“Shamsi, Shamsi”; “Maharaj, Maharaj” chants echoed across the Eden Gardens with the 47,825-strong crowd put all their weight behind the South Africans as they went about defending 212 in the semifinal of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against Australia.
Nobody likes Australia, at least in India, or at least at the Eden Gardens – there is a bit of history to that as well, innit?
With 212 on the board, not many would have given South Africa much of a chance to defend it. But this was Eden Gardens. The gradual slowness of the track and the grip and purchase Travis Head got in the first innings, where he removed Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen in his first over of the match, would have been tell-tale signs for Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi to what to do in the second dig.
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Travis Head and David Warner probably realised that hence they went hammer and tongs in the first six overs with pacers operating, ransacking 60 runs. It felt, rather it looked certain that the game was heading one way.
Then the tide turned, the Eden crowd roared, shouted and backed South Africa as if India were playing,
Spin in the form of Aiden Markram and his delivery skidded on as Warner went back in anticipation that the ball would bounce enough to make contact with his attempted cut shot. Off stump goes down. More than a glimmer of hope, it was a respite for South Africa. And another obvious sign for Temba Bavuma to bring on his twirlers as early as possible.
Rassie Van Der Dussen though came up with a magical moment – a full-length drive to intercept a bullet drive from Mitchell Marsh off Rabada. Plucked out thin air at covers. The respite turned to hope.
All eyes turned to Bavuma. When will he bring in his two specialist spinners? It took him another five to bring in Maharaj. By that time, Head had moved to 53 off 43, Steve Smith had played out 12 deliveries. Gerald Coetzee had just bowled a 15-run over. Australia 98/2, needing 115 in 37 overs.
If South Africa had to make a match out of this, Maharaj would have to start the spell of his lifetime here. And he started it in the most perfect fashion possible. Full and flighted, seams towards first slip, the lands, grips and turns through the gate of Head. This was probably Maharaj’s finest delivery in the World Cup. That hope got a whole lot bigger.
Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were two ideal players Australia would have wanted in the middle they had them. Both are iffy with their forms, but both can soak in the pressure. It was time for South Africa to hold their nerves.
In came Shamsi in the 15th over for the first time Length ball spinning down the leg side. He had started similarly against India in the same venue two weeks back, and it did not get better for him then.
But Shamsi course corrected and found that teething line of off and middle to get his rippers to spin back in. Pressure mounted on Australia with Maharaj’s loopy ones gripping and turning, while Shamsi’s sliders kept low with the turn. From a blazing run to the finish for Australia, this became a battle of attrition. A pot-boiler – anti-thesis to Wankhede carnage a day earlier.
Yet, South Africa continued to be jittery. Quinton de Kock dropped a tough chance off Smith, the ball taking a healthy edge and then off the thigh in the 18th over. In the 11th Reeza Hendricks – the substitute fielder – had grassed a tough chance at deep square off Head, when he was batting on 40. That was Coetzee’s first delivery of the match. In the 13th over, Klassen failed to grab one at slips. In the 44th, de Kock failed to hold on to feather edge off Pat Cummins. A couple of chances fell short of Bavuma and Rassie Van Der Dussen
Maharaj and Shamsi continued the pressure on Labuschagne and Smith; and in a bid to manufacture a run, the latter tried a reverse sweep, plump in front. Shamsi was up and running as the decibel levels at Eden went up a notch higher.
Glenn Maxwell, fresh off the epic 201* and after a rest – walked in. Australia were still in front but for not too long. In the five deliveries he was in the middle, Maxwell survived two caught-behind appeals and a close call with a reverse sweep. Then his eyes lit up when Shamsi dragged in short- but the ball kept low and crashed to the stumps. South Africans were back in it and how!
For Australia, it boiled down to the last recognised batting pair – Smith and Jos Inglis, needing 73 in 26.2 overs. Gettable for Australia. What if that 73 was 113? 40 more runs to the SA total, things would have been different. What if David Miller and some company down the order to add some more runs? What if the South African top-order had withered Australia’s bowling effort? What if… What if…What if.
Smith and Inglis prodded along and boundary there and a boundary and scattered singles all around. By the time Smith tried to pull one of Coetzee and got a top edge which was grabbed by QDK, the equation was 39 off 99. Maharaj had bowled out returning 10-0-24-1.
Even with six wickets down, you would say Australia had it in the bag.
In a final throw of his dice, Bavuma brought back Shamsi, who had two overs left. No damage was done as Inglis and Starc bided their time. Shamsi ended with 10-0-42-2. And that was it for the South African threat. Coetzee did get Inglis with a perfect Yorker, but Cummins brought with him the experience he was talking about a day earlier of handling pressure situations and for the second time in this tournament stood in the middle hands raised with the bat in his hand. A valuable 14 off 29 from him and Starc’s 16 off 28 had denied South Africa, yet again.
0-5 for South Africa in World Cup semis, 0-2 vs Australia. But this latest defeat will hurt them the most. This was theirs’ to win. They fought from 24/4 to make 212. They fought back after the initial Warner-Head assault to have Australia under the pump at 137/5, yet it got away one more time.
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