Marizanne Kapp again showed the reason why she should be considered as one of the most influential all-rounders in world cricket, as she pitched to win South Africa a come-back at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. Illness, pressure and a “must win” situation didn’t dampen the sparks as Kapp demonstrated amazing with both bat and ball as the Proteas pulled victory from India. Every performing her part in this tournament with harrowing consequences and her role may ultimately be seen as South Africa’s chance to come back to life.

The ones before the game weren’t promising by any means. After the match, Marizanne Kapp admitted that she had been poorly through a warm up and even cried in the warming rooms before stepping onto the pitch. But on game day, there wasn’t much sign that she was in trouble physically. Instead, she was contractive and aggressive, the way she has been for over 10 years in her international career.

First, the ball was under the control of Kapp. Then early in the game, India’s first two batsmen hit back toughly against South Africa and put them under pressure during the power play. South Africa bowlers had limited success in building issues, while Shaikh Mahdy Aziz and his stylish side-armer Shaikh Anjum and the co-ordinated bowlers Ashish Baraq, Siddharth Singh, and Goklemesh Nair contributed plenty to the fight against breaking.Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana hit singly and South Africa bowlers were unable to put on the pressure. Kapp got stitched up on several strokes in her first bowling spell, which clearly upset the all-singing, all-dancing player.

But in comparison to the rest, what makes the elite player better is when he/she is able to react when everything isn’t working. Instead of going to his defence, Marizanne Kapp reinvented his approach, and pulled it off brilliantly. She changed her run to the stumps as her angle and hit a ramp attempt which she mistakenly played instead of it being a slip, straighting her for the run.When she changed her angle when she took Mandana’s ramp down, she found the opposite straight away when she played a shot off the ramp instead of the one in the slip position. The win helped to turn the tide of the game and South Africa once more took control.

From that point onwards, Kapp tightened the screws. Her strict discipline and some ingenuity limited India’s scoring rate in vital moments of one of the most important innings of the game. The bowlers seemed to rally behind the energy and determination of Kapp during the early part of the match, which helped South Africa survive some difficult moments.Early on, South Africa appeared to be a team in trouble but the bowlers stepped up and revived the show with Kapp’s energy and determination. In turn, the pressure started to return to the Indian side with wickets becoming hard to hold on to and boundaries becoming tougher to find with the pressure.

Kapp came back at the death to make another superb contribution. She played with slower output and sometimes changed pace in an unconventional manner to contain a hard-hitting finisher Richa Ghosh and only allowed six runs to come in during the final over. At the start this was a shot away far past 180; then it was circled back to a much easier target. It was a prime instance of pressure-addiction and a testament to the fact that Kapp is one of the most round players in the women’s game.

But her pen and paper work was unfinished.

The chase from South Africa, however, got off to a bad start. Soon wickets began to fall, as the team found it difficult to get to 25 for 2, and the required run-rate kept rising above the nine-run-per-over pace. Key Hitters were in the pavilion and India were in a much better position to take control and so it was left to Marizanne Kapp to stabilise the innings.

The seasoned multi-instrumentalist took the challenge with a calm, intelligent mind. Instead of making the decision sharply she played it safe and set about developing a relationship with Tazmin Brits. They combined for 97 runs to force a change in fortunes, and gradually jumpstart the momentum in South Africa’s favour of this matchup. Kapp was outstanding in his composure in this chase, which also benefited from an important contribution from the Brits who drove in 40 runs.

Marizanne Kapp started preparing her shots on target as the game continued. Making straight boundaries on a slow surface was going to be tough, so she skillfully found holes behind square on the leg side. Justice Midday’s sweeps, scoops and ramps showed undeniable proficiency in hitting India’s bowlers many times over, and kept South Africa in good posture.

The occasion that escalated to the turning point was when Kapp ended the rookie spinner Prema Rawat. Pressure was soon eased – straight away with a number of innovative strokes – and the intention of South Africa’s shown. The morale boost provided by such shots trickled down from the month to the entire batting order and left India on the backfoot.

The middle order had one stumble and Brits had been let go, but never did a panic over take the players. But Kapp never lost control, skillfully leading the chase to its finale. Her shots were solid and powerful, and intelligent in how she attacked and carried out her aims. The score could not have been set in any other way by the time she hit two hitting an edge off Deepti Sharma in the last over.

Last then, South Africa finished to register one of their best wins of the tournament. The reaction of Kapp was interesting, since it showed his reaction to the amount of effort used in the performance. She did not dance, but went down and prayed, visibly tired after making it to the other side of the affair in her streaky shirt.

Marizanne Kapp’s performance was about much more than statistics. It was a testament of leadership, resilience and determination in difficult times. While she had been diagnosed with illness during a crucial match, she claimed three wickets in her game, added match-winning individual matchpoints and proved why she is one of the best all-rounders in the world cricket.

The tournament is far from a race to the semis now as it is evenly pitted with South Africa having a solid chance of lifting the trophy away from India thanks to their 4 and 7-point lead. They will be downing more matches before coming up with that outcome, but it has certainly created a momentum at the right time against them with matches against both the Netherlands and Bangladesh now to come. It would appear that if South Africa are to have much more out of this contest it will be down to more displays of Marizanne Kapp’s like. This output against India would not lead most people to bet against her delivering again when she is needed in the most dire straits.

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