That South Africa are in the WTC final is a fact like a cow

If you’re looking for someone to blame for South Africa's success, try the BCCI, the ECB and CA.

Telford Vice / Centurion

MEANWHILE, in one of the other two Boxing Day Tests, South Africa quietly snuck into the WTC final on Sunday. Who knew? Who noticed? Probably not the 299,329 who have turned up at the MCG these past four days.

There were 2,242 in Centurion’s sweeping single stand and gracious grass banks when South Africa resumed needing 121 more runs to beat Pakistan and secure their places for Lord’s in June. Who will they play? Who knows? Who cares?

This is about a disregarded — maybe even disrespected — team showing that they deserve a seat at the top table. To argue that South Africa do not because they haven’t played more glamorous opponents in more foreign settings to reach the final is idiotic.

Those more glamorous opponents are more interested in playing against each other and making more money. If you’re looking for someone to blame for South Africa’s success, try the BCCI, the ECB and CA.

Besides, this is like simultaneously gazing at your navel and wringing your hands. In a word, futile. It’s akin to wondering whether Virat Kohli assaulted a teenager in full view of 87,242 witnesses on Thursday. You think he did? You think he didn’t? Who cares what you think?

Dit is ’n feit soos a kooi. It’s an Afrikaans phrase that translates to “it’s a fact like a cow”. As in, you can say that doesn’t look, sound and smell like a cow. And whatever you say doesn’t matter — it is, after everything, a cow.

South Africa will play in the WTC final at Lord’s in June. It’s a fact like a cow. You don’t like that fact? Sorry, who are you again?

To establish that fact, Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma resumed with South Africa needing 121 more runs. Pakistan required seven more wickets. It is a testament to the contest the teams have waged that both would have harboured hopes of winning going into the fourth day.

The third had ended with the bowlers sniping threateningly in the gloom, and the batters clearly feeling that pressure. CricViz’ estimation before the start of Sunday’s play of a 63% chance of South Africa winning, and thus 37% in favour of Pakistan, felt right.

Saturday evening’s tension dissipated in Sunday morning’s bright sunshine, and Markram and Bavuma took the home side to within 86 runs of victory before Markram was bowled for 37 by Mohammad Abbas with a delivery that stayed low before crashing into off-stump.

That was the third ball after the drinks break, which had been preceded by 14 scoreless deliveries. Was the pressure building again?

It seemed not as Bavuma and Markram and Bavuma took the home side to within 86 runs of victory before Markram was bowled for 37 by Abbas with a delivery that stayed low before crashing into off-stump.

That was the third ball after the drinks break, which had been preceded by 14 scoreless deliveries. Was the pressure that had built in the gloom of Saturday evening, when Pakistan took three wickets for 19 runs in 27 deliveries, rising again?

It seemed not as Bavuma and David Bedingham took another 34 runs off the target by playing increasingly assured strokes, Bavuma in particular. Then Bavuma aimed a loose drive at Abbas, and everything changed.

Mohammad Rizwan caught the ball. The Pakistanis went up as one. Alex Wharf raised his finger. Bavuma walked off without a whimper, caught behind for 40.

That might have been that. But replays showed Bavuma’s bat hadn’t come close to hitting the ball, which had clipped his trouser pocket on its way to the wicketkeeper. Yet Bavuma left sans hesitation, much less a review or even a conversation with Bedingham about whether the decision should be referred.

Worse yet, he’s done this before. Also in Centurion, against Sri Lanka in December 2020, he had a cross-batted go at Dasun Shanaka and walked without waiting for the umpire’s verdict. Again, the gizmos said Bavuma had not hit the ball.

But that was in the first innings, and South Africa had 399 on the board. They weren’t 52 runs away from a WTC final that they might now, at 96/5, never reach.

The chill of that prospect was still settling over the scene when Kyle Verreynne dragged Naseem Shah onto his stumps. Then Bedingham wafted at a wide delivery from Abbas and was well held by Rizwan diving low to allow the ball to bounce in his gloves. When Corbin Bosch, the local wonderboy, went after a wide away-swinger from Abbas and was caught behind, South Africa had lost five wickets for 37 runs in 48 deliveries. At 99/8, the 49 they needed loomed at least twice as large.

Four of those wickets had fallen to Abbas. An almost 35-year-old, he bowled with verve and swerve and not a little commitment despite the heat — he sent down his 13 overs in the morning session unchanged.

When Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada headed for the dressingroom for lunch without further loss but 32 still required, someone joked that their meal had better be poured into a liquidiser — all the better not to choke.

Thirty-three balls into the second session, Jansen stood taller than even himself to crack Abbas through backward point for four. Game over.

Rabada had hammered five fours in his unbeaten 31 off 26, the third-highest score by a No. 10 in a successful chase. Many of his strokes were reminiscent of a taller Brian Charles Lara. Jansen had played the equal and opposite innings, taking 24 balls to score his careful 16 not out.

They had shared 51 off 50 to win a game that, at the start of the day’s play, had looked more winnable than it had proved to be. And that had, before lunch, seemed no longer winnable.

That’s what good teams do — they win when they shouldn’t. That’s what South Africa did in Centurion on Sunday. How about at Lord’s in June?

Cricbuzz