Promoting No. 3s not an open and shut case

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Harare

CRICKET has Dereck Dowling to thank for the fact that Barry Richards became one of the finest opening batsmen yet to grace the game.

“You keep going in at 3/1, so what’s point of batting at No. 3,” was the blunt advice of former Natal batsman Dowling, by then an administrator, in 1965-66, Richards’ second first-class season.

With that, a player who had not been born an opener was made into one. Richards took first strike in all seven of his test innings and opened the batting in 508 of his 576 trips to the crease in first-class matches. He averaged 57.01 at the top of the order compared to 35.21 everywhere else.

Almost 50 years on, SA could do with Dowling’s lateral thinking, not mention a player of Richards’ class. Before the one-off test against Zimbabwe in Harare, which SA won by nine wickets on Tuesday, Hashim Amla listed the form of Imran Tahir and Alviro Petersen as concerns.

Tahir was dropped in favour of Dane Piedt, whose match haul of 8/152 is the best return by a SA spinner on debut. Petersen was retained, and made a laboured 32 and 17 not out - taking to 21 the number of consecutive innings in which he has been dismissed without scoring a century.

He has fallen for fewer than 10 runs seven times in those innings, and been the first man out 15 times.

For all that, Petersen’s form has been more mediocre than poor. He has scored three half-centuries since his last hundred, and averages 24.47 compared to his career mark of 35.83.

Petersen has benefitted from SA being careful not to rock the boat too much as they adjust to the absence of Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis. It is equally true that opening batsmen who stick out as ready to take the step to the highest level are thin on the ground in franchise cricket.

Stiaan van Zyl, who has spent three tests on the bench with the SA squad, has been among the top three runscorers in franchise first-class cricket for two of the past three seasons. His selection for the tours to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe prove that the selectors have confidence in him.

But Van Zyl bats at No. 3 for the Cobras. Could it be time to re-invent him as an opener?

“If he sees it as his only opportunity to play in the side he should knuckle down and do it,” Richards said.

“It’s not really a big leap from No. 3 if the guy is committed and has good discipline. But it does require a different mindset because you are more likely to get a decent ball.”

For former SA batsman Peter Kirsten, “Adapting to opening the batting is very possible. The major difference is mental.”

Kirsten felt the move was less about radical change and more about “minor adjustments in thinking and technical application, for example leaving more deliveries early on when the ball is harder and swinging more”.

But he sounded a warning about installing anyone at the top of SA’s order without adequate preparation: “This player should be given a decent run at franchise level as an opener before being thrust into test situations.”

Boeta Dippenaar, himself a nomad having spent 18 test innings as an opener, 16 as a No. 3 and 15 at No. 5, differed.

“I found a profound difference between opening and batting at No. 3, and I think Stiaan van Zyl will find it very challenging to open,” said Dippenaar said, adding that coming in at first drop allowed him to have a quick shower and change into a clean set of whites.

“This makes a dramatic difference in the way you feel as there more time to gather once thoughts. When you are opening there is no such time and very often you get out without even knowing what happened.”

Nonetheless, the time would seem to be ripe for thinking out of the batting order box. Having been unveiled with considerable fanfare as Kallis’ replacement at No. 4, Faf du Plessis spent just four innings there before walking out at No. 6 in the third test against Australia at Newlands in March.

Since Amla’s appointment as captain, which saw him drop a place to No. 4, Du Plessis has been bumped up to No. 3 - where he has batted with more fastidiousness than flash and scored 80 and 98 in five innings.

Quinton de Kock, meanwhile, was sent in at No. 3 - ahead of JP Duminy - in the second innings against Sri Lanka in Colombo last month in one of the few attempts SA made to play enterprising cricket in a dull match.

“It’s very important that we try and fill the gaps,” Russell Domingo said this week. “We have made good progress in finding combinations in our batting line-up.”

Stability is the goal. Reaching it could take instability.