You messed up, South Africa. Fine. How are you going to fix it?

“I’m pretty sure the batsmen are going to come back strongly.” - Imran Tahir is put on the spot, unfairly, for the failings of others

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE in London

LONDON stirs gently on Sunday mornings, a behemoth blinking into soft light, sluggish after another ripper of a Saturday night.

At other such times, South Africa’s players would be inclined to stop and smell the espresso and croissants. Not this Sunday.

Everyone gets things wrong. It’s how you fix them that matters. Faf du Plessis and his team will want to do so when they venture back to the Oval to play Bangladesh.

Had Thursday’s match there been a game of football, South Africa would have led 1-0 at halftime. They lost 4-1. Or by 104 runs. To England, the golden child of the World Cup.

There was no choking but there was plenty of chucking — of wickets. Only Dwaine Pretorius and Andile Phehlukwayo can reasonably claim not to have played the key role in their own downfall.

Training sessions in the past two days — the first not on the original schedule — were South Africa’s opportunities to, as Rassie van der Dussen put it, focus on “topping up on some of the softer batting and bowling skills; no drastic changes”.

This will stick in many South Africans’ craws. You’ve been dismissed for 207 by a team who are supposed to be better at batting than bowling. No drastic changes? WTF?

So it didn’t look good that Imran Tahir, South Africa’s No. 11 and a long way from what had gone wrong, was yesterday’s press conference victim. Did anyone consider the optics?

Sunday’s game will be Tahir’s 100th one-day international, which was why he was wheeled out. All things being equal, that’s understandable and a reason to be cheerful. But, after Thursday, all things are not equal. And South Africans at home are not cheerful.

It will take more than marketing milestones to control a narrative that has veered towards disappointment — a fact not lost on the players.

“Definitely, we did notice that as a team,” Tahir said of the grumbling from the other hemisphere. He also chimed with what several members of the camp have said: that the loss to England wasn’t an axle-breaking pothole but merely a speedbump at the start of a long road.

“Most of the time we were on top of the game but we just didn’t have wickets in hand. That was the learning we needed to take into the next game and I’m pretty sure the batsmen are going to realise that and they are going to come back strongly.”

Hashim Amla is crucial to that cause but he seems a doubtful starter. He took a blow from Jofra Archer on the grille of his helmet on Thursday and, although he passed concussion tests, didn’t train yesterday.

Aiden Markram could be bumped up the order and David Miller — who lost out to Van der Dussen against England — slotted into the vacancy lower down.

The match will be played on the same pitch as Thursday’s, raising thoughts of deploying Tabraiz Shamsi as well as Tahir. Particularly with Dale Steyn and his shoulder ruled out again.

That South Africa would consider two spinners against Asian opposition seems mad, but who would have thought Tahir would have taken the new ball on Thursday? Probably not Jonny Bairstow, who was out second ball.

Bangladesh also face uncertainty, what with Tamim Iqbal, who was struck on the thumb on Friday, jerking his bottom hand off the bat when he hit the ball in the nets yesterday.

The questions South Africa will want to answered on Sunday are not on the scale of those faced by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, who have shambled to totals of 105 and 136.

They should beat Bangladesh. Hang on: they should have scored 312 against England.