Going into the ICC World Cup, the perceived wisdom was that only three sides had a realistic chance of winning the tournament: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
And while co-hosts Australia and New Zealand’s performances thus far have only served to underline their credentials, South Africa have left a lot to be desired in their two games.
New Zealand have looked focused and determined in their three games in the tournament; a well-rounded performance against Sri Lanka was followed by maulings of Scotland and England which were set up by dominant displays with the ball.
Due to the vagaries of scheduling and a tropical cyclone in Brisbane, Australia have only played one game, a comprehensive dismantling of England in which the Aussies were superior in every facet.
South Africa, on the other hand, have looked anything but convincing. They were saved by a record fifth wicket stand between JP Duminy and David Miller against Zimbabwe. The Proteas then laboured while defending 339, winning by 62 runs – a relatively small total given the gulf in class between the two teams.
They were then comprehensively outclassed by India at the MCG. At first they struggled to contain India’s top order batsmen, and then collapsed dismally chasing what looked an eminently gettable 308.
South Africa have three of the top ten batsman in the ICC’s ODI rankings – including the top two – and three of the top eleven bowlers, with Dale Steyn the highest ranked bowler at the tournament.
With this array of talent at their disposal, why would South Africa be struggling?
The answer lies in their lack of depth.
New Zealand showed off the how deep their squad runs in the first match of the tournament against Sri Lanka. All the batsmen made runs except for Ross Taylor, and the five frontline bowlers took two wickets apiece.
Australia were missing captain Michael Clarke and highly valued all-rounder James Faulkner in their only game so far, yet comfortably accounted for England.
The starkest outline of the difference between the three teams comes when you compare the players in the respective all-rounder roles.
New Zealand’s all-rounder is Corey Anderson. In the Sri Lanka game, he bludgeoned 75 off 46 balls to carry the Kiwis to 331, then took 2/18. Another three wickets for 18 in the rout of Scotland showed that Anderson is valuable as both a late order hitter and a change up bowler.
The player Australia like to use in that position is Faulkner. Much has been made about his importance to the team, and with good reason: he averages 48.12 with the bat and 32.36 with the ball in ODIs.
However, Faulkner is injured for the first stage of the World Cup. The player that replaced him for the England game was Mitch Marsh, whose quick fire 23 off 20 balls helped set up Australia’s massive total.
Marsh then picked up 5/33 in England’s innings, effectively ending the chase before it really got off the ground.
South Africa, on the other hand, have used two different players in the all-rounder role in their two games. Against Zimbabwe Farhaan Behardien assumed the position, not getting to bat due to Duminy and Miller’s record 256 run partnership, and then going for 40 runs from five wicketless overs.
That effort got Behardien dropped for the India game at the MCG, with Wayne Parnell coming in to the side. Parnell’s struggles were even worse than Behardien’s, with Vernon Philander’s hamstring injury meaning he had to bowl nine overs for a return of 1/85.
Parnell’s effort with the bat wasn’t terrible in the circumstances – an unbeaten 17 as South Africa lost 5/24 around him – but by then the horse had well and truly bolted. In any case, Parnell’s primary discipline is bowling, and having him bat at seven is a concern.
Behardien, on the other hand, is mostly a middle order batsman. Any time South Africa require him to bowl more than two or three overs in a game will also prove problematic.
South Africa are understandably still struggling to replace Jacques Kallis. His ability with both bat and ball made him a world class all-rounder, and unless one of Behardien or Parnell develop in to one themselves, it’s hard to see them lifting the World Cup on March 29th.
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