For once, South Africa’s cricket squad won’t make a
big deal out of travelling to the World Cup, and they can thank their rugby
rivals for that. The nation’s sports fans are too Bok-befok (an Afrikaans
expression that can loosely be translated as obsessed with the Springboks) to
be diverted by other things, even if the other thing is a World Cup in a
different code, as the world champion Springboks compete at their own World Cup
for a record fourth title.
Temba Bavuma, Rob Walter, and the rest of the team may
find that to be a relief because they will be under a lot less stress and
strain than previous squads, but they are also using it as motivation to go
places no South African team has gone before.
“The role of the team is to provide inspiration
and hope and to unify,” Bavuma says. “The way to do that is by
playing a brand of cricket people can get excited about. And everyone likes to
win.”
That was clear at a sold-out Wanderers, where more
than 34,000 people showed up on Sunday afternoon to see the rugby players on
the big screen and the cricket players on the pitch while partying in the
springtime sun. What they witnessed from France was what they had anticipated:
the No. 2 Springboks defeated 19th-ranked Romania 76-0. It wasn’t what they
could see in front of them. South Africa successfully defended their score for
the third match in a row after being 258 for 6 in the 45th over, winning the
ODI series 3-2.
South Africa’s top three don’t exactly seem scary at
first glance, especially when compared to players like Jonny Bairstow, Rohit
Sharma, or Babar Azam, but Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, and Rassie van der Dussen
have statistics that suggest otherwise. Their individual averages are 56.95,
44.88, and 57.62, and they may all serve as a solid foundation for the
middle-order power hitters.
As other squads were stocked with allrounders, South
Africa’s decision to field just one of them prompted questions, but Marco
Jansen is proving to be more than valuable. With a career-best 47 off 23 balls
and his first five-for, he played his greatest game in the series-deciding
match against Australia. Walter warned that this is just the beginning.
Given that Anrich Nortje’s status as their fastest
bowler is in doubt due to a back injury, South Africa likely shares his
division of labour: bat with freedom but bowl with maturity.
South Africa wants to play freely and is aware that
the other nine World Cup nations also want to do the same. They are aware,
though, that South African attention may not be fully focused on that for a
while. Six matches into South Africa’s Cricket World Cup campaign, the Rugby
World Cup began last week and will end on October 29. The cricketers can use
that time to assess the mood of the country, improve their own play, and begin
their tournament covertly. They couldn’t have asked for a more stress-free or
motivated manner to enter the contest.