PAK vs SA, World Cup 2023: South Africa, eyeing elusive title, needs to avoid jittery chases

While the one-wicket win over Pakistan has almost sealed the African nation’s place in the last four, the Proteas again showed their propensity to panic and make a hash of things unprovoked.

South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi celebrate after winning the ICC ODI World Cup match against Pakistan at MAC Stadium in Chennai on Friday. | Photo Credit: R RAGU/THE HINDU

For a tournament that had seen lopsided contests for the first three weeks, South Africa and Pakistan served a thriller in which both teams at various stages were brilliant, amateur and somewhere in between as well.

It was the perfect final game of the World Cup at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, where a nearly 30,000-strong crowd cheered both teams enthusiastically, appreciating quality cricket.

In the end, Temba Bavuma’s men somehow prevailed despite making a mess of a straightforward chase. While the one-wicket win has almost sealed the African nation’s place in the last four, the Proteas again showed their propensity to panic and make a hash of things unprovoked.

READ | South Africa edges out Pakistan in nail-biter to go top of points table

Ahead of the match, it was apparent South Africa’s weakness would be chasing, with its only loss coming against The Netherlands when batting second, and it nearly tripped up again on Friday.

The team’s approach in this World Cup is to be aggressive with its batting firepower, which has worked wonders when batting first.

However, against Pakistan, when Markram was going well at one end, and the asking rate was well under control, its batters ought to have been more circumspect, especially when playing with just six batters and five bowlers.

The in-form Heinrich Klassen was one such offender trying to launch Mohammad Wasim into the stands when the team had just lost a wicket a few overs before. Similarly, bowling all-rounder Jansen collected ten runs off two balls and brought the equation to just needing 36 more runs in the 37th over. But instead of hunkering down, he gave a simple catch off the next ball when all he needed to do was stick around with Markram.

Eventually, Markram himself would play a loose shot against Usama Mir with 21 runs left to set the cat amongst the pigeons. Fortunately, his sensational 91 cushioned the lower-order collapse, allowing the last three batters to crawl across the line. For a team struggling to shake off the chokers tag in ICC events, South Africa can’t afford to make the mistakes it did against Pakistan if it harbours any hope of winning the elusive World Cup.