ODI series review: Not all bad, not all good. But what about Faf?

“Sometimes he sits in the dressingroom during a Test match and he gets really irritated because he wants to be doing something all the time.” – Mark Boucher on the deceptively unruffled Quinton de Kock.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

A new captain is settling in, a red-ball batter has reinvented himself as a white-ball option, and a fast bowler has established his credentials. South Africa’s performance in their ODI series against England wasn’t good as it might have been, but it could have been worse. Even so, the shadow of a major figure for much of the past 10 years hangs over the scene; apparently half in and half out of the camp.  

“There are a lot of good things that have happened,” Mark Boucher told reporters at the Wanderers on Sunday after England won by two wickets with 6.4 overs remaining to ensure a drawn ODI rubber. South Africa were by far the better team at Newlands on Tuesday, when they won by seven wickets with seven deliveries to spare. But any momentum they hoped to take into the second match, at Kingsmead on Friday, went down the drain: rain allowed only 11.2 overs.

“There are a couple of things we need to work on, obviously, but it is quite difficult to judge over two games,” Boucher said. “We will use the next three games against Australia [in series of three T20s and as many ODIs from February 21 to March 7] to find some answers and ask some questions.”

Boucher was satisfied with the start of Quinton de Kock’s tenure as South Africa’s appointed ODI captain: “We always knew ‘Quinny’ had a very smart cricketing brain. He’s had a couple of different field placings which I thought were good — he’s thinking out of the box. ‘Quinny’ is unique and I think the uniqueness of him can work wonders in a dressingroom like this because we’ve got a unique set-up as well. So I’m happy with the way he has been so far and he will probably grow to be a lot better as well.”

In the absence of the rested Faf du Plessis, De Kock will also captain South Africa in the three-match T20 series against England, which starts in East London on Wednesday. The fact that De Kock opens the batting and keeps wicket in both white-ball formats has led some to worry about his workload. Boucher is not among the concerned: “A lot of people questioned [MS] Dhoni when he was captaining India and he had a great captaincy record. ‘Quinny’ enjoys being in the game. Sometimes he sits in the dressingroom during a Test match and he gets really irritated because he wants to be doing something all the time. I think he really enjoys it. The off-the-field stuff might get to him a bit. We’re going to have to help him in that regard. But, certainly, on the field he leads well. He made some good captaining decisions and off the field he is pretty chilled. He is unique and that can be good for young players. I do think it can be sustainable.”

De Kock is indeed cut from a different cloth to most modern captains in that he lacks verbal slickness in his dealings with the media, and for the same reasons his bosses at Cricket South Africa will have to carefully manage his interactions with sponsors and other stakeholders. But he fits the bill where it matters most: in action. De Kock was the leading runscorer on either side in the ODI series and scored the only century — a matchwinning 107 at Newlands.

De Kock’s major partner in that game, Temba Bavuma, scored 98 and shared a stand of 170. Not long ago, Bavuma was thought of as purely a Test player — and even then as someone of grit but who lacked the gumption needed to take the game forward. “He had a good knock in Cape Town; probably deserving of a hundred although you’re going to say he was two short,” Boucher joked about the pint-sized Bavuma, who stands just 1.62 metres tall. “But the way he came in, he dominated from the first ball he faced, which was great to see. He looks the part in that No. 3 position. He is one of the plusses I’ve seen in this series.”

Fast bowler Lutho Sipamla played in all three games in his debut series in the format and showed more than enough intent and skill to earn future attention from the selectors. He took only two wickets in his 16.2 overs in the series, but had a decent economy rate of 5.02.

And then there’s Faf. Du Plessis has been South Africa’s rock since he made a century on debut in November 2012 to save the Adelaide Test, and he has served as their captain in 115 matches across the formats. But his team’s poor performance at last year’s World Cup, where they lost five of their eight completed games — which followed Sri Lanka becoming the first Asian team to win a Test series in South Africa and preceded a 3-0 Test series hiding in India — and his recent shaky batting form are conspiring to damage what should be a shining legacy.

Like he will be for the T20s against England, Du Plessis was also excused for the ODIs. Kagiso Rabada is on the same schedule, but, at 24 and as one of the hardest working fast bowlers in world cricket, there is no doubt that he remains central to South Africa’s blueprint for the future. That isn’t true of Du Plessis, who is 35 and — largely unfairly — has become associated with what has gone wrong for South Africa in the past year.

Will Du Plessis, who has said repeatedly that he is eyeing retirement after the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November, return for the series against Australia? “That was always the plan and Faf is still one of our best T20 players,” Boucher said. “We feel he needs a bit of a break away from the game. There is going to be a lot of cricket leading up to a [T20] World Cup so [we’ll take] any opportunity we get to give guys a bit of rest and give other guys opportunities to see what they’re all about.”

How long Du Plessis’ goodbye will be is uncertain. But he deserves it be dignified.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Bavuma stands up to the fire

“If transformation is bad when black African players are not doing well, then, when we are doing well, let’s also recognise transformation for what it’s done.” – Temba Bavuma

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

JAMES Baldwin turned up at South Africa’s press conference at Newlands after Tuesday’s ODI against England. At least, a reasonable facsimile of the writer who had a vocation was speaking truth to power, especially on matters of race, was there to answer questions. His name was Temba Bavuma.

Look at Bavuma from outside South Africa’s reality and you see a batter; a nuggety battler given to digging his team out of trouble, a reputation deserved even though he has scored only one Test century in 67 innings. Often he has taken guard in adverse situations. Rarely has he failed.

