'That feeling was not great' - George Linde on missing team bus before giving match winning performance against Pakistan

George Linde appeared for South Africa after a gap of three years, three months and two days. But the all-rounder made amends for the time he lost in between and notched up a 24-ball 48 and helped South Africa reach 183/9 in the first T20I against Pakistan at Kingsmead on December 10. He was also part of a crucial 24-ball 42 runs partnership with Kwena Maphaka.

But the 33-year-old revealed that his comeback to the South Africa team was marred by late arrival. He also added that, as the bus started leaving, it was the police escort vehicle that dropped him to his destination.

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"For some reason my phone was 15 minutes behind time. I had thought to myself, 'OK, at 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 came out of the team hotel I saw the bus leaving, and that feeling was not great. Luckily there were police escorts and they took me to the bus. Actually, no one realised I wasn't on the bus, which was actually quite cool. It was embarrassing, but I reckon for the next game I might just be late again!" said Linde as quoted by Cricbuzz. 

Linde delivers goods with the bat

Linde was phenomenal with the ball too as the left-arm spinner bowled four overs picked as many wickets and conceded just 21 runs making his economy rate of 5.20. Thanks to his spell, the hosts managed to contain Pakistan just in time and the visitors fell 11 runs short.

“Almost a perfect comeback game apart from the hat-trick ball. I have played quite a lot of cricket, have had a pretty good season so far, tried to keep calm and ask myself what the team needs,” said Linde after the game.