Mayank Agarwal – Bulletproof Truth

Dr Jansen and Mr Marco

“We are good friends but sometimes on the field things get heated.” – Marco Jansen on his confrontation with Jasprit Bumrah.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

CRICKET grounds do strange things to people. Some use them as personality mirrors: they see themselves in full only in the middle. To others they are ego boosters: they are who they were before they crossed the boundary, only more so. To Marco Jansen, the cricket ground is where he goes to be someone else.

“I am a bit of an introvert, but when I’m on the field that’s the one place where I want to express myself,” Jansen said in material released by CSA on Monday. “Especially playing the sport that I love, the sport I’ve wanted to play since I was a child. All those emotions just show the passion and love I have for the game. If there is one place where I feel I can show my passion and emotions, it’s on the field.”

Jansen’s first language is Afrikaans. But that’s not the only reason his speaking voice in English is barely above a baritone whisper. You can hear him mulling and measuring every word before he allows it into the world. He gives the glory of what he has done not to himself but to God. He would seem to be the epitome of humility and cautiousness.

But he showed plenty of passion and emotion in the Test series against India. He made a surprise debut in the first Test at Centurion ahead of Duanne Olivier — who was building up his bowling loads in the wake of recovering from Covid-19 — and did well enough to keep his place for the other two matches.

The 21-year-old, 2.09-metre tall, left-arm fast bowler finished the rubber with 19 wickets — one behind series leader Kagiso Rabada — at an average of 16.47, a touch behind Lungi Ngidi’s 15.00. He also scored only 16 fewer runs than Aiden Markram in two fewer innings than the opener. Most importantly, he announced himself as a quality quick, all booming bounce and awkward angles, and a cutthroat competitor.

We saw plenty of the latter at the Wanderers, where Jansen’s response to serving as a target for the India fast bowlers’ bouncers was to engage Jasprit Bumrah physically and verbally. First he hit Bumrah on the shoulder with consecutive deliveries. Then he let loose a stream of invective, which caused Bumrah to lose his rag. He hacked a catch to point off Ngidi 16 balls later.

The incident proved a precursor to India’s emotional meltdown in the third Test at Newlands, where Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and KL Rahul were undone mentally by a DRS decision that reversed Dean Elgar’s leg-before dismissal by Ashwin. Their immature antics included screaming allegations of cheating by the broadcasters — who have no control over DRS — into the stump microphone. The unseemly tantrum marked a turning point: South Africa scored 41 runs in the remaining nine overs of the day, having scored only 19 in the nine overs preceding that moment. The next day they won by seven wickets to seal a 2-1 series triumph over the No. 1 ranked team, and to retain their unbeaten record against India at home.

Jansen was an important part of that success story: “I hoped to do well but I didn’t expect to do that well. They haven’t won a series in our conditions, and I’m glad we kept it that way.”

Things didn’t look like panning out that way on the first day of the series, when flaccid bowling allowed India to cruise to 272/3. Jansen’s contribution to that sorry story was 17 overs in which he went wicketless for 61, and looked as flat as those figures suggest.

“I didn’t start the way I wanted to,” he said. “I was very, very nervous. It’s normal for every player to get nervous. But I was very happy that after that innings I came back and contributed.” And how. He dismissed Bumrah to take his first Test wicket and end that innings, and claimed 4/55 in the second dig, a haul studded with the wickets of Mayank Agarwal, Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane.

India won by 113 runs, but South Africa levelled matters at the Wanderers with an exemplary display of fourth-innings batting under pressure. Besides rattling Bumrah, Jansen took 4/31 and 3/67. His figures at Newlands were 3/55 and 4/36. He was a consistent threat even to India’s finest batters: he dismissed Rahul three times and Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant twice each.

But it’s his altercation with Bumrah that many will remember the longest, not least because they were in the Mumbai Indians’ squad last year. Bumrah played in both games that featured Jansen. “We are good friends but sometimes on the field things get heated,” Jansen said. “You’re playing for your country so you’re not going to back down for anyone. And he did the same. There’s no hard feelings, it was just in the heat of the moment, two players giving their all for the country.”

With him in India was Duan Jansen, his identical twin brother and also a tall, left-arm fast bowler. The only discernible difference between them is that Duane is four centimetres shorter. “We grew up together and we know everything about each other, and he is my best friend,” Marco Jansen said. “It’s weird in some way that we are basically the same player. Sharing the journey with him is something special. We love each other very much and we share everything with each other.

“He came along [to the IPL] as a net bowler. He practised with us. And he also learnt a few things. It was a great experience for him and for us to experience that together. It’s amazing. We never would have thought we would be sitting here, both of us, playing the sport we love.”

Marco Jansen’s next chance to pinch himself to make sure he isn’t dreaming could come as soon as Wednesday, when the three-match ODI series starts in Paarl. “That’s a call-up I did not expect. I just want to go there and try and learn as much as possible. If I get an opportunity, hopefully I grab it with both hands.”

As we’ve seen, God-fearing introvert or not, he isn’t shy to do exactly that.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Long walk back to fortress Centurion

“The intensity that we brought out there with the ball today, that’s what we’re going to require.”

Telford Vice | Centurion

“WHERE are the bodies?” The question from a passerby put a wan smile on the face of the figure sat on a chair in a corridor at Centurion. At least, you had to believe it did. Because you couldn’t see their face nor much else of them. If they weren’t smiling, maybe they had heard that one too many times already.

They, and their colleague across the way, were clad head to toe in white PPE; complete with hoods and gloves and single vivid blue stripes running for and aft, top to bottom, and side to side on their costumes. All that was visible, through a clear plastic visor, was their face. The bit of their face that was not covered by a mask, that is. They have been part of the extraordinary retinue of this series since the bubble was established.

It was not a scene you would expect to encounter at a cricket ground. But these are unprecedented times. And so the gallows humour was not misplaced. We’ve all seen people in this now grim get-up, mostly on a screen while they tend to the victims of the wretched virus in far corners of the world.

