SA vs Pak 2nd T20I

Sisanda Magala bounces back well as depleted hosts put “cowboy cricket” behind them

Not only did the South Africa allrounder, whose place in a full-strength T20I side is nowhere near guaranteed, do plenty to push his case for inclusion ahead of the T20 World Cup with a match-winning performance with both bat and ball, he also went on to win a couple of personal duels that will earn him a lot more respect than opposition sides perhaps accord him at present. Off the first ball of the contest, Mohammad Rizwan danced down the wicket to Linde, looking to launch him over the sighscreen. Linde had planned for that, and pulled his length back, with the in-form Pakistan batsman only succeeding in skying it to mid-off, giving South Africa the advantage right away.

After the match, Linde spoke of how South Africa had planned to use Rizwan’s “arrogance” against him. “I was actually glad he came down the wicket first ball,” he said. “We tried to play with his arrogance a little bit, not saying he’s arrogant in a bad way, but we were trying to force a false shot out of him. That was our plan, maybe two balls we were going to try and keep mid-off up to see if he plays a false shot. Luckily he did, so that worked in our favour. Very glad to see the back of him given how much damage he’s done against us of late.”

It was a crucial blow, with Rizwan arguably the most in-form T20 wicketkeeper-batsman in the world at present. His golden duck ended a run of ten straight T20 scores in excess of 40, achieved at a strike rate of 144.07, and an average over 80. Much of that damage has been done against South Africa, with the four earlier T20Is against them this year producing scores of 104 not out, 51, 42 and 74 not out. And after Linde thwarted Rizwan’s plans of attack first up, he opted to give Pakistan a taste of their own medicine with the bat.

“It wasn’t really about making a point,” Linde said. “I practice six-hitting a lot so I’m fairly okay with trying to hit my first or second ball for six. I don’t have a problem with that, and the situation presented itself. We’ve got a game plan going towards the World Cup so we’re trying to buy into that. If we can play that type of cricket now leading into the World Cup then we know how exactly to go about things when it does come.”

He paid particular tribute to the death bowlers, pointing out that although the bowling in the final five overs had possibly lost South Africa the first T20I, this match had been a completely different story. “Looking back on the first game, we should have won it. I don’t think it was that bad, but on the day we probably weren’t good enough. Certain stages, especially the last five overs, we weren’t good enough, but the bowlers showed up today. It was an unbelievable effort from them today.”