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It the Proteas ever thought that they were going to arrive on the Australian shores and get something out of this test series, then they had another thing coming – damn, I sound like an Aussies reporter!
South African Test captain, Dean Elgar, said before the series, “Runs on the board is key in Australia. If you have a bowling lineup like we have, you have to have the runs on the board to give them the opportunity to take 20 wickets.”
South Africa capitulated inside two days, the shortest test match on Australian turf since 1931. The Proteas were bundled out for 152 in their first innings in less than 50 overs thanks mainly to a fighting 64 from wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne.
Australia, in reply, managed just 218, and that was in thanks to Travis Head’s fast-paced 92, which came from only 96 balls in a stand of 117 for the fourth-wicket with Steve Smith (36).
But, Australian captain Pat Cummins claimed 5-42 to shatter the Proteas second-innings as Elgar’s men managed just 99 in 37.4 overs with Khaya Zondo (36) and Temba Bavuma (29) offering any sort of resistance.
The second innings debacle left Australia with just 34 runs to win but Kagiso Rabada made sure that the chase was anything but easy, taking 4-13 as Australia reached 35-4 in 7.5 overs.
“We tried to open up some scars going into the Melbourne test and I think it worked,” said Elgar after the first test at the Gabba.
But Elgar was immediately on the offensive during his post-match press conference, blaming the pitch for the poor showing. “You got to ask yourself the question if that is a good advertisement for the game. 34 Wickets in two days is pretty one-sided and that leads into what everyone is thinking,” said Elgar after the match.
“I am a purest of this format and I want to see games go to four and five days and the way the pitch started playing you are going to struggle as a batting unit. Only two or three batsmen managed to apply themselves and score some runs so I don’t think that was a very good test wicket,” said Elgar.
Elgar may just be right, but that does not excuse the poor performance of his batsmen, including himself! I stated in the lead-up to this tour that the Proteas had struggled for runs in the last two years (Proteas likely to go Belly Up Down Under) and this performance is just a continuation of that poor trend.
Elgar went on to say “It was interesting to see how quickly the divots developed and how the ball was deviating off the divots. It was interesting how the older ball was acting, which it shouldn’t be, so the divots had quite a big role to play.” How Elgar could mention the “older ball” when no innings went beyond 51 overs!
Looking at every excuse under the sun does not cover up the fact that the Proteas batsmen have struggled to score runs on even more docile pitches around the globe as well as at home.
This leads to a double-barreled question: Are the current crop of players just not good enough or are they just completely shot of confidence?
To me, it seems that Elgar’s comments leads to answer the first question. “Coming into this game our batters were confident, I mean most of the them got some good runs in the warm-up game, so it’s not like the confidence is low, we just have to be realistic in what’s just happened and obviously rectify it.“
I intimated in my previous article that the players on hand do not have the justification to be there based on recent performances as well as career stats, considering that someone like Ryan Rickelton is back home, scoring ton after ton but was not considered for the tour because he was “injured” according to Victor Mpitsang, convenor of selectors, despite begging to be selected.
“I can’t see us hitting any more balls and becoming better cricketers. We have played the game long enough in our own personal careers, I think the guys know the game pretty well enough and hitting another 200 balls a day is not going to make you a better cricketer, it is just one of those games where you failed,” said Elgar.
So Elgar might have gone on and bemoaned the Gabba pitch, but the same could be said for the Wanderers pitch against India a few years back, a game in which the Proteas triumphed.
One question I asked myself was why would you take a spinner into a match when the grass on the pitch is greener than fake grass at your next-door neighbours house? Surely you would go with seven batsmen and four quicks based on what is in front of you?
Elgar disagreed, stating, “The talk of having seven batters and four seamers was discussed but I like having a specialised spinner in the team but we didn’t get to day three or even day four so Kesh’s role was nullified with the game ending in two days.“
A daft point considering the only thing greener than the Gabba pitch was a Scottish farmer’s field in the summer time! The Proteas have to face the facts that the current racial environment that they face is not making matters any easier in that players are being chosen, not on form or performance, but to ‘balance the books’. Instead, the CSA brains trust (if there is such a thing), should be pumping money into grassroots level and bringing players through naturally, instead of pushing a political agenda.
Having said that, only Bavuma and Zondo performed in the second innings, but that was a once-off. Zondo should not have been on tour ahead of Rickelton and Bavuma has not played red-ball cricket for almost a year, while Janneman Malan should have been selected ahead of Sarel Erwee.
The Proteas are going to have to get their heads out of their arses, pull up their socks and dig deep if they are to salvage anything from this tour, and Elgar intimated as much by saying, “We do have some extra days now where the players can tap into the mental spaces, which is their biggest enemy because you withdraw from what has just happened but you must face it and learn from it.“
The Boxing Day test at the MCG on 26 December is going to be a day of reckoning in the Proteas test-camp. Pull up your socks, put on your big-boy panties and play the game Proteas.
At the moment, you are sliding down the scale of performances at a rate quicker than a bobsled in the winter Olympics!
