AUSSIE BOWLERS DOMINATE
AUSTRALIA hasn’t lost a series in South Africa since the Proteas were re-admitted to international cricket in 1991.
The early signs are that Steve Smith’s team — growing ever more confident — will maintain that imposing record.
In the first Test at Durban on a drowsy pitch, Australia immediately established a few important advantages over a hesitant South African side.
Australia’s bowling, with the left-arm of Mitchell Starc leading the way, was superior in pace and variety to their South African counterparts.
Although both batting line-ups display flaws, Australia’s is more aggressive and the more likely to post a formidable total.
Three hundred and fifty is a significant figure when a team features an extremely strong attack — as Australia does — as that score will win far more matches than it loses. If that total is also posted in reasonably quick time it gives Australia’s potent attack ample opportunity to claim the 20 wickets vital for victory.
The other noticeable aspect of the early skirmishes was the increased confidence Smith has in his rapidly improving off-spinner Nathan Lyon. It’s only a couple of seasons back that Smith occasionally treated his offspinner rather harshly.
That was a thing of the past as he tossed the ball to Lyon in only the eighth over and his confidence was immediately rewarded with another brilliant caught-and-bowled ambush.
It’s crucial to get that first wicket early in a highly competitive Test match and the fact that Smith has a variety of ways to clinch the breakthrough is a huge advantage.
This also highlighted another crucial difference between the two teams — Australia’s plans for each opposition batsman revolve purely around methods of dismissal. South Africa, on the other hand — like every other opponent — is relying heavily on containing Smith as part of their plan to limit his prodigious scoring.
South Africa’s fallback plan for Smith involves bowling wide of off stump. This may slow his scoring but it doesn’t frustrate the Australian run machine and it greatly reduces the number of ways he’s likely to be dismissed.
It was also evident the South African batsmen may have been suffering from the after-effects of Faf du Plessis’ ill-advised plea to local curators to prepare spicy pitches for the recently completed series against India. It’s challenging enough to tackle a high-quality Australian attack in your best form without having to do it on the back of moderate scores on difficult pitches. The one exception was AB de Villiers who showed he’s in a different class to his teammates and will be the scalp the Australians treasure as the series evolves. South Africa’s bowling was for the most part steady and typically attritional in its thought process. The South Africans are quick to resort to testing the opposition batsmen’s patience when they don’t claim their wicket quickly. This works well against lesser quality opposition but against players who put a high value on their wicket it can lead to conced- ing the authority in a game. The much-improved Mitchell Marsh took full advantage of this practice and with help from the lower order he boosted Australia’s total substantially. With his newly established solid technique and retaining the ability to accelerate the scoring, the younger Marsh could be a gamechanger in this series.
Since South Africa’s readmission to international cricket, it has displayed a disturbing habit of not being able to buck an unwanted trend. This has been evident in its attempts to win an ODI World Cup, where the side has developed a bad habit of consistently failing at the knockout stage.
The Australians are well aware of this character trait and will apply the theory in this series. In the opening jousts they effectively sent South Africa a sharp reminder of their failings against Australia at home.