With four overs to go in the T20 World Cup final at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday, the person engraving the winners’ names onto the trophy was probably getting ready to sharpen his tools to write South Africa.
The scoreboard read 151/4 at the time, with SA needing just 26 runs off 24 balls to chase down India’s total of 176/7 after they chose to bat first.
Proteas dangermen Heinrich Klaasen (52 off 27 balls) and David Miller (21 off 17) were going strong at the time and there could only ever really be one winner from that scenario.
If it were any other team in the world, their fans probably would have gone into celebratory mode, but with South Africa having a sad history when it comes to sudden exits at these tournaments, fans weren’t going to pop the champers before the trophy was in the bag.
India, meanwhile, knew they needed a plan and with Klaasen and Miller in cruise control, they halted their momentum with one of their players, Rishabh Pant, needing treatment (on the field) and needing to have their leg strapped.
It was a clever tactic by the Indians - one that would frustrate any batsman knowing what the intention was. Klaasen took the bait and, when play resumed, fished for a wide Hardik Pandya (3/20) delivery and was caught behind by Pant.
Pandya conceded just four runs in that over and the pressure was transferred to SA a bit. India, though, were in full control the following over when Player of the Tournament Jasprit Bumrah (2/18) sent the disappointing Marco Jansen’s stumps flying for just two runs.
Bumrah conceded just two runs in that over.
By that time India were in total control, with SA scoring four runs again in the 19th over, as India had their hands firmly around SA’s neck to have them struggling to breathe and needing 16 off the last over.
When Suryakumar Yadav pulled off a sensational catch to get rid off Miller on the boundary by chucking the ball back into play after stepping over - he got suspiciously close to touching the ropes at one stage, by the way - it was tickets for SA.
Coach Rob Walter and his team will be looking their wounds today, knowing they had every opportunity of winning the match - if it weren’t for a few really bad moments.
One of those were the first over of the match, when Jansen (1/49) overpitched almost every single delivery to Man of the Match Virat Kohli (76) who struck him for three easy fours to score the most runs (15) in the first over of a T20 final ever.
Rohit Sharma then smashed two first of the first two balls of the next over - bowler by Keshav Maharaj (3/23) – and South African fans would have been thinking ‘hier is ons in vir ’n lang dag’.
But then Maharaj spun his magic and first got rid of Sharma (9) when he tried to sweep him and was caught at square leg by a diving Heinrich Klaasen.
Pant (0) then tried to sweep Maharaj as well and the ball spooned to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock to make it 23/2 after two overs.
When Yadav (3) tried to pull Kagiso Rabada (1/36) for a six and was superbly caught by Klaasen at deep fine leg, India were in trouble at (34/3).
But that’s when Kohli (76) and Axar Patel (47) joined forces to take India to 106 before their stand was finally broken through some superb fielding by De Kock, who ran out Patel with a direct hit at the other end of the pitch.
Shivam Dube (27 off 16) help boost India’s score to 176/7.
It was a gettable score for SA on a decent batting surface.
But after Bumrah clean bowled opener Reeza Hendricks (4) and captain Aiden Markram (3) after he was caught behind off the bowling of Arhsdeep Singh, SA were on 12/2 and with their backs to the wall.
De Kock (39) and Tristan Stubbs (31) put SA in the driving seat again, before the latter was clean bowled by Patel in the ninth over and the former caught on the boundary in the 13th over to make it 106/4.
That’s when Klaasen and Miller teamed up to give SA hope, but it ended in tears at the end of the day.
Still, SA will be proud of their team making the final for the first time. And they even looked like champs. That’s until the squeeze got too tight with in the end with overs to go…