Here’s our #SixWordHorrorStory, and we didn’t even have to try: South Africa at the World Cup.
Even in a long line of World Cup nightmares, this campaign, marked by six losses in seven matches, ranks low. If all these years the heartache was in that they were so close to the cup, the despair of 2019 has been about how far they are from it. A team that has perennially underachieved at the World Cup, there’s now an urgency accompanying the usual disappointment. Because, where do they go from here?
Two losses into the tournament, Faf du Plessis and the Class of 2019, with their wounded limbs and pride, lined up for a team photo. It was the last time this team would stand shoulder-to-shoulder; a World Cup dream dreamt together had hit a premature roadblock. Against the unassuming backdrop of the hotel end at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton, they bid goodbye to Dale Steyn, the veteran whose reset bones defined their ambitions, whose throbbing veins while running in set their rhythm, and whose roar of delight at the fall of a wicket was their rallying cry.
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— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 24, 2019
Seven matches into the tournament, and after a fifth loss, this time to Pakistan at Lord’s, the dream was well and truly over. The poignancy of the bright lime-green jerseys in that photo could so easily take on a sepia filter of what was and what could have been.
The Class of 2019 isn’t a great ODI side — even the flip-floppingly retired AB de Villiers couldn’t have changed that with his genius — but its parts held promise and their sum a threat.
Hashim Amla, of the classy wrists and cover drives, the fastest to every thousand-run ODI milestone from 2000 to 7000. Quinton de Kock, a white-ball force from the next generation. Kagiso Rabada, fast and fiery, once a padawan to Steyn, but now a master of his own fate, and the symbol of hope for a whole people. JP Duminy, their leading T20I run-getter, carrying the legacy of South African all-rounders. Imran Tahir, a force for good, long-distance runner, and the soul of the side. And, of course, du Plessis, a leader of men, forthright and exacting, who isn’t shy in declaring: “My most enjoyment that I get from the game, playing for South Africa, is captaining the side”.
Change is in the hands of Rabada, Ngidi, de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Markram. Rabada, star of the Under-19 World Cup win five years ago under Markram, remembers the heady taste of success all too well.
“This is probably his first stumbling block as a great fast bowler,” du Plessis said of his ace fast bowler. “For him now, it will be about how he responds, how he learns in this period, and how he makes sure he gets better.”
For now, it starts with the simple things: a reminder that this isn’t the end of the world, and, at the very basic level, to “target top of off”.
“Having been in the side for a few years now, we’re going to have to take leadership positions,” Rabada said, speaking for himself and de Kock. “We have to take ownership, and lead the team.
“That’s just the way it goes, right?”
