SA’s experience key in India

“Younger players have been given opportunities under pressure to see how they perform.” - Hilton Moreeng on how to build an experienced squad.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

THE ninth wicket falls. A dozen runs are needed. Which No. 11 would you prefer to see walking out — the star young fast bowler with allrounder potential or the gnarled dressingroom denizen who knows their way around the crease well enough to hang tough for a handful of runs?

Experience is, maybe even more than talent and skill, cricket’s gold dust. The loss of it is what South Africans have become used to being held up as the main reason why their men’s team isn’t as good as they used to be. Since the start of 2014, 21 players have bowed out of Test cricket; either by retiring or going Kolpak or by not being picked again. They’ve taken 852 Test caps with them, and their ranks include Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Morné Morkel, Vernon Philander and Faf du Plessis.

Another South Africa team doesn’t seem to have that problem. Six of the 17 players in their squad which will play the first of eight white-ball games against India in Lucknow on Sunday, were also among the 14 who toured India in November 2014. Two others who were there going on seven years ago would have been this time, too, but for injury.

Asked during an online press conference on Wednesday what value all that retained experience held for South Africa’s women’s team, their coach, Hilton Moreeng, flipped the coin: “You want to build players for the future. Now the 2022 World Cup is upon us and the youngsters are maturing after being given a lot of game time. What’s great to see is that when a senior player misses out there’s always a couple of youngsters around. You can guide them and help them to grow in their games. The younger players are being tested to see how they respond to situations. They have been given opportunities under pressure to see how they perform.”

In other words, you don’t accumulate experience in the ranks if you aren’t able to spot potential early and allow it time to find its way. The fact that CSA have invested effort and money in the women’s game and are taking it seriously as a revenue generator have helped that happen.

Mignon du Preez, Trisha Chetty, Shabnim Ismail, Marizanne Kapp, Ayabonga Khaka and Lizelle Lee were all in the squad that won the 2014 ODI series in India. Du Preez, Chetty and Kapp made their international debuts at 19, all of them as long ago as 2007. Ismail and Khaka were 20 when they won their first caps. Lee was 21.

Dané van Niekerk and Chloe Tryon were also part of the 2014 squad, but they are still some way from regaining fitness. “Dané is now entering the last phase of her preparations,” Moreeng said. “She’s busy with a conditioned return to play, which is her third phase. If all goes well Dané should be ready to go in April. Chloe still has another month or two to go before she can start. But her progress has been very good.”

Not that experience guarantees success, as the South Africans proved on their previous visit to India, in September and October 2019, when they lost all three ODIs and three of the four T20Is. And it won’t help that, because of Covid-19 quarantining, they will go into the series with only two training sessions worth of preparation. On top of that, South Africa have never played in Lucknow.

But they might have an advantage over the Indians on another score, as Moreeng explained: “We’re one series ahead of India in terms of competitive cricket. We hope that will count in our favour.” The visitors are fresh from beating Pakistan 3-0 in an ODI rubber and 2-1 in the T20Is at Kingsmead in January and February. India were last in action, in any format, in the T20 World Cup final against Australia at the MCG in March 2020. India’s No. 11 in that match was Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who was playing her 69th match of any stripe for the national team when she walked out with 88 needed off 11 balls.

Her experience couldn’t remedy the impossibility of the equation, and six balls later Poonam Yadav was caught in the deep to seal Australia’s victory. But Gayakwad was one not out off three deliveries. A different game and a different scenario could have made all the difference. That’s the value of experience.

First published by Cricbuzz.