Image Credit- AP
When South Africa and India play again in 2024, don’t
expect Nandre Burger to greet Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and the rest of the
team a good new year. He would rather “be the person that gets them out
and ruins their day”.
Following his debut Centurion Boxing Day Test, Burger
was questioned if he had been intimidated by the star players in the Indian
batting lineup and he simply refused to back down. It doesn’t seem to frighten
me. It energises me even more, if anything.”
An hour or so ago, the proof had been on display. With
their two best batsmen of the Test, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, in the middle,
India was 96 for 4, just 67 runs behind. Rahul ran after Burger’s full and wide
outside off delivery, gained an edge, and was caught at second slip. Burger
took a shorter route on the subsequent ball, R Ashwin played outside his body,
and he edged to the gully. Burger had to wait until his next over before
delivering the hat-trick ball to Kohli. Despite his intention to “go fuller,”
he pitched it back a length, and as it drifted away, it nearly touched Kohli’s
bat’s shoulder.
The oooohs and aaaaaahs reverberated around SuperSport
Park, as the cordon did its job and appealed. Possibly trying to escape the
heat, Kohli shook his head and moved a little distance away from the crease.
Burger, too? He grinned. Sincerely, not sardonically. ear to ear. teeth
exposed. He was too happy to be upset that he didn’t get a third wicket, even
though he knew the ball was a decent enough attempt.
After a sensational December in which he made his
debut for his country in all three forms in a span of 12 days, he concluded the
Test with seven wickets. The last two weeks have been remarkably amazing and
uplifting for someone whose formative years were spent at one of the greatest
rugby schools in the nation, who loved tennis and wanted to give up cricket at
the age of seventeen, and who finds proof that hard work pays off.
Burger, though it may appear so, is a somewhat
latecomer to the worldwide scene having debuted at the age of 28. This season,
after that gradual burn on the home scene, it was his moment. In the domestic
one-day cup, he was the top bowler.
He called the experience as a whole “unreal”
as “it sunk into me that every wicket you take is for 60 million South
Africans”.
And did any of them matter a little more to him
personally, given the players he was up against? “No, every wicket is my
favourite,” he said. “Every wicket could be your last wicket, so
every wicket will be my favourite.”