Proteas show what might have been

Faf du Plessis' bat bounced onto the ground. His helmet clunked to earth. Off came the sweatband from his head. He was unburdening himself.

His right hand, still gloved, rained rapid punches onto the badge covering a big heart that has been bruised these past few weeks. Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

Up into Manchester's sky went his arms. He had the whole world in his hands. The whole men's World Cup, anyway.

Something like a grimace was on his face. Relief? Satisfaction? Deliverance from ignominy? It wasn't happiness. SA had left it too late for that. It's a cold day in hell when beating Australia doesn't matter, nevermind in a World Cup. Yesterday was that day.

SA put up their highest total of the tournament, 325/6, and dismissed Australia for 315. But, having been the first team removed from the semifinals equation, they staggered into this match as dead men walking.

Even so, they stopped Australia from finishing top of the standings. So instead of staying in Manchester for a theoretically easier semi against New Zealand on Tuesday, Aaron Finch's team will play England at Edgbaston on Thursday.

Du Plessis scored 100 in that cause, his team's only century in eight innings and a bloody fine one, 40 of them in fours and sixes, the other two-thirds hard hit and hard run, his third consecutive score of 50 and more, and all off 93 balls.

But it didn't matter. Neither did Rassie van der Dussen's 95, which might have been another century had he connected properly with the last ball of the innings. Instead he couldn't get it past Glenn Maxwell on the midwicket fence.

Nonetheless, Van der Dussen's effort, which followed 50 against England and 67 not out against New Zealand, sealed his status as SA's diamond in the wretched rough.

They will need him going forward, what with the one-day careers of JP Duminy and Imran Tahir now over and Du Plessis declining to commit himself to the future.

Du Plessis and Van der Dussen shared 151 after Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram put on 79 for the first wicket.

The top four scored more than 85% of SA's runs, which only made the question thunder louder: where was this kind of batting when it mattered?

There was more where that came from - De Kock's no-look flick onto the stumps from Rabada's mad scramble of a throw to run out Marcus Stoinis, De Kock's lithe leap to catch Maxwell's top-edged flap at Rabada's bouncer, and Chris Morris' stabbing dive at mid-on to snare David Warner's drive.

That ended Warner's gutsy 122. He should have been run out off the third ball of the innings but Rabada made a mess of the throw, and he and Alex Carey shared a stand of 108 that hustled and bustled off 90 deliveries. Carey left with a career-best 85, and respect.