image source– Cricket.com
283 for 1.
A perfectly viable score in a One Day International and perhaps a dream in a T20 contest for any cricketing nation if you ask me.
Well, the mighty Indians surmounted this dream with much valour as they kept piling on the misery on a helpless South African unit in the last T20I between these teams with the Proteas already trailing the series 2-1 entering into this contest.
The only thing the Men in Green and Gold could consistently do was to keep bowling in India’s arc to be clobbered rather disgracefully out of the park amid a Wanderers crowd reeling in dismay.
Perhaps not if you were hoisting the tri-colour.
Such was the destruction unleashed by Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma that the likes of Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj and others meekly surrendered to India’s ascendency enroute to conceding 18 extras in this game and 19 in the previous game.
Three extra overs in each contest and that too in a match of only 20 overs.
No words to explain this!
Speaking about India, their absolute dominance was also the result of super Samson reaching his third T20I hundred, the highest for any Indian batter in a calendar year.
A feat worth every praise!
In the process, South Africa also managed to churn a record for themselves to concede the highest T20I total ever against any opposition with the disgraceful 283.
A record one would want to drown himself in complete embarrassment to be brutally honest.
So as the Men in Blue valiantly made a comeback from the horror of the New Zealand series to triumph in this outing 3-1 albeit away from home and South Africa continued to meekly become India’s bunny, let’s examine what went so horribly wrong for the hosts:
A psychological dent
Cricket or for that matter any sport is played as much in the mind as it is on the field.
In my humble opinion, the Proteas before entering most contests against India somehow already surrender to them in their mind.
Look at last year’s ODI World Cup game, when South Africa was on a rampage in the tournament beating most teams before they locked horns with India conceding 326 runs and getting skittled out for a paltry 83 in reply.
They had accepted their fate mentally even before that contest began and perhaps so was the case in this T20I series sans the Gqeberha game where they showed some fight courtesy Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee’s heroics.
Their body language looked as meek as an amateur school boys’ team let alone a leading cricketing nation and truth be told this is extremely deplorable.
Ask captain Aiden Markram and coach Rob Walter and they will whole heartedly agree!
The Proteas need to dive inwards to introspect and come up with the right fodder to become mentally strong when they face India.
They need to have the confidence that winning against them is as much a possibility as it is against any other team. Then and only then can we see some balanced contests between these nations.
Things can only go upward from here
If one were to be brutally honest, the South Africa limited overs side has hit rock bottom in this T20I series against India and things possibly can’t go further south.
South Africa’s bowling has failed miserably barring the second outing which they won by the skin of their teeth and their batting has only seen one or two positives in Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen interspersed with some sporadic heroics from Gerald Coetzee.
The Proteas need to realise they can only go upward from here and the biggest positive they have right now is the chance to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
Yes, victories against Sri Lanka and Pakistan gurantees them this coveted achievement and potentially this is the need of the hour to get the die-hard Mzansi faithful cheering for them again.
Perhaps, just perhaps, if the Test team continues to thrive, these same players might channel that same energy into outstanding performances in the limited-overs formats as well.
Until then, as Proteas fans, we must keep our faith alive.
