Jansen defies conditions to emerge as South Africa's leader of the pack

At 6 feet 9 inches, Marco Jansen is an imposing figure on the field. He appears even more imposing when he uses that height to bang the ball into the pitch.

On what was arguably the quickest Chepauk pitch on offer in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Jansen bullied Pakistan's top and lower orders. After having played a starring role with the ball, Jansen made a cameo with the bat - 20 off 14 balls - to help South Africa narrowly chase down 271 on a track that provided sharp bounce and zip to the bowlers throughout the game.

This has been a difficult World Cup for new-ball bowlers. With the conditions not particularly conducive to swing, the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Trent Boult have had their share of struggles in the powerplay. Jansen's primary role is also to swing the new ball - he's a super specialist in the powerplay in T20 cricket - but he also has other precious skills that defy conditions.

Once Jansen gleaned that the new ball wasn't swinging, he immediately dragged his length so far back that he had Abdullah Shafique ducking and weaving. It was only a matter of when - and not if - Jansen would blast out Shafique. The moment arrived in the left-arm quick's third over, when he had the batter flapping a rib-high short ball from over the wicket to Lungi Ngidi at long leg. Jansen had similarly troubled Imam-ul-Haq with the short ball before he sucker-punched him with a fuller one wide of off stump. Having been pushed back, Imam simply threw his hands at the ball and nicked it behind to gully.

This was Jansen's tenth wicket in the powerplay in this World Cup - nobody has more wickets than him during this phase. His tally is double than that of the next best. After South Africa's tense one-wicket win, their captain Temba Bavuma tried to make sense of Jansen's new-ball potency on Indian pitches.

"I think the ball is swinging. I think Marco has recognised that," Bavuma said at his post-match press conference. "He's been working a lot on his wrist position and he's exploiting whatever swing and seam that is there on offer. I think there's freedom for him to go about searching for those wickets but still having that control. And I think also being backed up with a guy like Lungi on the other side who's also looking to exploit whatever swing, whatever seam that is on offer; I think they're working well together.

"So, look, I mean, players will always flourish when they feel backed. We know Marco, [during] Australia series, wasn't bowling the quality that he is bowling now, but he understood that the guys who had him in the team were backing him and we know what his skill set is. So, it's on show now. He's really becoming a weapon of ours and we'll take that any day."

South Africa's team management has empowered Jansen and Co to perform attacking roles with the new ball even though the conditions may not necessarily be in their favour. Against England on a flat Wankhede deck, South Africa had placed a wide leg-slip for Joe Root and on cue, the batter tickled one off the hips to that fielder. Then against Pakistan, they had a wide gully to trap Imam.

"Yes, I think upfront with Marco, like I said, we're always looking for him to swing the ball both ways," Bavuma said. "I think we've identified that the ball upfront, it doesn't really go square with the wicket a lot, so we thought instead of the two slips behind with the right-hander, rather have one-on-one with the leg slip. That's obviously worked. I think it put something at the back of the batter's mind. And I think with the left-hander, he's probably always going to go two slips and if it's not swinging, he'll always go the gully.

"We felt this wicket there was a little bit of bounce and obviously Marco being ten foot whatever he is, he's always going to exploit that. But yeah, we plan for these things, sometimes they come off, sometimes they don't, and when they don't, you look like you don't know what you're doing. So, it's been a good run for Marco, it's been a good run for us as the strategic team as well in terms of our planning."

Jansen also kept Shadab Khan quiet with his hit-the-deck hustle in the middle overs before unleashing reverse-swinging yorkers at the death. Mohammad Nawaz somehow kept those yorkers out. But when Jansen marginally missed his yorker, Nawaz was already rattled and he ended up plopping a leading edge to point. He was the ninth Pakistan batter to fall and Pakistan were ultimately bowled out for a below-par 270, with 20 balls unused in their innings.

"I don't think we batted particularly well at the back end," Mickey Arthur, Pakistan's team director, summed up at his press conference. "But we always set ourselves up to have… you've got to have one of your top four in at over 40. And you talk about the success that we've had over the last year; we've had one of our top four generally getting hundreds. We've had two hundreds this competition so far in the same game.

"So, we've had players get in. We've had players get starts. We haven't had players go through. And I thought, I don't think we managed the last five overs particularly well tonight. There was still, at one point, in the 45th over, I remember saying to the dressing room a run-a-ball gets us 295 and a little bit more we've got us 300. I know we would have defended 300 tonight. So, I don't think we managed that back end particularly well at all. And we left 10-12 balls out there that we didn't face."

Tabraiz Shamsi walked away with the Player-of-the-Match award for his four-wicket haul, but Jansen had made the biggest impact, according to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats.