SA bat big, but they need to bat bigger

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Wellington

YOU might not have realised it, but Faf du Plessis did not play in SA’s World Cup match against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Wellington on Thursday.

That’s no slight on Du Plessis, a rock among skyrockets like Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, David Miller and - when not in the dismal form he is in currently - Quinton de Kock.

Someone needs to be the parent in that roomful of crazy kids, and often that player is Du Plessis. But on Thursday his absence, because of a lower back problem, was hardly a blip on the radar.

Most proper teams at this World Cup could get by against the UAE even without their big names. But most teams do not score 341/6, even against bottom-feeders, when their No. 3 is crocked and one of their openers can’t quite tell his front elbow from his back ankle.

Only seven totals posted in the 74 innings played at this World Cup have been higher than SA’s effort on Thursday. They were up against a weak attack in a match they did not need to win, but 341/6 does not happen by accident.

Forty-nine of those runs were scored by Miller, who made the point that SA’s batting line-up did not revolve around any one player - be that player the solid Du Plessis or the spectacular De Villiers.

“I don’t think there’s a huge amount of responsibility on me as an individual,” Miller said. “It’s a team performance so everyone has to chip in.”

Indeed, but the challenge for SA is to get closer to what they do in the first innings when they chase a target.

They have suffered both their losses at the World Cup, against India and Pakistan, when they have batted second. Just six of their 20 wins in one-day internationals this year have been achieved when they have chased - and they have chased a dozen times.

Miller himself makes for a telling case study. In the past 12 months, he has scored two centuries and averaged 48.56 in his 25 one-day innings. When SA bat first, he averages 64.50. When they bat second, his average plummets to 22.

In the last 12 months, Miller has been part of 14 SA wins when they have taken guard first. When they have batted last, Miller has felt that winning feeling just five times.

But he thought there was more to it than naked numbers: “I feel that over the past year I have got better at chasing, and I think it’s just what you think out there and trying to be clear as much as you can, and then obviously executing the decision you make.”

If Miller gets the chance to put his bat where his mouth is in SA’s quarter-final next week, he will hope those words do not fail him.

And, whether SA set the target or chase it, he will also hope that Du Plessis and the rest of the crazy kids have executed their decisions well enough for him to take them to the win that will matter more than any of the 330 they have achieved in the 534 ODIs they have played.

Yes, this really is that big.