FEATURES
Follow Us163 runs, one wicket, South Africa pummeling the West Indies.
It is a sight that you recollect well. There is this vivid image of AB de Villiers pumping his fists first en route to his half-century and then to his century, which stands the test of time.
De Villiers got to his century in just 31 balls, and the Proteas got 163 runs off the last ten overs.
But what if I tell you this isn’t even the most runs scored in the last ten overs in an ODI?
In 2023, South Africa scored 173 runs in the last ten overs of an ODI innings against Australia. Chances are that you don’t quite recall the entire clash.
You can’t be blamed for that; this new-age South African team has made a habit of such destruction that you don’t really recall every single instance.
Over the last month of intense ODI World Cup action, there have been 32 matches and 64 innings. Only on six occasions have teams scored more than 100 runs at the back end of their World Cup innings.
Unsurprisingly, five out of those six instances have been one team scoring more than 100 runs. There are really no prizes for guessing who.
South Africa are not just ahead. They are way ahead, and a few games down the line, they can be the GREATEST.
Let’s start with the present numbers.
Amongst the ten teams at the World Cup in India, only one team has a run-rate of above ten at the death (overs 41-50). But it isn’t just the run-rate that’s remarkable.
South Africa are scoring at 11.1 runs an over, averaging a staggering 41.7 at the death, a phase where generally the averages are low because of the high-risk, high-reward factor.
Does that mean South Africa don’t take as much risk?
Well, you are wrong yet again. If anything, this Proteas side takes more risk than an average side at this year’s competition. On average, the balls/boundary for a team stands at 8.44. Anything below that is good.
But South Africa aren’t good. They are very good. Every 4.1 deliveries, you see a South African batter finding the boundary. Not only that, they take more risks than any other side could imagine in the tournament.
Since ball-by-ball recording has begun, there have been 89 instances of teams batting at the death-overs in World Cups. Across eras, the average run-rate for teams has been 6.9. There have been 43 teams above the average.
But when it comes to having a run-rate of over ten, there have been only FIVE teams in the competition's history.
South Africa’s 2015 campaign is the all-time best (13.2). West Indies’s 2015 campaign (12) is a close second. But the Proteas’ class of 23 (11.1) is getting there and getting there quickly.
Only two teams in World Cup history have scored more death-over runs in a single year than South Africa 2023 - England and Australia (2019).
However, they have done it, having played a whopping 21 and 26 overs more than the Proteas side. And this Proteas side are just 31 and 33 runs behind an all-time World Cup record.
The ludicrousy doesn’t end there.
They have already scored 41 sixes in the campaign at the death, nine more than England in 2019, with three more innings left before the group stage halts. That’s already exhausting from a bowler’s perspective.
But this South African side isn’t behind breaking just World Cup records; they have bigger plans
Batting at the death is slightly tricky.
Most of the time, the teams are very unsure of what a good total is on the surface, considering how the T20 norm of chasing has seeped into ODI cricket.
Teams either go for the glory and get burnt or wait long for the glory only to be burnt.
South Africa are built different in this regard. They are well-equipped to soak the pressure and then blast a furnace when teams seldom expect. The Proteas have hit the most sixes this year at the death (81) and, in turn, have already gone past some legendary figures in the history of the 50-over format.
But what’s fascinating is not that they have hit so many sixes; it is that they have had sustained attacks every game. Temba Bavuma’s men are going at a run-rate of 10.3 at the death this year, a figure which has its place in history. In the 52-year-long history of ODI cricket, no team has had better numbers at the death than this year’s Proteas.
Let’s put that to rest for a second.
A lot of that heavy lifting is done by Heinrich Klaasen, a man who, for the longest time in South African cricket, was viewed as just a good spin hitter. Klaasen has not just carved a niche for himself batting in the final ten overs but has also instilled fear.
‘Till Klaasen is here, teams fear.’
Amongst every single cricketer who have faced death-overs (min 200 runs) across ODI cricket, Klaasen, in 2023, has the second-best strike-rate (229.2), only behind the legendary de Villiers, who had a strike-rate of 252.2 back in 2015.
Also Read: Welcome to the brutal world of Heinrich Klaasen
But that’s just one part of the bigger puzzle.
Even if you reduce the filter to 50 runs in 2023, four of the top six heavy strikers are Proteas batters. That only goes on to show how revered and feared the Proteas batters are towards the fag end of the innings.
The least a South African batter strikes at the death is Rassie van der Dussen, and even he strikes at 160.5. South Africa’s batting has been so fearsome this year that teams have often had to change their plans mid-way or (illegally) had to plant fielders inside the crowd, masquerading as people waiting for their Booking.com stay.
If you were wondering who has lit the stage up at the World Cup, it has been Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen and Aiden Markram - all of whom feature in the top six run-getters at the death in the tournament.
Also Read: Marco Jansen, now an indispensable part of the Proteas unit
41 sixes have been hit among the seven Proteas batters who have batted at the death in this World Cup. The next two best teams have been Australia (19) and New Zealand (18), who, combined, still are four sixes short of the Proteas.
If you combine the bottom five teams at the death overs in terms of sixes scored, they can only equal the Proteas tally. That’s ridiculous. At the current pace, it would take India, who are taking 10.4 balls for a six 364 deliveries, to get to South Africa’s sixes count.
It doesn’t end there; only four teams have scored more sixes in the entire tournament than South Africa have at the last ten over phase. That’s what makes the Proteas death-over numbers more and more ridiculous.
For all those who are going to say perhaps this is not a sustainable level of batting, South Africa, in 2023, have already scored 194 sixes and are well on their path to all-time glory.
In 2019, West Indies hit 209 sixes in the calendar year, and South Africa are already one and a half foot there.
If you are still in denial. In 19 innings in 2023, South Africa have scored more sixes (194) than Bangladesh (109), Zimbabwe (108), Afghanistan (73), Ireland (66), the Netherlands (58), Kenya (52) have all achieved to score in their World Cup history.
This isn’t just greatness.
This is all-time greatness, panning right in front of us.
All we have to do now is acknowledge and enjoy.
For while ODI cricket might die anytime, South Africa’s 2023 legacy will always live another day to tell a tale.
