'Simplicity is everything' and impossible is Nadine for South Africa

South Africa take a lot of pride in turning things around.

England, for example, know this. Three years ago, South Africa had been handed a 6-0 thrashing on their white-ball tour of England. Seven months later, at the T20 World Cup, South Africa - far from being the favourites - edged England by six runs for a historic maiden World Cup final appearance.

Coming into this World Cup, their recent record of five straight ODI losses to India in subcontinent conditions wouldn't have given them much confidence for the game on Thursday. And the memory of the 69 all out against England at the start of the tournament would have still been pretty fresh. But South Africa found a way, once more, somehow, under pressure, against the home team, and when they were again far from being the favourites, to win the game, and win it in the last ten overs.

The performance that turned the tables on India came from a player who is hardly the most celebrated or feared or the best-known in the South African camp. Nadine de Klerk. She did take a three-for against Australia in the 2020 T20 World Cup semi-final, but she's hardly the player oppositions mark as among the first few to target.

On Thursday in Visakhapatnam, de Klerk was thrown perhaps the biggest challenge of her career so far. In India's home World Cup, with nearly 13,000 Indian fans thronging the stands, she walked out with the score at 142 with South Africa's top six gone. The equation was a stiff 110 to get from 85 balls. The Indian spinners were tightening the strangle in the middle overs. When de Klerk joined Chloe Tryon in the middle, they knew their best shot was to take the game deep, even with ten runs an over to get in the last four-five overs.

But, to get there, de Klerk didn't take the safest or most cautious of routes. She swept away the worries against left-arm spin by putting away Shree Charani for four and followed it with a fearless shimmy out of the crease to find the gap on the leg side for the same result.

De Klerk has trained herself for a power game that requires her to go for big hits. She has featured in T20 tournaments around the world and mastered the skill of hitting powerful sixes. Being a multi-sport athlete, she has kept herself fit physically and mentally to keep up with the rigours of being an allrounder, even if it means performing day-in and day-out, as South Africa had to do on Thursday after travel from Guwahati to Indore to Visakhapatnam for their third match. She has been given the job to "finish games off", and now she was planning her way through it.

She decided to "take the game on" and her experience of being a former hockey player helped her "hit those awkward gaps where normally there are no fielders". If mid-on and mid-off were in the circle, she went over them; if they were dropped back, she dispatched the ball square for more runs to make the Indian team sweat.

"I think today it was just about not trying to overhit the ball," she said after the game. "I think simplicity is everything. I think today was just about really backing myself and not trying to overhit it and just time the ball. It was quite a good wicket."

She and Tryon brought it down to 60 from 36 - ten an over in the last six like they had planned - but now, Tryon started to face issues in her heavily strapped left leg. She got treatment after hobbling around for a while and the onus, naturally, fell on de Klerk, who took down Sneh Rana for a six and a four at the start of the 46th over to make it 42 off 28 before Rana trapped the struggling Tryon lbw on 49.

"Yeah, I think it obviously got a little bit more tricky when she [Tryon] got out, but I think even though her leg gave her a bit of problems, I think she's probably one of the best finishers in world cricket," de Klerk said. "We know she can clear any boundaries. I think when we were batting together, we were still pretty confident to chase the score. I guess it's just about the belief and the character at the end of the day, and we just wanted to stick it out and fight really hard because we knew how important this game was for our team."

With India now into South Africa's tail, de Klerk thought it was best to target the quick bowlers as pace was easier to work with under the lights with some dew around, and she went after India's most inexperienced, Kranti Gaud. There was the punch on the Protea emblem on her jersey with her left glove, right hand holding the bat aloft after launching Gaud well beyond the deep-midwicket boundary to get to her third ODI fifty. That was followed by a straight six that deflated the Indians further, having brough the equation down to 23 from 18 with. It was an 18-run over.

"I think the most important part is, and we've seen it in this World Cup, is you just have to stick it out," de Klerk said. "Doesn't matter if you're batting No. 8 or 9, if you give yourself a chance. I mean, Richa [Ghosh] did it today for India as well. Just try and bat time. And I guess when it comes to the back ten [overs], you can really start backing yourself and try and take the game on. And if it does come off, that 70 or 80 runs in the last ten makes a massive difference in these totals."

With Ayabonga Khaka at the other end, de Klerk farmed the strike and took it upon herself to wipe out almost all of the remaining runs, with two mighty sixes in three balls against Amanjot Kaur finishing things off.

A day before this game, de Klerk had said there were "going to be a lot of ups and downs" in this World Cup and "this World Cup is all about fight and character at the end of the day". Who knew those words would narrate her own story a day later and reverberate so loudly in a stadium with thousands of Indian fans gone quiet after she hit the winning runs, before being mobbed by her team-mates.

And South Africa's record against India in the last three World Cups? Three-zero. Try turning that around.