Usman Qadir – Bulletproof Truth

Depleted SA see firsts flow Pakistan’s way

“It’s not about individuals it’s about a team.” – Mark Boucher on South Africa’s injury and IPL-hit resources.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

YOU want firsts? We’ve got firsts. For the first time in the series the contest was decided long before the match was over. For the first time in six bilateral series — and only the second time in 14 — the visiting team won an ODI rubber in South Africa.

For the first time a team from the subcontinent celebrated a second series win in South Africa: as they did this time, Pakistan won the ODIs 2-1 in November 2013. For the first time a Pakistan batter scored more than one century in a series in this country. Fakhar Zaman’s aggregate of 302 was also the first time a Pakistani piled up that many runs in a rubber here. For the first time since Shane Warne any bowler from anywhere proved they had mastered the flipper. And Usman Qadir was a debutant in the format, no less. For the first time in South Africa’s 628 ODIs spin was deployed for nine of the last 10 overs of their opponents’ innings. For the first time in the series, and thus in his international captaincy career, Temba Bavuma won the toss.

For the first time in an ODI series South Africa made seven changes between games. For the first time South Africa played an ODI without any of the five stars who have left for India. That’s measured from March 3, 2019, when the newest of them, Anrich Nortjé, made his debut in the format: 22 ODIs ago. David Miller has missed 60 of a possible 194 ODIs, Quinton de Kock 30 of 153, Kagiso Rabada 15 of 92, and Lungi Ngidi 15 of 43. Between them they have won 371 ODI caps since Miller, the stalwart among the five, played his first.

We cannot know whether South Africa would have won had they been able to pick their best XI instead their best available XI. But there is no doubt they would have fielded a stronger, more experienced, more match ready XI. The quadriceps strain that omitted Rassie van der Dussen, the home side’s most dominant batter in the first two matches, when he scored 123 not out and 60, didn’t help. Neither did the last three overs of Pakistan’s innings bleeding 56 runs, not least because Jon-Jon Smuts, Aiden Markram and Andile Phehlukwayo struggled to control their deliveries in the drizzle.

Six of South Africa’s seven changes were forced. Pakistan made four, but three of them were tactical. They were able to pick a team they thought could win. South Africa had to come up with a side that might, with a bit of luck, stay in the game. Consequently Pakistan played like Pakistan — aggressively, enterprisingly, bravely — while the South Africans were reduced to a frayed facsimile of the team they had been three days previously and two days before that.

None of which is meant to diminish Pakistan’s achievement. Their opponents’ problems are not theirs, and they can only beat who is put in front of them. They deserved their success and the adulation coming their way from all quarters. Wonderfully well led by Babar Azam with Misbah-ul-Haq the sage in their dressingroom, they embraced the challenge of overcoming the conditions and the South Africans, and they did so in ways that burnished their reputation as one of cricket’s most exciting teams to watch. Besides, it isn’t as if the South Africans who were selected on Wednesday disgraced the jersey. As Mark Boucher told an online press conference after the match: “It’s not about individuals it’s about a team.” Keshav Maharaj was tight and tigerish, and took three wickets for only the second time in his eight ODIs. Not until Kyle Verreynne and Andile Phehlukwayo were separated in the 44th over, ending a stand of 108 off 100 balls, could the visitors be sure of victory.

But those are pricks of light in the gloom. The T20I series starts at the Wanderers on Saturday, and it seems Van der Dussen will be reduced to spectating. Worse, he looks likely to have Bavuma for company. South Africa’s captain hurt a hamstring while batting, and couldn’t make it down the 48 stairs from the dressingroom to the field for his post-match television interview. “Rassie has between a grade one and a grade two quad strain, which means he is probably out for 10 days from yesterday [Tuesday],” Boucher said. “I’d be stupid to try and push him to play in these T20Is. He’s still staying with the squad and hoping that he will have a quick turnaround, but it doesn’t look likely that he’s going to be able to get on the park. Temba’s quite a tough guy, so when you see him hobbling around … And it’s only got worse in the changeroom. I think he might have done something fairly bad. He seems to be in quite a bit pain. But these are the cards we’ve been dealt. We’re going to have to find a way.”

