George Linde misses team bus; comes to the ground in Police Escort, knocks out Pakistan

David Miller's explosive knock of 82 runs and George Linde's career-best all-round performance powered South Africa to a narrow 11-run victory over Pakistan in the opening game of the ongoing three-match T20I series at Kingsmead on Friday (December 10).

David Miller smashed 82 off 40 balls, including four fours and eight sixes, while George Linde also played a fiery knock of 48 runs off 24 balls studded with three boundaries and four sixes, as the duo helped South Africa post 183/9 on the board against Pakistan in Kingsmead.

George Linde’s career-best performance guides South Africa to a thrilling win over Pakistan

Defending the target, George Linde then starred with the ball for the hosts, as he finished with the stunning bowling figures of 4 for 21 to help the Proteas win the first T20I match by 11 runs, as Pakistan could muster only 172 runs at the loss of eight wickets in their 20 overs on Friday.

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Reflecting on his long-awaited return to the South Africa cricket team after more than three years, Linde called it "almost the perfect comeback." It was his first international appearance since 2021. Interestingly, the 33-year-old all-rounder revealed that he had missed the team bus and had to take the police escort to reach the ground in Kingsmead.

After taking the Player of the Match award, Linder, a left-handed batter and left-arm spinner, admitted that he didn’t feel great, and it was an embarrassment for him to miss the team bus as it was his comeback match, so he "had to deliver a good performance" with both bat and ball.

George Linde shares the story behind missing the team bus to Kingsmead

George Linde said at the post-match press conference: “Yeah, I missed the team bus. Look, for some reason my phone was 15 minutes behind. So, I thought to myself, OK, four o'clock I'm going to walk down and I'm going to get into the bus nice and early. And then as I got out, there's the bus leaving. And that feeling was not great.”

The all-rounder further said, “Yeah, and then luckily there were police escorts, and they took me to the bus. Actually, no one realized I'm not on the bus, which was actually quite cool. Yeah, because they obviously thought, Obviously, I'm on the bus. And yeah, it was embarrassing, but I reckon for the next game I might just be late again.”

The cat is out the bag🫢

George Linde may have missed the bus for the match, but he still TURNED UP for the Proteas in a big way, with a “Man of the Match” performance.😃👏🏏

Maybe being late is the secret?🤔😏#WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #SAvPAK pic.twitter.com/G7AgZAhHGA

— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) December 11, 2024

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When David Miller got out, I was nervous: Linde

Linde admitted that he was nervous when David Miller was dismissed as the wickets were falling from the other side in the first T20I match against Pakistan. Apart from him and Miller, no South African player could face at least 15 balls and score 15 runs in Kingsmead.

However, the comeback was calm and relaxed and it helped him to go with a bang against the Men in Green. Linde signed off by saying, “When David got out, I was nervous. I asked myself what the team needed from me at that very moment. Luckily, I was nice and calm and relaxed.”