A South African flag lolled in air as thick and almost as opaque as kheer as it sprawled over the edge of the upper tier of the Wankhede’s Sunil Gavaskar Pavilion on Saturday. The red across the top was crumpled, the blue at the bottom slumped, the green in the middle glum. It was the picture of suffocating anxiety.
The sight of Quinton de Kock taking guard settles the nation’s nerves, like it did with Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith before him. The spectre of De Kock being dismissed early sets those nerves on edge. They were jangling properly when he edged a drive to the second ball of South Africa’s World Cup match against England and was caught behind.
Where would the nation’s next lump of runs come from? It was, of course, an overly dramatic question born of years of overwrought drama. No doubt it was asked by the fair few members of the nation sprinkled around the Wankhede, their green shirts sticking ever more solidly to them by their own sweat as the sun sank slowly through the smoggy murk above.
Going into the game De Kock had scored two of South Africa’s four centuries in the tournament. By the end of their innings a fifth century would be celebrated; a performance forged with the kind of drama the nation could appreciate.
Reeza Hendricks, in only his fourth ODI of the 17 South Africa have played this year, mostly because of a selection logjam at the top of the order, delivered a lightsaber masterclass that ended 15 runs short of his name being added to the list of luminaries. He brought the curtain down on his innings in a moment of wretched luck by chopping Adil Rashid into the ground and onto his stumps.
Rassie van der Dussen, another of the century-makers, hit a typically flinty 60. The other, Aiden Markram, was caught in the deep having forged elegantly to 42. Importantly, Hendricks and Van der Dussen shared 121 off 116 to nullify the impact of De Kock’s early dismissal.
Might David Miller, who has left his starts unfinished at this World Cup, come up with the required lump of runs? No. He drilled the sixth ball he faced uppishly and almost, but not quite, through Ben Stokes at cover to reduce South Africa to 243/5 in the 36th.
What had loomed, while Hendricks and Van der Dussen were crashing and dashing their runs, as a total higher than 300 was in danger of being sawn off at the knees. All South Africa had left, in frontline batting terms, was Heinrich Klaasen. And Marco Jansen. Yeah, but can he really be called an allrounder.
By the time Jansen strode out on his elongated legs, Klaasen had spent 56 minutes at the crease in 36-degree heat that, the gizmos said, felt like 40. Klaasen would be out there for another 67 minutes, hitting England’s stricken attack – Rashid was off the field at the start of the match with a stomach problem and Topley and David Willey came and went because of a finger injury and cramp – to all parts for his 67-ball 109, his third century in 11 ODI innings.
When Klaasen wasn’t doing that he was on his haunches, trying desperately to suck enough oxygen out of the pollution all around to keep going. Jansen joined him often, more in empathy and to be able to look his partner in the eye than any pressing need of his own. The crowd knew a good drama when they saw it, and resounded with shouts of, “Klaasen! Klaasen! Klaasen!”
In the 44th Klaasen pulled a blooped single off Mark Wood, losing his bat in the process. Jansen dutifully brought it to the other end, where Klaasen was taking his umpteenth breather. In the 47th Wood poleaxed Klaasen with a yorker. This time he stayed down, flat on his back. With impressive decency considering the heat of the contest, Jos Buttler fetched Klaasen’s bat and lent it against the stumps gently.
Two balls later Klaasen put Wood’s full toss over the long-on boundary and far away for six. Klaasen dismissed Wood’s next effort from his presence with a ragged pull as if he were heaving a sack of cement onto the back of a truck. The ball sped to the fine leg boundary for four, clinching the hundred off 61 deliveries. Probably because he was too tired to reach the far end of the pitch before celebrating, Klaasen screamed in Wood’s face. Then he apologised to the bowler, more than once.
When Gus Atkinson’s leg-stump yorker found its target to start the 49th, Klaasen could finally depart the scene and take a break. He left behind his role in a stand of 151 off 77, a record for South Africa’s sixth wicket, and walked off to a standing ovation. Happily, he found the energy required to answer the salute appropriately.
Klaasen also left behind Jansen, whose 42-ball 75 not out was his first ODI half-century, a convincing statement of intent to retain the allrounder’s spot, and an innings in which he hit the ball at least as sweetly, powerfully and intelligently as anyone else; Hendricks and Klaasen included.
It was almost a pity that England had to bat. Why not send the crowd of 24,493 to bed gobsmacked at what they had seen, even the English supporters among them? But that’s not how this works, and the discombobulated, disheartened, dishevelled English disintegrated to 100/8 in the 17th before Atkinson and Wood cracked 70 off 32. Closer to the truth is that the South Africans were like a cat continuing to play with a bird it had already killed.
The end came when Keshav Maharaj nailed Atkinson’s middle stump with the last delivery of two overs that had sailed for 27 runs. England were 170/9, and all out: they weren’t going to risk Topley’s finger further by sending him to the crease.
Never in their 789 ODIs had England conceded a total as big as South Africa’s 399/7. Never had they scored more than 364 in a successful chase. Never would they have thought they were in for a hiding as emphatic as this – defeat by 229 runs, a record loss.
That part of the South African nation who were at the Wankhede went home knowing they had been part of something big; the resurrection of a campaign that had faltered against the Netherlands after a solid start against Sri Lanka and Australia. It’s always a good day when you beat England, even better when that happens at a World Cup, and better still when you do so properly.
The last time that previously crumpled, slumped, glum South African flag was seen on Saturday, it was on its way out of the ground; proudly unfurled and being held aloft.
