Proteas will know where they stand once they confront Stokes and Co

When South Africa met England in the opening match of the 2019 World Cup at The Oval in London, the gulf in class was apparent from the second ball of the match.

The first ball was the only time the Proteas held the upper hand. Imran Tahir had opened the bowling, in what was a surprise tactic from Faf du Plessis, and promptly bowled Jonny Bairstow. 

Thereafter, however, the Proteas were hanging on to England’s coat-tails. One man dominated them.

Ben Stokes scored 89, took two catches — one a memorable effort on the boundary to get rid of Andile Phehlukwayo — engineered a run-out and claimed two wickets. England won by 104 runs. 

Having struggled with a knee injury that saw him absent from the first three matches of this year’s tournament, Stokes returns just in time for England’s most important match of the tournament so far, against the Proteas in Mumbai on Saturday. 

For the Proteas, however, the challenge goes beyond Stokes. The England team’s One-Day blueprint is something Temba Bavuma and Rob Walter have talked about mimicking. Not the whole thing, but elements such as mindset and playing more freely, which has made England the most successful white-ball team in the past eight years. 

They lost a T20 World Cup final to Carlos Braithwaite and the West Indies in 2016, but three years later won the 50-over World Cup on home soil. In 2022, they went Down Under and won the T20 World Cup as well, playing the same fearless brand that Eoin Morgan, the skipper in 2019, instituted.  

In any sport you are bound to have a bad game, and I’d like to think that this was that one bad game. And we have it out of the way

—  Keshav Maharaj

Walter described England as having a specific identity, something he felt the Proteas lacked when he took charge at the start of the year. Developing a new ethos takes time on the playing field, something Proteas have not had a lot of under Walter.

Nevertheless, since defeating England in a three-match series at the end of January, the Proteas have affirmed a strategy that demands endeavour from a strong top six, resilience from the lower order and aggression with the ball. 

It has largely worked, too, and the players seemed to be enjoying themselves — at least they were until Tuesday, when a dreadful performance against the Netherlands snapped momentum that had been built up through the Australian series which preceded the World Cup.   

South Africa has won 10 out 15 ODIs since Walter took over the coaching reins, but how much they have closed the gap to England in the past four years will become clearer only as the tournament unfolds.

Saturday’s match is a major marker. With the exception of Jofra Archer, it will be England’s strongest team that takes the field at the Wankhede Stadium. Jos Buttler’s side also won’t lack motivation. They have a World Cup campaign that needs to be put back on track, after their loss to Afghanistan, Stokes’ return adds the greatest match-winner in the modern game to their line-up and as a player group they will be, as Bairstow put it, desperate to show why they are world champions in the two white-ball formats. 

It is the most formidable test the Proteas have faced in the tournament thus far, made that much more intriguing by how the South Africans will respond to a poor performance earlier this week. 

All parts of the Proteas game fell apart against the Dutch, and concerningly, the difference in the quality of performance from what was delivered in the opening two matches was vast. When they’re good, the Proteas are very good, but when they’re not, they’re awful, and not having any middle ground is no way to tackle a tournament.

“We won five ODIs on the trot before Tuesday, and in any sport you are bound to have a bad game, and I’d like to think that this was that one bad game. And we have it out of the way,” said Keshav Maharaj.

Saturday will make clear whether that is the case.

On a day of dual World Cup encounters between the two countries, obvious comparisons will be made about how the national rugby and cricket teams fare. Because they’ve actually ensured that the country’s name is etched on a World Cup, the Springboks have more credit — but the Proteas can go a long way to restoring some faith by knocking over the English.