Ken Borland

South Africa’s Allan Donald and Herschelle Gibbs are both well-acquainted with the sorrow of World Cup failure, but the pair of cricketing legends believe that the current crop of Proteas who are in the West Indies will end the country’s startling lack of success in showpiece events when they compete in the T20 World Cup final at Bridgetown, Barbados, on Saturday.

The Proteas bowled Afghanistan out for a record low of just 56 on their way to a commanding nine-wicket victory in their semi-final on Wednesday night in Tarouba, Trinidad, and will meet the winners of Thursday’s semi-final between India and England in the final.

Despite being consistently one of the strongest teams in international cricket since returning from isolation in 1991, South Africa’s men’s team have never before reached a major International Cricket Council final. They had lost out in seven previous semi-finals before their triumph against Afghanistan.

Renowned fast bowler Donald and dashing opening batsman Gibbs both played in the 1999 World Cup semi-final against Australia at Edgbaston, which is probably South Africa’s most famous ‘defeat’ of all. The match ended in a tie after Donald was run out, having set off late and dropping his bat, meaning Australia went through based on their higher log-position.

The eventual champions had finished above South Africa thanks to beating them four days earlier by five wickets with two balls to spare in a Super Sixes match at Leeds. Chasing 272, Australia were in trouble on 48 for three when captain Steve Waugh came to the crease. He had just reached his half-century when Gibbs dropped an easy catch from him at midwicket, spilling the ball as he tried to throw it up in a premature celebration. Waugh would go on to score a magnificent 120 not out. Gibbs had earlier been the mainstay of the South African innings with his 101.

“I honestly believe this is South Africa’s time,” Donald told SportsBoom.com, “they are battle-hardened and mentally-conditioned now to winning the very big moments. They have found a way to win every time, someone has made a breakthrough or someone has come up with crucial runs eight matches in a row.

“Coach Rob Walter has brought top character through and made everyone responsible. I really think it is their time. They are playing with fantastic calmness and are really tight-knit as a squad,” Donald, who also fell short in the 1992, 96 and 2003 World Cups, said.

Gibbs told SportsBoom.com that he also believed the time was now to end South Africa’s World Cup jinx.

“T20 cricket is all about momentum and momentum is with the Proteas. They have done it the hard way and now that they’ve got to the final, I believe the cricketing gods will smile on us.

“Our bowling line-up is as good as any and with the pitches doing so much, the bowlers are always in play. Captain Aiden Markram’s decision-making has been really good, he’s made the changes, the big calls, at the right times. He shows a lot of composure in reading the situation. The final will be the ultimate game and playing the situation is the vital thing,” Gibbs, who was also part of the failed 2003 and 2007 campaigns, as well as the 2007, 2009 and 2010 T20 World Cup tournaments, said.

Gibbs, who was one of the most dashing batsmen of his era and would have earned himself millions of rand in franchise cricket had he been born 10 years later, also said that the tricky pitches in the current T20 World Cup had shown modern batters were not willing to grind through tough conditions.

“The pitches have done a lot, it’s been a bit excessive at times, but then average batsmen can look world-class on flat decks – they just hit through the line. The IPL scores were a bit ridiculous this year and the game needed to be brought down to earth a little.

“The tough conditions bring out the temperament of the batsmen and technique is needed. When bowlers have been able to land the ball in the right areas at the right pace, the batters have not been able to handle it because of their flawed techniques. They’re just used to taking the easy route, they don’t grind, they don’t fancy it. You need gritty innings in those conditions.

“At the IPL final for Deccan Chargers at the Wanderers in 2009, I scored 53 not out in the 20 overs because I knew I just had to be there. Anil Kumble bowled the first over for Bangalore and Adam Gilchrist charged down the pitch third ball and was bowled.

“But I said to myself that I must just have a look, the onus was on me, you have to take that responsibility on your shoulders. You have to allow yourself to get to grips with the surface and the tough runs are the most satisfying,” Gibbs said of the Deccan Chargers’ six-run win in South Africa.

The 50-year-old Gibbs said he expected the batsmen to have another mountain to climb at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, but the IPL experience of the likes of Heinrich Klaasen, Quinton de Kock, Tristan Stubbs, Markram and David Miller should stand them in good stead.

“In the CPL, that pitch has turned and there have been a lot of close games. Our spinners can come to the party with the ball, but for the batsmen, building partnerships against spin is going to be the key. It’s something they still haven’t mastered and they will need to do it.

“Heinrich Klaasen says the pressure of the IPL will stand them in good stead and they need to show that the pressure does not get to them because BMT has been our achilles heel in the past. But this team has found ways to win,” Gibbs said.

