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GALLERY: Top sporting pics from the past weekend
Unofficial or not, the Proteas’ won-two-lost-three performance in a triangular Twenty20 tournament dominated in composition by known minnows has to go down as one of the country’s least edifying outcomes of the post-isolation era.
Before assessing the failed winter exercise further, it is probably necessary to banish the indignation of the hopelessly naive: no, this T20 flop does not mean that South Africa’s broad cricketing shares suddenly nosedive ahead of their crucial, overwhelmingly Test-geared tour of England very shortly.
Just for the record, only one member of the infinitely more seasoned, largely settled Test XI likely to take to The Oval for the first five-dayer from July 19 – Amla, who is probably extremely happy to return captaincy cares to Graeme Smith and focus on what he so obviously does best – made the rather ill-fated trek to Harare.
For the most part, the T20 squad humbled in the triangular was an essentially experimental outfit designed to give coach Gary Kirsten and the selectors a better idea of which players to prioritise for the ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka from September.
South Africa, frankly, have seldom looked too sparkly in this format, which arguably has little gravitas outside of the global get-together every two years. It is not a situation that has given too many people sleepless nights.
That said, the Proteas are extremely mindful of the huge public pressure, understandably, to deliver an ICC limited-overs tournament trophy after many years of suffering on that front.
So South Africa will take the Sri Lankan event seriously ... and I imagine they will also pin their faith pretty strongly in experience for it, bearing in mind this debacle of sorts with a lorry-load of raw or relatively raw customers failing to grab the Zimbabwean opportunity to make a mark.
You have to feel sorry for some likely casualties: T20 is a tricky arena to suddenly burst into as a rookie and excel at: bowlers missing correct length by an inch or two can be pummelled, mis-hits sometimes earn sixes and so often middle order batsmen in this game come to the crease with, say, four overs to go and a pot-luck slog on.
Coming out of a cold South African off-season and clicking straight into a masterful gear is just as tall an order.
Yet when chances like this do come about, they have be to capitalised on nevertheless ... and let’s just say the trip ended up being a good one to miss, generally speaking, by gnarly senior Proteas like AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
Their very necessary return to the T20 mix in Sri Lanka was only highlighted; with it will come a comforting restoration of “order” in so many respects, as they contemplate a group also featuring the host nation and their highly unlikely current nemesis Zimbabwe, intriguingly enough.
It is a source of some concern, however, that a South African representative team could look quite so inept and out of sorts across the disciplines for roughly the duration of a tourney against such modest opposition -- rustiness can only be cited up to a point, can’t it?
Here are a few random notes I made after watching much of the tournament; call them extractions from the rubble, if you like:
Richard Levi: Good tourney statistically -- second-highest runs-scorer to the Zimbabwean revelation Hamilton Masakadza, even if he didn’t always cash in fully on good personal starts at the top of the order and can look a tad cumbersome in the field.
Farhaan Behardien: may pay the price, for the time being, for one painfully slow knock of 16 against Bangladesh (strike rate 61).
Colin Ingram and Justin Ontong: inconclusive series by each; bits of promise but ultimately lowish returns. Ontong’s been in and out of international cricket for 11 years; still no real signs of bedding down?
Dane Vilas: Reasonably smart and confident behind the stumps, but outfoxed cheaply by spinners twice in short-lived turns at the crease.
Chris Morris: Is it just me or has this guy possibly got something? Bowling economy of 6.73 was fair enough, mixed it up a bit and looked quite composed. Not sure quite ready for ICC World T20, mind.
Faf du Plessis: Blushes-sparing runs in the final, always a factor in the field, and leggies largely kept a lid on things. Let him go to ‘Lanka.
Lonwabo Tsotsobe: Ho-hum with the ball, desperately dodgy fielding. You can get away with that a little more in ODIs, where his bowling record remains excellent, but in the super-condensed format? Not so sure ...
Marchant de Lange: Limited-overs growth pains continue. But these need to happen?
Wayne Parnell: Eish! Enigma, as ever. Teetered wildly between pretty hot and lamentably cold.
Robin Peterson: Praiseworthy bowling all the way to the final, when he went for six, four, four off his first three balls and couldn’t recover. But that happens.
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
