Proteas bowler Lungi Ngidi (R) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Babar Azam. Photo: Dan Himbrechts/EPA
Johannesburg – At least yesterday, the rain at the Sydney Cricket Ground didn’t lead to a catastrophic conclusion as far as the tournament was concerned for the South African team.
They can still make it into the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup, as long as they beat the Netherlands in Adelaide on Sunday (2am SA time). The forecast for the South Australian capital, is sunny with just a 2% chance of rain.
In unpacking the defeat to Pakistan, Temba Bavuma’s players will lament a litany of errors in the field, some poor “death” bowling and the loss of two wickets in one over just before the rain halted the match during SA’s innings.
Those wickets of Bavuma, batting better than he has in months, and Aiden Markram immediately changed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern calculation, making the revised target when play resumed extremely difficult.
Pakistan’s Mohammad Wasim and Naseem Shah executed their “death” bowling skills better than their opponents, leaving Bavuma miffed as he addressed his postmatch TV interview.
SA had control of the match over the first half of Pakistan’s innings. The bowling as had been the case earlier in the tournament was precise and thoughtful, with the seamers changing pace expertly.
The selection of Tabraiz Shamsi as the frontline spinner instead of Keshav Maharaj was “matchups” based with the Pakistanis having a fondness for attacking conventional left-arm spinners.
However before anyone got to see Shamsi, the quicks; Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Parnell and Anrich Nortjé had reduced Pakistan to 43/4.
Mohammad Rizwan, so often a thorn in the Proteas side fell to Parnell’s accuracy, Nortjé ended a lively knock from Mohammad Haris with a 146km/h missile that struck the right-hand batter in front of middle and off, Ngidi dismissed Babar Azam with a slower ball (and another brilliant catch by Kagiso Rabada), while the hilarity of Nortjé’s 132km/h slower ball knows no bounds and got him the wicket of Shan Masood caught at mid-off.
Following the mid-innings drinks break there was always going to be a change in intensity from Pakistan, and what they didn’t need was a helping hand from SA, but that’s what they got.
The momentum of the innings changed in the 12th over following a misfield by Shamsi on the thirdman boundary, when what should have been an easy stop resulting in a single, turned into a four for Mohammad Nawaz.
In the next over, Aiden Markram provided Nawaz with another gift, misjudging the flight of the ball as he charged off the long-off boundary, turning an easy catch into a boundary.
Pakistan scored 106 runs in eight overs, with 15 boundaries (8x4, 7x6) unleashing a whirlwind the Proteas couldn’t stop. There was a weird lbw that Nawaz should have reviewed, then Shadab Khan arrived and bashed 52 off 22 balls, Iftikhar Ahmed accelerated his scoring, finishing with 51 off 35 balls, three catches were dropped, there more miss-fields, three wickets fell off consecutive deliveries, a crazy run out concluded the innings and instead of chasing a target in the region of 150, suddenly 180 was needed.
Pakistan, on a high, nipped out Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw, but a return to form for Bavuma, kept SA up with the required run-rate. The SA captain hit the ball cleanly, with four fours and one sweetly struck six over backward square leg, in an innings of 36 off only 19 balls.
However his wicket, along with that of Markram’s in the eighth over to Khan, followed by the rain, meant the target was extremely difficult when play resumed. Still, Pakistan’s “death” bowling proved to be better than SA’s.
A match the Proteas had under control, got away from them, largely because of their own errors. They get the chance to atone on Sunday.
At least their future in the tournament is still in their hands.
@shockerhess