South Africa hooked to Insta-Rilee
CHENNAI: On Sunday, one of India's greatest threats to their winning run at this year's World Cup will come from an unlikely source: a batter who last played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2015. But Rilee Rossouw has been a man transformed in recent times.
Barring Suryakumar Yadav, he's probably been the best T20 batter in 2022. For Somerset at the Blast in 2022, his numbers were stratospheric — 623 runs while striking at 192.2 at an average of 47.9. He has been equally impressive for South Africa since coming back after his turbo-charged Blast season. 4, 96 n.o., 31 (all vs England) were followed by two ducks as well as an unbeaten 48-ball 100 against India in Indore earlier this month.
That match in Indore showed why Rossouw is so good in this format six years after he quit South Africa for English county side Hampshire as a Kolpak player. He ticks most of the boxes you want from your primary No. 3. Left-hander. Spin-hitter. Takes advantage of powerplay field restrictions if he comes in early.
Rossouw showcased all of those attributes in a thrill-a-second 109 against an admittedly pedestrian Bangladesh attack on Thursday. Temba Bavuma left early but Roussouw was not mindful of what another wicket would have done. In the next five powerplay overs, he scored 36 off 18, including taking down a negative match-up in Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the off-spinner.
He was equally severe against Shakib Al Hasan scoring 24 runs off seven balls. Considering India's two lead spinners at this World Cup are Axar Patel and R Ashwin, one wonders how they will approach this challenge. For what it's worth, in Indore, Rossouw hit sixes off both Ashwin and Patel. Because he has spent a significant chunk of his time playing franchise cricket in the Bangladesh Premier League, he is an outstanding player of spin. While the sample size is too small, they may try and frontload Arshdeep Singh to remove Rossouw. Arshdeep dismissed him both times for nought in the series in India.
While Rossouw does have an intimate relationship with naughts early on in his career — five of his first 10 ODI scores were zeroes — the 33-year-old is a different beast right now. Part of it is because he wants to keep things as simple as possible. " try and simplify things and try to keep it as simple as possible. Doesn't matter where or what stage you're playing on, World Cup, going back home, domestic. Just trying to see the white ball and hit the little white ball," he said after his 100 against Bangladesh. "At the end of the day, someone is bowling the ball to you and you're going to hit it."
Rossouw has done an awful lot of hitting, this year. In terms of run-scoring in all T20s this year, he his seventh. In terms of boundary-hitting, he his third. The key, according to him, is to get away a boundary early on in his innings. "If I get a boundary early in my innings, I kind of feel like, 'okay, I could be on you today', and I just go from my confidence and so forth," he revealed after that Bangladesh match.
What has he done specifically against spin? "I think the more you play against them, the more comfortable you get," he said. "That's probably basically anything you do in life, the more you do it, the more you get used to it. And also just handling the different, like, pressure situations, being in the subcontinent when the pitches are turning. You've got to expose yourself to that tough environment. I've been fortunate enough in the last six or seven years of my career to be in that position. And it's just made me a better player."
There was much recrimination in South Africa when Rossouw turned his back on them as he decided to opt for financial security over international cricket in 2017. "It is a disappointing day not just for South African cricket but also for international cricket as these players have given up their opportunity to be seen in action on the international circuit," CSA chief executive Haroon Lorgat said then. "From CSA's perspective, it is a loss as we invest immeasurable amounts which include premium time, finance, technical, high performance coaching followed by development tours and providing general player welfare over a long period of time." By the time Lorgat had finished the press conference, it was clear that Rossouw wouldn't be considered for the national team any more.
Yet, five years later, he has emerged as the main man in a loaded batting line-up. So, it was understandable why the southpaw became emotional during the Bangladesh game. "I'm a very passionate man," he said. "And getting across the line, it meant a lot to me. It means a lot to my family back home. It's just been a good roller coaster ride. Just to play with South Africa again, it's been amazing.
"This year has been like an unbelievable roller coaster ride for me. So happy. So proud to be sitting here." If he lead his side over the line against India and Pakistan over the next week, he will continue to win more fans in his country of birth.