Five minutes of madness will cost SA plenty

11 June 2017 - 17:20 By Telford Vice
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Hardik Pandya of India celebrates the wicket of Faf du Plessis of South Africa during the ICC Champions trophy cricket match between India and South Africa at The Oval in London on June 11, 2017.
Hardik Pandya of India celebrates the wicket of Faf du Plessis of South Africa during the ICC Champions trophy cricket match between India and South Africa at The Oval in London on June 11, 2017.
Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images

South Africa are likely to pay a high price for five minutes of madness in their key Champions Trophy match against India at The Oval on Sunday.

Needing victory to advance to the semi-finals, AB de Villiers’ team were dismissed for 191 after being put in to bat.

They seemed on course for a far more substantial score while Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla were compiling their partnership of 76 — South Africa’s highest opening stand in the tournament and only their second of 50 or more for any wicket.

Drama didn’t seem imminent when Amla cut Ravichandran Ashwin into MS Dhoni’s gloves in the 18th over.

De Kock was still there, and when he reached a half-century it was noted that all five time he had made 50 in one-day internationals against India he had gone on to a century.

Not this time. De Kock scored 53 before swiping past a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja that nailed his off-stump.

Even so, at 116/2 and not quite halfway through their innings, South Africa seemed set to post a total that could compete with India’s potent batting order …

Five overs later, the madness struck.

At 12.24pm, Faf du Plessis nudged Jadeja to point and tried to take a single, and even a full length dive couldn’t stop De Villiers from being run out for 16.

That would have been a cruel blow to absorb for South Africa’s captain, who came into the tournament as the No. 1 ranked batsman in the format but scored only four runs from the five deliveries he faced in his first two innings.

He had a shot at redemption on Sunday, and he seemed determined to take it.

But it was stolen from him by poor judgement and, perhaps, fate. 

At 12.29pm, Du Plessis cut Ravichandran Ashwin to short third man, set off on a run, changed his mind and returned to his crease, and looked up to see David Miller at the same end of the pitch.

The ball was duly delivered to the other end, and after much deliberation it was decided that Miller had to be the one to go: run out for one.

In the space of those five minutes and the six deliveries they encompassed, South Africa’s hopes of staying alive in this tournament ebbed to a new low.

Their supporters will dispute that assertion considering how many times they have been shot in this movie before — every four years since 1992.

Du Plessis was their last hope of rewriting that sorry script, but he dragged Hardik Pandya onto his stumps four overs after Miller went.

Up in the dressingroom, De Villiers sat ashen faced holding a pen.

Might he have been composing his resignation from the captaincy or even his international retirement?

His players looked equally distraught around him, the sight of De Kock, his arm draped consolingly, even protectively, around Miller’s shoulder particularly poignant.

South Africa’s last seven wickets disappeared for 49 runs, two of them in as many deliveries by Bhuv Kumar.

Imran Tahir survived, with a squirt to third man, the hattrick ball — which was accompanied by a rising wave of demand from an apparently exclusively India-supporting sell-out crowd.

But the innings was ended by, wouldn’t you know it, by his run out.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now