Arthur on a mission to save cricket from Covid

“Luckily we brought 21, otherwise Grant Flower would be batting at No. 3 and I’d be batting at No. 4 in the next Test.” – Mickey Arthur

Telford Vice | Centurion

MICKEY Arthur is a man on a mission after his Sri Lanka team were reduced to seven, possibly six, fit players after three days of the first Test against South Africa in Centurion. A man on a mercy mission to save the game as we know it from Covid-19, you might say.

Having Angelo Mathews ruled out before the series and Suranga Lakmal for the match, both with hamstring injuries, was bad enough. But then, on Friday, Dhananjaya de Silva was taken out of the equation for the rest of the tour by a groin problem. He has been followed to the sidelines, temporarily, at least, by Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara and Wanindu Hasaranga. Dinesh Chandimal may join them with an as yet undisclosed issue.

“We’ve picked up a huge amount of niggles; ridiculous really,” Arthur said after stumps on Monday. The core problem, he said, was the uncertainty caused by the chaos the coronavirus is causing in cricket.

“We built up for a Test series with Bangladesh [which was due to start in October, but was postponed], and we had two residential camps in Colombo when Colombo was in lockdown,” Arthur said. “We built up to a Bangladesh series that didn’t take place. We then had to deload the players because we couldn’t keep them loaded up at their level.

“Then the South African tour was on and then off and then on and then off. So we had a residential camp where we got our guys back. The background to that was that Colombo was in curfew; the players couldn’t move out of their homes. So a lot of the conditioning work had to be done at home. Once the South African tour was on, the board very generously gave us a residential camp. We had two weeks where we started to load the players up again.

“And then, unfortunately, we had the LPL [from November 26 to December 16]. From our residential camp we lost our players for a month to the LPL through no fault of anybody; that’s just how it works. We got them back the day we left to go to South Africa. In terms of loads, conditioning and quarantining, where players weren’t allowed to do anything, you can throw all that in the melting pot. Every one of those factors probably plays a role [in the spate of injuries].

“Getting enough time for preparation is going to be key. We didn’t get enough time here. But that’s through no fault of anybody; it’s just how the calendar worked out. We knew we were going to endanger some guys, which is why we brought 21 players. I certainly didn’t think we’d only have seven fit players in this Test match, and our most senior players in Angelo Mathews and Suranga Lakmal not being available. That takes nine players away from us, which is very detrimental. I do feel we are going to be a couple more down when we have to select for the Wanderers Test [which starts on January 3].” 

Would Arthur like to see the ICC introduce Covid substitutes, as it has done for players who are concussed during matches?

“I would love to have one here. We’re five guys down at the moment. Luckily we brought 21, otherwise [batting coach] Grant Flower would be batting at No. 3 and I’d be batting at No. 4 in the next Test. I do sit on the ICC cricket committee and I will be having a chat at the end of this Test. India lost one of their quicks today, and I suspect that more teams are going to lose quicks as it goes on because the rigours of the workload are just going to be too much with Covid around and the quarantine process.”

Umesh Yadav was taken to hospital in Melbourne after complaining of calf pain during the second Test against Australia at the MCG. As things stand, he wouldn’t be allowed a runner when he batted. The ICC abolished them in October 2011. Arthur concurred that the issue might need to be revisited.

“If the world was normal I don’t think we’d be in this situation,” Arthur said. “The conditioning would be perfect and the guys would be ready to go. With the world being abnormal at the moment, that is something that can be looked at. I’m pretty sure it will come up for discussion at ICC level at some point. If Chandimal is out we’ve only got six fit players to finish a Test match with, which is not good enough for anybody. It’s not good enough for our team, for the TV audience, our for our position.”

The day’s play ended with Chandimal, who is 21 not out with Sri Lanka 65/2 in their second innings — 160 runs from making South Africa bat again — leaving the ground on a buggy.

“He’s in the changeroom getting some treatment. I went in there and I thought, being the glass half-full that I am, that it was just cramp. I’ve got a feeling it’s something more serious.”

