De Kock on fire as Proteas crush Bangladesh

Mumbai — March 23 2022 really did feel like another lifetime here on Tuesday night. 

Back on that chilly Wednesday evening in Centurion, Bangladesh’s cricketers, in a state of stunned disbelief, celebrated an ODI series victory against the Proteas. Their fans danced along with the players. 

SA’s stars including Quinton de Kock, David Miller and Kagiso Rabada, wore the looks of empty men. And then they packed their bags and headed for the Indian Premier League, leaving Temba Bavuma and then head coach Mark Boucher to try to figure out where it had all gone wrong. 

On a balmy Tuesday night in Mumbai, the tables were turned. Bangladesh were defeated by 149 runs, their World Cup hopes, which looked so promising that night on the highveld, smashed to smithereens on India’s west coast. 

They have one win from five matches and with Pakistan and Australia among their remaining opponents, it is safe to assume their challenge is over. 

The very opposite is true for the Proteas. Following on from last Saturday’s 229-run thumping of defending champions England, they now sit second on the points table behind India, after another efficient display, created from within their comfort blanket of batting first. 

This city knows what good batting looks like, blessed as it has been to have had the local team led by the art’s most regal practitioners; Gavaskar, Tendulkar and Rahane among a host of others. What the Proteas have produced here in the last few days has enthralled this city and most likely made them a pretty hot ticket for their other stops in Chennai, nearby Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. 

It was another thrilling demonstration of the batting blueprint; a solid foundation laid despite the loss of two wickets inside the first power play, saw the Proteas on 131/2 at the halfway point of their innings. In the next five overs, they scored 34 runs, in the next block, 31 and between overs 35 and 40, it was 42. And then came the rush. 

Against Sri Lanka in their opening match, the Proteas scored 137 runs in the last 10 overs; against England that figure was 143 and on Tuesday it was 144. As punishing as those scoring rates are, it is not even the best they have managed this season; that was the 173 runs against Australia at Centurion, probably the day the rest of the world paid attention to them. 

It was awesome viewing; De Kock in making a third hundred at this year’s tournament and overtaking David Warner for the highest score with 174 off 140 deliveries, simply carved balls where he wanted. Lofted cover drives, for those pitched up, pulls when Bangladesh dropped short, yorkers were pounded straight for more fours and heaven help any bowler if they missed the mark with that delivery. Spectators were ducking for cover in the upper decks. There was a reverse sweep for six, just because he could. 

Heinrich Klaasen scored 90 off 49 balls and David Miller crushed 34 off 15.

A finish like that, which saw SA make 382/5, is enormously deflating for the opposition. In a very short space of time, relative control in the field dissipates and by the time they come out to bat, they’re being asked to score at eight an over. 

That creates errors, and by the end of their first power play Bangladesh were 35/3, with Marco Jansen taking two wickets and Lizaad Williams, in as a replacement for Lungi Ngidi, who had a knee niggle, dismissing their best player Shakib Al-Hasan for one. 

The Proteas, still missing Temba Bavuma because of gastric illness, have had their confidence restored after that horror show against the Dutch last week. Questions remain of course: can they chase a target, the main one. But also how will they fare against better bowling units such as India, New Zealand and Pakistan? The latter will be determined on Friday. 

On Tuesday, the ghosts of March 2022 were laid to rest, the embarrassment and bemusement engendered by that result, now forgotten.