Mercifully, in Centurion they are there for no more morbid purpose than to serve as couriers between the real world and the sanitised cloister meant to keep the players and officials out of harm’s way. On Tuesday, for instance, one of the ghostly crew was called upon to replenish the coffee beans in India’s dressing room. That meant entering the “Red Zone”, as it calls itself on signs attached to the skeletal barricades marking its boundaries.

That’s not the only indication that Centurion has changed. On the grass banks that surround two-thirds of the ground are ranged a dozen dapper moulded plastic figures; identical in form, different in colouring, and taller even than Marco Jansen. They step forward smartly with their left foot, leaning into their stride. Their left hand has hold of the brim of a top hat, their right grasps a walking stick angled sharply to the rear. Their coat tails flap behind them in the breeze like a fishtail. They are part of a brand activation that whisky drinkers will not need any more clues to identify. Another joke: you can advertise alcohol at the ground but, in terms of the Covid-19 regulations, you can’t buy a drink there. Not that there are any spectators in the stands to buy a beer or anything else, and no vendors to buy from.

But a handful of souls have gathered in a few of the private suits, which are allowed to open. The throatiest among them spent much of Tuesday morning welcoming Lungi Ngidi back to the fine leg boundary in appreciation of another wicket. He took 3/26 in the seven overs he bowled unchanged from the West Lane End to finish the innings with 6/71. From the Hennops River End, Kagiso Rabada bowled the other six overs needed to dismiss India for 327, taking 3/21 in his spell and 3/72 in the innings. Both put in the kind of relentless, bristling, uncompromising shifts that are the hallmark of South African fast bowling. And which were largely missing from the attack’s performance on Sunday, Ngidi excepted. On Tuesday, Ngidi and Rabada combined to take, for 55 runs in 15.3 overs, all seven of the wickets that were still standing after Monday’s play was lost to rain.

South Africans looking for signs, after an unconvincing first day on which India reached 272/3, that their team hadn’t lost their moorings would have been reassured. Like Donald and De Villiers, Pollock and Ntini, and Steyn and Philander before them, Rabada and Ngidi had the knowledge, the gumption and the heart to pull things back.

Then again, this is Centurion, where South Africa have won 21 of their 26 Tests and lost only two — one of them a contrived England win in January 2000, when a pile of cash and a leather jacket bought Hansie Cronjé’s agreement to try to manufacture a result after more than three of the first four days had been lost to rain.

There are no ramparts or draw bridges in these parts, although moats appear spontaneously when thunderstorms lash the dessicated earth, and in the right light the concrete can look medievally foreboding. But Centurion is no less a fortress for the lack of those details. Dominate South Africa here? Only one team have done that, and they had a fire-breathing dragon called Mitchell Johnson, who took 7/68 and 5/59 to bowl Australia to victory by 281 runs in February 2014. Good luck India …

“Keep walking … keep walking … keep walking …” Hooked on that lyric, the whisky sponsor’s jingle rang out every time a new batter strode to the crease. But it would have been as appropriate to play it for each departing batter. The closest we came to that was when the incoming Quinton de Kock crossed the boundary a few metres before the freshly dismissed Rassie van der Dussen had completed the journey in reverse. So “Keep walking … keep walking … keep walking …” made a premature, but apt, appearance.

Only while Temba Bavuma and De Kock stood firm for 134 balls in their stand of 72 did the South Africans look like preserving the game as a contest. Bavuma’s 52, his 16th half-century and the product of patience and 161 minutes and 103 balls, was his umpteenth fighting innings; a thing of defiance. But there wasn’t enough where that sturdy effort came from, and South Africa were dismissed for 197 — the first time they have been bowled out for fewer than 200 at Centurion.

On a pitch that started spongey and has hardened into a surface that offers everyone something — and that bequeathed 18 wickets for 268 runs on Tuesday — India’s bowlers were superb. None more so than Mohammed Shami, whose mastery of line, length and seam movement made him as close to unplayable as any bowler should be allowed to venture. In five overs after lunch, four of them scoreless, he took 2/9. He was as good as that and his eventual reward of 5/44 makes him sound.

The first blow was struck by Jasprit Bumrah, who had Dean Elgar taken behind with a delivery that was easily good enough also to trap South Africa’s captain in front or bowl him. India were so comprehensively on top that they hardly missed Bumrah, who left the field in the 11th over after turning an ankle in his follow through. He didn’t bowl again until the 61st. The rest of the attack took 6/162 while he was indisposed.

One of the more stauncher members of the lower half of the order was debutant Jansen, who made a nuggety 19 and shared 37 with Rabada — the second-biggest stand of the innings. Jansen, who had an indifferent first day, when he went wicketless in 17 overs that cost 61 runs. But he had Bumrah caught at third slip to end India’s first innings, and was on a hattrick when Mayank Agarwal feathered his first delivery of the second dig to De Kock.

“He did have a bit of a tough start to his international career,” Bavuma said. “He confessed that the emotion and nerves got the better of him. Today, as we saw with his batting, he was a lot more assured and the confidence we know he has shone through.” That’s the kind of character South Africa will need as they search out the remaining nine wickets without allowing India to build their lead, currently 146, out of sight.

“What’s happened has happened,” Bavuma said. “The intensity that we brought out there with the ball today, that’s what we’re going to require.” Not only to stave off defeat in this match but to rebuild the currently crumbling Fortress Centurion. To do that they will have to head in the right direction and keep walking … keep walking … keep walking …

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Olivier’s omission explained

“He was pap.” – a source on Duanne Olivier’s condition before the Centurion Test.

Telford Vice | Centurion

THE mystery of Duanne Olivier’s controversial absence from the first Test between South Africa and India in Centurion has been explained, albeit belatedly. Olivier was left out despite being the highest wicket-taker in the provincial domestic competition, and even after Anrich Nortjé was ruled out of the series with a hip injury. Was Olivier punished for going Kolpak?

But CSA said on Monday Olivier had recently recovered from Covid-19. It is understood he should be fit for the second Test at the Wanderers, which starts on January 3. On Sunday, selection convenor Victor Mpitsang was asked by reporters from several publications why Olivier was not picked. To one, he offered nothing more than season’s greetings. To others, he did not reply.

