For South Africa, everything isn’t enough

David Miller put his arms around Gerald Coetzee. Keshav Maharaj stood with his hands on his knees. Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen removed their caps and expressed their disappointment. Quinton de Kock half crumpled, half crouched on the ground then rose to respond to high-fives of commiseration from Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen, but also of congratulations on the end of a decade of ODI career. Temba Bavuma led the team out of Eden Gardens, looking his Australian counterparts in the eye and shaking their hands. It was certainly a defeat, but not, as Coetzee had said earlier, a disgrace.

South Africa fought, as Rabada said before the semi-final, “tooth and nail”. And the muscles, the nerves, the tendons and the mind. They gave everything. If they had to do it, it was because of what you might call their own failures – some of the decisions they made and the way they started with bat and ball and missed some caught. But that would be a disservice to their own planning and performance, and the way Australia’s new-ball bowlers and opening batters have started.

Did Bavuma make the wrong choice in the toss by choosing to bat? Looking back, we can say yes, but history was on his side. On this pitch, 13 of the 20 teams that chose to bat first have won, including all three at this World Cup. This year, before today, South Africa had won ten out of eleven matches by batting first. Bavuma based his decision on numbers and played in South Africa’s stronger side, but it is perhaps questionable whether he made a crucial error.

On the one hand, he failed to look up to the sky.

This match was played on one of the cloudiest days of the tournament, cooler than most but with significant humidity in the air. At 1 p.m. the temperature was 27 degrees with 83 percent humidity, so perhaps the option of playing first should have been considered more carefully. But only maybe. Given South Africa’s fragile record run – not just at this tournament – and that Pat Cummins is also said to have hit, or so he said, it is reasonable to think that Bavuma did the right choice and that maybe it was just a good draw for Cummins to lose.

But did Bavuma make the wrong decision to play in the first place?

Well no, because it wasn’t his decision. Despite repeatedly saying he was not “100%” fit, he should have been deemed fit for the match by the medical team in order to be named in the starting XI.

So, did anyone else make the wrong decision to play him? Not if you ask coach Rob Walter, who said he backed his captain “100 percent” and “had his [Bavuma’s] his leadership and presence on the field are everything.” And, in the end, Bavuma’s hamstring played no role in his fourth ball. He collected a good ball that pinched him and he played. It was a shame, but that’s all…

Not to mention the first four failed.

But that’s not the case for the batting lineup as a whole.

Known for what they can do in the last ten overs, Klaasen and Miller came together in the 12th over – at 24 for 4 – and took South Africa through almost 20 overs of reconstruction. They refocused after a nearly 40-minute rain delay and made the decision to play within themselves and only aim for the boundary if they were absolutely sure they would find it. Klaasen lost his bearings against Travis Head, but Miller arguably had the innings of his career thus far. He was 48 when Jansen was fired and placed in double-digit positions with hitters seven, eight and nine. Five years and five days since he last scored an ODI century, Miller raised his bat at his bravest and gave South Africa a chance.

Next, it’s the turn of an offense that has enjoyed big totals for most of this contest but, remarkably, relied on a non-traditional strength to get there: the rotation. On a spinning surface, Markram took a wicket with his first ball, Maharaj did the same, and hope whispered.

And that’s when the first seeds of evil were sown.

Had Australia beaten the total in 35 overs and won by five or six wickets, South Africa would have had the mental space to deal with it. Instead, at every opportunity, there was a wave of optimism.

But…

In total, four captures were unsuccessful. The first was Coetzee’s first delivery – a short ball. Head hit it towards replacement defender Reeza Hendricks on the edge of deep point, but he couldn’t hold on. Coetzee scored 15 points. By this stage he had seen Jansen – his contemporary in terms of age – once again become consumed with nerves, losing his lines and dropping 27 runs in three overs. Rabada left the field with a bruised heel – that’s why Hendricks was there – and the match slipped away. Coetzee was removed from the attack and given time to think.

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Moody: “Bavuma is a big hole in the South African countryside”

Dale Steyn and Tom Moody on the South Africa captain’s disappointing campaign

On his return, he served up a fiery spell, generously spiced with short balls and almost brought South Africa back from the brink. Ultimately he didn’t win the match, but his two wickets added to his record as the most successful South African bowler at a World Cup, which only adds to the sweet flavor -bitter of this campaign.

In a tournament where South Africa broke the record for the highest total in a World Cup and their batting line-up scored more hundreds than any other team, they still failed to break the barrier. semi-finals. A glittering sporting year for the country, in which the women’s team reached the T20 World Cup final and the Springboks won a fourth Rugby World Cup title, will end in the blink of an eye. ‘a sporting gold star, but there should be some perspective.

From Eden Park in 2015 to Eden Gardens in 2023, it has not been a stairway to heaven for South African cricket. In some of these years, it’s quite the opposite. They experienced administrative collapses, near bankruptcy, a near failure of automatic World Cup qualification and coaching and captaincy changes that defied any chance of stability. And yet, they reached the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup.

And there it ends. Not with a bang or a whimper, but with a damn good game of cricket where so much went right. There are so many, but not enough.