Cape Town — South Africa not only lost the second ODI at Old Trafford, but they may have also have waved a red flag at world champions England.
Speaking after the first ODI that South Africa won by 62 runs in Durham, Rassie van der Dussen felt the visitors "may not have been up for it".
England not only came back roaring at Old Trafford to level the series at 1-1 with a resounding 118-run victory in a rain-reduced encounter but they also seemed to have their mongrel back.
This was partly incited by Proteas batter Heinrich Klaasen, who admitted afterwards to partaking in a bit of "old-school gamesmanship" to delay the game during South Africa's innings.
With the Proteas reeling at 39/5 in pursuit of England's 201 in the 10th over, the Lancastrian sky started spitting droplets again.
Knowing the fact that England needed to bowl another 10 overs — 20 in total — for the game to be constituted a full match, the wily Klaasen started making enquiries about the covers on the outskirts of the boundary. He was apparently concerned that the white ball would go missing between the covers should it be hit to the boundary.
It was an obvious a tactic to delay play, which infuriated England, particularly captain Jos Buttler behind the stumps.
"I just tried to delay the game a little bit and change the momentum when the rain came down a little bit harder. Hopefully the umpires could have taken us off but that didn't happen," Klaasen said.
"It was just a little bit of old-school tricks to see if I just change the momentum and slow the game down a little bit."
"The English boys didn't like it. I knew it was going to come so it's nothing new to me. But for me, in that situation, we weren't in a great position, so just to upset the rhythm of the game a little and change the momentum maybe, and see what happens couldn't have done any harm. It frustrated a lot of the guys, so the trick worked a little bit but it didn't come off."
Klaasen also stated he there was no malice intended on his behalf, and that hopefully "everyone could go for a cooldrink or a beer" after the series is concluded, but it may just be the motivation England needed to close out the series at Headingley on Sunday.
Buttler has been under pressure since taking over the leadership of the England team from Eoin Morgan and was staring at his second successive home ODI series defeat.
But having now led the vitriol against Klassen, it has almost served to rejuvenate the England team and their skipper.
"I'm thinking mother cricket came around, they lost a couple more wickets and the game was beyond them. They knew what they were doing, we knew what they were doing. The umpires just needed to make a call and get on with the game," England all-rounder David Willey said.
The Proteas will need to find better plans to overcome the world champions in Leeds, especially in regards to getting their batting unit firing again.
The visitors were superb in Durham, posting their highest-ever ODI score in England, before plummeting to the lowest ever score just three days later.
They are unlikely to change the line-up after such contrasting performances and Dwaine Pretorius, who claimed a career-best 4/36 with the ball on Friday, believes the batters deserve another go at clinching South Africa's first-ever white-ball series in England.
"Cricket is an interesting game in that if you don't perform, you look like you're not sure what's going on, but I'm sure we'll bounce back," Pretorius said.
"We've prepared really well, and I believe it was just one of those days. Our batting unit is going well and I don't want this performance to go to their heads."
Likely teams for Headingley
England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Phil Salt, Joe Root, Jos Buttler (capt), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.
South Africa: Janneman Malan, Quinton de Kock (wk), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Dwayne Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj (capt), Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.
IOL Sport