Peterson’s plight is Tahir’s tonic

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Port Elizabeth

GOOD thing Robin Peterson is from Port Elizabeth and has family to visit here, because he won’t be playing cricket for the next two weeks.

Instead, Imran Tahir is on his way to St George’s Park for the second test against West Indies, which starts on Friday.

Left-arm spinner Peterson, the only specialist spinner in SA’s squad, abandoned a fielding session on Tuesday with blood streaming from his spinning finger.

Three stitches went into the palm-side of the skin at the joint between the first and second digits, which swelled prominently under a bandage as Peterson lurked on the sidelines.

“It doesn’t look good,” Peterson said. “It’s like someone took a knife and cut my finger. I’ll probably be out for about 10 days.”

Indeed, Peterson is also out of the third test at Newlands, which starts on January 2.

SA opted for an all-pace attack in the first test at Centurion, a decision they justified by winning by an innings and 220 runs on Saturday.

But Peterson would have been likely to play at St George’s Park - the slowest, driest test pitch in the country.

“We feel for Robbie,” Faf du Plessis said. “He’s waited a period of time to make his return to the test team and he’s bowling really well.

“In the first game the conditions did not allow for a spinner, but here it’s more suited to spin. A frontline spinner is very important for this ground.”

Peterson played his most recent test against Australia at Centurion in February and has missed SA’s last six matches in the format.

Leg spinner Tahir was preferred for the series in Sri Lanka in July and off-spinner Dane Piedt made his debut against Zimbabwe in Harare in August. Piedt took match figures of 8/152, the best performance by a SA spinner in their first test.

But he dislocated a shoulder, chipped a bone and ripped halfway through a biceps tendon in one catastrophic moment during the Cobras’ Champions League T20 campaign in India in September.

Piedt had his first game since then for his club on December 13 and played another for them last Tuesday, and he has been cleared by the Cobras to play a first-class game against the Knights in Paarl starting on Saturday.

“We wouldn’t play him if we weren’t satisfied that he could bowl, but even this game is going to be a stepping stone back for him,” Cobras physiotherapist Shane Jabaar said.

Tahir has claimed a single five-wicket haul in his 29 bowling innings. However, he has yet to play a test at St George’s Park.

Peterson’s plight is the latest in a list that includes SA’s Quinton de Kock and West Indies’ Kemar Roach being ruled out of the series with ankle injuries, the visitors’ Assad Fudadin being sent home with a broken finger, and Du Plessis, Peterson and SA spin bowling consultant Claude Henderson being laid low by a virus at Centurion.

“It’s is still hanging around,” Du Plessis said. “Our team doctor said we must be aware there’s something in the air, and if we do feel a little bit down we should go straight to him before it gets any worse.”

If only, the Windies would say, they could pop a pill to ease the embarrassment they suffered in all departments in the first test. But Du Plessis offered them a spoonful of sugar.

“Conditions like these will probably bring them into the game more; it will be more even,” he said. “The ball won’t move as quickly and seam around as much. It will suit their style of play more than the quick, seaming pitches our attack are so dangerous on.”

That said, SA won their previous test at St George’s Park, against Australia in February, with the help of a devastating spell of reverse swing by Dale Steyn that yielded 3/10 in four overs.

But West Indies also have happy PE memories. It was here in December, 2007 that they beat SA by 128 runs - their only win in their 13 tests in this country.

And if they could do it once, they could do it again.

Or, as Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a stalwart of that 2007 triumph, said. “We know we’re a much better team than we showed at Centurion.”