But Arthur hasn’t lost his sense of humour, as he proved when he was asked whether the visitors would look to attack on Tuesday: “We’re going to get 400 ahead and then Dimuth Karunaratne is going to get six wickets and win us the game.”

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Shake, rattle and Ranchi

South Africa have been outbatted, outfastbowled, outspun, outfielded, outcaptained and outthought.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE last time South Africa faced a set of results worse than what looms for their men’s Test team in India on Tuesday, Nelson Mandela had yet to join the ANC.

In March 1936, like they had done in the preceding matches at Newlands and Old Wanderers, Australia won by an innings at Kingsmead to seal a 4-0 series victory.

More than 83 years have passed since South Africa last suffered consecutive innings defeats.

That is likely to change in Ranchi, where the visitors have two wickets in hand to score the 203 runs they need to make India have to bother with batting again in the third and last Test of a rubber that has become ever more wretched for the South Africans.

Having been thrashed by an innings and 137 in the second Test in Pune, which followed a mere drubbing — by 203 runs — in Visakhapatnam, South Africa are staring at a successive defeat in the most humiliating manner.

It would be the ninth time South Africa have slumped to one innings defeat after another, but all of the previous calamities of this calibre were endured while they were lightweights of the international game.

For a side who have spent more than a third of the previous 10 years — 42 of the 120 months — as the No. 1-ranked Test team, and who were still in that spot less than four years ago, this is more a crash than a fall from grace.

They have been outbatted, outfastbowled, outspun, outfielded, outcaptained and outthought. Not forgetting outtossed. Now they are about to be tossed out, of India, and will return home to face England in December.

By then, they will hope, the messy details of what happened on Monday will not be as raw in their consciousness as now.

Having resumed on 9/2 with their hopes of reeling in India’s declaration of 497/9 receding steadily, South Africa were dismissed for 162 in 56.2 overs — both their lowest total of the series and the fewest number of overs they have faced in an innings in the three matches — and followed on 335 behind.

The 91 Zubayr Hamza and Temba Bavuma shared, and the 32 put on by George Linde and Anrich Nortjé, were their only noteworthy partnerships.

Hamza, in only his third Test innings, played like someone with significantly more experience and made a flinty 62.

Bavuma showed familiar stickability for his 32, debutant Linde looked like he belonged for his 37, and Nortjé gutsed it out for 55 balls for his four.

Mohammed Shami seemed to take a particular dislike to Nortjé, hitting him on the shoulder with consecutive bouncers and then nailing his elbow.

Less than three hours after he was dismissed the first time Hamza was back at the crease.

But not for long: he picked the wrong line trying to defend the sixth ball he faced, a sniping outswinger from Shami that sent his off-stump gambolling gaily in the outfield.

“A day of firsts — first half-century for the national side … and the first time I’ve been out twice in the same day,” Hamza mused to reporters in Ranchi after the close.

Quinton de Kock, Hamza, Faf du Plessis, and Bavuma were all out by midway through the 10th over, when Dean Elgar ducked into a bouncer from Umesh Yadav that didn’t get up and was clanged a fearful blow on the side of the helmet.

He shambled off groggily, and South Africa were 67/6 when Theunis de Bruyn walked out as his team’s first ever concussion substitute.

De Bruyn was 30 not out when bad light ended play with South Africa having subsided to 132/8.

This has not been a happy series for De Bruyn, what with him scoring only 52 runs from his first four innings.

But, unlike Hamza, Du Plessis, Bavuma, Heinrich Klaasen, Linde, Dane Piedt and Kagiso Rabada, De Bruyn wasn’t dismissed a second time inside a few hours in which 16 wickets fell.

“To have almost being bowled out twice in just less than two days is pretty poor,” Hamza said.

Mandela, who joined the ANC in 1943, doubtless would have agreed.

First published by TMG Digital.

Ranchi rains India runs, SA wickets

How many more South Africa wickets would have fallen had bad light not taken 34 overs out of the day’s play?

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

A monsoon of Indian runs followed by the clatter, like gravel on a tin roof, of South African wickets.

