How Keshav Maharaj helped the Proteas over the line against Pakistan

Naturally, loads of opinions were flying around the Proteas' dressing room about what Keshav Maharaj should do, when he should do it and how it should be done.

“At one stage Kesh (Maharaj) was two off 16 balls and some people felt that is not what you want in that situation,” said Proteas captain Temba Bavuma.

Maharaj, having seen top scorer Aiden Markram depart for 91 and then Gerald Coetzee for 10 within five balls of each other, suddenly had to marshal a run chase with only Lungi Ngidi and Tabraiz Shamsi for company.

The Proteas still needed 21 to win. Fortunately, they had lots of overs in which to do so.

Rather than succumb to his natural instincts — which are to swing hard at the ball — Maharaj practised patience and showed trust in his partners at no. 10 and 11.

“At one stage Kesh was two off 16 and some people felt, that is not what you want in that situation,” said Bavuma, who didn’t reveal which of his teammates disagreed with Maharaj’s more circumspect approach.

“Kesh is a guy who usually goes the positive route. He was much more subdued today, so there was that desire and encouragement from the guys for him to keep going with that.

“But it’s obviously hard, when you are in there, in the moment. It’s easier for us, on the outside, there were opinions, but all were coming from a good place,” said the Proteas skipper.

Maharaj waited until Pakistan’s quicks, who were getting the ball to reverse swing, had finished their overs before committing to an attacking stroke against Mohammad Nawaz’s left-arm spin, carefully pulling a short ball to deep midwicket for four.

“At the end of the day Kesh and Shammo did it for us. It is easier for us to have conversations now, about our run chase, we’ve got the result on our side,” said Bavuma.

Shamsi, who has always prided himself on his batting and had insisted on doing his post-match media duties while still wearing his pads, said he adopted a simple plan.

“We knew we had a lot of time, so it was just a case of getting forward, and putting the bat in the way. Seriously.

“The ball was reversing and they were always going to come for our stumps, so just put the bat in the way and eventually the right ball would come to hit.”

Maharaj was happy to trust Ngidi, who scored four and Shamsi, who made the same, but importantly was unbeaten at the end.

“I knew if we got through that period against their quicks, whatever runs we could scrape together, would be less for us to get at the back end. We did it really well.”

Maharaj laughed off the fact that his teammates didn’t agree with his approach.

“You will have conflicting opinions about it, but I was just trying to absorb as much pressure as I could. I knew if we batted 50 overs, we’d get the score and luckily it paid off,” said Maharaj, who scored seven off 21 balls.

As for suppressing his attack instincts, Maharaj said: “I did fight temptation now and then. But there is a bigger picture here and trying to mature as a cricketer, you see that there are 16 runs to get off 40 balls, the percentages are in your favour in that regard. You don’t have to take any risks and I just tried to adopt that approach.”