From the reality of the other side of the looking glass, we see a lot more than a cricketer. Bavuma is black in a society in which blackness has, until comparatively recently, not been valued by a white establishment that has considered cricket part of its cultural property. It still does, although it admits it less readily.

So when Bavuma was dropped from South Africa’s squad after the first Test against England, which he missed through injury, the racist dog-whistling reached almost audible proportions. Across the vividly real divide, black anger hit a crescendo, some of it irrational. Bleating from the middle were the voices of other South Africans — coloureds and those of south Asian descent — who bemoaned having become not black enough to be accepted as equals after centuries of not being white enough.

Except for the odd, in every sense, social media post, Bavuma kept his own counsel in public — even after he returned to the squad for the fourth Test. That changed on Tuesday, when his batting shimmered with attacking intent. We’re used to seeing Quinton de Kock light up the day/night arena. But Bavuma? He had, before Tuesday, featured in only two of the 138 white-ball games South Africa had played during his more than five years as an international player.

Yet there he was, driving and pulling and ripping his bat at the ball with power and elegance as if he had been to the short-format manner born. He followed a deft cut, dabbed late to third man, off Chris Jordan with a short, sharp on-drive that hurried away to the boundary 180 degrees in the opposite direction. The symmetry was breathtaking.

De Kock scored 107 in his first match as the appointed ODI captain, Bavuma made 98, they shared 170, and South Africa had time to stop and smell the roses on their waltz to victory — only their second in five matches on England’s tour.

And then there Bavuma was again, his big eyes looking down the barrels of the press guns that had, some felt, unfairly taken aim at him in the preceding weeks. Ask the press and they will say they reported fairly and accurately reflected the mood.

“It has been hard,” Bavuma said. “It’s not so much the dropping part. All players get dropped. Everyone goes through slumps of not scoring well. But the awkwardness and uncomfortability from my side is when you are thrown into talks of transformation.

“Yes, I am black. That’s my skin. But I play cricket because I love it. I’d like to think the reason I am in the team is because of performances I have put forward in my franchise side, and also for the national team, whenever I have been able to. The discomfort was there, having to navigate around all those types of talks. Players get dropped. I am not the last guy to get dropped. That’s something we’ve come to accept.

“The thing that irks me is when you are seen through the eyes of transformation. When you do well transformation is not spoken about. But when you do badly transformation is thrown to the top of the agenda. I have a serious problem with that. We’ve got to be able to take the good with the bad. If transformation is bad when black African players are not doing well, then, when we are doing well, let’s also recognise transformation for what it’s done.” 

Transformation exists to ensure that black players of all stripes are not denied their opportunities. Without it, South Africa’s teams would surely be what they should not be: largely white. And weaker because they would not be tapping into more of the available talent. Tuesday is far from the only occasion that has been proven.

Perhaps it’s a blessing that someone as thoughtful as Bavuma is trapped in the middle of all that. Others would not be as receptive to and respectful of the prevailing nuances. “A lot has happened, for the good and for the bad,” he said. “The time away from the team has given me time to reflect and realign with my goals and to find the strength and courage to keep chugging along. And keep enjoying the game. 

“It was just good to be on the field, running around with the guys. I felt like I was a kid with no burden out there.”

But burdens he has, not least to keep convincing decision-makers that he deserves a place in South Africa’s white-ball teams, especially with a T20 World Cup looming in October and November. “There’s a lot of players out there who fall into that category and are seen as one-format type of players,” Bavuma said. “I never internalised the narrative that I was just a red-ball player.”

In the wider sense, Bavuma was on another burning deck when he walked out to bat at the end of the seventh over with South Africa 25/1 chasing 259 — more than had ever been scored to win a day/night ODI at Newlands. The bigger flames were all around in the shape of South Africa’s increasingly poor form in the Test series. Beyond that, Cricket South Africa itself is ablaze with problems.

In “The Fire Next Time”, his 1963 book on race and religion, James Baldwin asked: “Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?”

Bavuma has answered that question for himself: “That’s how my career is panning out. I guess maybe I find motivation when the team is in situations like that. My thing is to contribute to the team’s good cause. When the team is in trouble, there is a big motivation, an opportunity to want to stand up.”

Both Baldwin and Bavuma are famously short men. And both are all about standing up. Tall.

First published by Cricbuzz.

De Kock delivers a better day for South Africa

Temba Bavuma hit a pull-scoop for six as casually as if he was slinging a jacket over his shoulder on his way out the door after a hard day’s work.

TELFORD VICE at Newlands

QUINTON de Kock suggested what sort of captain he might make when Eoin Morgan called incorrectly at Newlands on Tuesday. That marked the first time a South Africa captain had won the toss in eight games, or since the World Cup. For the first time in a while that has included six losses in seven Tests, things were looking up.

But it takes more than luck to captain a cricket team. It takes knowledge. So, what do you do if 75.76% of the teams who have batted second in the 33 previous day/night ODIs at this ground have lost? You bat first.

We’ll have a bowl, De Kock said. And when England made 258/8 it looked as if he had got it wrong. Modest though that was, it was also the biggest score successfully chased under lights at Newlands. At least, it was until it became obvious that South Africa would reel in the target without having to roll up their sleeves. They were winners with seven wickets standing and 16 balls to spare.

Perhaps De Kock had been a step ahead of history, and the rest of us, all along. Those records were set when day/nighters started 90 minutes later than Tuesday’s game. When the sun set at 7.49pm (local time), South Africa had all of 11.3 overs left in which to score 48 more runs. Conditions were thus significantly more even throughout the match than in the past.   

