MUMBAI: The South African cricket team made its long journey from Dharamsala to New Delhi en route to Mumbai, late on Wednesday evening after suffering a shock loss to The Netherlands on Tuesday night. The congestion at the Delhi airport made their travel even more stressful as the lay over ended up being a long one, enabling them to nurse their hurt for a longer period.
Not wanting to waste any time ahead of their big clash against World Champions England at the Wankhede Stadium, skipper Temba Bavuma and 10 other colleagues, including the support staff, hit the nets on Thursday afternoon.
David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and Quinton de Kock decided to give the optional nets a skip.
With sounds of drilling and welding, thanks to last-minute preparations at the venue, piercing through the air and marrying the crisp echoes of bat meeting leather in an empty stadium, Heinrich Klaasen, captain Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen and all-rounder Gerald Coetzee made the most of their outing and practised range hitting against net bowlers and throw down specialists. Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada ran in and bowled a few quick ones.
Coetzee, given that he bats in the late middle-order, was given a proper dose of length bowling which he was told to turn off his hips with an imaginary field. In between, he drilled a few over the sight screen.
The player that caught the eye was Klaasen. One of the leading run-scorers of South Africa in 2023, with 616 runs in 14 matches, the aggressive batter was unfortunate to be dismissed off a short ball in Dharamsala which he hit straight to fine-leg. On Thursday, Klaasen, 32, came out played reverse sweeps and absolutely shelled a few long way into the deep mid-wicket stands going deep into the crease. Knowing that he will be in a battle against leggie Adil Rashid, he practised mostly against leg-spin.
The South African team management had asked for more spin bowlers to bowl to their batters. But the dozen or so net bowlers on show were mostly medium pacers, barring three of them.
White-ball batting coach and former South African all-rounder JP Duminy had a long session with Bavuma one on one and was seen goading the skipper to keep his shape while hitting the ball.
Outside the net area, Bavuma practised a few scoops off length balls and a few reverse sweeps.
South Africa and England played one of the greatest ever games in T20 World Cups in 2016 at the Wankhede, when the Proteas saw England hunt down 229 with two balls to spare.
A repeat of that could be in store with the game being played on a true, red-soil and fresh pitch with inviting short boundaries.
Newspaper column inches on the sports pages and air time on sports networks back home have been largely focusing on the Springboks, who will be playing the rugby World Cup semifinal also against England, later in the evening. The Proteas will be keen to get some focus back on themselves.
A comprehensive win against the reigning champions and knocking them out, should be good enough to do that.
