\u201cIt\u2019s not a knuckle, but it\u2019s also not a palm. It\u2019s like out the back of the hand or deep in the hand. It\u2019s a mixture of the two. If I go knuckle ball, you can see my knuckles above the ball and it\u2019s easier to pick. So it\u2019s basically my own version.\u201d<\/p>\n
Standing in the belly of the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday night, Marco Jansen sounded more like a magician explaining a sleight-of-hand trick than a frontline seamer. But for the New Zealand batters, the mystery was far from entertaining. Jansen\u2019s \u201chybrid\u201d slower ball was the centrepiece of a clinical seven-wicket dismantling of the Black Caps that propelled South Africa to the top of Group D.<\/p>\n
Following the heart-stopping, double-super-over chaos against Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Proteas arrived in Ahmedabad seeking \u2018militaristic\u2019 discipline. They found it in Jansen, whose career-best 4\/40 curtailed a New Zealand innings that had threatened to spiral out of control.<\/p>\n
On a surface that could best be described as a \u2018road,\u2019 Jansen used his height to extract steep bounce to nick off Tim Seifert early, but it was his intellectual growth as a bowler that drew the highest praise from his captain. By the time Mark Chapman (48) was foxed by that \u2018not-quite-knuckle\u2019 ball, popping a leading edge to backward point, the Kiwi momentum had evaporated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a very different left-arm,\u201d said captain Aiden Markram. \u201cTo take four poles for us tonight and keep breaking partnerships through the middle and the back end is really important. The secret tonight was there was a lot of conviction beyond what they did, and that gut feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
That conviction translated into a remarkable statistical turnaround. After bleeding 23 wides in their first two outings, the South African attack produced a masterclass in control, conceding just a single leg-bye.<\/p>\n
Leading from the Front<\/p>\n
If the bowlers provided the discipline, Markram executed a clinic for the batters. His unbeaten 86 off 44 balls was a flurry of elegant drives and \u2018Louvre-worthy\u2019 strikes over long-on. One muscled pull even had Dale Steyn purring on commentary, calling it a \u2018bully shot.\u2019<\/p>\n
Alongside Quinton de Kock, who etched his name into history as the first South African to surpass 3,000 T20 International runs, Markram spearheaded a powerplay assault that effectively ended the contest before the lights had fully taken effect. The Proteas scorched to 83\/1 after six overs, their highest-ever powerplay score in a T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s trying to get the team off to good starts,\u201d Markram noted. \u201cWe\u2019ve got quite a set and experienced batting order. There\u2019s a lot of power, and it\u2019s about managing it through the right phases. When it comes off like that, we feel like we\u2019ll get ahead of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efficiency Over Drama<\/p>\n
The most telling period of the match was the pre-death-overs strangle. New Zealand were cruising at 138\/4 in the 14th over, eyeing a total of 200. In the next 17 deliveries, South Africa took three wickets and gave away just seven runs. Over the last seven overs, the scoring rate plummeted to a meagre 5.28 as Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada found their lengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the slow balls into the wicket worked well and then obviously the yorkers,\u201d Jansen added, already pivoting to the next challenge. \u201cYou have to change it up and adapt. I think that really worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Proteas now head to Delhi for their final group match against the UAE on Wednesday. While victory will officially secure top spot, the Super Eight seedings mean South Africa already know they are likely to be in a pool featuring heavyweights India and the West Indies.<\/p>\n
For a team often accused of making life difficult for themselves, this was a win that Markram described as \u201cslightly easier to deal with, mentally.\u201d It was a victory of nerve, skill, and a captain who is finally leading a side that looks as dangerous as the talent on the team sheet suggests.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt\u2019s not a knuckle, but it\u2019s also not a palm. It\u2019s like out the back of the hand or deep in the hand. It\u2019s a mixture of the two. If I go knuckle ball, you can see my knuckles above the ball and it\u2019s easier to pick. So it\u2019s basically my own version.\u201d Standing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_25071586472533619_109551237394069":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23557,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23477\/revisions\/23557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricansun.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}