De Kock was central his team’s scintillating performance, hitting harder and handsomer than even he tends to do and scoring 107, his 15th ODI century and his first in 11 completed innings. He shared 173 off 170 balls with Temba Bavuma, who was a revelation for his 98.

Bavuma played a pull-scoop off Chris Woakes as casually as if he was slinging a jacket over his shoulder on his way out the door after a hard day’s work. But there was nothing casual about the emphatic six that resulted.

The De Kock-Bavuma stand was South Africa’s biggest for the second wicket in ODIs against England. Only two partnerships for any wicket in any match in the format at this ground have been higher. Few stands anywhere could have been blessed with running as slick as this. The pair scampered 96 of their runs, or more than half, hammered the rest with gusto, and were rarely not on the attack. 

And they prompted questions. On the strength, or rather the weakness, of England’s bowling shouldn’t the ICC revisit the fateful boundary count in last year’s World Cup final and investigate what it would cost, in money and embarrassment, to have to belatedly ship the trophy to New Zealand? No: Woakes was the only survivor from England’s attack that day at Lord’s. For that matter, England’s only other common factor was the top four of Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Morgan.

So let South Africans not get too excited about one small step towards better days. There are two more games in this series, then three T20s, then engagements against Australia, India, West Indies and, perhaps, Pakistan. And then there’s a T20 World Cup. Based on recent factual events, a lot could yet go wrong for them.

Another question, this one more serious: what kind of batter might captaincy make of De Kock? It is an odd thing to ask about someone 117 innings into an already glittering ODI career. But the context is that De Kock has taken every opportunity he has had since being named captain to sum up his elevation in one word: responsibility. As in the taking thereof. That’s what he did on Tuesday. So much so that when he reached his century, in the 34th over with a silky off-drive for four off debuting leg spinner Matt Parkinson, he removed his helmet slowly and deliberately to return the crowd’s salute. Then he raised his bat almost gingerly, as if calling for a replacement. It wasn’t so much a celebration as the marking of a milestone on a road a long way from fully travelled. 

There were several good signs for South Africa at Newlands on Tuesday, not least Tabraiz Shamsi emerging from officially expressed doubts over his conditioning to take the wickets of Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton and Sam Curran for 38 — and deserve to do so in 10 superbly slippery overs of left-arm wrist spin. But De Kock’s maturity was the best of them.

First published by Cricbuzz.

1st ODI preview: Cricket doesn’t like South Africa, Newlands doesn’t like England

Neither team have played on ODI since the World Cup, where England were crowned champions despite neither them nor New Zealand winning the final.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

WHAT’S in three throwaway ODIs that are nothing more than a lettuce leaf sandwiched between the meat of a Test series and the mustard of three T20s to come? If you’re South African, plenty. And if you’re English.

Quinton de Kock will take charge of his first series in the format after being appointed South Africa’s captain on January 21. His squad includes neither Faf du Plessis nor Kagiso Rabada, who have been rested. He also won’t have Anrich Nortjé, Chris Morris or Dale Steyn. But he will have Lungi Ngidi, back from his umpteenth unfortunate injury — a hamstring, this time — and exciting talents like opening batter Janneman Malan, wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne and fast bowler Lutho Sipamla.

England haven’t played an ODI since July 14 last year, when they managed to be crowned World Cup champions despite neither them nor New Zealand winning the final at Lord’s. England’s only players to pass 50 in that match, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, are missing from the equation for this series. 

But they will be back for the T20 rubber. That’s what white-ball cricket is all about this year with, semantically, the inaugural T20 World Cup — previously it was called the World T20 — set for Australia in October and November. And that’s where the global game’s short-format focus will stay for at least another year: the ICC have canned the Champions Trophy, so another T20 World Cup will be played in 2021.

Even so, decent performances in the ODIs could be banked as credits towards securing places in T20 squads. Verreynne, for example, has ridden a wave of regional support — he plays for the Cape Cobras — into South Africa’s squad. Should he prove the hype to be more than home town hoariness, he would be significantly closer to playing in his first senior major tournament. Jonny Bairstow faces a different challenge. Having been a spectator since he made one and nine in the first Test at Centurion, he needs to remind people who matter why he was picked. It won’t help Bairstow’s cause that he played in the only Test England lost on this tour, but it won’t hurt that he scored a century in a one-day tour match in Paarl on Saturday.

Their too often shambolic showing in the Tests has heaped pressure on the South Africans, whose supporters will gladly accept success in the ODIs as the poor person’s salve for their wounded pride. So they will be heartened by the fact that South Africa have won all five of the games in the format they have played against England at Newlands. Alex Hales, the only player to have scored a century for England at the ground, also isn’t in their squad. Neither are James Anderson and Stuart Broad, their most successful bowlers in Cape Town.

Twenty totals higher than England’s Newlands best of 246/8 have been compiled in the 42 ODIs played there. They feature at joint-fourth on the list of lowest totals at the ground, having been shot out for 107 in 34.2 overs by Zimbabwe in January 2000 to earn South Africa’s northern neighbours victory by 104 runs.

That was one of the five defeats England have suffered batting second in day/nighters at Newlands. It is an accepted truth that trying to score runs effectively under lights in Cape Town is significantly more difficult than making hay while the sun shines.

But, given the trough South Africa stumbled into during the Test series, factors like that aren’t going to matter. Bigger issues will parse the teams. Things like whether the South Africans have remembered how to play cricket of any sort since their 3-1 series drubbing was sealed at the Wanderers last Monday. And whether England remember what ODI cricket is considering they have played a dozen Tests and five T20s in the almost six months since the World Cup final.

When: Tuesday February 4, 2020. 1pm Local Time.

Where: Newlands, Cape Town.

