South Africa toured Australia in 1952-53. The squad of 15 had six players who had never played Test cricket.
They played five Tests against a side captained by Lindsay Hassett that included players like Neil Harvey, Keith Miller, Ray Lindwall, Colin McDonald and Ritchie Benaud. The tourists managed to score only one Test hundred. Only three of their batsmen averaged more than 40 across the series – and one of these guys played one Test and batted twice for 50 runs and once not out – and none of their bowlers averaged less than 27 runs per wicket.
Yet this team managed to draw a series 2-2 with a team comprising a number of players from the 1948 Invincibles side.
One of the lessons Ritchie Benaud took from this series was how hard the South Africans trained on their fielding. The story goes that Jack Chetham, the South African captain, set a target of having zero dropped catches across the entire series. They ended up dropping two, which were apparently very difficult at best.
The side also worked extremely hard on it’s ground fielding, with the reasoning that the fewer runs they had to chase, the more chance they had of setting up a victory.
Australia has prided itself over many years on the quality of its ground fielding and especially its catching, but I think the standards have slipped significantly in recent times. Gone are the days when batsmen would think twice about going for a run simply because a Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting or Michael Clarke were within ten yards of the ball.
I also recall our bowlers, especially Glenn McGrath, getting an edge and simply running with their hands up because they knew the catch would be taken. I don’t think our bowlers are quite so trusting of the slips cordon at the moment.
The series against India was not a great one for catching by Australia, but there were signs of improvement in the Sri Lanka series, with Joe Burns and Kurtis Patterson in particular taking some excellent grabs. This was offset, however, by some pretty simple dropped chances, often by Usman Khawaja.
The Australian bowlers probably form one of the best, if not the best, outfielding units in world cricket. All are athletic, all get to the ball quickly and all have strong arms. That leaves Tim Paine, who was very good but not great as a keeper in the Indian series. Long days in the field can’t have helped his concentration, but this needs to improve for the upcoming tours.
Pat Cummins of Australia. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
I know you see the Aussies out every day during a game going through a series of fielding drills, but this is only warming up. The few snippets I’ve seen of the guys actually training don’t show much intensity – rather the mere maintenance of current skills instead of a honing of those skills. How often do they have nothing but intensive fielding drills as opposed to a bit of fielding in between batting and bowling in the nets?
Most pundits agree the Ashes series is likely to be dominated by the bowling attacks, so the Tests are likely to be low-scoring affairs. Surely this makes it imperative we outplay England in the field.
Australia needs to decide it’s going to out-field England, and Justin Langer needs to map out a fielding training strategy that is high intensity so that the guys carry this onto the field in a game. He and Paine need to work on likely fielding positions for each player so they can specifically work on the requirements for those positions.
Dave Warner and Steve Smith returning to the team will help improve the fielding for sure, but we need to have all 11 guys mentally ready to field at a high level for a full Test series.
We need to show huge amounts of energy and enthusiasm so that England are overwhelmed by the pressure being brought to bear. We need a total commitment from the entire Ashes squad to fielding so that we don’t let England into games through a silly dropped catch or a careless piece of fielding.
It seems to me Australia and England are fairly evenly matched in terms of batting and bowling attacks. If Langer and the team can improve our fielding so that we are significantly superior to England, this has to help our chances of bringing home the Ashes.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Well put Paul. I always remember a mate who travelled the world watching the Aussies play and saying how Australia was noted for its fielding pressure. Australian crowds were always hard on poor fielding and poor fielders, to the point that he said the Poms were putting Monty Panesar into therapy to cope with the expected Aussie derision. My comment to him was; surely the answer is simpler than that, just teach him to field! Whether picked as a batsman or bowler, fielding is vital, how a professional can't work on a weakness which affects the team outcome, is beyond me. Only change would be to take the T out of Richie Benaud. Great content though.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Too true!
Paul
Roar Guru
hi Jon, I think you're right about the series that got away, but SA worked bloody hard to get into a position to win Tests and yes, they had a very healthy dose of luck go their way. Benaud talked about how fielding could bring a team together by working for your mates and I think some of that would be very applicable to this current side. That's apart from saving runs and holding catches.
Paul
Roar Guru
thanks for your kind words about the writing, James. It'd be a boring world if we agreed on everything, I reckon!
Jon Richardson
Roar Pro
Paul you are right about fielding being an area for improvement for the current team, but I’m not sure it was the reason for letting a non-stellar South African team steal a draw in 1952-53. The two Tests they won were thanks to a) Hugh Tayfield, a great offspinner (career average as good as Warne’s) taking 13 wickets in Melbourne and b) losing the 5th Test, also in Melbourne, after scoring 500 plus in the first innings and allowing South Africa to chase 297 losing only four wickets. But Ray Lindwall was injured and a young Richie Benaud was ineffective (maybe he wanted to divert attention from that by talking up the SA fielding, though no doubt that helped in supporting Tayfield’s 13/for). But haven’t seen a suggestion that Australia lost the Test because it dropped too many. This series was truly the one that got away, Australia having won two matches comfortably and being well ahead in the drawn Test, with SA 6/177 chasing a target of 376 in 255 minutes after a miscalculated declaration against a notoriously slow scoring team.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Extremely important point, so valid. Jonty Rhodes elevated himself from an average/handy test player to the extraordinary through his feats in the field. I also enjoyed the historical content of your opening paragraphs. 2-2 with that squad against the Australians of the day was quite an achievement.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Well said Paul. In a low scoring series with bowlers set to dominate, fielding becomes even more important than usual. Who are the best fielders going around these days? I was hoping Agar would kick on with his batting to become our “all rounder” option because he is a gun fielder. Labuschagne seems pretty good as well, but I don’t see enough domestic cricket to comment on fringe players. And Khawaja, man is he frustrating! Takes one of the best catches you will ever see early in the season and then goes downhill from there. And of course Maxwell adds plenty with his fielding, but obviously not enough in the eyes of the selectors to make him an option. I honestly can’t see why they would be wary of a guy who averages over 40 in first class cricket, can change a game in a session, hit a century in India, is a legitimate 5th bowler option and is a gun fielder.
JamesH
Roar Guru
We don't always see eye to eye Paul(!) but I like your writing and this is a really good point. I think the lack of fielding talent goes hand-in-hand with a drop off in batting depth in the Shield. 15 years ago, question marks over your fielding ability/intensity could have kept you out of the test side even if you were scoring runs. You had to show commitment to that part of your game. Now we can't afford to be as picky. Guys like Khawaja, Head and Harris aren't the best fielders but if they justify a spot on their batting then it's hard to not pick them. It was great to see Patterson and Burns showing up some of the other guys in the field. Last into the team and doing everything they can to make themselves hard to drop.