Cricbuzz has learnt that Olivier tested negative for the virus before the squad went into camp on Saturday. Even so, his bowling was not up to his usual standards during preparations for the first Test — “he was pap [flat]”, in one source’s estimation — and he was told his return to Test cricket would be put on hold. By all accounts, Olivier was relieved to be given time to get back to his best. He is also dealing with minor problems with his left side and hamstring.

Despite his first-class success, Olivier’s selection in the squad raised eyebrows. In February 2019, after he had taken 48 wickets in his first 10 Tests, he rejected the promise of a two-year CSA contract to sign a three-year Kolpak deal with Yorkshire. While he was there, he was asked whether he was interested in qualifying to play for England. He said he was; a reasonable response considering he thought he had ended his international career.

The Kolpak era was over on December 31, and several of the affected South Africans have thus been rendered eligible for international selection. One of them, Wayne Parnell, broke the ice when he played in an ODI against the Netherlands in Centurion on November 26. But the prospect of Olivier’s comeback has not been universally welcomed — his loyalty is being questioned in myopic quarters.

On Monday, the reporters who had asked Mpitsang why Olivier wasn’t playing were given a statement by the South Africa team manager’s and told to attribute it to the selection convenor. “Duanne Olivier is healthy and well, but did return a positive Covid-19 test result a number of weeks ago, which forced him to quarantine and took time away from his training ahead of the current Test series against India,” the statement read. “This did take place while he was away with the intention to spend time with his family and his work loads were not where the selection panel would have wanted them to be by the time he entered the team bubble ahead of the first Test match. He picked up a hamstring niggle during the two-day, inter-squad match at the start of the camp and the selectors did not want to risk him unnecessarily when there are two more Test matches to think about.”

So, instead of Olivier being named to play his 11th Test in Centurion on Sunday, Marco Jansen made his debut. “Statistically, Marco Jansen was the standout performer with the ball against India A in their recent tour to South Africa and the selectors backed him to take on the senior India team and do well,” the statement read.

Jansen took six wickets at 31.83 in the three four-day games the countries’ A teams played in Bloemfontein in November and December. But Glenton Stuurman — who is also in the Test squad — took seven at 27.14 while Lutho Sipamla, a puzzling omission from the Test squad, claimed nine at 33.11. So how Jansen was the “standout performer” in “statistical” terms in the A series is difficult to fathom. But Cricbuzz has learnt that feedback from the two selectors who were in Bloem to watch those games, Mpitsang among them, was that the 21-year-old, 2.06-metre tall left-armer was the most impressively threatening of the home side’s fast bowlers.

Hence Jansen deserved his chance, and though his return of 0/61 from the 17 overs he bowled on Sunday are not the figures that a young man in a hurry would want from his first day at the highest level, he showed glimpses of the quality that has earned him 62 wickets at 22.88 in 18 first-class matches. Had Quinton de Kock held the chance gleaned from Mayank Agarwal, Jansen’s day might have panned out differently.

“Every player who has been selected for this Proteas team is believed and backed to be capable of representing the national team and give a performance of the highest level,” the statement read. “The absence of one player does not take away from the quality that another brings to the set up.”

Understood. But if the questions had been answered when they were asked, a controversy could not only have been avoided but would also not have grown into a conspiracy theory.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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How Tutu made Jansen a Test player

“It’s a really sad day for South Africa.” – Lungi Ngidi

Telford Vice | Centurion

THEY were born almost 69 years apart, but both in Klerksdorp. One died on Sunday, hailed worldwide as the hero he was for his courage in the face of evil. The other became, in Centurion on the same day, the first person born this century to play Test cricket for South Africa. Desmond Tutu was 80 days into his 91st year. Marco Jansen was 21 years and 239 days old.

Without the indisputable greatness of Tutu, Jansen would never have marvelled at the pristine perfection of his deeply green, unbaggy South Africa cap, the magic of the new white shirts that had the Protea badge on the front and his name in capitals across the back, and the ridiculousness of being picked ahead of Duanne Olivier.

Not quite. Jansen wouldn’t have known those joys without Tutu, Albert Luthuli, Lillian Ngoyi, Robert Sobukwe, Miriam Makeba, Steve Biko, Joe Slovo, Oliver Tambo, Ahmed Kathrada, Ruth First, Nelson Mandela and all the other luminaries in the pantheon who fought so long and so hard and sacrificed so much to free all South Africans from bondage mental and physical. Their triumph allowed the world to accept the country into civilisation, and thus back into the realm of international sport from which it had been jettisoned when even enslavers and colonisers could no longer look the other way. Tutu, a force of love, light and life, did more than most to drag South Africa out of darkness and thrust it, imperfect and blinking, onto a path towards democracy.

For a long time, Klerksdorp, since the 1830s a Dutch settler stronghold, then a farming hub, then a gold rush mecca, then an Anglo-Boer War battlefield and concentration camp — racially segregated, of course — and now a dry, dusty sprawl of heavy-set stone buildings brooding in wide streets and stewing in its history, would not have wanted to claim Tutu as its own. He was black, he was Anglican, and he refused to be subservient to the whiteness that was the law of the land. In places like Klerksdorp and far beyond, those were three ominous strikes. It needed remarkable fortitude over decades to keep fouling off the regime’s ever more unfair pitches, until the homerun of something like freedom was finally hammered over apartheid’s wall.

So the black armbands hastily added to the South Africans’ sleeves when news of Tutu’s death broke shortly before the start of play were especially appropriate. Without Tutu and those like him, there would have been no armbands because there would have been no sleeves to attach them to — because international cricket would not have involved South Africa.

Jansen, who was born in May 2000, or more than six years after the shining day that heralded his country’s first legitimate elections, would have learnt about all that at school. But he would be forgiven for not thinking about any such thing from the instant he discovered that he would play. Not Olivier, who has taken 28 wickets — more than anyone else — at 11.10 in four provincial first-class matches this season? Or Sisanda Magala, who has 15 at 14.33 from two games? Or Glenton Stuurman and his 11 at 18.00 in two matches? Why wasn’t Lutho Sipamla and his 12 at 13.58 in two matches in the squad? Jansen’s numbers — 10 wickets at 12.30 in two games — put him in that ballpark. But if Olivier wasn’t going to play how did we get to Jansen? Cricbuzz asked CSA’s selection convenor, Victor Mpitsang, for the thinking behind Olivier’s omission. He saw the text message but did not reply.

