Spin is key in Nagpur, so will Phangiso play?
Duminy hamstring niggle could bring Rossouw, Behardien into selection frame
A“TRAVELLING DAY” can be as daunting an experience as any crucial match for a team visiting India. Just ask the New Zealand’s women’s team whose journey on Sunday from Chandigarh to Nagpur – by air a distance of only 1 086 km – lasted for 12 hours due to stopovers at Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. The trip included changing planes twice.
Fortunately for the Proteas they avoided such frustration yesterday as their trip from Mumbai into Nagpur was fairly straightforward. South Africa’s brains trust certainly did not need the extra hassle with an allimportant week looming for the 2014 World T20 semi-finalists.
Over the course of the next few days leading up to Friday’s clash against the unbeaten West Indies, coach Russell Domingo, captain Faf du Plessis and national convener of selectors Linda Zondi, who is here in India, will need to put their collective cricket intelligence together and formulate all the selection permutations for a venue that could be on a “different continent”, according to Du Plessis.
The two critical issues up for discussion will undoubtedly be Dale Steyn’s future participation at this World T20, and how JP Duminy’s hamstring niggle affects the balance of the team. By the latter’s own admission, he has endured a “fairly average season”, but Duminy has certainly rekindled his love affair with the World T2O competition through a total of 83 runs off just 48 balls in the two opening matches without being dismissed.
He also seems to have rediscovered that all-important “loop” in his off-spin, which has made him such a valuable member of Proteas T20 attack over the years. Du Plessis stressed after the Afghanistan victory that Duminy’s bowling contribution should not be regarded as a luxury any longer – it is in fact an essential part of the game plan here in India where it is “difficult for a captain when you only have five options”.
One of Du Plessis’s options in Friday’s clash against the West Indies should be Aaron Phangiso, pictured above right. The left-arm spinner has put behind him a season in which he was on the front pages for alcohol abuse on a flight home from India, for being caught imitating a cocaine snorter on television, to say nothing of the problems with his bowling action.
Having undergone a short and sharp remedial programme with spin coach Claude Henderson and former Proteas bowling coach Vincent Barnes prior to departure for India, Phangiso seems to be ready to get his career back on track after a couple of impressive outings in South Africa’s two warm-up matches.
Duminy’s anticipated unavailability – a hamstring strain usually requires five days of recovery – also brings batsmen Rilee Rossouw and Farhaan Behardien into the equation. Rossouw should have the edge due to his pure batting ability over Behardien, but the latter does provide Du Plessis with some medium-pacers if one of the special- ist bowlers suffers and off-day.
The skipper may just instruct Rossouw to focus more on his part-time off-spin in the nets this week should the selection vote swing the way of the Knights left-hander. Although not a regular bowler for country or franchise, Rossouw turned his arm over in the warm-up match against a Mumbai XI at the Brabourne Stadium in preparation for a situation just like this one.
But the elephant in the room remains Steyn. How is South Africa going to manage him going forward? The Proteas pace spearhead was dropped on Sunday due to his “skiddy” style of bowling supposedly not being suited to the good batting surface in Mumbai.
But with spin set to be a major factor at Nagpur’s Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, the conditions moving ahead are even less likely to suit the pacemen.
The unbeaten New Zealand side also shown the blueprint for success at the VCA when they axed both their leading pacemen Tim Southee and Trent Boult to outwit hosts India with their three-pronged spin attack.
Du Plessis has stated that the Proteas will make selections based on the pitches that they play on, and perhaps Steyn’s renowned ability to deliver “cutters” at good pace could bring him back into the line-up at a venue where the 32-year-old has enjoyed considerable success in Test cricket in the past.
Never more so has the worn out cliche of “we are not focusing on the strengths of the opposition too much” been more valid for South Africa than this week. They simply just have enough of their own concerns to focus on.