The second day of the third men’s Test in Ranchi on Sunday stuck to the script used for much of the rest of the series.

Virat Kohli declared after India piled up 497/9. Then South Africa shambled to 9/2 in the five overs they faced before bad light ended play.

Worse, the players dismissed are Dean Elgar, who has scored the most runs and faced the most balls for the visitors in the series, and Quinton de Kock, whose promotion to an opening berth was the grandest part of the plan to cure the virus that has struck South Africa’s batting.

Both gloved catches to the wicketkeeper having tried to leave short, aggressive deliveries bowled by Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav.

Other South Africans will be relieved to know the gloom cut short Sunday’s proceedings by 34 overs: who knows how many more wickets would have fallen had they been bowled.

Rohit Sharma converted his overnight 117 not out into 212, his first Test double century.

Sharma, who made 176 and 127 in the first Test in Visakhapatnam, took his aggregate for the series to 529 — more than any other India batter has scored in a rubber against South Africa.

Having reached three figures with a six off Dane Piedt on Saturday, Sharma went to his second hundred with a pulled six off Lungi Ngidi to the 13th ball after lunch.

Ajinkya Rahane resumed on 83 and forged to 115 before being caught behind off George Linde in the 10th over before lunch to end a stand of 267, a record for India’s fourth wicket against South Africa.

The Indians attacked overtly after Rahane’s dismissal, scoring 191 runs in the 41 overs they faced before the declaration — 4.66 an over. 

Yadav led the way, smashing the first two balls he faced — bowled by Linde — for six and following that with three more maximums in the debutant left-arm spinner’s next over. Yadav ran only a single in his 10-ball 31.

Linde, who was summoned from South Africa after Keshav Maharaj injured a shoulder during the second Test in Pune, bowled with discipline in his 31 overs — more than any other member of the attack — and took 4/133.

Off-spinner Piedt, Linde’s Cobras teammate, will be less satisfied with his lot.

He went into the match having sweated it out for 38 overs for his return of 1/209 in the first Test, and the 20 sixes he has conceded in the rubber is the most by any bowler in any Test series.

Piedt, who was also hit for nine fours in the innings, sent down a dozen of his 18 overs before he bowled a maiden.

He smiled broadly as his sixth straight scoreless delivery was confirmed and accepted Elgar’s two-handed high five. Then he reeled off another two maidens. 

Piedt finished with 1/101 and might have got the joke that he shouldn’t be wearing 63 on his back. Instead he should wear No. 64.

Because that’s what he’s bowled in this series: sixes and fours.

First published by TMG Digital.

Reality rocks Rabada

“Sorry?” – Kagiso Rabada on being told India’s seamers are showing up South Africa’s.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

YOU know things have changed when even the team media officer asks the tough questions, as Kagiso Rabada discovered on Tuesday.

Maybe Rabada didn’t hear the query clearly; there was a significant amount of background noise during his one-on-one interview.

Or maybe the question, utterly legitimate though it was, stung.

“A lot has been said about India’s seam attack making the pitch look a lot easier [to bowl on] than South Africa’s. How did you experience that pitch?”

Rabada seemed to take a verbal step backward before replying: “Sorry?”

The question was repeated, and Rabada found an answer: “[India] got the ball to reverse and they bowled well as a collective.

“Their whole attack put pressure on us in every single aspect.

“Their spinners bowled well and when the ball was reversing their seamers could exploit that.

“We didn’t really get the ball to reverse and that’s a major weapon of ours.”

The pitch at issue was at Pune, where India won the second men’s Test by an innings and 137 runs with a day to spare on Sunday — their biggest ever success over South Africa. 

That followed the home side winning the first Test, in Visakhapatnam, by 203 runs.

Both surfaces offered a fair deal to seamers, spinners and indeed batters.

But India’s Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have taken 14 wickets in the series and Rabada and Vernon Philander only six, a difference not solely explained by the fact that the Indians have had one more innings in the field.

