Not too long ago, the Proteas were the best ODI team on the planet in terms of performance and rankings.
They swept to 5-0 series victories over Australia and Sri Lanka on home soil, and were virtually unstoppable. And captain AB de Villiers only joined the party for the Sri Lankan games.
Russell Domingo’s team were a settled unit, but after they capitulated fairly meekly to the New Zealand Black Caps on Wednesday, there appear to be more questions than answers at the moment.
Let’s just look at the game itself – in the build-up, it was clear that the South Africans needed to play two spinners at Seddon Park, as the pitch was dry and conducive to turn and slower balls.
Tabraiz Shamsi was set to partner the World No 1 Imran Tahir, but was left out in the end. In contrast, New Zealand had two tweakers in Mitchell Santner and Jeetan Patel, who opened the bowling as well, with the latter getting rid of the in-form Quinton de Kock in his very first over.
To add insult to injury, De Villiers won the toss and chose to bat first. Despite the drying pitch, the fact that the Proteas had just one specialist spinner – having opted for four pacemen in Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris and Dwaine Pretorius – meant that South Africa simply had to bowl first to get the most of whatever movement or assistance there may have been in the wicket.
On the batting front, Hashim Amla (40) and JP Duminy (25) again got in and got out, while David Miller (1) didn’t get going at all. Those three batsmen needed to take responsibility after De Kock failed, for once,
In addition, on such a slow and difficult pitch, with the batsmen finding it difficult to get the ball off the square, surely the situation demanded that De Villiers walk in No 4 instead of Duminy? I am in favour of the latter batting in that position, but there needs to be flexibility…
In the end, De Villiers faced just 59 balls to finish on 72 not out. Imagine if he had had a hundred deliveries? For the record, Du Plessis took 97 balls for his 67 and Duminy 41 for his 25 runs.
The late assault from De Villiers, Morris and Parnell with the bat gave the Proteas a fighting chance, with 279 a tough ask on that pitch.
But then they got it all wrong with the ball. Tahir was only introduced in the 13th over, and struck with his second ball when he trapped Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson lbw for 21.
Tahir’s late introduction allowed Martin Guptill to play himself in against the fast bowlers and Duminy’s part-time spin, and he had already reached 50 when the leg-spinner came on to bowl.
Morris, Parnell and especially Pretorius bowled too short to Guptill and the ball sat up and waited to be dispatched all over Seddon Park. Where were the change-ups of pace, off-cutters, yorkers, etc? They’ve done it before, and are drilled in those aspects by bowling coach Charl Langeveldt, but there was no evidence of it on this occasion.
They probably missed Andile Phehlukwayo in that regard, with the Dolphins all-rounder sitting out due to a groin niggle.
Guptill was astonishing, though. To keep going at such a high tempo takes some doing, as he hit the winning runs to end on 180 not out off just 138 balls (15x4, 11x6) – and it wasn’t even his best ODI score! That would be the memorable 237 not out against the West Indies at the 2015 World Cup, the second-highest individual total.
De Villiers admitted afterwards that “there wasn’t that spark in the field”, and with just four ODIs to go ahead of the Champions Trophy, the Proteas brainstrust would want to see that fire right back in Saturday’s series decider at Eden Park.
But there are some important questions that need to be answered in the coming days and weeks leading up to that tournament – what’s Duminy’s best position? If Miller and Farhaan Behardien are not consistent enough to warrant selection, is it time to look at other middle-order options, like Theunis de Bruyn?
Then the all-rounder configuration must be sorted. There are four in Morris, Parnell, Phehlukwayo and Pretorius. At the moment, it looks like the last two men are going well, and it’s a toss-up between Morris and Parnell.
What about the all-rounder claims of Vernon Philander, which I have mentioned before? And his bowling would be handy, especially in English conditions.
Other issues closer to the Champions Trophy would be to assess the readiness of Morné Morkel and Dale Steyn, although both are outside chances to feature.
But there’s still Saturday’s final ODI against New Zealand in Auckland to get through.
Wednesday’s defeat was more than just a hiccup, and now the Proteas need to show that they can deal with the pressure of getting it right in a must-win game. It’s an ideal dress rehearsal for the more important business in June.
@ashfakmohamed