It’s Boucher’s job to find that way, and his players shouldn’t expect a few days of gentle introspection in their Covid-19 bubble while he does so: “We need to play at a higher intensity. We need to be more desperate in the field especially. One or two of our senior players need to start winning games for us. I know they’re trying really hard, but senior players need to stand up in tough conditions and pressured moments. That hasn’t been happening as often as we want it to happen.”

That’s the right thing to say in times like these. But it’s complicated. Heinrich Klaasen, with 16 T20I caps, becomes one of the remaining senior players and is a strong candidate to be named stand-in captain for the series. And on his mind, no doubt, will be the fact that he could score only 16 runs in the three ODIs. He’s a resilient and resourceful player, and he will need those qualities to meet this challenge should it come his way.

So South Africa would be justified in hoping the Indian Premier League (IPL) appreciates the size of the sacrifice that has been made on its behalf. Not only have Boucher’s team been denied the services of five of their best players for the deciding match of a series, they will also have to do without them in the four T20Is. Do not blame the IPL for that. Rather welcome the exposure of the myth that international cricket comes first. What comes first is money.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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The earth moves, and South Africa change direction

“Making sure that the batter doesn’t really know which ball is coming is key, and we did that really well today.” – Dwaine Pretorius

Telford Vice | Cape Town

EVERY journalist surely has had “small earthquake far away, none dead” slung at them by newsroom denizens as a prime example of what in the trade is called a non-story: not worth writing nor bothering readers about. At 6.4 on the Richter scale, the rumble that sent shudders upward and outward from 80 kilometres below Tajikistan just after 10pm on Friday was not small. Happily, it killed no-one. And, for South Africans, it was far away.

But it was felt in Lahore, where the earth moved again less than 24 hours later. As before, no-one was harmed. This time the news was indeed noted in faraway South Africa — because, for the first time on the tour of Pakistan, the visitors won.

Victory in the second T20I won’t answer the searching questions asked of South Africa while Pakistan were winning the Karachi and Rawalpindi Tests. But it was a step in the other direction from the shamble dictated by the dreary drumbeat of defeat, which before Saturday included five straight defeats in T20Is. This performance wasn’t perfect — Reeza Hendricks excepted, the top order batting was shaky — but when you’ve lost six of your last eight games across the formats, as South Africa have done, any win will do. This win, achieved by six wickets with 22 balls to spare, was better than most. The confidence generated in Thursday’s first T20I, which Pakistan won by three runs, was kept and most of the lesser aspects of that display were jettisoned.

“We learnt a lot of lessons out of the previous game,” Dwaine Pretorius told an online press conference. “Losing that one hurt us quite a bit. We went back to the drawingboard and devised a few plans as the bowling unit, who as a whole stuck to it really well today.”

The batters have let the side down more often than not. What changed on Saturday? “Especially in T20s, we’ve been playing a lot of good cricket,” Pretorius said. “I honestly believe we’ve maybe been losing one or two overs really badly. We’ve been trying to focus on, whenever that bad patch comes, not losing clusters of wickets. So we keep our intent high and don’t lose it.”

South Africa’s first hero was Tabraiz Shamsi, who didn’t concede more than five runs in any of his first three overs and came within a single of going scoreless in his fourth. He also had the reverse-sweeping Hussain Talat caught at backward point. Wrist spin of such high quality is rarely seen, nevermind when Lahore’s night sky is thick with the fog that makes gripping the ball securely difficult. Perhaps Shamsi was helped by the fact that the pitch didn’t offer as much turn as the surface used on Thursday. So conditions were closer to what he grew up with.

Then Pretorius trapped Babar Azam in front with his second delivery and ripped through the middle order to take 5/17. Ryan McLaren, David Wiese and Imran Tahir, twice, have also taken five wickets for South Africa’s men’s team in a T20I. But none have done so for so few runs. Pretorius delivered the 49th T20I five-wicket-haul in the 1,121st men’s match in the format. Twenty-four of them cost more runs than his effort. Pretorius’ haul was also the first five-for in the format in Pakistan, and the best performance against the Pakistanis in T20Is. He earned his success with a canny mix of slower balls and yorkers, not a little intelligence, and a more firmly braced front leg to make the most of his 1.86 metres.

