They are not as good as many people think they are, and certainly not as good as they think they are. It’s been coming for a while, the first defeat (against New Zealand) might have been a ‘blip’ but not three games out of four.

    “The 50-over format is increasingly unloved in England – Harry Brook said a few days ago that he’s still ‘learning’ how to play it, during a World Cup! South Africa did to them what they were doing to other teams a couple of years ago, demolishing them. South Africa have taken the game forward, as England did, but now they are regressing rather than progressing. South Africa have the impetus, well prepared and bold,” Wilson said.

    And? “Well, yes, they do have that hanging around their necks. They still need to jump the hurdle between doing it in the group games and taking that into the knockout games…!”

    Earlier, the Mumbai morning was spent jogging on Marine Drive and revisiting the Gateway to India and all the incumbent tourist traps. The photograph touts, trinket sellers and ‘guides’ aren’t as interested in a single, sweaty man as they are in a group of first-timers, local or tourist, so it was an unusually low-key revisit.

    It puzzles me that a monument built by Colonisers to welcome more colonisers into their colony is now a protected heritage site vigorously protected by the Maharashtra Police who require everyone wishing to get within 15 metres of the structure to pass through x-ray security.  

      Anyway, I have to leave now to watch the semi-final in the other World Cup. It’s almost 1:00am in India and I’ve just seen that the Boks are trailing 12-3. Somehow, there is no question that they will fight back. That’s what comes from winning it three times. The same faith may shown in the cricketers in the future…if they could just bloody win it once!