Fans thrill to ‘Magical Monday’
MONDAY, blerrie Monday.
For most South Africans, Monday the 15th of January marked a return to reality – the real beginning to 2018. It showed in the crowd at Centurion, as the 12 000-plus masses of the weekend dwindled to a cooler-box short of 5 000.
It was decent, but it wasn’t quite the same. Heck, even the suppliers of the icecold draught cut back their supplies, to the significant chagrin of those who find inspiration from the amber nectar.
Everything was a little blue, and even the skies unleashed their back-to-work misery in the afternoon, drenching Centurion with a typical shower that halted an intriguing contest in its sodden tracks.
On the field, it was a “Back To School” special, with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers producing some of their finest work, to the utter pleasure of the few thousands students, pensioners, and those daring souls who pulled a “sickie”.
Some of Kohli’s stuff belied the star power of the attack that confronted him. His footwork, balletic yet beautifully barbaric when it suited, turned length into full balls, as he willed weary bowlers into giving him what his willow wanted.
It was a 21st century in whites for the Indian skipper, and one of his very finest, considering the time, place and precarious nature of his team’s fortunes in the series. If there were any who doubted his pedigree, Kohli’s tenacity confirmed that he wants this series more than anything.
These things matter, because winning on the road is a rare thing amongst the top lot. Kohli’s predecessors marbled the path before him with a limitless bounty of legendary innings, but none came to Africa and tamed the beast.
The only thing that stands in Kohli’s way, in this Test anyway, is a man very close to him in kinship and in sheer quality. “ABD”, as he is known by a billion and more in India, knows that he must match what Kohli did, if South Africa are to repel the tourists, and go to The Wanderers – where the grass ought to be infinitely greener – still with their noses in front.
De Villiers looked up for the scrap, even when he walked to the crease at 3/2. He had to fight back, and he did just so, belying the delicate situation at hand.
Somewhere, between Cape Town and Calcutta, there would have been a billboard declaring that this entire series was a simply matter of “Virat vs ABD”. On Monday, miserably magical Monday, both men decided to step up simultaneously, and show once more why the world stops and delights when they are at the crease.