On a good day, Linde takes his opportunity

Quietly, almost unnoticed, South Africa made history in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. Their 194/9 equalled the highest total made there in a men's T20I. Their dismissal of Pakistan for 139 marked the first time in completed games that the team batting first had won.

The visitors' victory was their biggest against these opponents. They have batted first in 111 of their 208 T20Is, and only nine of their 64 wins in that scenario have been more emphatic than Tuesday's. Pakistan have played 280 T20Is, fielding first in 128 and losing 49 of those. Just seven of their hidings batting second have been heavier than the pummelling they took in Pindi.

It fitted the theme, then, that George Linde was the star of Tuesday's show. Linde is quiet and can pass almost unnoticed. Unless he is holding a bat or a ball.

Rawalpindi was where Linde's Test career stalled in February 2021. He took 5/64 in the second innings, but that was overshadowed by Pakistan's 95-run win, which sealed a 2-0 series defeat. He hasn't been seen in Test whites since.

In his only other game at the ground, in the PSL for Peshawar Zalmi against Islamabad United in April this year, Linde leaked 20 runs in two overs and was dismissed for a five-ball duck.

On Tuesday he took guard after 14 overs. An innings that had seemed cleared for take off when Reeza Hendricks had shared stands of 44 with Quinton de Kock and 49 with Tony de Zorzi - each off 23 balls - that enclosed a powerplay of 74/1 had subsided to 139/5.

Linde started slowly, scoring seven off the first nine balls he faced. Then he hit a hattrick of fours off Shaheen Shah Afridi - off the outside edge, hammered through the covers and lifted over point. Two deliveries later Babar Azam spilled a catch he should have held on the long-on boundary, and another four runs resulted.

Abrar Ahmed was in Pakistan's XI in two of Linde's other T20Is, but the lusty left-hander had never faced the leg spinner before. Abrar was also not involved in the South African's five PSL games. That only added to Linde launching into a meaty slog sweep to send Abrar's first delivery in the 18th over fine leg for six.

Linde faced six more balls before he swiped across the line to Naseem Shah and had two of his stumps uprooted. His 36 had flown off 22 deliveries.

But would it be enough to help South Africa win? They had made bigger totals 31 times, but scores of 200 or more had been reached in 44 of the 229 T20s played in Pindi. The visitors' innings was only 60th on the list in Pindi.

"We know it's a high-scoring ground, but we felt the pitch didn't play as it normally does," Linde told a press conference. "I'm not saying we were comfortable with the target of 195, but if we bowled well - which we did - we knew we could defend it."

With Lizaad Williams and Corbin Bosch in sniping form for the six wickets they shared, Pakistan crashed to 89/7 inside 13 overs on their way to being dismissed in the 19th. Linde shone again, taking the important wickets of Saim Ayub, Usman Khan and Faheem Ashraf - the last two five balls apart in the 13th.

Linde knew that, but for South Africa's all-format tour of India which starts on November 14 with a Test at the Eden Gardens, he might not have been in Pakistan: "There are some big players back at home preparing for that. It's always nice to get an opportunity but it's about what you do with that opportunity."

Opportunities haven't been plentiful for Linde. His appearance in a T20I against Pakistan at Kingsmead in December 2024 was his first game of any sort for South Africa in more than three years. He took his chance then, too, scoring 48 off 24 and claiming 4/21 to clinch an 11-run win. At a press conference that night, discussing his absence from the team put tears in Linde's eyes.

South Africa have since played seven Tests, 14 ODIs and 13 T20Is. Linde's opportunities have been limited to eight of the latter. His performance on Tuesday was easily the best among them.

"It's going to take a good day for you to beat Pakistan," he said. It is indeed going to take a good day, and it was a good day for South Africa - not least because Linde took his opportunity.