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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – The Proteas must balance the need not to show unnecessary panic with complicated tactical requirements when they consider their team options for the big Cricket World Cup Group B tussle with India at Nagpur on Saturday.
Of course they are copping predictable ire from many back home for the low-scoring, botched job against England, their first defeat of the tournament after a near-runaway start.
But those of sober mind, including presumably the team’s senior brains trust, will also not lose sight of the fact of the fact that the reverse in Chennai came on a pitch pockmarked with “landmines” – always a great leveller – and they can probably expect a return to significantly truer conditions at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
The three-year-old venue tends to offer up big scores, but also some assistance to both the quicker bowlers and spinners, so South Africa will require their thinking caps ahead of the seismic contest between teams still heavily touted in the event.
Certainly the bowling department is the least of their worries, although the correct makeup of the attack to face India’s array of stroke-players in the day/nighter will present some head-scratching.
At Chennai the Proteas’ renewed emphasis on spin as an attacking device was again in plentiful evidence ... but it will be enough at Nagpur just to have Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis for seam needs?
This is the venue, after all, where Steyn registered his famous seven for 51 in India’s first innings and 10 wickets in the match as South Africa won a Test there by an innings in February last year.
And just a few days ago, in a World Cup Group A encounter, Australia’s frisky pace trio of Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait were instrumental in that country’s comfortable triumph over great rivals New Zealand at the ground, taking eight wickets between them.
So a first CWC appearance for someone like Lonwabo Tsotsobe is not out of the question, although the dilemma would be who to omit without affecting the balance of the side too much.
Adding to the quandary is that the Proteas have also not fielded their supposed “senior spinner” Johan Botha for two matches on the trot, and there is also a case for arguing that his determination – if not necessarily proven statistical ability – with the bat might have come in handy as South Africa’s middle order imploded fatally against England.
In the wake of the Chennai failure, some critics have inevitably murmured anew that Smith’s side are missing the presence of a seasoned “finisher” like Mark Boucher or big-hitting factor like Albie Morkel.
In truth, it cannot really be argued compellingly yet, based purely on tournament evidence, that South Africa lack a long-handle factor in the middle- to lower-order, because the loss at the MA Chidambaram Stadium came in circumstances where orthodoxy with the blade was probably a greater requirement than cavalier tonking of the ball (even if, yes, one big heave over the ropes would have prevented defeat, if you insist on looking at it in those terms).
But that doesn’t mean the composition of the batting areas between Nos 6-8 must not go under the microscope: it remains a reasonably intricate dynamic within this Proteas squad where no Pollock or Klusener X-factor at the crease automatically presents himself.
What is the plan, too, with Morne van Wyk? Has he just been deputising for AB de Villiers behind the stumps while the latter supposedly gets over a back niggle, or is he intended to retain the gloves, leaving De Villiers to focus on his vital main trade?
Perhaps we will see resolution to that poser in Nagpur.
The experienced Van Wyk seemed reasonably cool in temperament as he tried to stabilise the sinking ship against England, although he also could not find the boundary once in a 37-ball stay – rather obsessed as he was with trying to play the ball square in unfavourable circumstances – which probably only aided England’s strangulation job on the Proteas.
Faf du Plessis was run out at a bad time, meandering down the pitch with vultures lurking around the bat against Graeme Swann, but he had played his own small part in South Africa so nearly getting across the line as the pitch got worse and worse, and we need to remember that the Titans man was only playing his sixth ODI.
Then again, might it be argued that the World Cup is no place for training wheels?
Corrie van Zyl and company have some key pitch-reading and other tasks just ahead of them ...
Cape Town – The Proteas must balance the need not to show unnecessary panic with complicated tactical requirements when they consider their team options for the big Cricket World Cup Group B tussle with India at Nagpur on Saturday.
Of course they are copping predictable ire from many back home for the low-scoring, botched job against England, their first defeat of the tournament after a near-runaway start.
But those of sober mind, including presumably the team’s senior brains trust, will also not lose sight of the fact of the fact that the reverse in Chennai came on a pitch pockmarked with “landmines” – always a great leveller – and they can probably expect a return to significantly truer conditions at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
The three-year-old venue tends to offer up big scores, but also some assistance to both the quicker bowlers and spinners, so South Africa will require their thinking caps ahead of the seismic contest between teams still heavily touted in the event.
Certainly the bowling department is the least of their worries, although the correct makeup of the attack to face India’s array of stroke-players in the day/nighter will present some head-scratching.
At Chennai the Proteas’ renewed emphasis on spin as an attacking device was again in plentiful evidence ... but it will be enough at Nagpur just to have Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis for seam needs?
This is the venue, after all, where Steyn registered his famous seven for 51 in India’s first innings and 10 wickets in the match as South Africa won a Test there by an innings in February last year.
And just a few days ago, in a World Cup Group A encounter, Australia’s frisky pace trio of Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee and Shaun Tait were instrumental in that country’s comfortable triumph over great rivals New Zealand at the ground, taking eight wickets between them.
So a first CWC appearance for someone like Lonwabo Tsotsobe is not out of the question, although the dilemma would be who to omit without affecting the balance of the side too much.
Adding to the quandary is that the Proteas have also not fielded their supposed “senior spinner” Johan Botha for two matches on the trot, and there is also a case for arguing that his determination – if not necessarily proven statistical ability – with the bat might have come in handy as South Africa’s middle order imploded fatally against England.
In the wake of the Chennai failure, some critics have inevitably murmured anew that Smith’s side are missing the presence of a seasoned “finisher” like Mark Boucher or big-hitting factor like Albie Morkel.
In truth, it cannot really be argued compellingly yet, based purely on tournament evidence, that South Africa lack a long-handle factor in the middle- to lower-order, because the loss at the MA Chidambaram Stadium came in circumstances where orthodoxy with the blade was probably a greater requirement than cavalier tonking of the ball (even if, yes, one big heave over the ropes would have prevented defeat, if you insist on looking at it in those terms).
But that doesn’t mean the composition of the batting areas between Nos 6-8 must not go under the microscope: it remains a reasonably intricate dynamic within this Proteas squad where no Pollock or Klusener X-factor at the crease automatically presents himself.
What is the plan, too, with Morne van Wyk? Has he just been deputising for AB de Villiers behind the stumps while the latter supposedly gets over a back niggle, or is he intended to retain the gloves, leaving De Villiers to focus on his vital main trade?
Perhaps we will see resolution to that poser in Nagpur.
The experienced Van Wyk seemed reasonably cool in temperament as he tried to stabilise the sinking ship against England, although he also could not find the boundary once in a 37-ball stay – rather obsessed as he was with trying to play the ball square in unfavourable circumstances – which probably only aided England’s strangulation job on the Proteas.
Faf du Plessis was run out at a bad time, meandering down the pitch with vultures lurking around the bat against Graeme Swann, but he had played his own small part in South Africa so nearly getting across the line as the pitch got worse and worse, and we need to remember that the Titans man was only playing his sixth ODI.
Then again, might it be argued that the World Cup is no place for training wheels?
Corrie van Zyl and company have some key pitch-reading and other tasks just ahead of them ...