Donald, as coach, and Gibbs will return next week to Edgbaston, the scene of their agonising near-miss in 1999, representing South Africa in the World Championship of Legends, a new six-team T20 tournament that has signed a five-year contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Having dealt with their T20 World Cup disappointment in level-headed fashion, South Africa’s cricketers have shown a mature outlook on their narrow defeat to India in the final at Bridgetown, Barbados, and are excited for the future, according to head coach Rob Walter.

The Proteas looked poised to end their miserable record in world cups in their first appearance in a men’s final as they reached the last five overs needing 30 runs from 30 balls with six wickets in hand. But India were exceptional at the death, Jasprit Bumrah bowling two of those closing overs and conceding just six runs while also taking a wicket, being well-backed by fellow seamers Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh, while Suryakumar Yadav took an incredible boundary catch in the final over as South Africa fell an agonising seven runs short.

“When you lose that way, it always hurts and you think about all those small margins during the game. But you only end up torturing yourself thinking about one run here or there,” Walter told SportsBoom.com upon his return to Johannesburg on Thursday.

“You have to give India credit, Bumrah was incredible in the two overs he had left, he’s a world-class bowler who made a big difference at the end. But I’m also very proud of how we acquitted ourselves, the guys showed a lot of resilience and courage.

“Reaching the final shows that we’ve made great strides as a team and I’m excited for the future. Just look at our attack and the pacemen who didn’t play (Gerald Coetzee, Lungi Ngidi & Nandre Burger) – we’ve probably got seven quick bowlers who can make an impact at that level.

“And everyone said India’s spinners would choke us in the middle overs, but look at how our batsmen attacked them, they made a play and we got to parity at the back end. We won a lot of big moments through the tournament and we didn’t do much wrong in the final,” Walter said.

Captain Aiden Markram handled the immediate devastation of defeat with aplomb in the couple of hours after the final. While admitting he was gutted, he spoke mostly about the pride he felt in his team and his confidence that they will fight another day.

Previous Proteas captains have left the world cup looking drained of all inspiration, their faces as glum as someone who has just had a beloved family member pass away.

“Everyone was shattered after the final, but Aiden found a way to put a smile on his face,” Keshav Maharaj said. “That optimism is something we could feed off as a team, it restored our belief and it shows how far we have come as a team. We will bounce back and I’m pretty sure Aiden will be one of the first South Africans holding the world cup. As our leader, he is very much in command and we respect him greatly.”

While South Africa’s part in the great spectacle of a gripping final will go down in cricketing lore, Walter believes the team is steadily building towards winning an ICC trophy. The 48-year-old coach said the low of being 24 for four at the start of the 50-over World Cup semi-final against Australia at Eden Gardens in November last year was the genesis of their new-found belief in the big moments.

“We may have lost the game in the end, but that match was a massive win for us psychologically. From 24 for four, we played outstandingly well and gave ourselves a chance, we did the same with the ball.

“I still believe that semi-final will be the catalyst to us finally winning a world cup, and in the T20 World Cup now we just kept chipping away and clawing our way back, there’s a lot of resilience in this team,” Walter said.

South Africa’s Test and ODI captain Temba Bavuma is full of praise for the captaincy of his colleague Aiden Markram, which has seen the Proteas go into the semi-finals at the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.

The South Africans are the only side to have won all seven of their matches on their way to the last four, but their progress has been as thrilling as one would expect from a side whose World Cup history is infamously littered with dramatic and emotional exits. The Proteas will play Afghanistan at Tarouba in southern Trinidad in their semi-final on Wednesday night, while India, who are also unbeaten but had one match washed out, take on England at Providence in Guyana on Thursday.

Only two of South Africa’s seven wins have been in any way comfortable, and Bavuma said Markram’s captaincy has been a key factor in building a unit that has the belief to win in pressure situations over and over.

“Aiden may not have scored the number of runs he would have liked, but his leadership has been phenomenal,” Bavuma told SportsBoom.com. “His captaincy style really brings the team together and has given them a lot of belief. It’s collaborative leadership and you can see the team has that belief and they are really playing for each other.

“I think tactically Aiden has also been very good, using all that spin against the West Indies was really crucial. He’s getting the best out of the players and you can see how much it means for them. KG Rabada has his big celebrations back every time he takes a wicket; it’s not that he hasn’t been celebrating, but now you can really see how much it means to him every time he gets a wicket,” Bavuma said.

South Africa pulled off a nervy, rain-affected chase against the West Indies to reach the semifinals, winning with seven wickets down and five balls to spare at North Sound earlier this week, and Bavuma said the sense of calm that Markram brings to the field was evident.

It is a trait Proteas coach Rob Walter also highlighted when SportsBoom.com asked him to appraise Markram’s captaincy thus far.

