In World Cups past, the thought of having to take on a high-riding home side in front of one of cricket’s most vociferous crowds would have made South Africans wonder what their team had done to deserve such a daunting fate. Not this time.
Yes, the opposition will be India at Eden Gardens on Sunday (November 5). Yes, they are unbeaten and bristling with strength and confidence in every area. Yes, they are the most passionately backed team in the game; perhaps in all of sport. No, that doesn’t mean South Africa are intimidated, worried, or apprehensive about the looming contest.
“What we’ve done really well in this campaign is focus on what we want to do and how we want to play it,” Rassie van der Dussen said in Pune on Wednesday after South Africa hammered New Zealand by 190 runs to rise to the top of the standings. “In our match review meetings, we keep looking at the numbers with the coaches and so far in this tournament, by most metrics, we’re stacking up pretty well.
“So it’s almost irrelevant who’s in front of you. We know if we play the way we want to play and execute how we want to and take the correct options, especially under pressure, then the result is a byproduct.”
Van der Dussen scored 133 on Wednesday, Quinton de Kock made 114, and they shared 200 for the second wicket to set South Africa, who were put in to bat, on the path to a total of 357/4. Then Marco Jansen took 3/31 and Keshav Maharaj claimed 4/46 to dismiss the New Zealanders for 167 in 35.3 overs.
South Africa have earned five of their six wins batting first, each of them by more than 100 runs. Their biggest success was against England at the Wankhede Stadium on October 21, when they won by 229 runs.
De Kock is the tournament’s leading runscorer with 545 in seven innings. He has made four centuries, Van der Dussen two, and Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram one each. No other team have scored more than Australia’s five centuries. Jansen is the joint top wicket-taker with 16 strikes, the same number as Adam Zampa and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
“He’s ploughing back into the team in all aspects – in the bowling meetings, in the batting meetings, and by being one of our senior guys,” Van der Dussen said of De Kock’s contribution to South Africa’s cause.
“He’s one of my favourite guys to bat with. He really guided me through my innings today. At times I was under pressure and I was asking him about a few options. He’s such a cool and calm guy out there; he thinks so clearly.
“He doesn’t talk much; he does it out on the field. And I think that’s inspirational for us as a team and the rest of the guys to see someone like that come up with the goods.”
But India, who slipped to second in the standings because of Wednesday’s result, loom as South Africa’s toughest opponents yet. They could be cast as the mirror image of the South Africans, having clinched five victories batting second.
“Playing India in India is a massive event,” Van der Dussen said. “They’ve been playing really well and they have a lot of experience in their team. They’ve got all bases covered – a brilliant attack and batting line-up.
“But we’ll go into that game knowing that if we do the things well that we want to do well, we’ll be in a really strong position. The challenge is to execute under pressure, to stay with that, and that’s what we’ll look to do. But we’ve played them here before and we’ve beaten them here before. So, in a sense, even though it’s a World Cup, it’s not really too different.”
In November 1991 South Africa returned from 22 years of isolation by playing an ODI against India at Eden Gardens. Their opening pair that day, Jimmy Cook and Andrew Hudson, looked dazed and confused as they walked out in front of a heaving crowd. Hudson, who was caught behind off Kapil Dev for a third-ball duck, has admitted to an acute case of nerves in reaction to the scale of the occasion.
Sunday will dwarf that moment from almost 32 years ago. But, this time, the South Africans will not be nervous.
