Eight 300-plus scores this year. Six totals of over 300 in their last seven games, and two of them over 400. Three 300-plus scores this World Cup already, including a 229-run thrashing of the defending champions England. All this with the most explosive batting of the tournament so far.

So where’s the catch?

That, dear reader, is in the fact that all but one of those feats have come batting first.

If you leave out their successful chase of 343 against England at home back in January, all their blazing batting performances have been recorded when batting first. And their three wins in this World Cup have also come when batting first.

They were lucky in their last game, against England, where they lost the toss but still got to bat first, and hammered one short of another 400. Jos Buttler later admitted that England should have batted first in the sapping heat and humidity of Mumbai.

South Africa have been out of their comfort zone chasing in ODIs this year. It was evident barely a week ago when they tried chasing down 246 (in 43 overs) in Dharamsala against Netherlands, the lowest-ranked and only Associate team at the World Cup, but just about managed to cross 200 to fall well short.

It is a new pattern with South Africa. Before the loss to Netherlands, their last attempt to chase down a target was in early September against an Australian attack without Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, yet they lost by a massive 123 runs. Their last successful chase came against Netherlands in March this year, but the target was a modest 190, and the one before that was also in March, against West Indies, who failed to qualify for the World Cup.

In short, South Africa’s mighty batting line-up has smashed a lot of runs batting first in 2023, but has struggled while chasing. And if they lose the flip of the coin on Tuesday afternoon against Bangladesh, they could very well be asked to field first in the unforgiving weather of Mumbai – and have to chase a stiff target, because Wankhede could yet again provide a flat deck, with short boundaries thrown in as a bonus.

“Yeah, it’s more of an approach where we’re trying to… almost trying to approach it as if we’re still setting a target,” Aiden Markram, who was the captain in place of the injured Temba Bavuma in their last game, said on Monday of their chasing trend. “Although we are chasing in the game itself, to apply yourself as a batter and to get yourself in, doing it the same way as you would if you were setting a target. And then once you’re feeling in, to sort of try to understand the situation and what’s required of you at that certain time. And we have batted a lot and we haven’t chased a lot, so it’ll be a great challenge if we do get to chase tomorrow and try and implement what we’ve been chatting about off the field.”

Chasing a target may not be the only challenge for South Africa on Tuesday. South Africa went down 2-1 in their last ODI series against Bangladesh, at home in March 2022, and their two losses to Bangladesh in World Cups – in 2007 and 2019 – also came while, guess what, batting second.

“We haven’t done particularly well against them in the past, so that’s extra motivation for us to come out and replicate what was a good performance against England,” Markram said, “but more from an intensity level and a standards level, that’s something that we’re going to try to focus on and trust that if we take care of those sorts of things, hopefully it’s enough for us on the day.

“They’re a fantastic team. If you don’t rock up on the day and if your skills let you down on the day against a team like Bangladesh you will be put under a lot of pressure. So that’s probably where we’ve got it wrong in the past. Naturally they bring a great attack that is well-rounded now. You can’t just say they’re going to bring fantastic spinners because their seamers have done a great job in the recent past. So, they’re a fantastic team.”

South Africa found out early in this tournament – by losing their second consecutive World Cup game across formats to Netherlands – what an upset feels like. If they are thrown the challenge of chasing a stiff one on Tuesday, they would want to prove that their batters can shine under pressure too.