There were several unpredictable aspects of the one-day international series between South Africa and Zimbabwe that ended on Wednesday in Potchefstroom. Unfortunately for Mickey Arthur, these did not include the bowling of the team he coaches.
The nadir was reached in the final match at Sedgars Park when South Africa’s attack was made up of six right-arm seamers and a part-time off-spinner. Johan van der Wath tried hard, swung the ball away from the bat and propelled it at an average speed of 133kph. Unfortunately for Arthur, Van der Wath is not part of the squad for next month’s International Cricket Council Champions Trophy.
The other five seamers all struggled to breach the 120kph mark and, for the most part, failed to trouble the Zimbabwe batsmen. Of the five, Charl Langeveldt was the best, Andrew Hall the meanest. If any of the world’s premier batsmen had been on the ground, however, the appearance of Roger Telemachus, Andre Nel and Justin Kemp in the attack might have had the same effect as Pavlov’s bell had on his dog.
It has been common cause for a while now that the bowling cupboard in this country is bare, but what should concern Arthur more than anything else is his team’s naked lack of variety. Jacques Kallis didn’t bowl in Potchefstroom and Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock were rested. All three are better than anyone on display at Sedgars Park, but they are also, sad to relate, right-arm seamers.
The hastily arranged series against Zimbabwe was an attempt to get some key players into form, but what it really did was to reveal the shortcomings of the Proteas.
In the opening match in Bloemfontein it took an obdurate innings from Boeta Dippenaar to ensure the successful hauling in of a modest total. The team was far more efficient in East London on Monday, but Potchefstroom should be viewed as a sobering display, despite the fact that the Proteas breached the 400-run mark for the second time in six months.
Mark Boucher’s 100 off 44 balls revealed what we have known for 12 months now, namely that the wicketkeeper has rediscovered the form that was commonplace during his first three years in the national side. Promoted to number four, Boucher was able to play the way he did because the openers removed the teeth from the Zimbabwe attack long before he arrived at the crease. He was also dropped four times, an eventuality that is scarcely likely at the Champions Trophy.
Alviro Pietersen (80) and Loots Bosman (88) both played well, but neither is likely to feature in India. Pietersen is not in the squad and Bosman will surely not make the starting line up unless both Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs remain hors de combat. Bosman is an exciting player, but any talk of similarity between the boy from Kimberley and Sanath Jayasuriya is simply risible.
South Africa made 418/5 in Potchefstroom, but if they had been playing one of the top six nations in world cricket there is a very good chance they would have failed to defend it. Partly this was because the pitch was too good, but mostly it’s because the bowling is not up to it.
Zimbabwe scored 247/4 in their 50 overs, to lose by 171 runs, but they will have taken far more from the game than South Africa. It is nonsense to suggest that Zimbabwe’s lack of ambition was to blame for the Proteas’ display in the field. Zimbabwe are a very average club side. They were playing the second ranked one-day international team in the world.
Terry Duffin, an extremely one-dimensional left-hander, stayed at the crease for 40 overs and scored 88. Hamilton Masikadza made 55 at virtually a run a ball and took great delight in hitting both Kemp and Van der Wath back over their heads to the boundary. Yet there was never a hint of panic in the Protea camp, simply because they knew they couldn’t lose.
How much more might have been achieved if the team had taken the field with a clear plan to bowl out the visitors inside 50 overs? To do more than simply go through the motions with defensive fields that removed any feeling of pressure that chasing 418 should have had on Zimbabwe.
Instead, Arthur has more or less admitted that his game plan is to bat down to number 10, set or chase huge totals and hope for the best.
There are five warm-up games scheduled for the Proteas between now and their opening fixture in the Champions Trophy. Arthur needs to organise a quantum leap in his bowling plan to avoid the earliest of exits.