Will persist with four quicks, says SA coach Gibson

CAPETOWN: South Africa may have lost Dale Steyn for this series but coach Ottis Gibson wants to keep intensity playing four fast bowlers. Speaking after the 72-run win at Newlands, Gibson said they want to be tough with bat and ball but the focus was on fielding four quicks against India and Australia who arrive in March.

“I’m a fast-bowling minded coach, and you will always have to find a balance with ‘can we get four fast bowlers in the team first of all. Are the conditions conducive for four fast bowlers?’,” said Gibson. “If not, then we’ll try and look at other options. But ultimately, especially in this series and for the rest of the summer, we’ll be looking to see how best we can fit in four fast bowlers into whatever side we field,” he said.

“I think we’re all very competitive by nature and we’re very clear what our goals are within the team. Everybody’s role has been clarified and everybody’s accepted it. If you want to beat the best team in the world, which India are because they’re ranked No. 1, then maybe we have to do something slightly different to what we’ve done in the past. So we have to get stuck in and be tough with the bat and with the ball. Use our physicality in terms of our pace – in this game we had three guys bowling over 140.”

Gibson took over as South Africa coach in August last year when the team had a few injury concerns but he is trying to get special attention only for the fast bowlers. “Last week we had a discussion with a medical panel about trying to set up a group of people who will look after fast bowlers. Personally, I think fast bowlers are the bedrock of a really good cricket system. If we want to be the No.1 in the world, and especially in all conditions, fast bowlers become very important. We need to find ways of looking after, monitoring, training our fast bowlers better.”

With the Newlands Test showing that opportunities to score could be few and far between, he wants the batsmen to be more proactive. “We were disappointed to lose eight wickets in a session. But then you think about it and the way you look at it is, ‘Well, there must be something in the wicket for us to lose eight wickets in a session, so therefore let’s go out and use that’. I thought the guys were outstanding with one bowler short,” he said.

“The good thing about our group as well is that so many senior players put their hands up. Dale was down but then Vernon took the lead and led us to

victory.”