SA, not short of questions, need answers in Sri Lanka

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

Will Jacques Kallis have recovered from his stiff back in time to play tomorrow? How much will it matter if he has not? And have SA learnt enough from the 4-1 thrashing they took from the same opponents in the same country a year ago to give a better account of themselves this time?

As always at the start of a campaign there are more questions that answers, and that is certainly the case going into the one-day series between Sri Lanka and SA that begins in Colombo tomorrow.

“It’s about sorting out combinations and the balance of the team,” former SA batsman Jimmy Cook said yesterday. “What role are which batsmen going to play? Who’s going to take the new ball? Who is going to bowl in the middle overs and at the death?”

That said, we do know a few things already. The first is that SA’s batsmen had a fair chance to get their eye in in the tour match against a President’s XI in Moratuwa on Thursday, and that most of them took it.

Top of the class was Hashim Amla and his 104 off 79 balls. But Amla warned that the pitch was significantly faster than the Sri Lankan surfaces SA had encountered in the past. Tomorrow’s strip is likely to be bespoke for the home side’s strengths.

We also know that SA’s bowlers, aside from dishing up 17 wides and no-balls on Thursday, are in decent nick. Morne Morkel’s 3/29 off seven overs led the way, and Ryan McLaren and Beuran Hendricks were the only two of the nine bowlers used who erred on the wrong side of five runs to the over. Between them, the spinners - JP Duminy, Imran Tahir and Aaron Phangiso - bowled 10.2 overs and took 2/43.

But the most important bit of bulletproof truth that AB de Villiers and his team can take onto the field tomorrow is that they are an excellent team. Too often, that unarguable truth is disregarded by pundits and players alike.

Which is not to say SA have proved that they are a fine unit often enough. Particularly in recent seasons, they have fallen short of the heights they should have reached.

There is no room for that this season. The World Cup is still eight months and more than 20 ODIs away, but it will come - ready or not.

Asked if SA had enough structure in their one-day game, Cook said, “You need to plan how you want to play the game. We need to be flexible, but we also need to be very definite about what we want to do.

“For instance, Dale Steyn is trying to bowl up front, in the middle and at the death. I’m not convinced we need one bloke to do all of those things.”

SA need to get all that sorted in conditions that will be vastly different from what they will have to come to terms with in the World Cup, which will be played in Australasia next February and March. A tough ask, surely?

“The conditions will be different, but that’s not going to be your takeaway from what you practise in this series,” Cook said. “It doesn’t matter whether you are bowling in Sri Lanka or Australia - you’ve got to hit that spot.”