Tuesday’s win by South Africa over England could be the start of a turnaround for Proteas.
Over the past few years, things haven’t been rosy for South African cricket. Retirements are one reason, including senior players such as Ab de Villiers and Morne Morkel. South Africa finished seventh last year in the ICC World Cup, and the team was outperformed recently by England 3-1 in a test series.
But in a turn of events, on Tuesday the Proteas smashed England by seven wickets and 2.2 overs to spare in the first ODI of three. While much fuss can’t be made over an ordinary ODI match, at least the win was a step in the right direction for an inexperienced team with a newly appointed ODI captain, Quinton de Cock.
The Proteas won against arguably the best team in the format and the defending World Cup Champions.
It was especially gratifying to see how the Proteas approached the contest. De Cock won the toss and opted to bowl first. At the end of the 50th over, the score was at 258-8. In response, the Proteas, who had been experiencing a dip-in form in batting in all the formats, squared things with the outstanding partnership of Temba Bavuma and his captain. The pair registered 173 runs partnership with De Cock taking home 107 runs from 113 deliveries. His partner grabbed 98 of 103 balls.
The performance shows that all is not lost. In fact, in the end, things might turn out quite well for SA cricket.
