ODIs still an issue for Proteas
With India on the doorstep, difficult problems remain unsolved after marathon battle with Pakistan
THEY’RE a nice bunch of blokes, Pakistan, but SA aren’t unhappy to have seen the last of them.
Even Hashim Amla, a thoroughly nice bloke himself, couldn’t resist a sly thought about the light at the end of the long tunnel, represented by the third and last one-day international in Centurion yesterday.
“At times, it’s felt like Groundhog Day,” Amla conceded on Friday.
Since February, SA have played Pakistan in five tests, 14 one-day internationals and six T20s — 25 matches in total.
From all that, the Proteas have learnt that they are still the best test team in the game and that they are getting a handle on the fuss and fizz of T20.
But they aren’t much closer to the truth about where they are as an ODI side.
Just 16 days ago, SA returned from the United Arab Emirates tired but happy. That they had levelled the test series after taking a klap in the first match and swept the T20s didn’t seem to matter as much as the fact that they had won the one-day series 4-1.
Finally, after last summer’s uncertain ODI performances against New Zealand and, yes, Pakistan, and this season’s 1-4 spiral in Sri Lanka, the pendulum had swung decisively.
SA were finding ways to win from difficult positions.
Their batting, bowling and fielding was invariably up to scratch and often better than that. Not a small factor in their success was that AB de Villiers had made peace with the captaincy.
Two ODIs later, the doubts have seeped back. Last Sunday at Newlands, their batsmen failed to step into the vacuum Pakistan had left and SA lost by 23 runs. At St George’s Park on Wednesday, a bulletproof winning position became a one-run defeat.
Why is this happening?
“When the adrenaline is pumping and you are almost home, sometimes it gets the better of you,” former SA opening batsman Peter Kirsten said.
“When emotion and nerves take over, SA’s batsmen tend to play a lot of flamboyant shots that they don’t have to play.
“The power plays are making the guys do crazy things. Suddenly, there are two fielders in the circle and they feel like they have to go for the gap.”
Amla was a case in point on Wednesday. He scored 98, but perished in the penultimate over while trying to hit Saeed Ajmal over square leg.
“We haven’t clicked as much as we would like do,” Amla said. “We messed up the [PE] game. I didn’t see it through. We’ve taken a lot of hurt out of that.”
But he was confident SA had not regressed in the space of two ODIs: “You get more out of losses. The chase in our last game was really good. We just didn’t manage to finish it off.”
Misbah-ul-Haq concurred: “Both teams’ bowlers have been outstanding, but the batting has let both sides down. We didn’t finish games in the UAE [at the start of November], and that has happened to SA in these last two games. Both teams’ batting lineups have crumbled when their teams have needed them.”
Kirsten wouldn’t have let that slide, had he heard it.
“One of the top five has got to take them home, not score a brilliant 70 and they still lose,” he said.
Not that Amla would have taken issue with Kirsten’s view. “When you lose a series, everybody is saying their own harsh words in their minds — you don’t need anyone else to do it,” Amla commented.
“The two sides are evenly matched and the games have been so tight. There was a lot of disappointment, but you have to move on. We need to face the reality of what has happened and get on with it.”
For Kirsten, this involved answering tough questions.
“They’re going to have to decide what they want to do with Graeme Smith, and now Jacques Kallis is back. Quentin de Kock is playing beautifully and Ryan McLaren was dropped, even though he has done well.”
The selectors will think long and hard before they agree to replace giants of the era such as Smith and Kallis with De Kock and McLaren. But the younger men have earned their place in that debate.
There is frustration about SA’s inconsistent one-day form, but there is also growing confidence that a viable plan B exists — a rarity in a cricket culture that has tended to put battle-hardened experience above everything else.
India arrive in SA tomorrow to help test the Proteas further.
M S Dhoni’s team have passed 300 four times in their past seven completed innings, and despite their bowling not reaching comparable heights they have lost just two of those games.
A decent contest awaits and, for a change, it’s not against Pakistan.