Still time for Parnell to glimpse glory

Two players' careers came like comets, but only one has seen the whole of the moon. Might South Africa's T20I series in India be a chance for the other to glimpse the glory that might also have been his?

In Kuala Lumpur on March 2, 2008, Wayne Parnell walked out for the toss as South Africa's captain in the under-19 World Cup final. Alongside him was someone called Virat Kohli. Both brimmed with potential, Kohli as a batter as innovative as he was aggressive and ambitious, Parnell as a fearless, peerless left-handed fast bowling allrounder. More than 14 years on, Kohli has played 101 Tests, 260 ODIs and 97 T20Is, captained India 213 times in all formats, and will leave the game as a bona fide modern great. Parnell? Six Tests, 67 ODIs and 41 T20Is, and not a captaincy among them.

Their paths have crossed 11 times as senior internationals, all of them in white-ball games and most recently in a 2015 World Cup pool match at the MCG. Kohli was but a foil to Shikhar Dhawan's swinging sabre in their stand of 127 in that game. Parnell had Dhawan caught in the deep for 137, but that was just about all he got right on the night. The 85 he conceded in nine overs made him comfortably his team's most expensive bowler, and he was 17 not out off 28 balls when South Africa were bowled out 130 runs short of the target.

That was South Africa's second match of the tournament, and the only one that would feature Parnell. He was just 25, but it seemed cricket itself had given up on him fulfilling his immense promise. Injuries and a cold shoulder from the selectors added to that narrative. Even when he was fit and did crack the nod - in 30 more internationals before the current tour to India - he never quite made the breakthrough that would have put him back on track for the top, where talents of his calibre belong.

Parnell played in 18 of South Africa's 40 matches across the formats in 2017, taking six wickets in a Test against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers and four in an ODI against the same opponents at Newlands. But by then his successes were seen as surprises; a bonus, not key to the cause. He had gone from being the next big thing to the next bit of the puzzle of winning.

Parnell's contribution to South Africa's rousing victory at the Kotla on Thursday (June 9) could be cast in the same light: he took 1/32 and was not required to bat as the visitors successfully chased 212 - their record T20I target - to win by seven wickets with five balls to spare. But that would be a mistake, and unfair.

He conceded a single to Ruturaj Gaikwad off his first delivery, but kept the bristling Ishan Kishan scoreless for the rest of the over. Gaikwad should have been caught on the fine leg fence off the first ball of Parnell's second over, only for Dwaine Pretorius to not only drop the chance but turn it into a six. Parnell held his nerve and reeled in his length, and had Gaikwad caught at midwicket with his next delivery. He had taken 1/19 going into his last over, when Hardik Pandya worked a full toss to midwicket for four and heaved a too straight delivery over long-on for six. India's blazing batting hogged the headlines between innings, but the match and the result might have panned out differently without Parnell - whose economy rate of 8.00 was his team's best.

It's only one game and, weeks away from his 33rd birthday, Parnell is no longer the glittering prospect he once was. But what helped him handle the pressure on Thursday better than he might have earlier in his career?

"Two words jump out: trust and belief," Parnell said in an audio file CSA released on Saturday (June 11). "Trusting my ability, trusting everything I've gone through, and trying to call on those experiences. Trust and belief go hand in hand; having that self-belief and trusting everything that I've done previously. That's been the biggest change for me. In the past I've been guilty of trying to be a different player, and not feeling too comfortable in the group. Now it's about trusting the skill that I have and backing that completely."

Of the other 20 players involved in that 2008 under-19 World Cup final only eight have reached senior international level. Among them, only Ravindra Jadeja and Pieter Malan have earned Test caps. So it would be wrong to claim that Parnell has failed as a cricketer. But it is also true that he hasn't lived up to the hope many had vested in him.

An indication that he has made peace with that discrepancy could be read between the lines of something he told a press conference on Saturday in Cuttack, where the second T20I will be played on Sunday: "There are two things that India do really well. One is cricket and the other is hospitality."

Parnell hasn't always been one of cricket's happier campers. But it's not too late for him to look past the shadows, to trust and believe. To see the whole of the moon.