How SA have grown since Kurt Darren was big in Bangladesh

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

THE cheeky cheerfulness of Loslappie is not what you would expect to boom from the speakers at Shere Bangla National Stadium in downtown Dhaka.

But, yes, that was unmistakably Kurt Darren promoting promiscuity, in suiwer Afrikaans, nogal. For three minutes or so in an arena packed with a cricket crazy crowd, he was big in Bangladesh.

And, no, that was not the strangest thing to happen on the mad night of March 25, 2011.

That was the sight of Faf du Plessis aiming the fire in his eyes at Kyle Mills in the kind of confrontation more often seen in the parking lot at Loftus in the long hours after the final hooter than on a cricket ground.

Du Plessis is 1.8m tall. Mills measures 1.93m. It is tempting to pin SA’s bad luck on the 13 centimetres between them, but luck was not a factor. SA cracked under pressure and New Zealand took the gap to win their World Cup quarter-final.

That was then, this is now, and much has changed. SA will have an idea how much when they play three one-day internationals in New Zealand later this month.

The most obvious difference is that giants like Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis are gone. Caretaker Corrie van Zyl handed the coaching reins to Gary Kirsten, who has since passed them to Russell Domingo. Allan Donald, who as New Zealand’s bowling coach at the 2011 World Cup egged Mills on as he sat on a cooler box beyond the boundary, is now firmly in SA’s trench.

However, the heart of a batting order that could not find a way to reach a target of 222 against New Zealand’s mediocre attack remains in place – except that Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy are now part of the most feared top six in the game.

Similarly, now, as then, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Imran Tahir are major members of the attack.

“I certainly believe we have the players to win it, but a lot of the same guys who will go to the World Cup next there were there in 2011, and supposedly they are going to bring home the bacon this time,” former SA allrounder and national selector Craig Matthews said.

“It’s difficult to see where that confidence comes from, except that those players are more experienced now and that they have taken on senior roles in the team.

“We’ve stumbled with bat in hand in the past, but this time there are more questions about the bowling than the batting.

“It’s almost as if now that the problem area has been sorted out, the confidence is there.”

For Robin Peterson, who opened the bowling in that quarter-final, the difference is more about purpose and passion than it is about personnel.

“The team has a lot more matchwinners now than they did then,” Peterson said. “Some of the better players in world cricket are in our top six, and they all like big occasions.

“And our bowling has never been an issue. We bowled all of our opponents out at the last World Cup, and the balance of the side is still good in that respect.”

Impressively, De Villiers has not allowed the cares of captaincy to affect his free-spirited approach to batting. His presence and personality are not as big as Smith’s, but they fit this SA team perfectly.

Steyn, meanwhile, towers taller as a genuine star with every campaign. And, plainly, he enjoys that status.

Quinton de Kock is a left-handed De Villiers, only even more unafraid. Good luck to all who have to bowl to him, especially on faster pitches.

De Villiers and Steyn are in the summer of their seasons as young men, while De Kock is springtime itself in pads and a helmet.

But some things do not change, at least not for long: the World Cup elephant is back in the room. As is the conviction of a growing number of South Africans that the best team never to win this tournament may ease that pain this time.

Or, as Matthews said, “South Africans are optimistic – we think we are going to win the World Cup every time.”

SA will go to New Zealand as outright favourites to win the series, which will be played on October 21, 24 and 27.

Of the Kiwis, only Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson are in the same league as De Villiers and Steyn, and even that is a stretch.

Then again, that’s what a lot of South Africans would have said the night a Kurt Darren tune rocked Shere Bangla National Stadium.