Fiery Proteas answer their captain’s call
BRILLIANTLY, South Africa have dared to breathe life into the T20 series against England, as we head to a rousing finale in Cardiff today.
In the bigger picture, a T20 series will be naught but a footnote to the Tests and the Champions Trophy post-mortem.
And yet, on Friday night, as the last rites were being prepared by the Taunton towncrier, the tourists taunted fate and had the last laugh.
Andile Phehlukwayo was entrusted with the final over, with 10 other players willing him to defend the 11 runs left.
He did, of course, and a change-room that had suffered much was lifted.
“I still insist that we just played one bad game at the wrong time,” man of the match Chris Morris said of the aborted Champions Trophy mission. It feels like a long time already, but it is just a fortnight ago. A lot of water has passed under the Proteas’ bridge, but they have only played two games since then.
The first one, on Wednesday, was so meek that some may argue that South Africa didn’t participate. In Taunton, with national pride, personal ambition and collective character all on the line, they answered their captain’s call.
Morris sang De Villiers’ praises for the sense of calm he brought in those final, usually frenetic minutes. Indeed, the most concerned the SA captain looked in the last hour was when he had to take a catch at an increasingly murky mid-off.
Eoin Morgan, the batsman ousted, later commented that it was the darkest conditions he’d ever played in.
Morgan did win the toss, so he ought to have considered that a place with no lights may need a candle or two if things got tight. England didn’t offer excuses; they simply cultivated defeat from the valley where wins reside.it was bizarre, panicky, and all turned on the back of Jason Roy blocking traffic at the non-striker’s end.
Morgan, without actually committing fully to it, admitted that there was enough there to send his opener on his way.
Members of the home press were enraged. “There are kids watching. Is this the example that we set them, to appeal for such things? Do we encourage them to throw at batsmen instead of stumps?”