Stability the key for Proteas

South Africa’s decisive nine-wicket thrashing of Pakistan in Dubai on Wednesday was as good a Twenty20 performance as you could ask for.

But while it might have papered over the persistent cracks in the shortened versions of the game that have bedevilled the Proteas, the emphatic victory did raise the banner of hope that our one-day sides have at least put one foot on the road to closing the gap on our Test team.

In reality, this is more of a chasm than a gap, for the five-day side have ruled supreme as the top Test nation since taking over from England on August 20 last year.

It is coincidental that the Proteas became the first team to top the rankings in all three formats just a week later.

It is an achievement that this country’s cricket can rightly be proud of; but in one respect the statistic flatters to deceive.

But in the shortened formats the Proteas have not won a major one-day title since taking the ICC Champions Trophy in Bangladesh in 1998 and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia the same year.

There have been any number of theories advanced about why the Test team has been so consistent and the one-day sides so erratic.

But the most logical answer is probably the most direct: the Test side is a talented and settled unit where every man, from the opening batsmen to the tail-enders, has a specific job and, perhaps even more importantly, designated back-up players for each specific position.

It is something outside the obvious talents of men like AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, the world’s top-ranked Test batsmen, Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander, the top pair in the bowling rankings, and the peerless Jacques Kallis, currently rated third, but consistently among the world’s top all-rounders.

It has brought a virtually bulletproof stability ... and, perhaps more importantly, balance.

This has clearly not been the case in the one-day sides, despite the crossover in personnel, with the batting order almost permanently in flux and wholesale tampering with changes in the att ack.

Simply put, you can’t rely on Hash and AB to always get you the runs or Dale to knock over all the opposing batsmen.

The very dynamics of cricket mitigate against it.