Breetzke broke a record himself in that no one in the world game has more runs after 14 ODI innings than him but he heaped praise on Jansen for ushering him to the hundred. “It was a special innings for Marco. He helped my innings a lot there, where I could just feed him strike,” Breetzke said at the post-match press conference. “He got a few away early on. It was never the plan for him to go guns blazing, but we feed off each other’s energy. That changed the momentum of our innings so that was really awesome for me.”
Jansen was in to bat in the 36th over, after David Miller was dismissed and with Breetzke going along fairly on, on 76 off 79 balls. For nine overs after Jansen arrived, Breetzke didn’t hit a boundary as Jansen smashed his way to 43 of 39 balls. Initially, it was not for lack of trying. In the 38th over, Breetzke tried to pull a pace on Nathan Ellis ball but top-edged and watched it fall safe and he knew he could not afford to do that again. So, Breetzke let Jansen have his fun as he took on Adam Zampa and Mitchell Starc and waited for his opportunity to get into the 90s and beyond.
Breetzke got into the 90s with a boundary off Hazlewood and to 96 with a pull off Starc. His century came with a single, driven powerfully to the cover sweeper and he was celebrating before he had even got to the other end. Breetzke’s roar could be heard rows back and it seemed to combine both his joy and his dogged determination to get to three figures and give his team a platform. “Any century you score for your country is an emotional moment but it (the celebration) was just more about how difficult it was in the beginning and how I had to fight myself through it mentally,” Breetzke said. There were a few stages where I wanted to take a risk but we kept losing wickets. So when I got that century it was a bit of a relief and I am just very grateful.”
The emotion only increased from there. After Breetzke reached the mark, he clearly wanted to accelerate and Jansen seemed keen on the same. The pair took 30 runs off the next two overs, including a single when a throw from Inglis hit Breetzke and he ran away. Australia didn’t like it, and Ellis was particularly unhappy. While Breetzke seemed to be trying to explain the throw wasn’t his fault, Jansen and Ellis had words and the last one appeared to be Jansen’s. Was it all getting too much? “I was just in the moment, to be honest,” Breetzke said. “If that’s in a World Cup, I’m probably going to do that again. If I was on the fielding side, I would be giving the batter hell as well so it’s just part of the game.”
It’s also only the start of their tests. South Africa have eight more ODIs, eight Tests and three T20Is this summer but started with a bang. As for Jansen’s catch, no one has too many words at this stage, not even Breetzke. “Really special. He does do special things, and that was a special catch,” Breetzke said.