So it fell to Lungi Ngidi to try and explain Jansen being preferred to Olivier: “I wouldn’t know. Everyone’s been preparing well. It was probably a senior [player] call or a management call, because everyone was looking good. We didn’t even know who was going to play. Even myself, having not played in a while, I didn’t know if I was going to get the nod. But, like Dean [Elgar] always says, we pick the best team that we think is going to give us the result. Marco got his debut and I’m very happy for him.”

It seemed Jansen was questioning his presence himself when he loped in to deliver his first effort, a dying swan of a full toss outside off stump that Mayank Agarwal easily put away through point for four. By then not only had Kagiso Rabada and Ngidi sent down four flaccid overs, but South Africa had blown a review: Rabada had brushed KL Rahul’s upper arm, not his bat or gloves. So Jansen wasn’t helped by running into a scene bereft of the requisite tension.

Two dots followed his first ball. Then came an overpitched delivery that Agarwal on-drove silkily for four. And then an offering that veered legside, which was dismissed through midwicket for another boundary. One over, a dozen runs: welcome to the top, Mr Jansen.

Only four runs came off his next three overs, partly because he didn’t venture close to the stumps or bat often enough to be hit. Then he did — too full and too straight, presenting too good an opportunity for Agarwal not to claim another four down the ground. Jansen’s next delivery was sprayed short and wide, and dismissed to the cover point fence.

Why was he playing again? An answer of sorts came immediately: Agarwal’s shoulders spun open to a ball that left him, and the resultant edge flew just above head height towards Quinton de Kock, who dived and dropped a chance he would have expected to hold. More evidence of Jansen’s quality came with consecutive deliveries in his next over, when he induced an edge from Rahul that didn’t carry and beat him outside off.

After lunch, Jansen began his second spell as he had his first — with a gimme that Agarwal muscled through extra cover for four. But, with the first delivery of the fourth over of that spell, Rahul lost his head and nearly his wicket to a rib-tickler that he sent spiralling over the cordon.

There are, thus, reasons for Jansen to look back with a measure of satisfaction on his first day as a Test player. But also reasons for him to know he could have done significantly better. Too often he followed a poor ball with another or, worse, allowed the pressure he had built to escape by sending down something that had no place at this level.

At 21 years and 239 days old, Jansen can afford such learning experiences. He should take inspiration from Sipamla, who had a similarly underwhelming debut day exactly a year ago on the same ground against Sri Lanka. Having struggled through 14 lacklustre overs in which he took 1/68, a revitalised Sipamla claimed 3/8 in two overs the next day and finished the match with six wickets.

Jansen could also follow the example of Rabada and Ngidi, who redeemed themselves through discipline and consistency, and by showing patience while the sun hardened a surface whose early dampness slowed the ball without offering the expected reward of seam movement. Swing was there little.

Ngidi ended only the second century opening stand scored by any of South Africa’s opponents at this ground — and just the fifth of 50 or more — by trapping Agarwal in front for 60 midway through the second session with a ball that looked to be sailing high and wide. On referral, and after a lengthy delay, Hawk-Eye said otherwise.

“I thought it was a good shout,” Ngidi told on online press conference. “If anything, I thought it was going to be umpire’s call. But when Marais [Erasmus] kept his finger down, then it became a gamble. I thought it had kept low compared to the bounce that I was getting. Trying to convince the team was another situation. But I think ‘Quinnie’ was in [Elgar’s] ear, and he said at worst it would be umpire’s call. When it started taking so long [to reach a decision] everyone started doubting themselves and saying we might have lost a review.”

With his next delivery, Ngidi had Cheteshwar Pujara caught at short leg by a tumbling Keegan Petersen. An hour after tea, Ngidi drew Virat Kohli into a ragged stroke wide outside off that became a catch at first slip.

Ngidi had last played any cricket in a T20 World Cup warm-up match on October 20, and his most recent first-class outing was the second Test in St Lucia in June. Before Sunday, he had bowled 553 balls in first-class cricket in 2021. Olivier had bowled 1,700 deliveries, Jansen 1,053, and Rabada 990. Perhaps Ngidi’s success on Sunday could be ascribed to freshness.

But it would have needed more than one bowler in decent form to stop India from reaching 272/3 at stumps. Rahul will continue on Monday, hoping to turn his undefeated 122 into something monumental.

If the South Africans need a diversion before play resumes, they might wonder whether Jansen is their tallest ever player. At 2.06 metres, he has 10 centimetres on Morné Morkel, no less. More morbidly, the home side could ponder why an India tour seems to coincide with a significant death. In December 2013, Mandela died on the same day as an ODI between South Africa and India at the Wanderers. In January 2018, the Wanderers Test started the day after the demise of jazz great Hugh Masekela.

And now Tutu. Klerksdorp, like the rest of the country and much of the world, is in mourning. “It’s a really sad day for South Africa,” Ngidi said. Should Jansen amount to a fraction of his fellow Klerksdorper as a human being, nevermind a mere cricketer, he will have done great things.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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What the Faf was that?

“I really don’t have any answers for you.” – Anrich Nortjé on South Africa’s bowling tactics.

TELFORD VICE at The Wanderers

FULL and straight, you idiot. Where’ve we heard that before? Where haven’t we heard it before, more like. We heard it again at the Wanderers on Saturday, and far stronger language than “idiot” was used as the full extent of South Africa’s folly was exposed to an increasingly disgruntled crowd on a beer-drenched afternoon in the sun.

When Jos Buttler hoiked Vernon Philander high into the covers and Dean Elgar kept his nerve and his eye on the ball to take a fine running catch over his shoulder, a bothersome stand of 40 was ended. Having reduced England to 309/8 South Africa had a decent chance of getting out of there alive, or at least for around the 319 that’s the average first innings total at this ground. Two proper doses of full and straight, and they should been batting.

