No Faf, no JP, and no Morkel
Chance for others to cement spots in Proteas’ one-day side
WHILE winter cricket provides content for television and has met with approval from the ‘suits’ at Cricket SA’s offices, for the national team context is difficult to find and conditions more of a challenge than administrators care to consider.
South Africa enter the three-match One-Day International series tomorrow against New Zealand shorn of leading talents – Faf du Plessis (injured), JP Duminy (paternity leave) and Morné Morkel (paternity leave) – and hoping none of the other top stars do themselves a dirty on fields not suited to cricket at this time of the year.
As a means to find context for an out-of-season series, the coaching staff have highlighted the importance of creating depth – especially in terms of this series with the batting. “It gives opportunities to guys like Farhaan (Behardien), Rilee (Rossouw) and Dave Miller to cement spots in the One-Day batting line-up. It’s pretty packed once JP and Faf are back,” remarked Russell Domingo.
That’s all well and good of course and with a Champions Trophy on the agenda in two years time, assessing other personnel is important. However when listening to Domingo explain how they intend replenishing the squad should Du Plessis – as expected – not be able to play, it is clear this is a series the players could do without.
Domingo remarked that they would call on a batsman but only in a “stand-in” capacity as cover and Behardien will most probably feature throughout the series with NZ. Adding to selection difficulties in that regard, South Africa currently has the A team on tour in India and an Emerging squad playing in Sri Lanka.
What they don’t need is any more injuries, but that is a distinct possibility on outfields that normally don’t play host to cricket in August. It was noticeable on Sunday at Centurion how players from both sides – especially those fielding on the boundary – had to change tactics from the natural inclination to slide and dive and remain on their feet longer as they chased balls. “It looked like anyone could break a leg,” Domingo remarked.
“For safety purposes it wasn’t great. We need to be smarter in the field. I don’t think sliding at this time of the year is a good option.”
In addition to taking care in the field, Domingo will also press home the importance of South Africa sticking to what has made them successful in limited overs cricket recently and not get caught in the trap of trying to match New Zealand’s aggressive approach.
He described South Africa’s batting in Sunday’s defeat in the second T20 International as “frenetic” and will be demanding a more patient approach – something that should come naturally in the longer limited overs format.
“They seem to be reliant on (Kane) Williamson and (Martin) Guptill at the top of the order. Every time we get them out there seems to be a wobble with their middle order. If we execute our plans well against those two, then hopefully we can nullify the positive approach they have in the middle overs.”