Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Centurion - So the Good Ship South Africa has been mortally torpedoed in a world tournament once again, even as their captain stuck honourably to the bridge while the bubbles appeared.

Most times, you would fancy Graeme Smith notching a one-day international career-best 141 in a near 45-over vigil being a passport to victory for his side.

But as we know the Proteas also tend to have “those” days in multi-nation jamborees when disaster rears its braai-extinguishing head in some form or another.

On Sunday, the listing to starboard that preceded the sinking -- read: South Africa’s exit from the ICC Champions Trophy at the hands of surprise packages England - was chiefly the responsibility of their touted bowling attack, who leaked more than 300 runs for the second time in three Group B matches.

If people are going to throw the inevitable “choke” word into circulation, then maybe the Proteas batsmen, with Smith once again underlining his personal relish for scrapping defiantly with heavy seas, can be exempted from the charge sheet.

Certainly there is an overdue respect and appreciation for GC Smith the leader and gladiator, as evidenced by the tumultuous applause he got as he limped, cramp-stricken, back to the pavilion with the game and tournament all but a lost cause for his country … and soon after confirmed.

While it is true that certain of Smith’s blade-wielding colleagues surrendered their wickets to unwise shot selection, savvy judges will know that that phenomenon is bound to occur when you are the team in pursuit of 324 to win a crucial ODI. It is a steep ask and risky, extreme flamboyance will be necessary along the way.

Frankly, the Proteas made a plucky fist of it, coming to within an agonising 23 runs of a seismic win and their batting generally in this tournament has been -- sorry, was -- fine.

Yet the bowling has been markedly more wretched, with unacceptable economy rates and some spells of wicket-taking impotence the rather surprising norm.

Sadly, this was again the case when it mattered most, the make-or-breaker on Sunday against an England side so abject two or three weeks back against Australia and so staggeringly revitalised now.

It is little - but some, nevertheless - consolation that Andrew Strauss gushed afterwards: “That was the best I can ever remember England batting (in an ODI).”

That statement doesn’t disguise the fact that the Proteas were all too pop-gun in their bowling assault, as had been the case in the Sri Lankan blitz five days earlier which immediately put the host nation on the tourney back foot.

Dale Steyn and Johan Botha were among the senior South African bowling servants who clearly have not fully banished winter rust, while Roelof van der Merwe experienced the first true clobbering of his left-arm spinners, in his seventh appearance, at an inopportune juncture.

Young Wayne Parnell, meanwhile, will reflect on a split-personality tournament in which he stands as the leading wicket-taker by a distance, with 11 of them at an average of 17.81, but with a bloated economy of 7.00 on the nail.

He blew pleasingly hot or worrisomely cold, with little in between, but we need to acknowledge that this exciting talent is still very much in international tutorial classes, as it were.

Sadly, the less said about sometimes master-blaster Albie Morkel’s tournament with the ball the better, because when there is no “nip” on offer, the supposed all-rounder is becoming ever more vulnerable to withering assault in this format of the game.

He travelled for 97 runs in 13 overs of necessarily sporadic Champions Trophy bowling.

Morkel’s shortcomings on this front - although he may cause some selection head-scratching down the line because his No 7 hitting prowess is rightly highly valued - were laid bare once again in this match when he was unable to compellingly take up the Jacques Kallis mantle after the veteran cried off after only three overs due to a side problem.

It left Smith with unenviably few seam options on a pitch where even his spinners, for once, were finding little in the way of assistance.

“The wicket played well today and the bowlers needed to be really consistent,” Smith told Sport24 ruefully afterwards. “There wasn’t a lot of spin on offer this (time) so our seamers also needed to come to the party.

“As you said, we conceded over 300 runs in two of the three games which is hugely disappointing. If wickets play that well, maybe we do need to look at aspects of our attack, going forward.

“For the England series (from November) there are some decisions to be made and things to look at. I think today it was three or four good balls then one or two bad ones every over.”

Smith was diplomatic - he steered commendably clear of a whine -- when probed about the possible impact on the result of Kallis’s premature withdrawal from the attack.

“He’d go down as our front-three seamer, so to have that option available to me would have been nice. To do a side (injury) as early as he did … there’s always the risk you push him and push him but then maybe he can’t bat.

“So it was one of those captain’s decisions. But not to have that option available, especially with the short boundary, did limit us.”

It is quite feasible, I think, that to some extent the Proteas were hamstrung by the unseemly feuding between Cricket South Africa and the Gauteng Cricket Board, which saw SuperSport Park, home of the neighbouring Titans franchise, suddenly given the lion’s share of prime fixtures and all the South African group ones.

It was clear from early on in the event that the Wanderers was offering infinitely better bounce and carry than the slowish Centurion strips.
Coach Mickey Arthur admitted he would have been keen to have played Sri Lanka in Johannesburg.

“One of our strengths has always been our attack. To sit and have two quick bowlers not playing (Makhaya Ntini and Lonwabo Tsotsobe) doesn’t help us. When I did see a couple of those Wanderers strips at the start of the tournament … I would certainly have far preferred to have played Sri Lanka at Wanderers than Centurion, where the wicket was tailor-made for the Subcontinent.

“We’ve seen what’s happened to Sri Lanka at the Wanderers (successive defeats there) with the odd balls that have bounced above stump height, so if I could have picked I’d have opted for Wanderers to play them, but it was not to be.

“We’ve identified facets of our game that need a bit of attention. No excuses, but I think your bowlers do take a little longer to get match-fit than your batsmen. It’s a reality, not an excuse.

“We’ve got to be battle-hardened as a team when we hit England in November. We need to look at some really skilled seamers. A guy like Charl Langeveldt might be an option if he regains full fitness - very good at ‘death’.

“But the guys we’ve got right now are the best in their positions. Morne Morkel is a guy we’re looking at to fulfil roles in both forms of the game for us (but) he needs to mature just a little bit as well and he knows that.”