“To say it was quite hard [to change his action] would be an under-statement,” Pretorius said. “I’ve been working for five to six months just getting that one thing right. Hopefully I can progress and make sure I can get the most out of my technique. You’re always looking for that five to 10% you can improve.

“I don’t have to think about it too much anymore, so I can focus more on the plans and the execution. It’s getting better but there’s still a lot I need to work on. I’ll keep doing that work, and hopefully in a couple of months we’ll see Dwaine 2.0.”

Pretorius had praise for South Africa’s support staff, notably bowling coach Charl Langeveldt: “I’ve learnt from so many guys involved here, especially Charl. Making sure that the batter doesn’t really know which ball is coming is key, and we did that really well today.”

Pakistan were limited to fewer than 10 runs in 14 of their overs. Three of the last four sailed for a dozen runs or more, thanks to Faheem Ashraf’s 12-ball 30 not out. But it took them 22 fewer balls to reach 100 on Thursday, when they scored 25 more runs. And on Saturday they owed a lot to Mohammad Rizwan, a centurion in his previous two innings, staying until the 16th over for his 51. Would South Africa’s brittle batting stay in one piece long enough for the bowlers’ hard work not to be wasted this time?

The question hung in the mist when Shaheen Afridi dazzled Janneman Malan with the first delivery of the innings, which shot off the outside edge and past the stumps. Malan was still caught in the headlights when the second ball, pitched on his legs, took his thigh pad on its way to bowling him. In his next over Afridi induced Jon-Jon Smuts to shovel a catch to mid-off. At 21/2 after 14 deliveries and at 46/2 after the powerplay — the same score as Pakistan at that stage — the ghosts of what had gone before in the past three weeks were set aswirl in the cold, damp murk that cloaked the scene.

But Hendricks and Pite van Biljon banished them with a stand of 77 off 54 balls. Van Biljon lived interestingly, using the back of his bat to reverse sweep Mohammad Nawaz for four and surviving being stumped off Usman Qadir because the leg spinner’s heel — which remains above the ground in his delivery stride — was adjudged not to have cut the line of the crease. Hendricks stayed out of that kind of trouble in a buttoned-down innings. Each scored 42. Qadir, all but unplayable in taking 2/4 in his first two overs on Thursday, hardly turned the ball until his last over, when suddenly he ragged it square. Too late, you could hear all of Pakistan saying as the nation stared at their preferred device.

Hendricks and Van Biljon were dismissed eight balls apart, but the age, experience and nous of David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen dispelled any notion of the contest being turned on its head. A half-chance or so wasn’t taken and edges went for four, and Miller just about sealed the deal with a booming six over long-on off Iftikhar Ahmed. That left one to get, and Miller duly dabbed the next ball into the covers for the single.

It was a stroke that spoke of South Africa’s respect for their worthy opponents, maybe because the tams will be at the same place at the same time on Sunday to decide the series. And because, until the matter is settled, you never know what could go bump in the night.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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South Africa improve, but not enough to win

“Ja, but our standard is high.” – Heinrich Klaasen refuses to feel better about a narrow loss.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

SOUTH Africa’s players huddled so tightly together on Lahore’s outfield on Thursday that you would have struggled to smuggle a team sheet between them. Heinrich Klaasen spoke earnestly, hands slicing through evening air heavy with dew to punctuate his points. His players listened intently. David Miller made a significant contribution to the conversation. Klaasen handed a cap to debutant Jacques Snyman, who received it as if he had been given the keys to the car of his dreams.

Eyes locked. Shoulders overlapped. Heads nodded to the unmistakable rhythm of agreement. Even from the other hemisphere you could feel the unity. There was heat in that huddle, which was more a hug.

For South Africans weary of turning on their televisions to see what new hell has befallen the side in Pakistan, they were the picture of a team as opposed to a collection of individuals. It helped that none of them had played in the Tests, and so didn’t bring baggage from Karachi and Rawalpindi, where South Africa were almost as good at beating themselves as Pakistan were at winning. Of the XI who had played in South Africa’s previous T20I, against England at Newlands in December, only Reeza Hendricks, Lutho Sipamla and Tabraiz Shamsi were in the team. Another good thing: England won that series 3-0.