Instead, the innings endured for another 81 deliveries — precious few among them anything like full and straight — that cost 91 runs. England went from being in danger of dismissal for a below average total to posting the 13th highest score in the 81 first innings at the Wanderers. The stand of 82 that Mark Wood shared with Stuart Board is the biggest yet seen in the 41 Tests played here. England’s Nos. 9, 10 and jack hammered 24 runs in fours and another 42 in sixes — or 72.53% of the aggregate for the last two partnerships.

They were able to do so, in part, because Woakes, Wood and Broad have between them scored two centuries and 17 half-centuries in Tests, in which they have a combined average of a touch more than 20. They are nobody’s idea of walking wickets.

But they are a long way from how good South Africa’s tactics made them look. The approach appeared to be to bowl short and wide. And to spread the field in hopes of a catch. What the Faf? That the buck stops with Faf du Plessis is undeniable, and as it should be, but closer to the truth is that the bowling plan for the match is devised by the bowlers themselves along with Charl Langeveldt. That said, it’s up to Du Plessis to realise when plan A isn’t working, and if he couldn’t do that on Saturday it’s fair to ask whether he has lost his bearings as a captain. In Du Plessis defence, only half the plan wasn’t working. Philander bowled 13 of those last 81 deliveries and conceded a solitary single, and Anrich Nortjé sent down 24 balls and begrudged three runs. But Dane Paterson went for 39 off 26 and Beuran Hendricks bled 34 off 18.

How aren’t the sorrier parts of that equation signals for Du Plessis to tell Dwaine Pretorius — who bowled at least nine fewer overs in the innings than anyone else — to warm up? Or to get Elgar to bowl some of the slow left-arm filth that has somehow claimed the wickets Steve Smith, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Alex Hales, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mayank Agarwal? Or even to unleash Temba Bavuma, who would have become the 21st man to take a wicket — that of Usman Khawaja at the WACA in November 2016 — with his first delivery in Test cricket had he not fetched from somewhere a delivery stride longer than he is tall and overstepped? Better yet, why wasn’t the field more attacking? Or at least less defensive — at a stage there was only two men, besides the bowler and the wicketkeeper, not on the boundary. Even better, why didn’t Du Plessis or Langeveldt or anyone demand a steady stream of full and straight? The lack of ideas and leadership was shocking, and damning evidence of how far this team have crashed in the 26 days since they won in Centurion. Yes, they actually won.

Nortjé finished with 5/110 on Saturday, his first five-wicket haul in his sixth Test. With the illogicality of how these things are mismanaged, it fell to him to come and explain to the press where it all went wrong. After a few unconvincing attempts, he came up with the bitter truth: “I really don’t have any answers for you. It’s not nice sitting here and having our tails down. I would have loved for us to be in a dominant position when it happened.”

There wasn’t time or opportunity enough to find proper answers once South Africa’s slide towards a significant first innings deficit started. It was a story of submission for the most part, but the mood lifted incongruously after Du Plessis’ luck deserted him completely and he was sent packing by Rod Tucker despite Woakes hitting him on the flap of his front pad as he rose onto his toes to try to work a delivery to leg. Unsurprisingly, Du Plessis referred. Even less surprisingly, the gizmo said the ball would have kissed the apex of the bails just hard enough for the umpire’s call to stay in England’s favour.

With that South Africa slumped to 60/4. But you would never have guessed from the clamour that rose from a section of the spectators in the Unity Stand at the Corlett Drive End. That’s where the Gwijo Squad, the all-dancing, all-singing, almost all-black but enthusiastically all-inclusive group of South Africa supporters who sprang to prominence during the Springboks’ march to triumph at last year’s rugby World Cup, were stationed. Long before anyone could see Bavuma, the Squad heralded his imminent presence: “Temba! Temba! Temba!” He faced his first delivery of the series with five slips bristling behind his back, and a roar ripped in all directions as he deftly dabbed that ball through cover point for three. “In Temba We Trust” read a banner, and soon a song in isiZulu was rippling round the ground. “This is Temba. If you didn’t know him before, now you see him,” the refrain went. But the bubble of happiness burst less than eight overs later when Bavuma failed to get on top of a short delivery from Wood and Ben Stokes held a sharp, low catch at second slip.

At least, the bubble of happiness should have burst. But the Gwijo Squad were having none of it and kept singing and dancing throughout the remaining 25 balls of the day’s play, one of which claimed Nortjé’s wicket. The party continued as they left the stands and wound their way round the concourse, apparently uncaring that South Africa will resume 312 behind on Sunday and with Quinton de Kock their last hope of significantly closing the gap. When you’re all out of reality, unreality will have to do.

First published by Cricbuzz.

What’s in a batting order? Too much opinion, not enough fact

Ray Jennings sent Andrew Hall out to open the batting in Kanpur in November 2004. South Africans, cricket’s flat earthers, thought Jennings was mad. Hall scored 163. South Africans still think Jennings was, and remains, mad.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

HOW many players have batted in all 11 positions in men’s Test cricket? Out of the 2 989 who have taken guard in the 2 365 matches yet seen, three.

Syd Gregory, Wilfred Rhodes and Vinoo Mankad are the only members of maybe the most exclusive club in the game. They are the top 0.100368016058883 percentile.

Cricket being the anally obsessive silliness it is, that’s hardly surprising. The bounder! How dare he assume, just because he swats an old ball and tired bowlers about down there at No. 6, he is also capable of opening the batting? Has the man no idea of his station in life?

What is surprising is that as many as nine players have bounced around 10 spots in the order. You could see one of them looming large behind big sunglasses and an even bigger moustache in India’s dressingroom during South Africa’s tour.

Ravi Shastri, now India’s coach, began his career as a No. 10 against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in February 1981 and ended it as an opener against South Africa at St George’s Park in December 1992. Somehow, over the course of 11 years and 121 Test innings, big Ravi never made it all the way down to No. 11.

None of the nine, as indeed the three, are South African. That, too, is hardly a shock. South Africa could win awards for staidness, for refusing to believe there is a world outside the box. They are the flat earthers of cricket. When plan A doesn’t work, they are all out of plans.