What to expect: For the captain who wins the toss to bat first. Only eight of the 42 day/night ODIs played at Newlands have been won by the team who chose to field. That doesn’t have much to do with the pitch itself. Rather, the evening air brings moisture that aide the bowlers. 

Team news

South Africa

Victory is all that will matter to a side hurting from having lost eight of their last nine Tests. But achieving it could be complicated by the fact that the XI is likely to include several debutants drawn from an experimental squad. And look out for some madcap captaincy — or should that be mad captaincy — from Quinton de Kock. 

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Kyle Verreyne, Andile Phehlukwayo, Beuran Hendricks, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla.   

England: Without Ben Stokes and Joss Buttler, England also have a work-in-progress feel about them. But the return to their ranks of a totem like Eoin Morgan can only be a stabilising factor. The five wickets Matt Parkinson took in England’s two warm-up games should earn the leg spinner a debut. 

Possible XI: Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton, Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Matt Parkinson.

“It’s always nice to not play against Ben Stokes, but they’ve still got some quality players. A lot of them are still World Cup winners and were part of that squad, and they’ve also got some exciting young players.” – Quinton de Kock talks his opponents up and down.

“Before the next [50-over] World Cup we have two T20 World Cups that we are eyeing. This series against South Africa will allow us to build a broader squad so that in three or four years’ time we have a substantial group to select from, just like we did before this past World Cup.” – Eoin Morgan focuses on the bigger picture.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Leaner, meaner Ngidi short of a smile. And a milkshake …

“You’ve got to limit a lot more things that are harmful to your body. It’s the lifestyle of being a sportsman.” – Lungi Ngidi

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

POUR some sugar on Lungi Ngidi. Maybe it was the syrupy heat of a proper Cape Town summer afternoon, or the fact that he had alighted from an airplane — where desserts are rarely worth eating — a short while previously, but he sounded like he needed sweetening up when he spoke to the press at Newlands on Sunday.

Maybe because Ngidi, along with Jon-Jon Smuts, Tabraiz Shamsi and Sisanda Magala, is fresh from spending three weeks at boot camp. Or what Cricket South Africa called a “conditioning camp”. Those players’ fitness, it seems, was an issue. All except Magala came through well enough to keep their places in South Africa’s squad for the ODI series against England starting on Tuesday.

Ngidi is a long way from fat. But he has emerged from the camp leaner, he said, by “about four or five kilos”. His smile, usually as broad as the day is long, was worth at least half that lost weight: it was significantly narrower on Sunday. Maybe this is projection, but it seems he could murder a milkshake right about now.

What was the routine at the camp? “Running, bowling, gymming. It’s just a block [of time] where you can 100% focus on training. It’s a lot harder in season to get that conditioning done. So to get that time off and be able to do that was the main thing about it.

“You speak to dieticians, you work with strength and conditioning coaches, you try find the best way to lose weight and also maintain strength and fitness. There’s a lot that goes into it behind the scenes. Most people only know that we had a camp. But at the camp you do a lot more than what people know. You’ve got to limit a lot more things that are harmful to your body. It’s the lifestyle of being a sportsman.”

Ngidi is 23 years and 1.93 metres of fast bowling thunder and lightning. Depending on which end of the pitch you’re at he is either a thrill or a terror to behold. He made his international debut in a Test against India at Centurion in January 2018 and claimed 6/39 in the second innings. But has played only for more Tests, not least because he is often injured. So fare, he has missed out because of hip, knee, abdomen and hamstring problems along with stress fractures. Ngidi has had 34 games across the formats for South Africa. In the same period the more resilient Kagiso Rabada has played 56 matches. Ngidi’s latest calamity, a hamstring issue, struck in December during the Mzansi Super League. Why all the pain and suffering for someone who, by the look of him, is a magnificent physical specimen? “It’s hard to pinpoint,” Ngidi said. “We do a lot of work as national players but everyone’s formula’s different. I’m a bit bigger than the other guys, so it probably takes a bit more out of my body to bowl.”

Even so, he will go into this series as the leader of South Africa’s attack. With Rabada rested and Anrich Nortjé, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn not selected, no-one in the squad packs anything like Ngidi’s pace. He can’t take the prized wickets of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler because they aren’t in England’s party. Does he fancy others? “I’d like all of them. That’s my main thing right now — to take as many wickets as possible. It doesn’t matter who’s playing for them. Our aim is to win the series. Even if they were here it would be the same: to win the series. They’re good players, but a good ball is a still a good ball on any day.”

The last time Ngidi was in a South Africa side, in a Test against India in Ranchi in October, Enoch Nkwe was interim director, and responsibility for preparing the batters and bowlers fell to former Mumbai stalwart Amol Muzumdar and Vincent Barnes. Now, Mark Boucher is the head coach with Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt assisting him. Ngidi was undaunted by all the changes: “I’ve been coached by Boucher since he was at the Titans [Ngidi’s franchise], so I think that relationship will be the same. I worked with Langeveldt the first season that I came into the Proteas, so I guess the only person that I haven’t worked with is Jacques Kallis. But he did come into the Titans camp once or twice. So I’m not too anxious about it.”

With the next ODI World Cup more than three years away but the T20 global showpiece looming in Australia in October and November, the England rubber is more an opportunity to stake a claim for the T20 World Cup than a contest in its own right. “Everyone’s fighting for a spot there, but that’s quite far down the line,” Ngidi said with a face filled with seriousness. “The first step in on Tuesday.”

