VALLEY OF DECISION
PRIOR to the One-Day series in Sri Lanka, we previewed six players who would be under the microscope over the five matches. With the series done, STUART HESS assesses how those players fared. 20-year-old looks like being a fixture in Proteas’ teams in the future. But does that future include the 2019 World Cup? On the basis of this series, the tournament may be too soon for Mulder. His bowling is too inconsistent, he neither contains nor attacks, and in the latter category he is let down by not being quick enough. Pace will come.
His batting looks solid, but he needs to do a better job of finding the boundary – again, that will come with experience.
There are more seasoned options in the position he’s pushing for and they probably merit consideration at this stage. into a larger problem against spin bowling. ‘The book’ is out on Markram now and opposition sides will have taken notice.
He is a hardworking player however and will pore over what went wrong in recent weeks. Will the selectors practice patience with him or do they throw their lot in with Reeza Hendricks, who had instant success in Sri Lanka? Or indeed look eleswhere and try to entice one of the ‘Kolpak players’ back? Who would have thought South Africa would go into a World Cup with so many good options in the spin department? Linda Zondi, the chairman of selectors is going to disappoint someone when he has to choose – most likely two out of Maharaj, Shamsi and Imran Tahir for the World Cup, for its highly unlikely South Africa will take all three in a 15-man squad.
Maharaj was outstanding in the last match, but Shamsi was excellent in the three he played, while Tahir has been brilliant in the English T20 tournament. It could well come down to fielding and batting. There’ve been a couple of ‘Duminy 2.0’ tales in recent years, but those proved to be false arrivals. It may even be too soon to suggest what we saw of him in Sri Lanka should be hailed because as he has stated, consistency has been his biggest hang-up. But there’s no denying adopting a more positive outlook and more aggressive attitude has paid dividends.
Duminy is one of the most experienced One-Day players in the country and for the foreseeable future he appears to have ensured there’ll be no debate about his position. A fine series, long may his form continue – the Proteas need it to.