“I asked to bowl the first Super Over but obviously Lungs (Lungi Ngidi) was on fire over there, so they went to Lungi,” he said, after a sensational finish in Ahmedabad.
Ngidi finished with 3 for 26 and took South Africa to the brink of victory but a disastrous final over from Kagiso Rabada set the drama in motion. Rabada started with a wicket off a no-ball, then bowled a wide, and then another no-ball. It ultimately cost him 12 runs and left scores level after 20 overs to produce the tournament’s first Super Over.
It was Ngidi’s to bowl.
Then, Maharaj knew he would get his turn.
“We (Shukri Conrad, the coach and Maharaj) kind of locked eyes because I was waiting for him to turn at me and then was he’s like, ‘It’s you,’ and I was like, ‘perfect!’ I wanted the ball, wanted to change the rhythm of play.”
The three bowlers used in the Super Overs before Maharaj were all seamers and they all conceded heavily. Azmatullah Omarzai bowled Afghanistan’s second Super Over and was hit for 23. That gave Maharaj plenty to defend, even as Afghanistan changed tactics for him.
Maharaj was confident he was on top of Afghanistan. “The first ball settled me with a dot ball and then I got the wicket. Then I knew I had to just bowl two more balls that didn’t go for a boundary within the over,” Maharaj said.
But then it went 6, 6, 6 and wide.
Gurbaz came out to face the third ball and smashed Maharaj for a straight six. He sent the fourth ball over long-on and fifth over deep midwicket to leave Afghanistan needing six off the final ball. Maharaj fired it in full and wide outside off, conceded the extra, and realised the fate of South Africa’s campaign lay in his hands. “I was just like, you know what, this is it, I’m just going to back my yorker and that’s what I did.”
“He’s a world-class performer. Unfortunately, a fast bowler has to run 30 metres so sometimes you do bowl a no-ball. His executions were really good in that over. KG’s a strong character.”
Maharaj on Rabada
The final delivery was in the blockhole and though Gurbaz dug it out, he only got it as far as Miller at point. Game over.
Maharaj could exhale. “Luckily I had enough runs to defend,” he said. “But I wanted the ball from the start.”
Asked if South Africa had made their defence of 187 harder than necessary, Maharaj conceded they should have closed the match out in 20 overs. “We obviously made a bit of a mess towards the back end to say the least, if we’re honest,” he said. “But unfortunately these things happen in tournaments. Maybe it’s a bit of rustiness coming back. You know, the positive side is the character coming through to take it to two super overs and still find a way to get through.”
When asked specifically whether there was anger or frustration with Rabada, Maharaj rushed to his team-mate’s defence. “Not at all. He’s a world-class performer. Unfortunately, a fast bowler has to run 30 metres so sometimes you do bowl a no-ball. His executions were really good in that over. KG’s a strong character. He’s been bowling well in the nets and it’s only a matter of time before you get a man-of-the-match performance from him.”
Now that South Africa have finished on the right side of the result and their place in the Super Eight all but sealed, Maharaj reflected on the positives of being involved in a nail-biter.
“If you look at our 2024 World Cup, we had four close games in the group stages and then two in the Super Eight. So, if that’s the way we’re going to play cricket, it’s fine as long as we get over the line,” he said. “It talks about the character within the team to be able to stand out in pressure moments. And it shows how far we’ve come as a unit.
“We’re winning those small moments, whereas before we probably never won those moments so we can take a lot of confidence from that,” Maharaj said, while acknowledging there is more for them to do as they go deeper in the tournament. “We have to go back to the drawing board and assess a few things and be honest with ourselves with regards to certain situations, which is fine. The main thing is that we’re still finding a way to win.”
With two wins in two games, South Africa’s next fixture is against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on February 14, after which they travel to Delhi to play UAE on February 18.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent for South Africa and women’s cricket