In his first outing since returning from injury, a one-dayer against the Lions at Centurion on Friday, he took 3/40 from nine overs — and bagged South Africa squadmates Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen, both caught behind — into the bargain. England’s batters should be worried that even that couldn’t bring back Ngidi’s smile: “I pride myself on the way I bounce back from things. That was a step in the right direction.”

We won’t tell the fitness fanatics if you don’t: please, someone, get the kid a milkshake.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Hello and goodbyes for South Africa

“If you leave the team when they need you most, that’s not my style.” – Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE at St George’s Park

BRACE yourself, Wanderers, for Vernon Philander’s final Test. And for Temba Bavuma’s return. And for something else. Asked on Monday if the fourth Test against England, which starts at the Wanderers on Friday, could be his last on home soil, Faf du Plessis said, “Yes, most definitely. It is a possibility.”

Philander’s retirement, announced before the series, is old news. Bavuma’s comeback was all but assured when he followed first-class scores of nine and 17 with 180. But Du Plessis seemed as secure in the captain’s saddle as he could be at the helm of a team who have lost seven of their last eight Tests. Not least because there is no viable alternative for the leadership. Even so, or perhaps because of that, it’s not easy being Du Plessis. Half the country is on his back about his batting — he scored the last of his nine centuries 16 innings ago — and the other half about his leadership. Wouldn’t life be better if he walked away from all that? “The worst thing a leader can do is pull the plug mid-series and say, ‘Sorry boys, I’m out. I’ve had enough.’ I don’t think that’s what leadership is about. You have to stick through the tough times as well.” Hashim Amla’s ears must be on fire: he quit the captaincy in January 2016, midway through England’s previous series in South Africa. Du Plessis, it seems, is made of different stuff. “I felt that the team has needed a leader to stand up and try and guide the ship through a difficult time. If you leave the team when they need you most, that’s not my style. I have been under pressure a lot of times as a player and I’ve come through those times. In tough circumstances, I’ve played my best innings under pressure. I think that speaks for itself that I can’t leave the team when they need me most, as one of the leaders in the team. I can’t do it forever and it has been chipping away at my character. For now, that’s what we need. I think it will make it worse if I say I’m out.”

Fine words from a thoroughly good bloke, but there’s no doubting that Test cricket is currently Du Plessis’ weakest suit. Only Quinton de Kock scored more runs than he did in whites in 2019. Since Boxing Day, De Kock, Dean Elgar, Rassie van der Dussen, Philander and Pieter Malan have all been more successful than their captain. In his trips to the crease after his most recent Test hundred, 103 against Pakistan at Newlands in January 2019, Du Plessis averages 30.33 — more than 10 points below his career mark of 40.23. His one-day average in the same period, 67.83, is almost 20 points above his overall figure of 47.47. He has played only two T20s in that time, scoring 58 and 23. “After the T20 World Cup [in Australia in October and November], I’ll reassess where I am. But Test cricket is the format that takes the most out of you and takes you way from home the most. And if, I’m brutally honest with myself, at the moment white-ball cricket is where I am most successful. One-day cricket my stats are up there with the best in the world. T20 cricket, my stats are up there. But, in Test cricket, my stats are not where they need to be. As a batting unit, the standards need to be better and I am not meeting the standards as a player.”

So here’s what, probably, happens: Du Plessis relinquishes the one-day captaincy as soon as Tuesday, when the squad for the three matches in that format against England is due to be named. He hangs onto the T20 leadership until the World Cup. The Test captaincy? After the Wanderers, South Africa’s next engagement is two matches in West Indies in July. In other words, Du Plessis — and the suits — don’t need to think about that now. “I have committed until the T20 World Cup. There isn’t a lot of Test cricket left this year; one massive Test where we need everyone to be as strong as possible to try and draw the series, and after that there is quite a big gap, and I have said before there is an opportunity then to release some of the captaincy when it comes to giving guys opportunities, especially in one-day cricket, to make sure we look forward to the future. Probably after [the West Indies series] Test cricket will be something that won’t see me. That’s a decision I will only fully will make then. For me now it’s to be as mentally strong as possible because we need our leaders, our senior players in the team. We need to be strong. It’s a tough time for all of us and we need to make sure we fight. Personally, from a runs point of view, I am not up to the level that I should be but I still have a huge role to play as a captain to make sure I lift these guys up to win a Test match in the next game.”

Ah, the next game. About that: “[Bavuma] did what we said he should do: he scored runs. So we’ll have to see how we are going to get him back into the team because we lack confidence in our batting line-up. And about Philander: “We haven’t yet spoken to the Wanderers groundsman, but we’re looking for something that will keep Vernon in the game. As we saw [at St George’s Park], he wasn’t really a factor because the pitch was too slow.” Philander bowled only 16 of the 152 overs South Africa sent down in Port Elizabeth and went wicketless for 41. The Wanderers, where his bowling average, 15.69, or the lowest among all the grounds where he has played more than five Tests, will serve him better. It is also Bavuma’s home ground. What will it give Du Plessis? South Africa have won two of the three Wanderers Tests they have played under him and he has scored two centuries there. Brace yourself, Wanderers. You may never have this chance again.

First published by Cricbuzz.

To Faf, with love

“The bottom line is our nation wants to see performances. Today is not a day we want to hold our heads up high and say we fought.” – Mark Boucher

TELFORD VICE at St George’s Park

HAVING completed all the twists, twirls, twiddles and twitches that signal the start of his innings, Faf du Plessis levelled his gaze at the rapidly approaching Mark Wood at St George’s Park on Sunday. He defended two deliveries as impeccably as a cliff withstands oncoming waves, ducked the third — a “slower” bouncer timed at 143 kilometres per hour — punched the fourth to short cover with intent, and opened the face of his bat to the fifth to set the ball on a crisp curve to the third man boundary. So far, so Faf. Not so fast. By then, normality had left the building.

