Bangladesh can expect thunderous bowling
FOR two nights now, the good people of Bloemfontein have been jolted wide awake by badass behemoths ripping and roaring around their sky with malevolent intent.
Or with startling beauty, depending on what you think of thunderstorms.
Whatever Bangladesh’s batsmen think, they should get used to the fire and brimstone.
Because once the second test starts tomorrow, the thunder and lightning will be even more extremely loud and incredibly close.
How loud? Like Zeus belching in your ear. How close? Twenty-two yards.
What with Faf du Plessis having had a go at the pure platteland plasticine pitch prepared in Potchefstroom for the first test, and Bloem groundsman Nico Pretorius promising pace – as a former fast bowler himself he knows what that looks like – South Africa’s quicks are looking to Bang a few Deshis.
And that, mind, after the visitors were frogmarched back to their dressingroom for a risible 90, their lowest test total, in the second innings in Potch. Which captain would not be happy with that? A captain who knows Bloem harbours a pitch that yielded seven centuries and 20 wickets in a, of course, drawn franchise first-class match two weeks ago.
A survivor of that purgatory, in which the Knights and the Cobras piled up 1 249 runs between them, is back in Bloem for more of the same. Not.
“The wicket looks totally different,” Knights and South Africa fast bowler Duanne Olivier said yesterday, on the strength of having seen photographs of the work in progress, which show a vivid green carpet rudely alive with grass, that were sent to Du Plessis on Sunday.
“I think on day one, it will be a bit slow but then there’ll be some bounce and it will quicken up towards day three and four,” Olivier said.
All good, but when last has Olivier played a game here in which the pitch favoured the seamers?
He thought for a moment, then another, then said: “Yes, I think two seasons ago we played the Titans on one of the side wickets. There was a bit of a slope and it gave us some assistance.
“At the same time, you just expect the bowlers to run in and take all the wickets. It doesn’t matter to me, the wicket doesn’t need to be green to help us.”
Not on the evidence of the first test, in which Bangladesh managed to lose seven wickets for 41 on the final morning on a pitch that was barely marked and eminently playable, despite having had 306.4 overs bowled on it during the first four days.
Morne Morkel fired South Africa’s attack in fine style, until he limped off on the fourth afternoon with a torn side that will keep him on a leash for up to six weeks.
The visitors have also suffered a blow, what with Tamim Iqbal – whose 52 caps make him Bangladesh’s third-most experienced test player – out with a thigh injury.