South African spinner George Linde was the hero for his side against Pakistan on Tuesday – but he very nearly didn't make it to the game.
Making a comeback to international cricket over three years after his last appearance, the all-rounder starred in the first innings with the bat, walking in at No.7 and lacing 48 off 24 balls, providing the perfect finishing touch to the innings after David Miller had scored 82 off 40 balls.
That would have been some contribution in itself, but Linde wasn't done there – he took 4-21 in the second innings to bury Pakistan, and was only denied a hat-trick by a successful review of an lbw call by Haris Rauf.
But, as Linde explained at the post-match press conference, he might not have made it to the match at all, thanks to a mix-up earlier in the day.
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Linde: No one realised I wasn't on the bus
"For some reason, my phone was 15 minutes behind," the player said. "So I had thought to myself, 'Okay, at four o'clock I'm going to walk down and I'm going to get into the bus nice and early.
"And then as I got out [of the team hotel] there is the bus leaving, and that feeling was not great. Luckily there were police escorts and they took me to the bus. Actually no one realised I wasn't on the bus, which was actually quite cool. They obviously thought I was on the bus. It was embarrassing, but I reckon for the next game I might just be late again!"
The cat is out the bag🫢
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) December 11, 2024
George Linde may have missed the bus for the match, but he still TURNED UP for the Proteas in a big way, with a “Man of the Match” performance.😃👏🏏
Maybe being late is the secret?🤔😏#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #SAvPAK pic.twitter.com/G7AgZAhHGA
Linde had missed 55 T20Is between his last two appearances – only Lutho Sipamla (65) and Rilee Rossouw (62) among South Africans have ever missed more matches between appearances.
Following the show he put in at Kingsmead, it's fair to say South Africa will notice very quickly if he goes missing again.
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