Prophets of doom have been predicting Australian dominance in the Test series, but South Africa can boast a combination of experienced campaigners and exciting new talent
CRICKET: Jon Swift
IT is astounding that the gloom and doom merchants are already predicting an Australian dominance of the Test series which gets under way at the Wanderers on Friday. Perhaps it has something to do with the state of our inflation-battered, crime- riddled and confused society.
We have got ourselves into such a beaten state of mind that the light at the end of the tunnel can only be an oncoming train. It is well to treat the Australians with respect. Their history as a cricketing nation and the dogged individualistic determination as a people willing to shake off the shackles of their transhipped history, demand this.
But to concede the series before a ball has been bowled or a blow struck, cannot make Hansie Cronje pleased with his public. Or rate their powers of historical observation that highly either.
Collectively, Mark Taylor’s men from the Down Under are a formidable assembly, certainly a better side than the unbalanced squad of Indians under Sachin Tendulkar that is the most recent benchmark for South Africa’s cricketing prowess.
But they are not unbeatable. Neither are the Australians without discernible cracks in their individual make-ups. Taylor himself showed this in getting out twice first ball to Pat Symcox in the Natal debacle.
It is also worthy of note that Michael Bevan, the batsman of whom so much is expected with the ball nowadays, mixes an astounding amount of Sunday league stuff into an average over. It is this talent as a spinner to produce the surprise factor that earns him his wickets as much as any innate ability as a bowler.
The magic of Shane Warne is also not quite as mesmeric as it was when the last Australians arrived under Allan Border. The operation he underwent seems to have crimped his ability to turn the ball as prodigously as in the past. He is still a fine Test-class wrist-spinner, but perhaps not the stealth bomber of the past.
The Aussies are also blessed with some fine pacemen — as indeed they invariably are — in Glen McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Andrew Bichel: bowlers whose ethos is based on the logic of wicket-to-wicket and who will all enjoy this country’s pacy pitches.
They can bat a bit too. Bevan and Taylor – — despite Symcox and a run of poor form of late — are just two of the line-up. Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Matthew Elliot are all class players. And yes, the Waugh twins Steve and Mark have been known to score a few runs in their day, as has wicketkeeper Ian Healy.
That said though, it would do for all of us to sit in Taylor’s seat for just a moment and do what he has had to do over the past week: examine just what it is he is up against in the form of a South African team with some old adversaries and some new faces.
In Cronje, Taylor will know that he faces a captain who is always trying something and, more important, is unafraid to back his hunches and do the less obvious. The South African captain’s own form has, like Taylor’s, been somewhat shaky of late, but he remains a fine player capable of getting runs and of taking a vital wicket.
Perhaps Cronje’s greatest attribute though is the ability to both lead his side and be part of it. This is the very essence of captaincy in a team game and cricket — and more specifically the way this country plays it — is solidly based on that psychology.
Doubtless this is the way Taylor approaches things, and, in doing so it is perhaps a worthwhile exercise to examine how he will have weighed up the South African side in his pre-Test planning.
Andrew Hudson and Gary Kirsten remain both our best opening pair as well as a respected combination at Test level, this despite the carping criticism of Hudson’s inconsistencies and the envious claims of young Adam Bacher for a look-in at the top of the order.
Hudson remains a class act. True, consistency has eluded him of late and he and Kirsten need to consolidate a front to take the shine off the ball and the vinegar out of the opposing attack on a more regular basis. As an opening pair, it must be expected of them to put something like 80 runs on the board before one or the other takes his pads off in the pavilion.
Certainly, this would lift the pressure off Jacques Kallis. The young batsman — and it must be added bowler — from the Western Cape has the ability to dominate any attack if he is given a little breathing space and the managerial reins are let loose on his flowing strokeplay.
Kallis also comes at a time when this country is struggling to find a true No 3 batsman. He could just be the answer to coach Bob Woolmer’s fervent prayer. Certinly he can have no harder classroom than against the uncompromising Aussies.
Elevating Kallis also has the effect of lifting the pressure off Daryll Cullinan, Cronje and Jonty Rhodes, especially now that there is no Brian McMillan there to tidy up behind them.
Cullinan has the talent to make runs seem like they are his by right. Bedevilled by the Warne wiles in previous series and at a psychological level not unadjacent to the basement, Cullinan has come back and is at last starting to show the full range of his abilities.
Yet he remains an enigma, a loner who has often seemingly lacked the willpower to build a really big innings even when the signs of it positively shouted to the heavens. But the concentration that so often looked to escape him is starting to emerge, even if this escapes him in the business of running between the wickets.
Rhodes is a special individual. A fielder non-pareil, he has come back from the indignity of being dropped from the Test squad against India to score three centuries in provincial matches and enjoy a sparkling one-day series. His ability as a fighter is without question and his uncanny knack of altering the tempo of a game when at the crease is not something Taylor will overlook.
The next pair Taylor will have to weigh carefully are two of the best emerging all- rounders in world cricket — Shaun Pollock and Lance Klusner.
At bat, Klusener is already a century-maker — and in 100 balls at that — and Pollock, a far more measured and elegant player than his colleague, is not far off. Either player is capable of destroying an attack on their day and Taylor will not be unaware of this part of the equation.
As vital parts of the seam attack, they are equally dangerous but different. Pollock has almost a regal look to him and, if his foot problems are truly a thing of the past, one of the globe’s premier new ball bowlers.
Klusener is all power and pace, a muscular speed merchant in the belligerant and uncompromising mould of a Freddie Trueman. A man, in short, not to be trifled with.
Which leads to the e ver dependable and evergreen Dave Richardson. A century-maker at Test level, his contributions with the bat cannot be overlooked and, while his best summers are doubtless behind him, is only marginally shaded by Healy’s claims behind the stumps.
Batting that low in the order, Richardson presents a hurdle that no attack can be happy about and, while he may be the last real obstacle to the bowlers, Taylor will have to keep in mind the ability both Allan Donald and Paul Adams have shown at the tail to frustrate and annoy the opposition.
But it is unquestionably as bolwers that Taylor will be evaluating Donald and Adams. Donald remains our premier strike bowler and one of the world’s best exponents of bowling fast off the seam.
He has continued to grow through a career which now spans over a decade at top level and it will be more than interesting to see what tactics he adopts against the Australians who have come off a winning Test — if not one-day — series against the ebigmatic West Indians. Dropping the ball short against the Aussie batsman often works to the strength of the breed rather than expose any inherant weakness of pedigree.
Adams too is growing. Blessed with an action that works merely to confuse the opposition, he has added much in a short career. He learnt early to disguise the grip he has on the ball by shielding it with his right hand, and the run-up to deliver his wrong ‘un is no longer as frenetic as it was, making it much more difficult to pick.
These then are some of the aspects of South Africa’s strengths that Taylor will have examined. And, in doing so, he will have doubtless come to the line of thinking that this will not be an easy series, despite what the local prophets predict.
Summer lightning hs both an unexpectedness and an inevitability behind it. Taylor will have seen this and neither he nor his side will be willing to stand out in the open and hope that this natural phenomena strikes elsewhere.
Like picking winner before the event, it is not a thing that any reasoned human being does willingly.