In the spirit of dark clouds and silver linings, South Africa have cause to be reasonably sanguine after this week’s defeat against England at Edgbaston. Past South African teams made a habit of galloping through one-day tournaments only to trip up when it really mattered ( Karachi 1996, Headingley 1999, Edgbaston 1999). There’s not much chance of the current side being overconfident when they go into Saturday’s Natwest Series final at Lord’s.
Despite impressive opening bursts from Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini, Graeme Smith’s side were outplayed by England in Birmingham on Tuesday, just as they were outplayed by England in the opening match of the tournament at The Oval.
With Jimmy Anderson taking wickets virtually every time he comes back for a second spell and Darren Gough basking in his twin roles as talisman and senior pro, England have the makings of a decent attack. But more than this, they have one batsman of genuine class and an all-rounder happy to mix it with the opposition.
Michael Vaughan’s timing is imma-culate, his game well-organised and on Tuesday he played the kind of dominant, assertive innings the South African captain is seeking. Not that Smith has any reason for despair. After a slow start in the tournament, he seems to be hitting the ball well enough to suggest that a big score is not that far away. Smith, though, is still developing as a batsman; Vaughan looks the finished article.
But the Englishman needed someone to bat with him on Tuesday after England had wobbled to 30/3 and Andrew Flintoff took on the South African bowling to impressive effect.
Smith had spoken before the match of trying to inflict mental scars on England and the South Africans were almost self-conscious in their aggression, but Flintoff stared one bowler after another down, notably André Nel. At the same time, though, he also marked the cards of South Africa’s coaching staff.
Anyone who sets out his stall quite as clearly as Flintoff can expect a steady diet of short-pitched stuff with one or two fielders hovering around deep backward square. There is about Flintoff a sense that he wants to be acknowledged and respected by his peers, particularly the South African all-rounders Pollock and Kallis. If all three stay fit throughout this English summer, a succession of especially intense confrontations is in store. They will make for fascinating cricket. None of this, though, is to suggest that the South Africans might as well pack up and come home.
At times it has seemed as if they take one step back for every two steps forward, but they are making progress.
The most obvious missing element at this stage of their tour is consistency and this applies equally to the batting and the bowling. England pulled off two remarkable catches on Tuesday, Anthony McGrath’s was freakish in its good fortune and Flintoff’s equally so in its brilliance, but as the South Africans slipped to 104/7 there was a sense that one batsman after another had given his wicket away.
If anything, the South Africans, like their captain, might be trying a little too hard. There are a couple of exceptions. Jacques Kallis hit the ground running when he arrived in England while Pollock seems to be easing his way into the tour, gradually improving with each game, as if he has already taken into account the workload expected of him.
Ntini, too, is bowling with pace and intelligence but after trying Alan Dawson, Charl Langeveldt and now Nel, who has still to prove himself a wicket-taker at the highest level, South Africa have still to settle on a third specialist seamer.
It looks set to be a weakness, and unless Charl Willoughby or Dewald Pretorius come through South Africa could find themselves a bowler short. This places additional responsibility on Paul Adams, and his bowling on Tuesday was perhaps the most disappointing feature of the South African performance.
He can be a match-winner with fielders clustered in around the bat, but when someone gets after him, his response to being hit is to push the ball through quicker, flatter and shorter, and when he tries to correct this, he overpitches horribly.
Of concern to the South Africans will be Adams’s playing style in the Test matches that lie ahead. In the past Adams has bowled well against England, but on Tuesday Vaughan and Flintoff seemed to have worked out both his technique and his temperament.
If Adams is unable to come up with a response, he faces a very difficult few months.