Over rate hangs over SA skipper

in Brisbane SA will not want for positives from their conquest of the West Indies in Sydney on Friday, but there’s a reason to be cheerful that will resonate more than most with their players, AB de Villiers in particular — their over rate was bang on target.

It took SA 141 minutes to bowl the 33.1 overs they needed to dismiss the West Indians. That left 69 minutes of the allotted 210 to bowl the remaining 16.5, had they been required.

What with De Villiers facing a one-match ban during the World Cup if his team infringes again after they took 27 minutes more than they should have to get through their overs against India in Melbourne last Sunday, Friday’s improvement is a significant relief.

Not that the good vibrations will last long: the clock will tick just as loudly when SA play Ireland in Canberra on Tuesday, as well as in their matches against Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Another slip in any of those games and De Villiers will be confined to the dugout for the next match — which could be a quarterfinal.

On the bright side, SA’s bowlers should be able to run through all of those batting lineups in quick time.

But, in a pressured environment in which the stakes are as high as they can be in one-day cricket, captains need to be able to concentrate on winning, not time-keeping. Which, Faf du Plessis suggested, was unfair: “We’re all to blame.”

As a bowler who was also a captain, Shaun Pollock knows the over-rate issue is not over- rated. “It’s a matter of trying to rush through and make sure you are ready to go, but it’s also important in the later overs that you’ve got time to spare,” Pollock said. “When you are under the pump in the last 10 overs and you need extra time, the pressure of a slow over-rate is something you don’t want.”

So, how should SA avoid that happening? Pollock’s reply did not answer that question, but it did reveal SA have struggled to overcome the challenge.

“We used to time how long overs took, how long it took between overs, what happened when a lefthander and a righthander were batting, the fact that fielders have got to run across when the batsmen change ends.”

De Villiers said captains were under extra pressure to beat the clock on a stage as big as the RUSH HOUR: AB de Villiers says you’ve got to have the intensity for 50 overs

Captains are under extra pressure to beat the clock

World Cup, “which is understandable”.

“There is nothing else you can do except get it right,” he said. “You’ve got to have the intensity for 50 overs, which is not easy.”

De Villiers will hope he does not have to tell that to the judge. Or even the match referee.