Transcripts relate to the conversation between the interviewee and interviewer. But with Anneke Bosch, the South African cricketer, it feels as if something intangible can be added – her candidness and simplicity. The first bits of Bosch’s reply to a query about her memories from childhood days is an indicator of it. Bosch ended up recounting a memory that turned out to be a harrowing experience for her.
“My dad (Pethrow Bosch) passed away about 10 years ago, so every time I go on to a cricket field, I think about special memories. Actually, there is one bad memory,” she told RevSportz. “When I was in Grade 7, we had a match against another school. I was the wicketkeeper. Dad was the umpire because it was his team. So, the coach was also the umpire. The third ball of the game, there was a top-edge. I tried to catch it, as I dived, I hit one of our players’ knees, because he was also going for the catch. I was like out; I can’t remember any of it. I woke up in hospital, I had a fractured cheekbone. My dad was quite traumatised by it.”
That salient feature of Bosch could be once more observed when the discussion veered towards her game-breaking knock against the formidable Australian side in the T20 World Cup semi-final in Dubai. “Everything happened so quickly. In the moment, it felt like it was a dream, ‘was it me doing those things?’ All I was focused on was on the runs we needed and the balls remaining, I didn’t want it to become a stretch or leave it for someone else to come in and do it.”
Bosch also pointed out that she didn’t exactly have a good World Cup up until the last-four game. A case in point would be the England-South Africa encounter, where she accumulated just 18 runs off 26 deliveries. “I was happy with that knock, glad it finally came together, because the games before that didn’t go so well. It is funny how cricket works, how a tournament like that can change. The England game I played was one of my worst matches.”
“A couple of matches later, I had one of my best. I guess sometimes it just works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. I just tried to keep things as simple as possible. I guess in some other games, I was overthinking and analysing things.”
It wasn’t just one of Bosch’s best, but that knock would go down as one of the finest in the annals of women’s cricket. She slog-swept the left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux for a boundary while facing her fourth ball. The very next offering was cracked via the long-off region, with a skip down the wicket. After that it rained boundaries from her willow, as Bosch eventually ended up with a sizzling 48-ball 74.
Interestingly, over a period of time, Bosch has had her issues against left-arm spin. In her T20I career, she has been dismissed by that mode of bowling 11 times. However, she played with positive intent while facing Molineux and navigated through her spell. Bosch shares a few insights about working on her weakness.
“I know for a while that I have struggled against left-arm spin. I worked on it more, I tried to look at more options for ones, for boundaries. I have a better plan for it now, I have got more comfortable with it,” she said.
After South Africa’s heart-stirring victory over the-then defending champions, they likely entered the summit clash versus New Zealand as the marginal favourites. The South African fans certainly believed so as they made a beeline entry into the stadium. South Africa, however, had to settle for the runners-up position for the second time in T20 World Cups.
“Obviously, we were very disappointed, we were very sad, a lot of players were very emotional. It is understandable. I think we were proud of the tournament we had, that we reached the final again. It still hurts a lot of us. Yes, New Zealand was the better team on the day,” she said.
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At the age of 31, Bosch’s talents finally came into limelight on the grandest of stages – the World Cup. If we examine the footprints of her journey, a virtue or two helped her to achieve success – perseverance. In the women’s game, a sizable number of cricketers earn their national cap at a very young age. Bosch, though, had to wait for her turn, making her international debut at the age of 23. The affable cricketer delves deep to narrate her backstory.
“When I went to the University, I was still mostly focusing on other sports (athletics and netball). It was in the second or third year of University that I started to take cricket more seriously. I did honours in polytechnic and sports science. After completing University, I started working. That was quite difficult as you’re working from 7 AM in the morning to 6 PM in the evening. So, there wasn’t really much time for cricket in the first year that I worked. I went to the gym at night and played a bit of cricket when we had domestic matches.
“The year after that, I still worked. But I took Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons off, so that I could go back to cricket. But then it came to a stage where I was kind of at a crossroads. I wasn’t so sure whether I should carry on playing cricket. Obviously, I had dreams of playing for South Africa, but it wasn’t quite working out at that stage. A couple of months after I started thinking in that direction, I got a call-up in (the) Under-19 (team). Still, after that I couldn’t play regularly up until 21-22.
“You see a lot of youngsters now making their debuts at 15-16-18. That wasn’t the case with me. I’m 31 now (smiles). Things happened a bit later for me. There were a couple of times when I thought it wouldn’t work out, but luckily it did. I am grateful for the journey and everything that it taught me,” she reckoned.
After partaking in a few ODIs in Australia, Bosch had to wait for three more years to represent South Africa. Interestingly, Bosch started out as more of a bowling all-rounder, who batted lower down the order.
“During that first tour, I was playing more as a bowling all-rounder. For three years, I was not selected for any tour. The T20I series in India was my next call-up after that Australia tour. I have always enjoyed my batting. Maybe as you got older, you learn a bit more about yourself and about your game. That is what perhaps helped me to improve my batting, change my role in the team,” she said.
“It wasn’t something that I was focused on doing at that time. Obviously, I wanted to improve on my batting and bowling aspects, but I didn’t necessarily think it is going to be such a turnaround, where I am mostly seen as a batter, not even as a bowler anymore. But I enjoy batting higher up in the order. The only thing I miss is that with bowling if you make one or two mistakes, you can still come back into the game. With batting, you have one chance. More often than not, if you make one mistake, you have to sit in the dug-out, and your game is done,” she quipped.
So, was there a watershed moment in Bosch’s career, where she made an impression with the willow, while batting higher up the order? Bosch once again took a trip down the memory lane to remember the specific moment that acted as a turnaround in her career – a couple of limited-overs games against India, in Lucknow, in 2021.
“I think about it now, it was another series in India, in 2021. I was still new, although I made my debut five years ago. I think I had played five ODIs and nine T20Is at that time. I think it was the 50-over game, I batted higher up because one of your players, Kapp, went off the field. She couldn’t go in and bat at her normal position because of the time factor. So, I batted higher than I was supposed to do, and I scored a fifty.
“The next game was a T20 match against India, I opened the batting because Tazmin Brits had gone back home due to family reasons. I wasn’t supposed to open the batting, but I opened, made a fifty. It was a bit of luck I guess because it wasn’t actually planned by the selectors or coaches for me to bat in those positions at that time. I probably started feeling or believing that I can bat up the order.”
As the extensive interview neared its conclusion, there was still one question left for Bosch to answer. How is Bosch outside of cricket? What are her hobbies? “I am very quiet and very laid back. I like to spend time with my friends and family. I started reading books not too long ago,” she replied.
When pressed further about her new-found hobby of reading books, Bosch candidly said: “The one book I am reading now is – Why we sleep? – perhaps it sounds boring.” That bit of conversation once again highlighted something about one of her qualities – forthrightness.