Consequently, South Africans don’t like people who think they’re special. Gregory, born on the site of what is now the Sydney Cricket Ground, and with his father, uncle, brother, brother-in-law and cousin all either first-class or Test players, would have been far too tall a poppy for us to take seriously.

Rhodes was, most famously, an ace left-arm spinner. So that’s him done for in the South African way of looking at these things, even though he had a streak of fast bowler’s mongrel. A proper Yorkshireman, Rhodes refused to crack a smile when the Marylebone Cricket Club awarded him honorary membership in 1949. Instead he raised a suspicious eyebrow and said, “I don’t rightly know what it means yet.”

Mankad added his name to cricket’s lexicon by pulling up in his delivery stride while bowling for India in Sydney in December 1947 to run out non-striker Bill Brown, who was stealing ground by advancing up the pitch before the ball had been delivered. Mankading, the practice was instantly named. Too bloody special by half, this fella.

Remember when Ray Jennings sent Andrew Hall out to open the batting in Kanpur in November 2004? South Africans thought Jennings was mad. Hall scored 163. South Africans still think Jennings was, and remains, mad.

So what happened in Ranchi in the third Test against India represented a spark of revolutionary thinking. On the Saffer scale, at least. Quinton de Kock was in South Africa’s XI, as usual. But he wasn’t keeping wicket! Or batting at No. 7! Or even at No. 6!

He was opening!

Stru’s bob. There was Dean Elgar. And there, with him, daring to believe he was an opening batter, was De Kock. If you blinked you would have missed him: he lasted six balls in each innings. That’ll teach him. Know your place.

De Kock had opened before — at Centurion in August 2017 — and scored 82 and 50. But that was an emergency measure taken after Elgar stood on the boundary and twisted an ankle.

This, too, was a desperate move, prompted by what became South Africa’s worst performance in a series in 83 years. Before their routing in Ranchi, not since March 1936 had they lost consecutive Tests by an innings.

But De Kock’s elevation could serve to start a conversation about whether the batting order, as we have come to accept it, remains fit for purpose. Consider what happened across the dressingroom divide: neither Rohit Sharma nor Mayank Agarwal had opened the batting in India before they walked out to do so together in the first Test in Visakhapatnam. Four innings each later they had scored five centuries between them, including a double ton apiece.

So much for specialisation, which unlike specialness South Africans take too seriously for their own good. That’s why they tied themselves into knots about which of Temba Bavuma or Faf du Plessis should bat at No. 4. Opinions on this non-issue flew as frequently as the sixes Sharma kept hitting off the South Africans’ flaccid bowling, and came mostly from blowhards who offered little except their unsubstantiated views.

Cricket is beset with know-it-alls who confuse the rest of us with people who care what they think. Social media has only encouraged them. You could avoid them in the pub, but refusing to let them catch your attention on Facebook is more difficult.

Rather than put up with bores droning on about why whoever should bat wherever, we could shut them up by knowing how whoever has fared at every stage of every innings in terms of the number of balls that had been bowled when they arrived — taking into account the match situation, the conditions, and the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses.

So if Du Plessis has scored four centuries in six innings when he has taken guard with three wickets down and South Africa 200 runs behind on a turning pitch against attacks that feature more than one spinner, he should bat ahead of anyone who has been less successful in that situation. Bar nothing and no-one.

And if Elgar hasn’t had much success against left-arm quicks on greentops, and the opposition unleash two southpaws with the new ball, he shouldn’t come in before the ball is 45 overs old.

Batting orders should be fluid enough to be chopped and changed at a moment’s notice, not stuck in a linear logjam based not on hard data but on some swami’s say-so.

We’ll need a cricket crazy 12-year-old to design the algorithm, but the world isn’t short of them. Then we’ll need to convince the fogeys. Or get Jennings’ buy-in, which probably wouldn’t be difficult.

Syd Gregory, Wilfred Rhodes and Vinoo Mankad would, you hope, see the sense of this, even if others won’t.

Maybe that’s why they’re the top 0.100368016058883 percentile.

First published by Times SELECT.

Who will score SA’s runs in Ranchi?

“Sixties aren’t going to win Tests for us. I need to bat big.” – Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE first question asked of Faf du Plessis at his press conference before the third men’s Test against India in Ranchi, which started on Saturday, earned a suspended sentence.

“We’re making a few changes to the side,” Du Plessis said in response to a reporter who wanted to know what the South Africa captain’s team might look like.

“Probably the batting order will change. Let me think about it — I’ll give you something towards the end.”

Had Du Plessis not thought about it forever and ever, amen?

Had he not had enough time to agonise over his options since South Africa were hammered by an innings and 137 runs in Pune on Sunday, which came after they had crashed by 203 runs in Visakhapatnam?

Of course he had. Du Plessis has likely thought about not a lot else since the start of the series.

Mostly, he’s been thinking about batting.

“As a player all you want to do is grow,” he said. “For all of us, it’s about converting.

“Sixties aren’t going to win Tests for us. I need to bat big.”

Du Plessis has batted bigger than most. His 137 runs in four innings is more, in South African terms, than only Dean Elgar’s 216 and Quinton de Kock’s 147.

The problem is Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma have each scored more than 100 runs more than Elgar, and that India’s two double centuries and a century put South Africa’s two tons in the shade.

Those centuries, by Elgar and De Kock, were scored in the visitors’ first innings of the series.

That’s an awful lot of grinding, catch-up, losing cricket ago; time in which South Africa have been bowled out all four times and India not once.

“It dents your confidence but international sport is supposed to be hard,” Du Plessis said. “We can’t expect things to just happen.”

But things are bad enough for Du Plessis to clutch at the straw of South Africa’s experience in their previous series in India, in November 2015.

“We came here last time with a team who had the best record abroad and we still struggled.”

Despite the presence of the now retired Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn — who bowled just 11 overs in the first Test before breaking down with injury and missing the rest of the rubber — India won 3-0, albeit with the help of unfair pitches.

The surfaces have been exemplary this time. The difference is that the South Africans, their batters especially, but also their fast bowlers, haven’t been up to scratch.