As expected, slow poisoners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been the most lethal bowlers on view — they’ve claimed 24 of the 40 wickets India have taken — but a key difference between the teams has been India’s seam superiority.

South Africa have yet to bowl out India in an innings. In three attempts they’ve taken only 16 wickets.

“It’s never nice to lose, especially in the manner we’re losing right now,” Rabada said.

“We’re going through a transition period. Our team is fresh and young, so the best thing we can do is look at where we can improve and remember our strengths and build on them.

“We need to challenge ourselves to execute what we have learnt.

“We’ve been put under immense pressure. I don’t know if we can be put more pressure than that. That can hopefully produce something special in years to come.”

India have been in the field for 40 deliveries more than South Africa, but it seemed pertinent to ask whether the challenge in the third Test in Ranchi, which starts on Saturday, would be more mental or physical.

“From a physical point of view we need to execute our skills and from a mental point of view we need to believe we can do it in certain situations. It’s a balance we’re working on.”

The suits might accuse the media officer of committing the offence of journalism, and it’s difficult for the South Africans to arrive at useful answers while they are being dealt their hiding.

But, for now, they need to make sure they ask themselves the right questions.

First published by TMG Digital.

It’s bad. Could it get worse?

India’s 13th win over South Africa was also their biggest against them, and only the second time they have beaten them by an innings in their 38 Tests.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

HOW bad is it? Bad, but not worse than it’s been in the recent past — twice.

South Africa’s thrashing, by an innings and 137 runs, by India in the second men’s Test in Pune on Sunday confirmed their third defeat in four series.

Having been told to follow on 326 runs behind, South Africa were dismissed for 189 in the seventh over after tea on the fourth day.

The best of their resistance was Dean Elgar’s 48, Temba Bavuma’s 38, Vernon Philander’s 37 and Keshav Maharaj’s 22. No-one else reached double figures.

It’s the last time Maharaj will pick up a bat or ball for up to three weeks.

The shoulder injury he sustained while diving in the field on Friday has ruled him out for the third Test in Ranchi, which starts on Saturday.

Maharaj’s stoicism has been one of the few less negative aspects — it’s difficult to find positives — of South Africa’s performance in this series.

He is their highest wicket-taker with a half-dozen scalps, although they were taken at an average of 85.66, and the 127 overs he bowled is almost twice as many as anyone else in the visitors’ attack.

Maharaj faced 229 balls and his 72 in the first innings in Pune was his first Test half-century.

He will be replaced in the squad by George Linde, the uncapped left-arm spinner who took match figures of 11/131 for the Cobras against the Lions in Potchefstroom in the opening round of franchise first-class fixtures last week.

Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja led India’s surge to victory with three wickets each.

The Indians caught superbly and ill-considered strokes by the South Africans did the rest. 

Worryingly, the batters were as likely to commit serious errors facing India’s fast bowlers as they were against their old bogeymen, the spinners.  

Elgar’s sliced hoik to long-off off Ravichandran Ashwin and Theunis de Bruyn clumsy fiddle down the leg side to Yadav were the prime examples.  

And that on a pitch that, while recognisably Indian, was far from unrecognisable for the South Africans. 

India’s 13th win over South Africa was also their biggest against them, and only the second time they have beaten them by an innings in their 38 Tests.

It sealed a run of 11 successful home series, a world record. Seven of them have been achieved under Virat Kohli’s masterful captaincy.

India have lost only one of the 32 Tests they have played at home since being beaten twice by England in November and December 2012.

For Faf du Plessis, his team and their supporters, this — South Africa’s 21st series loss in the 88 rubbers they have played since re-admission — will feel like rock bottom.

But it’s happened before.

Between August 2004 and March 2005, South Africa lost in Sri Lanka and India and returned home to go down to England before recovering with victory over Zimbabwe in another home series.

Then, from December 2005 to July 2006, they lost to Australia, home and away, beat New Zealand at home and then went down in Sri Lanka.

Depending on whether your glass if half-full or half-empty, that means the straits are not unprecedentedly dire — or that they will get worse when England arrive in December for a series of four Tests.

First published by TMG Digital.