Kandy to offer different devils
THIRD ODI: PITCH LIKELY TO FAVOUR SLOW BOWLERS
The ODI series in Sri Lanka moves to the hilly city of Kandy for the third match tomorrow and, with the hosts 2-0 down and desperate to avoid a series defeat, the Proteas can perhaps expect some knavish pitch preparation for the game.
The pitch at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium has never been a batting paradise at the best of times, with an average score of just 220/7 and just three totals of more than 300, two of those coming against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
There always seems to be a bit in it for the bowlers, with spinner Akila Dhananjaya, the leading wicket-taker in the series, taking six wickets against India there last year. Pleasingly for South Africa and their pacemen, Jaspreet Bumrah took nine wickets in two matches there for India in that same 2017 series.
The two wins in Dambulla were achieved on reasonable pitches, but the Proteas still did extremely well to handle the Sri Lankan spin threat and also dominate their batsmen through the impressive efforts of their seamers, well-backed by spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.
“The pitch turned a lot in Dambulla but we were able to use a lot of variation, hit the deck hard and also come hard at the batsmen. There was a bit of swing and we also tried to use the batsmen hitting against the wind to the long side. But the pitch still turned quite a bit,” all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo, who bowled impressively in the second ODI to take 3/45, said yesterday.
While the Proteas will have all the Pallekele stats on their analyst’s computer, including the one that shows teams batting second have won nearly twice as many games at the stadium, there will be far less certainty over what to do with Aiden Markram.
The youngster’s wretched tour continued in the second ODI when he once again got himself into a tangle against spin and was caught behind the wicket for just three. Markram just does not seem to be getting his head around the demands of playing spin on typical sub-continent turners and the last stroke he played suggests his mental state is such that time away from the middle might be best for him.
If Markram is left out, the Proteas will need to decide between Reeza Hendricks or Heinrich Klaasen to slot into the top-order alongside the consistent opening pair of Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla, and skipper Faf du Plessis, who has produced two clinical innings in the series thus far.