And that the Indians are all but unbeatable at home. They have lost only one of the 32 Tests they have played in India since December 2012, and won 25.

The victory in Pune sealed their 11th consecutive win in a home series, a world record.

“They’ve been much better than any opposition who’ve come here for … they’ve been incredible,” Du Plessis said.

As for the pitch in Ranchi, where only one Test has been played — a draw involving Australia in March 2017, when a double century and three centuries were among the 1 258 runs scored at the cost of 25 wickets — Du Plessis’ eyes were spinning, you might say.

“It looks a bit drier, a bit crustier,” he said.

“I think the wicket will spin. It’s a different colour — it’s got that dark, dry hardness.

“I think reverse swing and spin will be factors.”

So much for what he thinks. What he knows is that, “If you get runs in the first innings, anything is possible.”

Du Plessis’ team know so just as well as he does. Putting that knowledge into action has eluded them through their own lack of enterprise — if you have feet, use them — and India’s excellence.

The challenge of changing that narrative took a new turn when Aiden Markram was ruled out with a self-inflicted broken wrist.

According to a Cricket South Africa release on Thursday: “In a moment of frustration with his own performance [after being trapped in front by a ball that wasn’t going to hit the stumps in the second innings in Pune], he lashed out at a solid object, resulting in his injury.”

Opener Markram has scored 44 runs in four innings, so his is no great loss to the cause.

Who will replace him? As the press conference broke up Du Plessis got back to the reporter who had asked him the first question.

“Hamza,” Du Plessis said, “Hamza is coming in.”

That would be Zubayr Hamza, who has spent the first two Tests on the bench.

He last picked up a bat in seriousness on September 26 in a tour match in Vizianagaram, where he scored 22.

In the same innings Markram retired when he reached 100 off 118 balls, a performance that would seem beyond him now, and not only because he has since faced exponentially better opposition.

Good luck, Mr Hamza.*

* South Africa gave debuts to Heinrich Klaasen and George Linde — who came in for the injured Markram and Keshav Maharaj — and dropping Theunis de Bruyn, Vernon Philander and Senuran Muthusamy in favour of Hamza, Lungi Ngidi and Dane Piedt. Quinton de Kock, who has relinquished the wicketkeeping gloves to Klaasen, will fill the vacancy Markram left at the top of the order.

First published by TMG Digital.

Du Plessis laments inexperience

“You don’t mind losing to a team better than you but in this Test we didn’t even come close to where we needed to be to compete; we let ourselves down.” – Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE light that left Faf du Plessis’ eyes during the men’s World Cup this year receded further still as he picked over the bones of South Africa’s dismal performance in their Test series in India.

The home side won the second match of the rubber by an innings and 137 runs, their biggest ever victory over South Africa, on the fourth day in Pune on Sunday.

With that they clinched the series ahead of the third Test in Ranchi, which starts on Saturday.

India dominated in all departments even more emphatically than they did to win the first Test in Visakhapatnam by 203 runs last Saturday.

Sunday’s success was their 11th consecutive success in a home rubber, a world record.

“You don’t mind losing to a team better than you but in this Test we didn’t even come close to where we needed to be to compete; we let ourselves down,” captain Du Plessis, who also presided over South Africa’s five losses in eight completed games at the World Cup in England, told reporters.

“There’s still fight from the guys, hanging in there and trying to compete, but there’s a lot of questions that need answers and players need to put their hands up.”

Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock scored South Africa’s only centuries of the series in the first innings in Vizag, and just two of their four half-centuries have been made by a frontline batter — both by Du Plessis himself.

Virat Kohli and Mayank Agarwal scored double centuries for India, who also banked three tons and four 50s.

Ravichandran Ashwin’s haul of 14 wickets is more than double the six claimed by South Africa’s leading bowler, Keshav Maharaj, who is out of the third Test with a shoulder injury.

“With a very young team and a lot of new faces, consistency would be one of the things we would try and work towards,” Du Plessis said. “Experience and consistency go hand in hand.

“We took one step forward in the first Test but took two back through not being consistent.”

South Africa’s XI in Pune have 357 caps between them, or 217 fewer than the side put out by India, the world’s top-ranked team.

“Your best Test teams are those with the most experience and guys that have been through it,” Du Plessis said.

“This Indian team is experienced. We have lost most of our experience. You don’t replace those guys overnight.”

South Africa’s entire side in Pune have 60 fewer caps than those won by Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel, who have all retired since the team’s last Test series in India, in November 2015.

But Du Plessis declined to blame that factor for the way events have unfolded.

“Even with a lot of inexperience in our team we never came here thinking we were going to roll over and die.

“We are a very proud cricketing nation and our performance in this Test doesn’t do that justice. I am hurting and I am sure the guys are, too.

“It’s about trying to make sure this team can get better, even if you do a few things wrong.

“Even in real tough times, makes sure you try and find learning where the player can get better, otherwise we are not moving forward as a group.

“Hopefully in a few years’ time we can come here and young players who have gone through bad experiences have got stronger.”

It’s a hopeful thought but history suggests otherwise.

Despite bristling with generational giants in India four years ago South Africa still lost 3-0.

First published by TMG Digital.

Rabada’s back, but India batters won’t go away

“I look for the special spells when the circumstances are tough, and he bowled very well.” – Vincent Barnes on Kagiso Rabada’s improvement.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

KAGISO Rabada bowled, Cheteshwar Pujara edged, and Faf du Plessis took the catch low and to his left at first slip.

It was a common enough occurrence: 124 of Rabada’s 180 Test wickets have been earned by catches, most of them in the arc behind the wicket, 14 by Du Plessis.

But, as South Africa’s captain lay on the turf in Pune on Thursday, he stared at the ball in his hands as he as if he had never seen it.

First he screamed at the thing in celebration. Or was it relief?

Then he smiled at it blithely, as if it was an old friend too many times removed but now happily returned.

Then he stared at it some more, and seemed reluctant to hand it over so the game could continue.

Perhaps Du Plessis had forgotten what the ball looked like.

Almost four hours passed between Rabada producing an away swinger that found the edge of Rohit Sharma’s bat and was caught by Quinton de Kock, and Pujara’s wicket.

