Only if JFK comes back as a pterodactyl can South Africa reach the semis. Not. But the complex domino effect they will need isn’t much less likely.
Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE at Lord’s
One fine day in the middle of the World Cup, two not quite dead teams got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew their bats and …
South Africa and Pakistan are those cadaverous teams, four points out of the semi-final zone in eighth and ninth place in the standings before Saturday’s games, above only Afghanistan.
And Sunday is the fine day they will get up to fight, at Lord’s, nogal.
At least, they will want to show some defiance in the wake of a dismal run. South Africa have played six matches and Pakistan five, and they each have a solitary win and a washout to show for all that. So, by dint, of having a game in hand, Pakistan are sitting the prettier of the two.
But what will happen once they have drawn their bats is far from certain, not least because Sri Lanka moonwalked like Lazarus himself at Headingley on Friday to beat England.
“It was a great game of cricket, and it just proves that as soon as a team clicks on the day, any team at this World Cup can beat any other team,” Aiden Markram said on Saturday.
“If we put together our best game of cricket, it should put us in a good position to win games.
“So it’s nice to see that a team like Sri Lanka with great players, who have maybe have been struggling for form, as have we, have been able to overcome one of the favourites.
“It’s definitely inspirational, and we can definitely take a bit of learning from that.
“But a lot of the focus is on us really trying to put our best game of cricket together to see how far it can take us.”
Should England stumble to more losses in their remaining games, which will likely be their toughest tests of the tournament — against Australia, India and New Zealand — and should South Africa win on Sunday and beat the Lankans on Friday and Australia on July 6, that mythical semi-final spot might just come back into focus for Faf du Plessis’ team.
But only if JFK comes back as a pterodactyl. Not. But the complex domino effect South Africa will need from other results to enable them to reach the final four isn’t much less likely.
Markram said the South Africans had “done our sulking and moping around” after the loss to New Zealand at Edgbaston on Wednesday, and some relief from the daily grind had been brought by the arrival on Friday of the full complement of the players’ families.
With 99 runs from four innings Markram is among the under-performing members of a struggling batting line-up, so his view on what has gone wrong for South Africa are relevant: “The thinking has been right. At times the execution has let us down.
“You learn the most when things aren’t going well.”
The examination of how well South Africa have learnt their lesson is set for cricket’s grandest stage and against one of the better pace attacks on Sunday.
They need to draw their bats and show some balls.
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