Rob Houwing’s weekly IPL South African player-watch

Cape Town - It hasn’t surprised me in the slightest that the Proteas stalwarts gracing the first couple of rounds of Indian Premier League matches generally haven’t set the world alight yet.

Many of them – and more specifically those who have slogged their way through a full summer of high-pressure encounters on various fronts with Australia – will have hit the IPL ground … well, let’s just say not exactly “running”.

I’ve heard a few wags say they don’t feel too sorry for the players’ fatigued status because they are highly paid for their presence at the IPL party. True - but even money isn’t an automatic cure for being knackered.

The fact that the IPL began less than a day after the ODI series against Australia ended, barely even gave the Proteas contingent an opportunity to gulp down a breath before they were on red-eye flights to link up with their Indian franchises in Cape Town in a hurry.

Ricky Ponting, after all, had made a very rightful point that the 2008/09 hostilities between the two countries – compelling though they almost always were – had dragged on for a tad too long.

There is still no mental and physical pressure quite like the kind when two fierce rival nations lock horns over a protracted period, even if the IPL comes with a tempo and demands all of its own.

So my expectation is that the South African stars of the IPL (remember, under special pressure this time because they are performing before home crowds and are expected to be masters of the domestic conditions) will warm steadily to the tournament.

So far Herschelle Gibbs of the Deccan Chargers, perhaps, has been the best exception to the rule - simply transferring his blistering ODI form straight into the IPL arena.

Could we be seeing, do you think, the true fruits now of his withdrawal from certain long-time, personal hedonistic tendencies at the end of last year?

I thought Gibbs looked in surprisingly good touch from the moment he stepped out of his much-publicised stint in rehab and onto the Aussie ODI paddock in January, even if earliest scoreboard results didn’t necessarily reflect that.

But now he’s flying, as they say, and not only did he bat with customary rollicking tempo for his unbeaten 43 in the Chargers’ easy triumph over Kolkata Knight Riders, but great gumption, too.

The Newlands pitch, with its tennis-ball bounce, wasn’t the easiest for simply getting onto the front foot and thumping the ball straight down the ground, so Gibbs employed his flick backward of square-leg to wonderful effect, even if he sometimes had to go slightly outside off-stump to “fetch” the ball.

Improvisation, after all, is a precious gift in T20 cricket.

Of course the Cape Town crowd were desperate to see high-priced JP Duminy deliver first-up for Mumbai Indians, and he got to nine deftly enough on debut against Chennai Super Kings, only to succumb to a caught-and-bowled.

What a shame his potentially enthralling third-wicket partnership with established master Sachin Tendulkar ended so swiftly!

A little bird whispers that IPL supreme commander Lalit Modi himself was incensed over that firm SA crowd-pleaser Albie Morkel not being able to turn out immediately for the Super Kings because of a kit bungle in transit by a certain particularly well-known domestic airline!

Still, Ray Jennings’ Bangalore Royal Challengers (played two, won one, lost one) had a rough time in Port Elizabeth: rolled for 87 against a resurgent Super Kings with Morkel, now in a strategic alliance with Sport24 (see story elsewhere on the site), finally in the saddle for them.

Indeed, our Albie did his side a massive favour in their victory charge by trapping compatriot Jacques Kallis leg before wicket for what had been a hitherto menacing 24.

I’ve always felt that “Jakes” can play wonderfully expansively when he puts his mind and heart to it, and in PE he set off like a house on fire with some searing drives: there were five boundaries in his 19-ball biff-bam.

It made up in some way for the fact that he had earlier taken some bowling stick from the in-form Matthew Hayden, now boasting successive IPL scores of 44 and 65.

Another South African bowler to experience some IPL angst – on debut -- was poor Yusuf Abdulla.

If there’s one thing the promising Dolphins left-arm seamer would have learnt, it is that in this merciless competition for bowlers, there’s no time for a settling, “loosener” over!

Yes, if you don’t find your desired line and length immediately, you could travel, as he did in an eventful, short-lived stint of 1-0-19-0 for Kings XI Punjab against Delhi Daredevils top-of-order maestros Messrs Sehwag and Gambhir.

But he’ll bounce back, I’m pretty sure: in this competition your 0/19 in a solitary over one day can easily be 4/12 off four the next …