Du Plessis was batting because England had enforced the follow-on, which they earned the right to do by taking four wickets across 23 deliveries. In 25 mad minutes, Stuart Broad reaped three for nought in 16 balls, and Vernon Philander, Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada played four of the most abjectly inept strokes yet seen at this grand old ground or anywhere else. Their gutlessness was shocking considering the addition of a gettable 92 runs would have forced England to bat again, which could have altered the course of this weather-struck match. Instead, between them they contributed a solitary single to the cause.

“We can’t start pointing fingers,” Mark Boucher said after stumps. “I look at it as a time to self-reflect. Ultimately I’ve got to take responsibility for the performance of the team. We’re in a very bad situation in this game, but we’re not out of the series yet. It’s disappointing and the guys are pretty disappointed. I need to try and find a way to upskill the guys mentally and get them ready for tomorrow and the last Test.”

Specifically on the batting failures, he said: “They want to dominate but the conditions have been quite tough; the ball’s turning a lot more. The element of risk is quite big to just go out there and hit the ball over the top. We have got a young batting unit; we don’t have to hide behind that. The bottom line is our nation wants to see performances. Today is not a day we want to hold our heads up high and say we fought. We need a lot of hard work in the future.”

If all this seems somehow familiar it might be because South Africa are following on for the third time in five Tests. How many times did it happen in their previous 100 Tests? Not once. The last time was at Lord’s in July 2008, when Graeme Smith, Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla scored centuries to save the match. How those names gleam out of the gloom that has enveloped South Africa’s original Test venue for two days now. Not since February 2002, when they played Australia at the Wanderers, have South Africa followed on at home. That’s 94 matches in their own backyard without suffering this ignominy. Something stinks in that backyard. 

The rot in the far pavilions of Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) higher offices has long been smelt and is undoubtedly a factor in what is going wrong on the field. Appointing people who know what they’re doing is the start of cleaning up the mess, but it doesn’t mean the players will automatically and immediately revert to their best — even if, in the afterglow of suddenly seeing light at the end of the tunnel, they celebrate like South Africa did at Centurion. The joy engendered by that victory, handsome and stirring though it was, didn’t make it out of Newlands alive. It’s being buried at St George’s Park as we speak. Something similar happened in South Africa’s series in India in October, when CSA’s distrusted and despised former regime was still in authority, and when the team were at their most competitive in the first match only to ebb further away from parity as the rubber wore on.

England have been the better team for most of this series despite players of the calibre of James Anderson, among others, going home injured. That point was made obliquely during Sunday’s tea interval, when Jofra Archer appeared on the field with his bothersome right elbow significantly strapped and turned his arm over from a short run for a few minutes. How much more badly might South Africa have fared at Newlands and St George’s Park had they had cricket’s scariest bowler haring in to snipe at them? Conversely, how could they have gifted a bowler as unremarkable as Joe Root, who had never taken more than two wickets in an innings, four of them? Insult was added to that injury after Root had Rassie van der Dussen impossibly caught by a low-flying Ollie Pope at short leg. Van der Dussen paused his trudge back to the dressingroom to watch the replay on the big screen. He kept watching, hand on hip, bat propped on the ground, longer than if he was simply trying to understand the error of his stroke. Only when he saw Pope swoop and celebrate like a four-year-old who had discovered the secret family sweet stash did he resume his glum journey. Cynics will say Van der Dussen had already signed off on his disappointment by the time he stopped to admire Pope’s feat. 

Du Plessis, too, will stoke his detractors’ ire by wasting his team’s only remaining referral on a Root delivery he must have known he had edged onto his pad before that crazy kid Pope caught it. That he had made his highest score in eight innings — 36 — and faced more deliveries — 123 — than in his 15 previous trips to the crease suddenly mattered less than what looked a lot like thoughtlessness or, worse, selfishness. Neither are acceptable qualities in a captain, and evidence of them should ring loud alarms in those who have proven themselves as worthy of leadership as Du Plessis. “It’s easy for me to sit here and say I’m happy with his state of mind,” Boucher said. “It’s going to be a lot better if he gets out there and scores runs. We all know he’s under pressure in the media and from a confidence point of view. So the positive is that he got out there and gave himself a chance to have a look at the conditions, and he looked like he had good rhythm in a tough situation. He’ll look at the team situation as a captain and be disappointed in the performance today and in the Test match, but I’m sure he’ll take a lot confidence from the fact that he faced quite a few balls and got to spend quite a bit of time in the middle.”

Du Plessis has had a long and at times unfairly difficult journey, and now it’s reaching its end. He knows it. We know it. The question is when he should go and who should retain power of attorney over his exit? Du Plessis has said he wants to bow out at the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November. England will stay on after the Wanderers Test for three games in each of the white-ball formats. Then Australia arrive for another three ODIs and T20s. Three more ODIs follow in India, and two Tests and five T20s in West Indies. Du Plessis is currently South Africa’s captain in all formats. For the good of the team and the player, that has to change.

More immediately, what are South Africa going to do for the Test starting at the Wanderers on Friday? Temba Bavuma, Beuran Hendricks, Keegan Petersen and Andile Phehlukwayo — who are part of the squad but have been released to play for their franchises — will not feature in this week’s round of domestic matches, which start on Monday. Bavuma’s social media post on Saturday of a photograph of bats and boots in front of a South Africa kitbag, and that he captioned “Back at it”, would seem to support the theory that he is set for a comeback in the wake of being dropped after missing the Centurion Test with a hip injury. His response was the best it could be: he scored 180 for the Lions.  

