Mayhem at Mumbai

The defending champions England and one of the most rejuvenated sides of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 – South Africa logged horns at Mumbai against the backdrop of defeats against two underdogs of this tournament – Afghanistan and the Netherlands. Both the teams were down morally and the loss of South African skipper Temba Bavuma due to injury was expected to dent the Proteas while the return of last tournament’s Hero – Ben Stokes was expected to boost the English morale.

But as soon as the match commenced it was England who melted like an ice sculpture in the heat, humidity, and the mayhem of South African batsmen.

According to CricViz - South Africa and England are the two teams with the highest attacking shot percentage in this Cricket World Cup.

Despite knowing the fact that the South Africans are a dangerous unit while batting first – England won the toss and decided to field first.

Their new ball bowlers – Reece Topley and David Willey maintained the discipline that fetched the wicket of the dangerous Quinton de Kock and kept Reeza Hendricks quiet in his first-ever World Cup match.

With the sun shining brightly above – the track started to lose its life and Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen took control over the English bowlers by disturbing their discipline with attacking stroke play – at one point the South Africans were 18 for 1 in just 6 overs.

England brought on Mark Wood, who attempted to bounce out the South Africans with pace but he was smacked mercilessly – his three wickets in this World Cup came against Bangladesh and Afghanistan at an average over 70 and with the scoring rate escalating in a fearsome manner, Jos Buttler brought on Joe Root to tight the situation, but it hardly had an impact as the Proteas never let the scoring rate down.

England broke through and it seemed that they were making a good comeback but Heinrich Klaasen Marco Jansen slaughtered the English attack.

In the last 15 overs – England lost their way as the willow of Kklaasen and Jansen cut them into halves.

Klaasen was the smart bloke in the middle who ensured that he faced most of the deliveries and as soon as he reached his half-century all hell broke – the last 27 deliveries he faced fetched 57 runs and till now, this is the best hundred of this tournament.

Klaasen smothered Adil Rashid beyond deep midwicket and then plucked 19 runs off Topley in the next over. No sooner had he been felled by a yorker off Wood and had to take a breather in the exhausting weather at Mumbai, Klaasen pushed a low full toss from Wood over the fence at long-on then pulled a four wide of deep fine leg to reach his century.

Jansen then brought up a 35-ball fifty with a run of six, four, six off Atkinson down the ground, behind deep point and over midwicket. Jansen's ball-striking was sublime as he smashed Topley for three sixes in the penultimate over, which went for 26 runs in all.

Klaasen’s swashbuckling knock included  12 boundaries and 4 sixes as he shared a South African record 151-run sixth-wicket partnership with Jansen from just 77 balls, one of two century stands for South Africa with Hendricks  and Van der Dussen putting on 121 together for the second wicket 

Hendricks ended up as his side's second-highest scorer with an excellent 85 from 75 balls while Jansen was incredibly damaging in his own right with a 42-ball 75 not out.

South Africa fell one short of 400 but it was enough to crush an exhausted English unit.

Within 12 overs England had lost six wickets for 68 and from there, England melted and vanished.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar