A semi-final place beckons for the Proteas but their penultimate league match against India will expose just how close or far they are from breaking their World Cup curse, writes RYAN VREDE.
The Proteas banked a 190-run victory over New Zealand, who’d lost just once (to India), on Wednesday. The victory takes them to 12 points, which only one team outside of the top four – Afghanistan – can match. Afghanistan still have to play the Netherlands, Australia, and South Africa.
The Proteas’ net run rate is significantly better than every team, making it likely they’ll still progress, even if they finish on the same number of wins (six) as Afghanistan.
This position of power was primarily established through a series of excellent batting performances. They’ve scored 300 or more in five of their seven innings at the tournament. Three times they’ve scored more than 350, and once they posted a tournament record of 428. They have four of the top 10 team scores at the tournament, while four of their batsman are in the top 10 leading run-scorers.
The line-up is laden with players who are in equal measure capable of grafting through difficult periods as they are accelerating the scoring rate exponentially. Their explosiveness was underlined by the fact that, in Pune on Wednesday, they surpassed the number of sixes England hit (76) en route to winning the 2019 tournament.
Notably, they showed their tactical agility in absorbing pressure in a powerplay, where New Zealand’s bowlers gave them very little. They scored just 43 in the first 10 overs, but got 119 in the last 10, reinforcing why they are considered one of the tournament’s most dangerous batting units.
HIGHLIGHTS: New Zealand vs Proteas (2023 CWC)
Their toughest examination awaits on Sunday when they face India at Eden Gardens. The hosts are unbeaten and arguably the best-balanced side in the tournament.
India have chased in five of their six matches, losing just 17 wickets across those matches. No side has been able to exert enough bowling pressure to derail their chase, with Virat Kohli establishing himself as the fulcrum of their operation, while Rohit Sharma has taken the game to the opposition at the top of the order, and KL Rahul doing so from the gut of their lineup. Ominously for the rest of the teams, wunderkind Shubman Gill has yet to find a consistent groove.
Their bowling has consistently restricted the opposition to below-par, bat-first totals. The top three economy rates all belong to Indians – Ravichandran Ashwin (3.40), Ravindra Jedeja (3.76) and Jasprit Bumra (3.93). Bumrah, in particular, has been excellent with the new nut. He is the tournament’s fourth-highest wicket-taker during the powerplay, and his threat extends to a broad skill set at the death.
Add to that trio, the control and strike power Kuldeep Yadav gives them in the middle overs, and the relentless efforts of Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Siraj, and the Proteas will know the benchmark team awaits them in Kolkata.
The toss will be decisive. It is unlikely that either team will stray from the method that has been successful to date.
How the Proteas navigate the bowling challenge outlined above, especially if they lose early wickets in the top four, will shape the contest. They’ve won the middle-overs battle consistently throughout the tournament, and no side batting first has been more destructive in the last 10 – where they average nearly 13 runs an over. How they fare in these facets of the game against India’s excellent attack will tell us plenty about the depth of talent, temperament, and tactical intelligence within the batting group.
How the bowlers, who’ve drifted between excellent and average, negotiate the kings of the chase, will expose just how close or far the Proteas are from breaking their World Cup curse.
