Imagine for a second how it feels to be Dane van Niekerk right now.
After a difficult few months in which you were prevented from playing in a home World Cup due to an arbitrary fitness target, you’re finally ready to burst back onto the scene by leading Oval Invincibles’ title defence.
Then, in your team’s match against Manchester Originals, you suffer a nasty blow to your thumb. On Sunday, you are ruled out of the rest of The Hundred after scans reveal that the thumb injury will require surgery to fix.
On Monday, you discover (via ESPNCricinfo) that Cricket South Africa have decided to abolish the fitness standard which brought about your premature retirement from international cricket.
There is one silver lining: you can stay with Invincibles for the duration of the tournament. Tuesday comes around, and it’s time for their match v London Spirit – a local derby which Invincibles have never lost. You participate in the team talk pre-match, imparting some of that famous tactical wisdom which you are known for.
Something you AREN’T known for is being a good watcher of cricket. But that’s OK, because your replacement skipper Suzie Bates has decided that your wife, Marizanne Kapp, should bowl all her deliveries in the opening 35 balls of the match.
You watch her take two wickets for 13 runs in her allotted 20 balls, including bowling poor Niamh Holland in her opening set, with a beauty which the 18-year-old had no idea what to do with.
You are left pondering about Heather Knight’s bizarre decision to promote Holland to face your wife at the top of the order, while omitting Grace Scrivens from the XI – despite the fact that Scrivens regularly opens for her region (you are well aware of this, being her captain at Sunrisers), and Holland does not.
Minutes later, two Spirit players are “having words” with each other mid-pitch after a dopey run-out, while your wife does the nearest thing she ever does on the pitch to smiling. Eventually, London Spirit sink to 87 for 9 after 78 balls. You nod to yourself, satisfied. Invincibles have this in the bag.
Except, two hours later – after a 10th-wicket partnership of 31 in 22 balls between Lauren Filer and Tara Norris; and a powerplay in which Invincibles manage to put just 23 runs on the board – it turns out they didn’t.
It’s Tuesday evening, and you could, should, have been celebrating. Instead, your side’s title defence is slipping through your fingers (Invincibles sit fourth in the table but have only a 3% chance of qualifying for the knockouts) – and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
After Oval Invincibles lost to London Spirit on a balmy Tuesday afternoon at The Oval by 22 runs, I asked Sophia Smale what van Niekerk would be saying to her teammates in the post-match dressing-room review. “How did we lose it, probably!” came the reply.
Dane van Niekerk has undoubtedly had better weeks.
CRICKETher 
I was sat in the stands utterly dumbfounded as to how we lost that (quickly turning to incandescent rage) Simple answer is our opening batters are scoring too slowly, which then quickly turned into 4,5 & 6 following suit. I can see us doing a ‘Welsh Fire’ next season and having a near complete change in the squad.
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