For the sake of Du Plessis the captain, that’s a good thing. For Du Plessis the player, not so much. Too many people want him to fail, and too many of the same people want Bavuma to replace him as a player and a captain. It is unseemly and unnecessary, and it paints cricketminded South Africans as immature, spiteful, self-destructive brats. That has to stop, for Faf’s sake.

First published by Cricbuzz.

AB a maybe for T20 World Cup, but it’s complicated

“It’s not going to be as simple as that.” – Enoch Nkwe explains why AB de Villiers can’t be an automatic selection.

TELFORD VICE in Port Elizabeth

IF AB de Villiers’ supporters think he could march straight back into South Africa’s dressingroom at the T20 World Cup, they will be disappointed.

“It’s not just going to be as simple as that,” Enoch Nkwe, South Africa’s assistant coach, said on Tuesday. “From my experience of the last couple of weeks with how [head coach Mark Boucher] works, he really believes in processes — you’ve got to earn it. It’s not just walking into the team.”

De Villiers stunned the cricket world in May 2018 when, aged just 34, he retired from the international stage to pursue a career as a T20 franchise specialist. But earlier on Tuesday cricket.com.au quoted De Villiers as saying he would “love to” make a return to the highest level at the tournament in Australia in November and December, although he acknowledged that “there’s a lot that needs to happen before that becomes reality.”

“I’ve been talking to [Boucher]‚ [acting director of cricket] Graeme Smith and [captain] Faf [du Plessis] back home; we’re all keen to make it happen,” De Villiers was quoted as saying. “It’s a long way away still and plenty can happen. There’s the IPL coming up — I’ve still got to be in form at that time. So I’m thinking of throwing my name in the hat and hoping that everything will work out. It’s not a guarantee. I don’t want to disappoint myself or other people‚ so for now I’m just going to try and keep a low profile‚ try and play the best possible cricket that I can and then see what happens towards the end of the year.”

Reports that De Villiers had made a tentative offer to return for the one-day World Cup in England last year — which was declined — became a lingering subplot for a struggling side who won only three of their eight completed games. This time, it seems, the prospect of having him back in a South Africa shirt has been better received — not least because he remains active in South African cricket. “He has been involved in the [Mzansi Super League] and I’m sure that if he shows interest he will be involved in some of the series that we will be playing,” Nkwe said. “We keep seeing him fully committed to these type of [T20] leagues, which shows that if we need experience like that we could actually call him up. I am sure that he would be someone who would love to do it for South Africa.”

Smith, Boucher and De Villiers were teammates for South Africa, a fact that can only help ease De Villiers back into the mix. “There are a lot of players who I used to play with‚ guys who understand the game‚ leaders of the team for many years,” he was quoted as saying. “So it’s much easier to communicate than what it used to be in the past. They understand what players go through — especially players that have played for 15 years internationally‚” De Villiers said. It doesn’t mean that everything is going to be sunshine and roses‚ but it’s definitely a lot easier and it feels comfortable; the language that’s being used and just the feel that everyone has at the moment in South Africa about cricket. They’re my friends; I played 10-plus years with them internationally. We’ve been through a lot and it’s great to have them involved again. Hopefully I’ll be involved again as well pretty soon.”

First published by Cricbuzz.

Faf du Plessis deserves more

He has held his team together as a captain and with the bat.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

HOW long is a week in the life of a Test captain? That depends on which week we’re dealing with. When Faf du Plessis persisted with Keshav Maharaj in the second innings at Centurion even after the left-arm spinner’s offerings had been carted to all parts of the ground, the reward was the wicket of Ben Stokes. What an inspired spark of leadership, most who saw it agreed. When the same captain showed the same faith in the same bowler in the same innings at Newlands, he dismissed Stokes again. But this time there was no praise for either Du Plessis or Maharaj. Instead, there was criticism.

Different situations in different matches played on different pitches will have different outcomes and thus different impacts. When Maharaj bowled Stokes off the bottom edge for 14 at Centurion, England needed 172 more runs to win and half their remaining six wickets were in the lower order. They were under pressure, and they duly cracked. When Stokes holed out to long-on for 72 at Newlands, England were 356 runs ahead with five wickets in hand, among them those of Ollie Pope and Jos Buttler. They were in firm control, and it showed.

There is little value in isolating one aspect of a match, at Centurion, in which more of the important moments swung South Africa’s way, and comparing it to a similar feature of another match, at Newlands, where England got more right than wrong. And the fact that South Africa won at Centurion and lost at Newlands skews the debate still further. But it does highlight the fragility of captains’ approval ratings and the fickleness of their detractors.

Du Plessis earned more heat at Newlands for delaying taking the new ball in England’s second innings. There was little appreciation of the implication of the truth that, at 80 overs, Dom Sibley was 85 not out and Stokes had yet to face a delivery. With one batter entrenched, the other a force of nature who likes nothing better than the ball coming onto the bat, and the pitch flat, denying the opposition the chance to score runs even faster than they were already was a sound decision. The five overs Maharaj and Dwaine Pretorius bowled with the old ball with the new one due cost 28 runs. The five overs immediately the new ball was taken, which were bowled by Vernon Philander, Maharaj and Kagiso Rabada, went for 26. No wickets fell in those 10 overs. Not a lot in it, is there?   

