That dreaded c-word spewed forth from some fans’ lips once again after Grant Elliott snuffed the life out of South Africa with a six into the long-on stand in the Cricket World Cup semi-final at Eden Park. So did the Proteas choke?
They certainly did – with a cough and splutter in the dying embers of the thrill-a-minute knockout match.
Botched run-outs and spilled catches were evidence that South Africa’s inclination to falter at the crucial moments had not been exorcised.
Was Dale Steyn the right man to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on his team at the death? No, not in hindsight anyway.
I hear a collective “whaaaat?” after my rather daring assertion, such is Steyn’s stature as a quick bowler. Surely someone with some foresight in the Proteas’ camp should have noticed that Morne Morkel and Imran Tahir – given their form – would be key bowlers for the historic clash in Auckland?
Steyn has not been the fearsome bowler the world has come to know in this tournament. However, we cannot be too harsh on Steyn for his average form, for he has produced the goods many times for the Proteas – mostly in the Test arena. He is their go-to man when they want to finish sides off.
So in the final over of the contest, with the Black Caps still 12 runs shy, the Proteas tipped Steyn to get the job done. It was not to be and by the time the next World Cup comes around, it will be 27 years of World Cup silverware absent from the world’s best Test playing nation’s trophy cabinet.
It was in fact Steyn’s sidekick, Morkel, who looked more like the man assuming the go-to mantle. Beanpole Morkel, often criticised for being obsessed with pitching it short, sent out a clear message to his critics he would be sticking to his guns. And it worked to a degree, as he troubled batsmen with the ball biting and spitting off an awkward length all tournament.
Morkel should have opened the bowling from the get-go. International batsmen like Brendon McCullum are slowly but surely working Steyn out in the ODI arena. Masterblasters like McCullum, with broadsword bats and swagger to boot, showed how the ‘Steyn remover’ could be made to look ordinary in the one-day format.
As a colleague of mine said after the blowout in Auckland, “Give Dale the red kookaburra and he’s fine, but give him the white one and it’s the opposite.”
Steyn has lost his mojo in the limited overs format. And coaches should have cottoned onto it.
Where were the slower balls or the yorkers in Steyn’s armoury? His coaches and management staff should know, no matter how good you are, fast bowling is taxing on the body, and as you hit your 30s it is even more of a conundrum. And, you do not want to end up like the great Allan Donald who, hobbled off the park with injury when most of us knew his best – and worst – cricketing days had passed a long time prior. Injury did eventually retire him, rather than riding off into the sunset on his terms.
Steyn’s retirement is some way off, but the problem with Test cricket’s premier bowler is that his backers are not managing him properly. He is being overbowled to the point where his body is buckling under the strain.
I would wager that Steyn, being the fighter and bulldog opponent that he is, will not show outward signs of a body buckling under the strain.
I’m not suggesting Steyn should be dropped, but that the world’s premier fast bowler needs to be managed so Cricket South Africa gets the best out of him. Management needs to start thinking about conditioning and in so doing, prolong his career.
In a tournament of this nature he could have been left out for a match or two to rest his overworked body and have time to work on certain skillsets with the coaching team.
Another possibility was to dispense with him as opening bowler, and get him to bowl first change, but no imagination was shown.
Was there ever a thought that Tahir should open the bowling? He clearly has the guile, skill and variety, while his lack of pace might have assisted in quelling the attacking instincts of McCullum, keeping the Kiwis’ run rate down in those five heady overs of mayhem.
AB de Villiers, the attacking force and game-breaker he is, is far too conservative in other respects. How do you concede 71 in five overs? Surely by the third over he should have known that McCullum’s onslaught might prove pivotal?
It’s going to take an almighty shift in thinking if South Africa are going to ever win the World Cup. There has to be a radical change in mindset that gives backing to unorthodoxy and seeing the little nuances that can change the game.
South Africa might have talent at their disposal, but they lack the skills and variety the ODI game demands – especially in their bowling attack.
Tahir is the template South Africa should work on. Tahir is not a one-trick pony, his use of the googly, his control, his nagging line, coupled with his wicket-taking ability, are evidence of that.
If you run through the rest of the attack it is pretty one-dimensional stuff.
By comparison, at the death Australia have Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummings. India have Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. And New Zealand the likes of Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Daniel Vettori, and even Kane Williamson. Those names speak of variety in bowling.
The route to (possible) success at the World Cup starts with the thinking and conservatism that is embedded in the South African mindset, and in the production line of captains to come who will, unless there is a radical change in thinking, continue to see unorthodoxy as a hangman’s noose.
Again this team has all the talent to win this thing. If only captains, players and coaches can change the way they think about the game.
For example, was it not time to drop Quinton de Kock, who, after a brilliant start to his ODI career, has had certain weaknesses exposed. De Kock had had a terrible run of form before the one innings of note against Sri Lanka. A bolder approach would have seen such a precocious talent be relegated to the sidelines to work on technique and faults in his armoury.
Why was Aaron Phangiso not given a run in the tournament? Why did management seem to give in to persistent calls for Wayne Parnell to be banished to the sidelines? Here they had a left armer who could have added some variety, but was left on the boundary.
South Africa had probably the biggest management team at the 2015 edition. In one insert played out on SuperSport you could catch a glimpse of the scale of the backroom staff, including a batting coach, consultants, baggage handlers, a doctor, and I’m sure there would even have been hairstylists, given the fact that it looked like every South Africa player was sporting a new hairdo every match.
Coach Russell Domingo said before their departure that they would not be having a sports psychologist or a motivator on board, as they felt they didn’t need an expert to strengthen their mental resolve. Yet by the end of the Pakistan game, Mike Horn, an adventurer of note, had been added to the backroom team to impart much-needed motivation.
Was the huge management team, and, no offence intended, inclusion of the family members, not a distraction and hindrance to the progress of the team? With players like Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers, and Dale Steyn (before that, Jacques Kallis) have assembled a truly brilliant band of cricketers. But for all their Test prowess and production line of players, the ODI Proteas promise much but deliver little.
The problem might be is that the players, as a unit, rate themselves higher than they actually are. It’s time coaches, management and Cricket South Africa cut that problem down to size.
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