“Aiden is a very understated leader, but the team listens when he speaks, he is massively respected in the changeroom,” Walter said. “Strategically I think he has been very strong – defending low scores so often means he has to be good tactically to win because he does not have a lot of margin for error.

“Aiden has a real competitive edge and he is 100% engaged in everything he does, but he is also very calm and level-headed, which creates the right environment for the players to produce their best performances. He’s running the show and making the right decisions – I don’t think KG has ever bowled his first over in the 18^th over before, but that sums up the flexibility. It was also great to see Aiden bowl all four of his overs against the West Indies, he backed himself.

“He has been able to sum up very quickly how to best utilise the resources he has in the conditions we’ve been playing in and that feel is a real skill of the game. We’ve had to play the tricky conditions in front of us and Aiden is always trying to take the game on. It’s created some seriously good games of cricket,” Walter said.

Apart from a gorgeous 46 off 32 balls against the USA, Markram has struggled to make much of an impact with the bat, but he did take a brilliant running catch over his shoulder in the seven-run win over England to dismiss the flying Harry Brook in the final over.

“I’m grateful it stuck! Your mind races as a captain and you find yourself drifting in the field – but I was happy to hold on to it. It certainly made a difference,” Markram said afterwards.

Allowing things to drift has certainly not been the captaincy style of Markram, however; the 29-year-old has had his hand firmly on the tiller as he stands poised to steer the Proteas through uncharted waters, South Africa having never played in a World Cup final before.

If Saturday’s SA20 final at the Wanderers is like the wedding feast to celebrate the successful conclusion of the third edition of the tournament that has changed South African cricket, then Thursday night was a wonderful bachelor party for the Sunrisers Eastern Cape as they romped to an eight-wicket win over the Paarl Royals in Qualifier 2 at Centurion.

The comfortable victory, with four balls to spare, puts Sunrisers into their third successive final and the two-time champions will be taking on MI Cape Town in a mouthwatering final clash.

It was 23-year-old Jordan Hermann who took the Eastern Cape side to their target of 176 with his marvellous 69 not out off 48 balls. But it was another left-hander who set up the victory, Tony de Zorzi opening the batting and stroking a beautiful 78 off just 49 deliveries, with 11 fours and two sixes. His play through the off-side was particularly elegant and he reminded everyone what a serious player he is.

Kwena Maphaka snatched up the wicket of David Bedingham (9) for Paarl Royals in the fourth over, but De Zorzi and Hermann then feasted, adding 111 off 73 deliveries for the second wicket.

Jordan Hermann’s older brother Rubin was also involved in a wonderful second-wicket partnership for the Royals, adding 99 off 65 balls with Lhuan-dre Pretorius, whose time in the limelight will surely come.

Rubin Hermann was also unbeaten, scoring 81 not out off 53 deliveries to take Paarl to a competitive 175 for four in their 20 overs, after electing to bat first. Opener Pretorius batted with great maturity, scoring 59 off 41 balls, to show he is ready for bigger things.

They ensured that the Royals started well, while Hermann and Andile Phehlukwayo (22* off 11) provided the big finish they needed. But it was in the middle overs that they faltered, as the admirable Sunrisers attack gobbled up three wickets in four overs, Paarl slipping from 105 for one in the 13^th to 126 for four after 16 overs.

The key breakthroughs were by English paceman Craig Overton, who had Pretorius caught behind, and captain Aiden Markram, who trapped opposite number David Miller lbw, missing a sweep, for just 6. They both ended with excellent figures of one for 24 in four overs.

The Paarl Royals were the form team in the competition, being the first to qualify for the playoffs, but Sunrisers Eastern Cape have been able to supplant them with a trademark surge in the final week.

“The Sunrisers always seem to be slow starters, but the most important thing is that they catch up in the end,” Miller said after another playoffs disappointment for the Royals. “Once you develop a winning squad like they have, then there’s a lot of trust and they really back each other.

“They are clever and gutsy cricketers, they never say die and that goes a long way in T20. They give everything in the field, they have amazing bowlers, especially the three-metre guys with height and pace in these conditions, and the batsmen have stepped up at certain stages when needed,” Miller graciously said.

De Zorzi thanked Markram for his backing, but in truth the 27-year-old deserves credit for his tenacity in smashing down the door once it was left ajar.

“I’m really grateful for the chance and to Aiden for showing faith in me, even though it’s not really warranted in this format. I haven’t played that many T20 games and you need to play more to find your rhythm and blueprint. Sometimes you have doubts, but I am still relatively young and I need to keep believing. I was glad to do it tonight because it gives me hope and this is an unforgiving format,” De Zorzi said.