Bob’s your uncle when a World Cup looms

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Harare

FOR three years out of every four, a one-day series between SA and Zimbabwe would capture about as much attention as Robert Mugabe beating up on the British from a podium on the outer edge of relevance.

This is that other, fourth year, when a World Cup is on the horizon. Consequently, the three-match series that started in Bulawayo on Sunday matters disproportionately more.

Still, with AB de Villiers’ team scheduled to play as many as 21 ODIs from Sunday until the last week of January - also against Australia, New Zealand, and West Indies - too sharp a focus on these three games seems churlish.

Except that, after these matches, SA will have few opportunities to tinker. Instead, the pressure will mount before their World Cup opener against the self-same Zimbabweans in Hamilton on March 15 next year.

But how much re-imagining is required? SA, test cricket’s top team, are ranked behind Australia, India and Sri Lanka in one-dayers. However, in the past year they have been more successful in the 50-over format than in either of the other two, having won half of their 10 tests, 64.29% of 14 ODIs, and 54.54% of the 11 T20s they have played.

Moreover, they played six of those one-dayers against teams pegged above them - India and Sri Lanka - and won four.

So, perhaps SA’s one-day unit is merely in the shadow of a test outfit that is the envy of cricket and not too far behind the leaders of the ODI pack.

Of course, if the Zimbabweans beat SA on Sunday or in the other games, also in Bulawayo, on Tuesday and Thursday, that theory will look stupid. It is, however, difficult to imagine that happening, even accounting for the fact that the visitors will be without the rested Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

“Now that Dale and Morne are gone for a while, that will give us some confidence,” Brendan Taylor said in reviewing SA’s nine-wicket win in the one-off test in Harare.

“But the one-day series will be a new challenge. I guess we’re more comfortable with the format, and Bulawayo’s slower pitch suits our style of play.”

If SA need a cautionary note, it is the letter Mugabe wrote to Zimbabwe’s board to apologise for not being able to attend the last match of the one-day series against England in 1996-97.

“Keep up the good work,” the president said. Zimbabwe won that rubber 3-0.