Add THAT edge to list of Proteas’ World Cup blunders

South Africa’s failure to pick up a thin edge by Kane Williamson when he had 76 can now be added to their list of bizarre World Cup moments along with 22 off one ball, dropping Allan Donald and Brian Lara in 1996, that Edgbaston run out, misreading Duckworth/Lewis, “brave cricket”, Dhaka run outs and the South African-born Grant Elliott’s six at Eden Park after the Abbott/Philander selection scandal.

In what has become known as “the phantom edge”, Williamson edged the final delivery of the admirable Imran Tahir’s 10-over stint to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock, but he was oblivious, despite a typically enthusiastic appeal by the leg-spinner. The New Zealand captain went on to craft a superb 106 not out and steer his team to a tight victory in the final over.

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Proteas captain Faf du Plessis refused to dwell on the incident, however, and said he had only been made aware that replays using UltraEdge had shown contact with the bottom of the bat at the presentation ceremony after the end of the game.

“I wasn’t aware of it because I was at long-on then and I always go on what Quinny says, he’s the closest to the action, my go-to player. We all just thought it was a play-and-miss, even Kane said after the game that he didn’t know he had nicked it and he would have referred it if he had been given out. That’s not where the game was won or lost though and there were one or two really tough half-chances, if we took those then the game would have been really tight,” Du Plessis said.

Rassie van der Dussen, whose brilliant 67 not out off 64 balls was largely responsible for South Africa putting up a competitive total of 241 for six, raised some other close shaves New Zealand survived in the increasingly tense final stages.

Williamson could have been run out on 77 but Kagiso Rabada’s throw bounced away from David Miller at the stumps.

Tahir’s final over had also seen both Williamson and Colin de Grandhomme (60 off 47) hitting catches that were narrowly out of Miller’s reach, with De Grandhomme also surviving a half-chance off Lungi Ngidi to the same fielder on the midwicket boundary when he had 53.

Ngidi also almost had Williamson caught-and-bowled in his excellent penultimate over.

“A few things went our way with Martin Guptill standing on his stumps and Ross Taylor caught down the leg side, but a few things didn’t. There were moments we didn’t capitalise on but it was through no fault of our own. There were a few catches that landed 10 centimetres away from fielders and a run out throw that landed in a foothole and bounced away.

“Those sort of things are difficult to control. It’s difficult to say why things do not go your way. But we have three games left and every time you represent your country, it’s an honour, it doesn’t matter that we’re out the tournament, even though we still have a mathematical chance. So we don’t want to let up the intensity and we want to show character in those games,” Van der Dussen said.

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