Proteas looking to flower in the City of Roses
The City of Roses is ready for its close-up. Actually, the city has been smiling steadfastly for almost a week now and will do so for days to come.
Last week the Springboks were in town. On Friday SA start the second Test against Bangladesh at the ground next door. On Sunday afternoon the genteel cricket crowd will no doubt feel every rock and roll from the neighbouring stadium, where Bloemfontein Celtic and Kaizer Chiefs will clash in the Macufe Cup final.
The Boks managed no better than to kiss their Australian sisters, and it is not difficult to imagine Chiefs silencing the famously all-singing, all-dancing Celtic supporters.
So it would seem to be up to Faf du Plessis’s team to keep Bloem smiling.
Especially now that the weather has calmed down after two days and nights of thunder, lightning and rain.
What that might do to the conditions is a more pertinent question than it might have been had the Potchefstroom pitch lived up to expectation.
SA asked for pace and bounce. They got neither. Instead, Bangladesh would have felt right at home on the sleepy surface. Despite that SA won by 333 runs, rattling through Bangladesh’s second innings for the visitors’ record low of 90 in the process.
At the weekend the Bloem pitch was a none too delicate shade of lime. On Thursday it had the look of an unpeeled kiwi fruit: fuzzy but friendly.
“The colour has changed a lot, particularly now that there’s been a bit of sunshine on it,” Du Plessis concurred. “The grass is very thin so it will burn away quickly. I think it will still be a good pitch on which a lot of runs will be scored. Hopefully, it will be a bit faster [than Potchefstroom] with a bit more bounce so we can make it difficult for their batsmen.”
Kagiso Rabada will be Du Plessis’s point man in that regard. It’s a big match for the fast bowler, who is likely to take the new ball — as opposed to sharing it — for only the third time. Rabada, who made his debut in November 2015, is set to earn his 22nd cap, which will give him as many Tests as he has years on the earth.
And, most importantly, he will step into the large boots left behind by Morné Morkel, who tore a side in Potch and will be sidelined for up to six weeks.
Coming on top of injuries to Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Chris Morris it would have been a catastrophe in a country not as outrageously endowed with fast bowlers as SA.
Even so, it will be the first time that Rabada has played a Test without any of Steyn, Philander or Morkel. It is also SA’s first Test without any of those three bowlers since Philander made his debut in November 2011 — 58 Tests ago.
“The big thing is the loss of Morné,” Du Plessis said. “You want to make sure that the venom in your attack is still the same. With Morné, ‘KG’, Vernon and Dale there, there’s an expectancy of what you’re going to get. If you don’t have those guys there you’re not sure.”
So Du Plessis will be watched more closely than usual when he strides out for the toss on Friday, team sheet in hand. “It’s important for us to look at how we can best balance the side but still have a strong attack,” he said.
“The challenge is, if Morné’s out, do we still play three frontline seamers and an allrounder or do we look at four seamers and two allrounders?”
There are two vacancies and, happily for SA, three candidates: Wayne Parnell, Andile Phehlukwayo and Dane Paterson.
Parnell is the purest talent, Phehlukwayo a player of fine temperament, and the uncapped Paterson fired by ambition.
Whoever plays, Du Plessis said he wanted nothing less than the “domination” of the visitors to “keep pressure on [Bangladesh] and not give them opportunities in the game where they can get on top of us”. Just like in Potchefstroom … “Over five days in Potch we were brilliant. There wasn’t half a session that belonged to Bangladesh .... But it’s important that we back it up here. That consistency is the excellence we’re striving for.”
The Boks and Bloem Celtic would no doubt agree.