Steyn-less Proteas there for the taking
England will realise they’re in a series now. South africa were caught cold at durban and still had the mental scarring and baggage from their thrashing in India. But I think they’ve overcome that.
With AB de Villiers taking over the captaincy — a position he has coveted despite what he said yesterday — they will be a different prospect. The tourists will now face the South africa side they expected to, and will be grateful to be turning up at the Wanderers with a 1-0 lead. Having said that, I still believe the Proteas are there for the taking.
dale Steyn is the no 1 bowler in the world, and de Villiers would love to have him available at a ground where the fast bowlers hold sway. His absence leaves them a little exposed, and though they still have Morne Morkel — a fantastic bowler — he has entered the ‘red zone’ and they’ve had to seriously manage his workload.
It’s all well and good us commentators saying they haven’t bowled him enough, that he should have taken the new ball against Ben Stokes and so on, but they can’t keep turning to him. I said at the start of the series that England would be best served by going after South africa’s spinner and part-timers, forcing them to overuse their two main fast bowlers. and by the third Test, Steyn has been and gone and Morkel at times has looked tired.
Without a spinner it is an unbalanced attack, and they might decide to move Quinton de Kock up to open instead of Stiaan van Zyl and bring back JP duminy, who has just scored a 260 in State cricket and would give them that option of a part-time spinner. But that would mean de Kock might be forced to keep wicket for a day-anda-half and then open the batting, which would not really be fair on him.
Make no mistake, they have four very good seamers in Morkel, Kagiso Rabada, Hardus Viljoen and Chris Morris, despite the inexperience of the latter three. Viljoen has taken 20 wickets at 14 runs apiece in his last two first- class matches at the Wanderers, and Rabada’s match figures of 14 for 105 at the ground set a record in the franchise era of South african first- class cricket. Morris is an English-type bowler who can pitch it up and will be dangerous in these conditions, while Morkel will bang the ball in hard and hit the cracks as the match wears on.
I am positive England’s well-balanced seam attack will get wickets at the Wanderers, and the prospect of seeing Jimmy anderson and Stuart Broad bowl there excites me. no one has really mentioned Steven Finn this series, but he’s been fabulous. He’s benefiting from being part of a five-man attack in which he can be the go-to man and it doesn’t matter too much if he goes for a few boundaries.
His pace and accuracy are up, and he looks like he’s enjoying his cricket. He gives England another dimension with the bounce he generates, and he showcased the potency of their five-man attack when he dismissed Faf du Plessis late on day four at durban. He was rested for some time, then delivered a superb five-over burst as the light faded.
But the key for England is to bat well. Their top five still looks a bit fragile — they have managed only three centuries since the start of the ashes last summer. Even their two most reliable batsmen, alastair Cook and Joe Root, need to contribute more. You can never keep the captain down for too long — though he doesn’t have many runs this series — and Root is too good a player not to convert those 70s and 80s into big scores.
It doesn’t matter that this is not the South african side of old — England are on the verge of a magnificent achievement and all eyes will be on their batting line-up. It is where the game will be won and lost.