Another hour drained away before Rabada extracted a touch of extra bounce to surprise Mayank Agarwal, whose rocketing edge might have gone clean through Du Plessis’ wishbone had he not taken the catch.

Near on five hours of hard work for three wickets is no-one’s idea of an easy time, but that was as good as it got for South Africa on the first day of the second men’s Test — which ended 4.5 overs early because of bad light with India having reached 273/3.

Maybe Du Plessis was still wondering why his luck seems to have deserted him at the toss on foreign fields.

The coin has come down the wrong way for him in his last six away Tests in charge, and for all seven games — across the formats — he has led his team in Asia.

That must be part of the reason for the more alarming statistic that South Africa have lost 10 of the 19 away Tests they have played in the past four years.

In the four years before that they played 21 on the road and won 10; a clear illustration of their reversal of fortunes in all senses.

On Thursday, as India did in the first Test in Visakhapatnam, they made Virat Kohli’s continued success at the toss count.

At least, they did after Sharma’s removal in the first hour, when the ball did plenty on a decent pitch.

“If you looked at the conditions this morning, the window was a lot longer for fast bowlers than in Vizag,” bowling coach Vincent Barnes told reporters in Pune. “With a bit more luck we could have had a few more wickets.”

As the day wore on the ball went to sleep on a surface that might as well have been covered by a fluffy duvet, and that helped Agarwal and Pujara take their partnership to 138.

Rabada was easily South Africa’s most threatening bowler on his best day in action for more than a year — he has gone 20 Test innings without taking five wickets — and took 3/48 in 18.1 overs.

“I look for the special spells when the circumstances are tough, and he bowled very well,” Barnes said. “There were a lot of signs that he’s getting to the top.”

So why Du Plessis waited 23 overs before bringing Rabada back after lunch wasn’t completely answered by the fact that he had bowled spells of six and four overs in the morning session.

Ten overs after Pujara went Agarwal was on his way, but with another century to his record.

He followed his 215 in Vizag with 108, a classy performance from a player who had earned an unwanted reputation for not making the most of his starts.

How had he improved his discipline?

Partly, Mayank told a television interviewer, through “a lot of long distance running and meditation”.

The South Africans have spent most of their time on the field in this series doing something similar, though not out of choice.

And they would seem to be in for more of the same on Friday, what with Kohli 63 not out and Ajinkya Rahane looking set having faced 70 balls for his unbeaten 18.

First published by TMG Digital.

Vizag pitch turns on cue for India

With Ravichandran Ashwin already on his high horse and Ravindra Jadeja not far from that threat level, India are firmly in control.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

SOUTH Africa needed 492 deliveries to take India’s first wicket and 189 — not a lot more than a third as many — to claim the next four.

Then the Indians went exponentially better and ripped out three across 62 balls.

It was that kind of day in Visakhapatnam on Thursday: hours of lean and others of plenty.

But the flow of the first men’s Test remained unchanged.

At stumps on the second day South Africa were 39/3 in reply to India’s declaration at 502/7.

With a lead of 463 and Ravichandran Ashwin already on his high horse with 2/9 from eight overs, and Ravindra Jadeja not far from that threat level, India are firmly in control.

It was the 41st time a team had put 500 past South Africa, but only the third occasion it has happened in their 17 Tests in India and the first time anywhere since England racked up 629/6 at Newlands in January 2016.

Mayank Agarwal’s 215 is his career-best score and second only to Virender Sehwag’s 319 in Chennai in March 2008 as the highest innings for India against South Africa.

Rohit Sharma’s 176 was one run short of his best effort, which he made on debut against West Indies in Kolkata in November 2013 — 47 innings ago.

The 317 openers Agarwal and Sharma shared is the biggest stand for any wicket against South Africa in India, and no South Africa bowler has sent down more overs in an innings there than Keshav Maharaj’s 55. That’s 40.44% of the total of 136.

For all that hard work he earned the wickets of Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari at the cost of 189 runs.

But the real price will be deducted from how much he has left in the tank for the second innings. If India need a second innings, that is.

By the look of the bokkies caught in Vizag’s floodlights as the sun sank with undignified haste in the 20 overs the South Africans faced, following on is a distinct possibility.

And especially now that the pitch is showing signs of rising from its deadness of the past two days.

“It’s probably one of the toughest surfaces I’ve bowled on in terms of it being a lot slower and not biting,” Maharaj told reporters in Vizag.

“You got slow turn but the ball didn’t really kick off the wicket. When the ball got softer the odd one straightened or there was a little bit of bite, but the cracks have been opening because of the heat.

“So there is a little bit of assistance coming through now as opposed to when we started. I’d say about a day-and-a-half [before that started happening].”

If South Africa do make India bat again, Maharaj sounds up for the challenge.

“I love bowling. Whether the outcome is five wickets or two wickets, I love bowling.

“As long as the feel [of the ball] in my hand is good then I’m on the right track.

“Long spells is something I’ve always wanted. It’s the long hours that I train alone that has given me the match fitness to bowl them.”

Maharaj’s supporting spinners, Dane Piedt and debutant Senuran, might not feel the same way having taken a combined 2/170 from 34 overs.

Senuran won’t complain that, for his first wicket at the highest level, he produced a ball that turned appreciably, made no less than Virat Kohli look clumsy, found the leading edge, and nestled in the bowler’s happy hands.

Even so, it would have helped neither Senuran’s nor Piedt’s mood that Dean Elgar needed only four deliveries to remove Agarwal with a filthy full toss that produced an even more filthy sideways smear of a stroke — and a squeaky-clean catch of fine judgement by Piedt at deep midwicket.

Piedt returned as nightwatchman after Ashwin, eyes as bright as his bowling bristled with visceral dangers, zigged a delivery through Aiden Markram’s gate and zagged another that took Theunis de Bruyn’s bottom edge before being superbly taken by Wriddhiman Saha.

But Piedt lasted only four balls before Jadeja flattened his middle stump with a delivery that turned with ominous sharpness.

Expect Friday to be that kind of day. And Saturday and Sunday.

First published by TMG Digital.