Smouldering off-stage is the reality that Du Plessis has gone seven Test innings without reaching 50 and 13 completed knocks since scoring a century. But he made 90 and 50 not out in South Africa’s home series against Sri Lanka in February, when he was second among his team’s run-scorers, and his two half-centuries in India in October helped make him the third-most successful South African batter in that rubber. Last year only Quinton de Kock scored more runs and banked a higher average than Du Plessis. That said, it’s winning that matters for captains — and Du Plessis presided over the wrong side of the equation when Sri Lanka became the first Asian team to win a series in the country, and saw his side hammered 3-0 in India. He was also in charge for South Africa’s shambolic World Cup, where they won only three of their eight completed games. About that: Du Plessis was his side’s leading run-scorer. He also topped the averages and made South Africa’s only century in the tournament.

Some people won’t want to hear this, but in terms of winning percentage among captains who have led teams in at least 20 Tests, only 10 men in history have been more successful than Du Plessis. He has been better than Mark Taylor, Michael Clarke, Michael Vaughan, Hansie Cronjé, Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd, Graeme Smith, Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Allan Border, MS Dhoni, Richie Benaud, Javed Miandad, Nasser Hussain, Graham Gooch, Imran Khan, and Michael Atherton. In one-day terms, only Lloyd and Virat Kohli have higher winning percentages than Du Plessis, who is sixth on the T20 list.

To label Du Plessis a poor captain is fatuous nonsense. And yet it is happening in South Africa, a society where it can seem as if little matters more than the first unthought through thought that pops into the head of any random irrelevance who has done the world a disservice by existing on social media. Closer to the truth is that Du Plessis deserves better: from his players and from the public. The measurable aspects of his career make that plain. As for the unmeasurables, no captain is more comfortably in control on the field, and none have his level of emotional intelligence. If you can’t give of your best under him, it’s you; not him.

That Du Plessis will call it a career after the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November is as close to confirmed as possible. He is thus a lame duck captain, a less than desirable state of affairs that has shown itself in the peculiar flatness that has afflicted South Africa since the World Cup. He seems trapped between his own best interests and his sense of duty, which some of those who have gone before haven’t struggled to shrug off like a dirty shirt. That he is by far the best man for the job South Africa have — have ever had? — is unarguable. But who would replace him?

Victory in the Test series against England would quell all questioning of Du Plessis, but only until he is at the helm of a white-ball team. Defeat would add, disproportionately, to the noxious noise around him.

Either way, it’s going to be a long few weeks in the life of this particular captain.

First published by Cricbuzz.

Now batting, again, for South Africa: AB de Villiers?

“People want AB to play and I am no different.” – Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE in Paarl

AB de Villiers walks back into your dressingroom … Faf du Plessis has heard that one before. South Africa’s captain spent much of his time with the press at the men’s World Cup this year explaining how and why an apparent offer from De Villiers to return for the tournament wasn’t taken up.

Thanks to Mark Boucher, Du Plessis is hearing about a De Villiers comeback again. But, this time, it could happen.

“I’m so used to that question now,” Du Plessis said on Monday after captaining the Paarl Rocks to triumph in the Mzansi Super League final. To the delight of a sold-out home crowd they thumped, by eight wickets with 34 balls remaining, the Tshwane Spartans — who failed to capitalise on the 37-ball 51 scored by one Abraham Benjamin de Villiers.

De Villiers shocked the world game in May last year when, three months after his 34th birthday, he retired from international cricket to join the band of T20 mercenaries travelling from tournament to tournament. It seemed he had had enough of the personal commitment required to play in all formats at international level as well as in the T20 franchise arena. The sacrifices his family had to make to allow him to do so had mounted, as had the pressure that came with being South Africa’s superstar. Now, it seems, things have changed and he is in discussions with the relevant figures.

“People want AB to play and I am no different,” Du Plessis said. “Those conversations [with De Villiers] have been happening for two or three months already — what does it look like, how does it look over the next year, and that’s where it starts. T20 cricket is a different beast; it’s not a lot of time away from home. If you are a full campaigner you have to really get stuck in and spend a lot of time on the road. Test cricket now is the most important thing but also the T20 World Cup is not too far away. I reckon there are 20 T20s over the season, which won’t be that hard. Those conversations have already taken place and will do before the next T20 series starts.”

After being unveiled as South Africa’s coach on Saturday, Boucher was ambushed into saying he wouldn’t mind having De Villiers in the fold for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November next year: “When you go to a World Cup you want your best players. If you feel he’s one of the best players, then why wouldn’t you want to have conversations with him? If there are a couple of issues you’ve got to iron out, if it’s for the best of South Africa, absolutely. Let’s try and do it.”

But even De Villiers won’t be able to slip seamlessly into the T20 World Cup squad as if he had never been away. South Africa are scheduled to play six T20Is against England and Australia at home in February with another five against West Indies in August. He will have to play in at least some of those to regain his international eligibility, which doesn’t sound difficult – a grand return in front of home crowds against high-profile opponents, or a family holiday in the Caribbean with a spot of cricket for dad thrown in.

After months of gloom in the game, much of it caused by a dangerously inept Cricket South Africa administration, a bubble of something like happiness is swelling. Boucher’s appointment, Graeme Smith signing on as acting director of cricket and Jacques Faul being made acting chief executive all happened last week and are important factors in stopping the decline. Having De Villiers’ back in a South Africa shirt would fit snugly into that narrative.

“A lot can change in a week,” Du Plessis said. “We’ve seen that first-hand. It was the dark ages last week and there’s a little bit of light this week and that’s very good. It’s very important; it will help the dressingroom and even the supporters. Everyone wants the team to do well, everyone wants to make sure we get the right people in the right positions. It’s good that there is a bit of positivity around in and there’s excitement in the air, for myself included.” And, no doubt, for AB de Villiers.

First published by Cricbuzz.