“I don’t have my picture on this badge. All of us are trying to make the people at home proud.” – Tabraiz Shamsi slaps some perspective upside the heads of his more cynical compatriots.
Telford Vice | Cape Town
YOU won’t find Godfrey Dabare’s name on the scorecard or in most of what is written about the second T20I. That’s a pity and a disservice. Because the Premadasa’s groundskeeper did his job at least as well as any of the players who strutted their stuff all over his hard work on Sunday.
The T20 concept has much going for it as a spectacle and as the innovative edge of the game. But too many of the surfaces on which it is played have been prepared by hidebound conservatives who are plainly terrified of how big this thing could get.
Perhaps that happens at the behest of the suits and their de facto bosses in television, whose idea of a good broadcast product is what amounts to a three-hour highlights package stuffed with fours and sixes. So groundskeepers end up squeezing every ounce of character out of their pitches, leaving the players — bowlers in particular — to make do in the cricketing equivalent of a vacuum.
Not Mr Dabare. In all three of the ODIs, which like Friday’s first T20I were also played at the Premadasa, turn was evident but not outrageous and the bounce was better than at many subcontinent grounds. There wasn’t much pace to speak of, but that only made for a more interesting contest between bat and ball.
The same was true for Friday’s first T20I, and conditions on Sunday — which featured a strip hitherto unused during South Africa’s visit — took a step further in that direction. The turn was significantly sharper, the bounce a touch steeper, and ball met bat sooner than previously.
Together those factors, and an outfield big enough to not allow batters to blindly hammer their way out of pressure situations, conjured an engaging duel between batters and bowlers, and demanded creative decision-making. The hidebound conservatives will point to Sri Lanka collapsing for 103 in 18.1 overs as evidence of a pitch that had been tweaked too far in the bowlers’ favour. Closer to the truth is that the Lankans batted poorly — two of Aiden Markram’s full tosses became return catches — and that Tabraiz Shamsi had to bowl with fine control and bristling aggression to make the most of what had been laid at his feet.
“It’s on the odd occasion that you get boundaries this big and wickets that are more sporty and not just flat,” Shamsi told an online press conference. “But the powers above need high-scoring games and we’ll just have to come up with more tricks and try and be one step ahead of the batsmen. Dasun Shanaka was on the same page at the presentation: “We were targetting 130, 140; we knew it was going to turn. The batsmen should have concentrated more. Rather than going for big shots we should have gone for singles and rotated the strike.”
Sri Lanka lost their first wicket before they had registered their first four, and none of their partnerships made it past 21 or lasted more than 18 deliveries. In T20I innings in which they have been dismissed, this was their 10th lowest total, their fourth lowest first innings, and their lowest first innings at home. It was also their lowest total against South Africa, who have bowled out teams for fewer runs only five times and just twice in the first innings.
It was a performance centered on spin. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé sent down only four overs in which they took 1/37. Dwaine Pretorius didn’t bowl at all. Nortjé’s two overs went for a respectable eight runs, but Rabada had an off night in overs of 15 and 14.
No matter. Not when you have spinners who take 9/63 in 14.1 overs, or at less than half the quicks’ economy rate. Markram’s 3/21 are his best figures in the format. Sunday was also the first time in the four T20Is in which he has bowled that he has been allowed all of his allotted overs, and the first time he has sent down a scoreless over. Bjorn Fortuin’s economy rate of 3.00 is his career best. Only three of the overs of spin went for more than a run a ball, and two of them were bowled by part-timer Markram.
Shamsi, in particular, was in incendiary form — all ripping turn, blow-torch glares and triumphant roars — for his 3/20. You could feel his passion a hemisphere away. “You’re not just playing for yourself; you’re playing for your teammates who are suffering with you, and also people at home who are praying for you,” he said. “I’ve always been an emotional person and I’ve never tried to hide that. I give my all for this team.”
Keshav Maharaj’s growing reputation as a captain grew still more. Dinesh Chandimal’s pulled catch to mid-on to end the second over brought together left-handers Kusal Perera and Bhanuka Rajapaksa. Consequently slow left-armer Fortuin, who had taken the new ball, didn’t bowl his second over until the 13th — or after three of the four southpaws in the home side’s top six had been dealt with. Fortuin took both his wickets and limited the damage to eight runs in his last three overs. Without Maharaj’s canny leadership, that might not have happened.
Hang on, those tiresome conservatives will say. How did South Africa’s batters fare given the conditions? As if they had grown up on pitches like these, which couldn’t be further from the truth. If you believe that you probably also believe no pitch should offer turn or bounce or anything else that might get in the way of the numbingly relentless accumulation of runs in white-ball cricket.
Quinton de Kock held the reply together with a solid 58 not out off 48 balls. He and Reeza Hendricks shared 62 before Markram helped him add 43 to clinch the series for South Africa with a game in hand — their third consecutive success in rubbers in their format. All the visitors’ batters were challenged by the Lankans’ skillful bowlers, and they met those challenges as best they could. Had the home side put up a bigger total, things would have been different. But that’s how proper cricket works. And proper cricket is what this was and should be called.
So it’s time South Africa were paid proper respect by those among their compatriots who have sought to demean them in snide and cynical ways; sometimes to aim low blows at transformation efforts that have been instrumental in the team’s success, other times to try and heap criticism on figures like Mark Boucher and Graeme Smith.
“It’s South Africa’s team — it’s the people’s team,” Shamsi said. “I don’t have my picture on this badge. It’s our country and all of us are trying to make the people at home proud. We’re going to make mistakes but we are frikkin’ sweating here in the sun to try and get results.”
And results they have duly got. Along with themselves, they should congratulate Godfrey Dabare. Take a bow, sir.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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