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World Cup 2023: A loss for which South Africa can’t blame themselves
South Africa stuck to their strengths, it’s another matter they didn’t work out on the day it mattered the most
As Eden Gardens started winding up for the night, Temba Bavuma cut a forlorn figure at South Africa’s dugout, dejected, spent and possibly dwelling into what had gone wrong. The top-order, of course, didn’t turn up in a World Cup South Africa had scored the highest-ever total and shared seven hundreds between their top-four. Winning the toss and choosing to bat, thus made so much sense. But like 1992, 1999, 2007 and 2015, this time too South Africa’s World Cup dream met with anguish at the semi-finals.
Choosing to bat wasn’t the problem even though the Eden Gardens pitch was bouncier and had a fair bit of moisture after staying under covers for the better part of the morning. These weren’t alien conditions per se. Opting to set a target was justified as well, considering South Africa had won ten out of 11 matches before this batting first, not to forget the caginess that must have seeped in after getting bowled out for 83 when they had batted second against India at Eden. All of which is to say that too many favourable results have been manufactured in enough different ways for the conditions to not be relevant once the toss was won.
But where South Africa came second to Australia was in starting well, both with bat and ball. And of course, in being relentless.
“The conditions, combined with the quality of the attack,” said Bavuma at the post-match presentation. “I thought (Josh) Hazlewood as well as (Mitchell) Starc upfront were ruthless. They exploited every bit of advantage that was presented to them with the conditions and they really put us under pressure. When you’re 4 for 24, you're always going to struggle to get a competitive total.”
Ideally, everything had to be more than perfect from 24/4 to give Australia a run for their money. That obviously didn’t happen. But the fact that South Africa could still go on to score 212 from that juncture is a glowing testament to their batting depth.
“We were gaining some momentum with that partnership between David Miller and Klaasy (Heinrich Klaasen),” Bavuma said. “We would have liked Klaasen to go on longer and we've seen how destructive he can be when he gets to the latter part of the innings. David Miller's innings was superb, really captures the character of our team and for him to go and play like that in that pressure situation in a World Cup speaks about the player, not just his talent but his mental capacity.”
Where Bavuma also came second was in probably relying too much on matchups. Delaying Keshav Maharaj’s introduction was probably backed by data that he would bowl in the arc of Travis Head who was going ballistic in the powerplay. With very little runs to play with anyway, it should have been a risk South Africa should have taken. Maharaj cleaned up Head first ball afterall, but by then the real damage had been inflicted. At least, and here for a change the scoreboard will tell you the real story, South Africa didn’t give in. They fought till the last ball.
“For me a choke is losing a game that you're in a position to win,” said South Africa coach Rob Walter. “In this instance we were behind the eight-ball right from the word go and we actually fought our way back and put up a score that gave us a chance. And then they got off to a flyer and we fought and put ourselves back into the game. There's nothing even remotely close to a choke that happened out there today. It was a serious contest between two good teams; number two and three in the tournament.”
Yet there’s an undeniable feeling of what would have been had it not been for a few more runs, or a better judgment call on a caught-behind review opportunity, or more instinctive captaincy and a few more catches that could have gone South Africa’s way. Reeza Hendricks spilling Head’s catch at deep point in an over that went for 15 runs was ominous. But probably more consequential was Quinton de Kock failing to hold on to a tough edge of Steve Smith in the 18th over.
“Definitely, we had chances, tough chances that we put down,” Bavuma said. “There were half-chances as well, but (they) bounced in front of us, maybe we could have been more proactive, getting guys in a bit closer, but I guess when the margins are like that, you need things to go your way. But it doesn't take away from the fact that Australia put a good display of cricket out there.”
