Proteas have a toe in the World Cup playoffs

Pune — One World Cup secured, another still up for grabs and with SA well placed too. 

No pressure then Temba Bavuma. 

To be fair to the Proteas, who watched the dramatic Paris final in their team room in the early hours of Sunday morning, they have maintained an even disposition throughout their own campaign in India. 

Before Sunday’s match between the host nation and England, SA were top of the points table and with a healthy net run rate too. It is that figure, the result of winning four matches by more than 100 runs — including a 229-run triumph against England — that means they have a toe in the playoffs.

It will take losing their remaining three matches, by a hundred runs or more, for them to be dragged into any kind of play-off dogfight that might develop in the remaining two weeks of the round-robin phase. 

Of course they would rather avoid that. Win just one of those three games and their semifinal spot would be secured.

Aside from the chaotic scenes at the end of Friday night’s one-wicket win against Pakistan in Chennai, the Proteas have not allowed themselves to get too high or too low at the end of matches. 

“Five games ago, we probably weren’t seen as favourites, but now, there’s a lot more positivity around the Proteas and the SA team. But in the … cliched way, we’re trying to take it day by day and keep enjoying our processes and the journey,” said Bavuma.

Sunday they had a day off to recover from the long journey the previous day and the late night spent watching their rugby brethren etch their names into history. 

On Monday it will be back to work. The tournament’s schedule has thrown up another quirky coincidence, in keeping with the rugby event. After the Saturday “double header” with England last weekend, the Proteas face New Zealand in Pune on Wednesday. 

It is historically not a match-up that has favoured SA at the World Cup. The Black Caps have won six of the eight ties between the sides at the tournament, including that painful semifinal loss in Auckland in 2015.

SA’s most recent win came in 1999 inspired by half centuries from Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis, the latter also picking up two wickets to earn the player of the match prize. 

But the Proteas have challenged history at various stages in this tournament; they hold the record for the highest World Cup total, achieved in the opening match against Sri Lanka, inflicted a record defeat on England and then snapped a seven match losing streak in ICC tournaments against Pakistan with that win in Chennai. 

The Boks winning could do two things; burden them with extra pressure or prove inspirational. Bavuma and the coaching staff will believe it is the latter.