Headingley’s knack for decisive results bodes well for SA
THE Leeds suburb of Headingley, where SA’s quest to become cricket’s top-ranked team will resume in the second Test against England tomorrow, does not suffer draws gladly.
Just two of the 27 Test matches played there since 1981 have not been won and lost, and the last time that happened was in 1996 — 12 Tests ago.
On the strength of the innings victory the Proteas achieved in the first Test at the Oval in London on Monday last week, Headingley’s reputation for delivering decisive results would seem to be good news for the visitors.
England coach Andy Flower was not going to say so directly yesterday, but he understood that his team did themselves no favours in London.
“They outplayed us and played outstanding cricket, and they deserved to win the game; we didn’t,” Flower said. “Sometimes you are outplayed regardless of the strategies you have employed, and you have to give credit to the opposition.
“It would be difficult to say that any of the strategies we used were successful.”
But Flower, whose tenure has seen England become the No 1 ranked team in the game, was not about to panic: “After one Test loss you don’t throw your methods out of the window.”
The trouble for Flower is that England have now lost five of their past nine Tests.
Moreover, they have crashed and burned in their past two Tests in Leeds — losing by 10 wickets, then by an innings — and the first of those successes belongs to the SA side of 2008. Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel took 15 of the available 20 wickets in that match, and both have returned to torment England again.
That may paint Leeds as a pace paradise, but Jacques Rudolph knows different.
“There is a strong perception that Headingley is more a bowler’s wicket but in my experience here, especially when the sun is out, it’s a really nice place to bat,” he said yesterday. “Once you get used to the swing and a little bit of seam movement you can get yourself in, and then you can go big here.”
Rudolph does indeed speak from experience, having played 68 first-class matches for Yorkshire between 2006 and 2010.
The 5,429 runs he scored for the county, 18 centuries among them, at an average of 52.20, further strengthen his argument.
Flower let nothing slip on what he thought the conditions would be like, saying: “I’m going to have to see how that pitch maps out on the morning of the match. It’s a little too early to say what it will do.”
However, this has been the UK’s wettest summer on record, and venues’ traditional conditions have not applied. Yorkshire, for instance, had lost 1,100 overs of cricket to the weather by the end of June, while all of the five first-class matches played in Leeds have been drawn.
The clouds hung low over Headingley all day yesterday, and light drizzle has been forecast for four of the five days of the match. The exception is Sunday, when 18.5mm will apparently fall.
“It will be interesting to see what the captain who wins the toss does,” said Rudolph.