When Chris Morris walked in to bat at Newlands on Friday night, the Proteas required 21 runs off 11 balls to win the first T20 international against England.
But he’d just seen his teammates self-destruct in chasing a modest 135 for victory. From a commanding position at 74/2 off 12 overs, with captain Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy going along smoothly, the South Africans needed just 61 runs to win off the last eight overs, at 7.62 per over.
That’s considered a relatively easy task in T20 cricket, but the home team proceeded to lose four wickets for just 38 runs, and they were staring down the barrel at 114/6 in 18.1 overs when Morris went in to bat after David Miller held out to Joe Root at the long-on boundary off Chris Jordan.
Jordan, though, kept things tight by conceding just six runs and getting rid of David Wiese – who played the ball on to his stumps – as well, which left the Proteas requiring 15 runs off the last over.
But, just as Makhaya Ntini’s single down to third man in the “438” game was critical to get Mark Boucher on strike, so too was Kyle Abbott’s little bunt to mid-off from Reece Topley’s full ball to ensure Morris had the chance to smash 14 runs off five deliveries.
Then Morris stayed calm and it was four, six, dot ball, two and the last-ball drama when Topley dropped the ball with Abbott almost out of the TV picture in coming back for the second run, so far would he have been out of the ground had Topley gathered the ball at the stumps.
It was reminiscent of his match-winning 62 in the Wanderers ODI, so, how does the “million-dollar man” do it? “I just think it’s a case of us, first of all, of having a long, strong batting line-up. Eight batters in T20 cricket is something that I really enjoy, and I think that’s where he can win games. The longer your batting order is, you are never out of the game. England are in a similar position as they have a very long batting line-up,” Du Plessis said afterwards.
“The key for me is to get Morry to the crease when there are not four overs left – when there are one or two overs left, he can come in and he’s very good at clearing the rope. He can hit sixes from ball one, and when you have that – he and David Wiese can both do it – it just makes your batting line-up so destructive.
“With the first ball he couldn’t… it was half-a-chance to get him out (a skier to third man, with Topley unable to reach the ball in time), from England’s point of view, and that would’ve been the game. I suppose it’s a similar case as to what happened at the Wanderers, when he got a half-chance there.
“So when it’s going for you like it is for Morry, it’s important that you ride that wave as well as you can, and he is doing that – he is winning games for us. And that makes him an X-factor player.”
Morris conceded 32 runs in his four overs, but ended on 17 not out off seven balls with the bat, which led to fans on social media once again dubbing him “Chuck Morris”.
So, forget the 28-year-old’s bowling for the moment. Despite the Delhi Daredevils paying $1 million for his services for the upcoming IPL, they may now feel they got a bargain…
@IndyCapeSport