Welcome back, Anrich Nortje

Remember T20 cricket before the 2024 IPL? If you watched Monday's men's T20 World Cup game between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Nassau County, you didn't need reminding. It was all there in front of you.

The pitch was interestingly inconsistent, not flabby with flatness, the outfield was decently deep, not chronically cramped, the batting looked like batting, not hyperbolic hitting, the bowling looked like bowling, not tricksy tightrope-walking.

Doubtless Sri Lanka's supporters didn't want to see their team slump to their fourth-lowest powerplay - 24/1 - nor their lowest score after 10 overs - 40/5 - nor to their lowest total, a sorry 77, nor to the lowest total yet made against South Africa by any opposition.

Doubtless, South Africa's fans weren't banking on victory by six wickets with 22 balls to spare. Doubtless, all could see that batting on this pitch wasn't straightforward, so undue celebration at the result would be unwise.

Or perhaps South Africans feel as if they have been shot in the movie of their team's World Cup failures too many times before. For instance, in the first game of the ODI World Cup, in Delhi in October, when South Africa piled up 428/5 and won by 102 runs.

Their opponents then? Also Sri Lanka. Their tournament outcome? Defeat by three wickets at the hands of their historical hangmen, Australia, in the semifinals. Doubtless, the Aussies will loom large for them again sometime in the coming weeks.

But, for now, there will be something like satisfaction. At least, there will be until Saturday, when the South Africans return to this venue to play the Netherlands. Then there will be nervousness, because the Dutch have beaten them both times they have met in recent tournaments - in Adelaide in the 2022 T20 World Cup, and last year in Dharamsala in the ODI version.

Those results will quell any thoughts of an easy day out for Aiden Markram's team, and the Netherlanders' win over Sri Lanka in Lauderhill on Tuesday - albeit in a warm-up game - will add an edge of competitiveness to Saturday's clash.

South Africa's success on Monday started when Wanindu Hasaranga made the wrong decision at the toss. Why would you choose to bat first on a surface that had never seen an official international? Markram said then he would have fielded first, which clearly was the more sensible option.

Humidity helped the ball swing, and there was bounce for some deliveries but not others. Turn? Not a lot. So South Africa's attack of Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Keshav Maharaj and Anrich Nortje was spot on.

Nortje was the fifth bowler used in three of the other 32 T20Is in which he has bowled. But never had he been introduced as late as the eighth over, as he was on Monday. By then Sri Lanka were 30/1.

Much has been made of Nortje's performance since he returned, in March, from the equivalent of six months on the sidelines because of a lumbar stress fracture. He endured an underwhelming IPL, playing only six of Delhi Capitals' 14 matches and taking seven wickets at an economy rate of 13.36. Fifty-three bowlers took more wickets. Fifty-six were less expensive.

"When he plays, he's going to bowl rockets," Gerald Coetzee said in a video broadcast during Nortje's spell. It was exactly the kind of thing a younger player would say about a senior, particularly if both are also thoroughly decent blokes. But could Nortje back up that faith?

He had a flicking Kamindu Mendis caught on the square leg fence with the fifth ball of his first over. By the time he was tossed the ball again, to bowl the 10th, the Lankans were 36/4 thanks to Maharaj - in consecutive balls - having Hasaranga easily stumped and nailing Sadeera Samarawickrama's off stump with a straight delivery.

Nortje roared to 150 kilometres an hour in his second over, which ended with Kusal Mendis heaving a catch to deep fine leg. Charith Asalanka and Angelo Mathews were also in his pocket, caught at square leg and fine leg with deliveries that got big on them, as Nortje banked career-best figures of 4/7.

"It's been feeling good, it just hasn't paid off in my last few games," he told a television interviewer. "It's been a while since I had figures like those. I felt off here and there, but the plan was simple."

After Saturday, South Africa will be back at Nassau on Monday to take on Bangladesh. Then it's off to the islands to take on Nepal in Kingstown in St Vincent five days later. And then, if all goes well enough, they'll be into the Super Eights.

A simple plan, with Nortje prominent and anchored on the way T20 cricket was played before this year's IPL, will be key to South Africa's success.