Even so, South Africa took 200 T20I caps into Thursday’s match: 10 more than Pakistan, which you wouldn’t have thought considering the noise made, far and wide, about a looming mismatch. All this bunch of South Africans needed to convince, most importantly, themselves that they belonged on the same field as opponents who had already been written up as victors was for something to go conspicuously right, preferably early in the piece …

Second ball of the match. Babar Azam bunts it to the on side and sets off. The bowler, the left-arm spinning, right-arm throwing Bjorn Fortuin, hares after it. He sprawls to make a scragging stop and, seeing a fraction more than one stump, throws from a prone position. Bails balloon, stumps splay. Babar is short of his ground by a metre and more. Roll credits.

It doesn’t go more conspicuously right than that. But, of course, the credits didn’t roll then. First Mohammad Rizwan scored 104 not out, his second unbeaten century in five days and an innings as bristling with aggression as his previous hundred was built on discipline. And the lack of firepower in South Africa’s attack, denuded of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé, was exposed. Pakistan play without the arrogance that sours the impression other teams make, but they are perhaps the most alpha male of all sides — they will bully bowling that doesn’t stand up for itself. Only Shamsi, who turned the ball sharply in his first match of the tour, escaped with an economy rate of less than a run a ball. Junior Dala was at the other end of the equation, sailing for 25 off two overs. Happily, although Rizwan was dropped twice in the 90s, the overall standard of South Africa’s fielding was a notch or three up from what the Test team delivered.

Seven totals higher than Pakistan’s effort of 169/6 had been scored in the first innings of the previous 11 T20Is in Lahore. And all but one of the six times the team batting first had won a day-night T20I there, they had made more than the home side’s total. How big a factor would the thickening dew be in the second innings? Enough to fog up Aleem Dar’s glasses and thus furrow his brow, for a start.

Hendricks faced only a dozen deliveries in an opening stand of 53 dominated by Janneman Malan, who hit eight fours — mostly muscled to the on side — in his 44. But Hendricks saw Usman Qadir’s leg break hit the top of Malan’s off stump and his googly crash into the top of Snyman’s middle stump. Then Miller flashed at a delivery from Faheem Ashraf that faded across the left-hander, and nicked it. At 83/3, and needing more than 10 from each of the last eight overs, South Africa’s challenge was waning.

Klaasen joined Hendricks to rekindle it with a stand that reached 32 before Klaasen picked out the man on the square leg boundary. But before that he was party to something previously unknown. Given out leg-before to Qadir’s googly, Klaasen offered up a prayer to the third umpire. Missing leg, the gizmo said. And with that Dar’s record of never having been proven wrong in T20I referrals was erased at the 12th attempt.

Hendricks ran himself out for 54 by dashing for a single that was never there after losing sight of a ball he had edged into his pads. It needed a dive from the swooping Rizwan to complete the dismissal. Surely that was the end of the South Africans?

It looked that way when they headed into the last over needing 19. Two singles accrued before Dwaine Pretorius hammered Ashraf over long-on for six. Another single left the equation at 10 off two. Fortuin, hobbling on a twisted ankle, found the wherewithal to fashion a four over his shoulder. One ball. Six to get. Fortuin lined up the midwicket fence, but didn’t get enough bat on it and the ground-hugging ball was fielded at deep backward square.

Even though the South Africans showed more fight on Thursday than in Karachi and Rawalpindi, Pakistan deserved their win, not least because of the brilliance of Rizwan and Qadir. No-one needs to tell the visitors it’s a long way from going down with credit in a T20I to competing in a Test, but South Africans could see something on their televisions they haven’t spotted for a while: light at the end of the tunnel.

South Africans besides Klaasen, that is: “Ja, but our standard is high. One or two things with the bowling didn’t go according to plan, so we’ll reassess that. And then those four or five overs in the middle [of the innings when Qadir went for two runs off each of his first two overs], when we really made life very difficult for ourselves. Because we could have chased between seven and 10 in the last over and got over the line easily. It is pleasing to see we are playing good cricket, but it’s frustrating and disappointing by our standards. We know exactly what we want and what we need to do to be a successful team.”

He sounded so South African. He sounded utterly real. He sounded like the captain of a team, not a collection of individuals.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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