South Africa look to the T20I series against India as comments from the Test series are finally put to bed. The Proteas wrapped up the One Day International series against India on Saturday with a nine-wicket loss to the hosts. It means the 50-over section of the tour to India concluded with a 2-1 series loss.
It came after the Test series where South Africa claimed an incredible 2-0 series victory, with the two sides set to face off in a three-match T20 series this week. And while South Africa’s first victory in the country for 25 years stole most of the headlines, just below, the words of head coach Shukri Conrad on day four of the second Test match stuck. “We wanted the Indians to spend as much time on their feet out in the field,” Conrad said at the time.
“We wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase, [and] bat them completely out of the game.” There was outrage and disappointment from several corners of the cricketing fraternity, particularly from India, with commentators and ex-players all dissecting Conrad’s choice of phrase. As a scholar of the game, he knew what the phrase was he chose to steal. It can’t be put down to ignorance.
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But it wasn’t wholly malicious either. Conrad giggled as the word came out of his mouth, as if to wipe some of the bad history off the word. It doesn’t excuse the usage but the context is important.
South Africa had batted deep into day four at that point and had only given themselves about four sessions to bowl India out in Guwahati. Conrad had not spoken to the media since that day on 25 November, which gave everyone else nearly two weeks to analyse his words before he held a post-match press-conference on Saturday. After several Proteas players before him had to bat away questions at press conferences about why their coach used the word “grovel”, given its historical context, Conrad cleared the air.
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