In choosing their one-day squad, the selectors have acknowledged that vastly different skills are needed for Test matches and one-day games
CRICKET:Jon Swift
IT has come as a welcome revelation that this country can contest a cricket Test against even the best the world has to offer, and in the process, beat them convincingly. The miseries of losing the series to Australia in two abject failures in the opening pair of encounters were almost laid to rest at Centurion Park in the face-saving eight-wicket victory of the third.
It is something of an irony that, having finally shaken off the garishly coloured mantle of the limited overs game and returned to the more cerebral, concentrated grind of the true portrait of the world’s most glorious game, the battle that now lies ahead should mean a return to the very thing that sunk our cricket almost without trace at the Wanderers and St George’s Park.
And, in this, it is interesting to note that the seven-match one-day series against Mark Taylor’s marauders which starts in East London this weekend, marks a signal departure in thinking by the national selectors. For they have, at last, come to the full realisation that the cricketers who win you Tests are not necessarily those who will fill the role of one-day winners.
It could be argued – and rightly – that form and injury have played a major part in the revamping of the national squad for this made-for-television version of the game.
But given the pressures of the modern professional game, it is an eminently sensible approach to doing business against as uncompromising and determined a set of customers as the Australians and a full realisation that Peter Pollock, who heads our national panel, is indeed putting his oft quoted “horses for courses” theory into practice.
That may be part of it, but equally, you cannot expect the same set of players to perform at peak in the schizophrenic set-up that demands grit, graft and a heads-down approach of Test cricket one day and then the stand up and knock `em down all action whirlwind of one-dayers the next.
There are, quite simply, too many demands … and many of them are too different to bear an easy transmutation from one extreme to the other.
It showed in the make-up of the team for the final Test where Brett Schultz – still marginally suspect on provincial form against the Australians in their tour game against Western Province – was redrafted for he injured Shaun Pollock. Schultz performed superbly in the Test. His tendency for wildness and the stray ball that must surely set wicketkeeper Dave Richardson’s teeth on edge, has been rested for the one-dayers.
But to return to Schultz in the Test arena. The big left-arm speed merchant proved the ideal foil for the greatness of Allan Donald and allowed our premier paceman the space to produce some of the most aggressive and accurate bowling of his long career.
It carried through to Lance Klusener, who is rapidly becoming a seam bowler to take note of if you have the misfortune to have to face him with a bat in your hand. Donald and Schultz you felt lit a new and eminently more dangerous fire under Klusener’s tail.
Certainly, Man of the Series Steve Waugh will have had cause to count his lumps as well as his laurels after a sustained burst of manhunting from Donald and Klusener in the Australian second innings at Centurion Park.
Throughout the travails of the summer, the bowling has been the key. When it has been average – as at the Wanderers – the brittleness of the top order batting has been doubly exposed. When it has been fully on song – as at Centurion Park – the cracks have tended to be papered over.
For one, our seamers outshone the Aussie pair of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, an overworked duo who continued to perform with might and meaning in long spells that would have the average paceman gasping for oxygen. We are unlikely to witness better pace in a limited attack than they produced over three Tests.
That our batsmen finally came to grips with the realisation that the Australians have no hesitation in zoning in on the bigger of the two targets presented by the wickets or the batsmen -and that they managed, largely, to hold off the looming threat of a resurgent Shane Warne – must have given skipper Hansie Cronje new heart.
Cronje has had his own problems this season, but he is, thankfully, starting to play himself back into some kind of form and show the ability to stay out in the middle and take the licks that are so vital to the team as a whole.
It is also interesting to note at this point that Waugh’s limpet-like qualities under the roar of the big guns at the crease which earned him that award, probably saved Adam Bacher from taking an early rest from the top flight as is the fate of Gary Kirsten.
His gutsy 96 in the first innings on a wicket that offered the batsmen no chance to blink, let alone relax, was as gutsy an effort as everyone has known him capable of and, that he failed by one boundary to convert that to his maiden three-figure score at Test level, was purely a personal tragedy, for that knock had been pivotal to the victory.
The less said about Bacher’s second dig, the better, as he and the sadly out of form Kirsten saw out the end of the chase for a paltry 28 runs from the changeroom, leading to some speculation – in the light of the Port Elizabeth collapse – over what would have happened if South Africa had been chasing 128.
Kirsten’s seeming inability to come to terms with the limits that his somewhat cramped technique impose on his batting – as well as the ability of the Australian new ball pair to shrink the available horizons – can only be termed a tragedy for the man and for our cricket as a whole.
The little left-hander may justifiably feel that he has reached crisis point – or even for that matter ground mark zero – having been left out to give the forceful Louis Koen his first crack at top level. But there must also be the understanding that Kirsten is, if nothing, a fighter. He battled his way into the side and kept his place by the same gritty nature. He will be back. Count on that one.
Here, Kirsten shares much with Jonty Rhodes, who knows all about having to fight back against seemingly overwhelming feeling to regain a place in the nation’s affections.
Rhodes has been included again in the one- day side after being dropped from the Test line-up and many would have it that this is his future role. It is not a sure bet that this is a state of affairs which will endure. Heart so very often overwhelms talent.
It is to be applauded that Koen has finally made it and that Rudi Bryson has earned another chance. Bryson has consistently produced some of the best pace bowling in the one and four-day games this season and his pace and ire will add much to the national cause. Especially so in the absence – for the reason already stated – of Schultz, the non-availability through injury of Brian McMillan, and the perhaps suspect nature of Pollock on his return from the medical tent.
One also has to applaud the inclusion of Derek Crookes to partner veteran Pat Symcox in the spin section of the orchestra ahead of young Paul Adams for the limited overs series. Symcox had a fine Test, is a proven one-day performer and earned his retention. Crookes, while his bowling still needs some flight and air added, is an equally fine player and it is welcome to see that he is not just regarded as fringe material.
Adams is an asset to be carefully guarded and used with discretion if he is to stretch his career into the realms the pundits would offer as a projection. Resting him at Centurion and giving him time off during the next few hectic weeks is evidence that the selectors see it this way. And proof positive that this country is indeed starting to develop a theory of a central core with two equally important arms as being the true representation of our cricketing strengths and weaknesses.
We await, with some anticipation, the coming series in the expectation that the recent history of Cronje and his men in one-day internationals will hold good and regain some of the ground conceded to Australia in the Test series.
South African One-day Squad:
Hansie Cronje (captain), Adam Bacher, Louis Koen, Jacques Kallis, Hershelle Gibbs, Daryll Cullinan, Jonty Rhodes, Dave Richardson, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Pat Symcox, Derek Crookes, Rudi Bryson, Allan Donald.