Olivier admits there are elements of his bowling that could improve
“YOU’RE not a real fast bowler,” chirped Dean Elgar as Duanne Olivier expressed sympathy for the struggles endured by Pakistan’s ace batsman Azhar Ali following the Proteas’ Test series whitewash.
“Shame I feel sorry for him, he had a tough tour,” Olivier mused about Azhar’s problems in the Tests.
To use an American parlance – Olivier “owned” Azhar in the threematch series. He dismissed him in both innings of the first Test, the first innings of the second and the fourth innings of the third.
Azhar finished the series as Olivier’s “bunny” and with an average of 9.83. It was brutal.
So was Olivier’s bowling. Fast, short and accurate, it wasn’t pleasant to face, as Elgar could attest.
“I faced him in the four-day game before the series started and it was quite uncomfortable. I knew we’d be teammates the next week, but I didn’t know if I wanted to speak to him,” Elgar said.
Adding to Olivier’s effectiveness were the pitches – which bounced and seamed. “The (surfaces) helped quite a bit,” Olivier admitted.
Still 24 wickets in three Tests was a remarkable effort, bettered only once, 116 years ago by Charlie Llewellyn. It was a display of endurance and skill, which was reward for a player who has been among the top wicket-takers on the domestic circuit for a few seasons. When the Knights won the four-day series two seasons ago, Olivier and opening partner Marchant de Lange cut a swathe of destruction through local cricket. Olivier finished that campaign with 52 wickets at an average of 18.13.
He got into the Test team on the back of that, making his debut against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers and toured New Zealand and England in 2017.
His bowling has always had that unrefined quality about it. He hits the pitch hard, but as his first-class performances in recent seasons suggest, he is no one-trick pony. You don’t have the kind of success he has had over the length of time he has had across various formats if all you can do is bowl bouncers.
Olivier admits that elements of his bowling improve.
“When I pitch the ball up, I feel it’s a little bit ‘floaty,’’’ he said. Indeed, after his second over of the series – when he had been driven twice by Azhar – he changed to the thunderous thumper of pitches, thereby changing the course of the series for him, Azhar and Pakistan.
“(I surprised myself) quite a bit, to be honest. I do like to bowl short, and there are that could to do it for three Tests, I’m very proud, I’m very happy that my body allowed me to do that,” Olivier said.
It’s worth remembering that Olivier wouldn’t have started that first Test had Vernon Philander been fit or for that matter Lungi Ngidi.
It does beg the question: what does the future hold for him? Proteas coach, Ottis Gibson, for now is putting the problem aside, saying after the third Test that it was nice for the selectors to have so many options, not just in terms of personnel but also how it allows the team to implement different strategies. What of a World Cup call up perhaps?
“I’m not thinking that far ahead I take it day by day. I’m going back to my franchise and see what happens there and just contribute towards the team, that’s the most important thing,” Olivier said.
There has been talk of a Kolpak contract – a possible county deal with Yorkshire got airtime in the British press last year. For now he can bask in the celebratory light of a stunning series win in which he was the star performer. Accommodation for Construction Workers and Delivery Drivers