South Africa flatter only to recede

“After lunch, when they got their lines and lengths right, it was quite challenging when they hit that top-of-the-stumps length.” - Ryan Rickelton

Telford Vice | Kingsmead

FOR a session, South Africa managed not to stumble. That’s worth saying about a team who have made an unhappy habit of playing below themselves at the start of a series. But it couldn’t last, and it didn’t. By stumps on the first day against Bangladesh at Kingsmead they were 100 and more runs short of where they might have been had they not squandered their solid beginning.

South Africa have lost the first match of their previous 15 series, regardless of format, 11 times — an equation that becomes seven of 11 in Test terms. They have admitted to the problem and to finding ways to resolve it. And when they were 95 without loss at lunch after being sent in, it seemed as if they had taken a significant step in that direction.

Dean Elgar, in particular, batted like a man determined to take control and keep it. He reached his half-century off 60 balls. Only once has he been quicker to the mark, and by just one delivery. Only 14 of his first 50 runs were in fact run, and he needed just 18 scoring shots to get there.

When lunch came, Elgar was 60 not out with Sarel Erwee on 32. Elgar’s dominance is perhaps best captured by the fact that he and Erwee each faced 76 balls in the session, from which Elgar had scored almost twice as many runs as his partner.

Too many South Africans to count have spoken about the importance of “throwing the first punch”, and here the captain was doing exactly that. Erwee, a master of the extravagantly expressive leave, was on a similar mission, albeit less emphatically.

Bangladesh did themselves no favours. Having fielded first, perhaps convinced to do so by all the grass — green and brown — on the pitch, which might have given them pause for thought about batting, they bowled as if they had already spent two days chasing leather. That was apparent from the first ball of the match, a leg-side full toss from Taskin Ahmed, which Elgar promptly smeared for four. Few of the deliveries sent down before lunch looked like taking a wicket, and there seemed to be no reason for that to change anytime soon.

But, by the 10th over after lunch, both openers had been dismissed. And just five balls apart. Elgar tried to leave a lifting delivery from Khaled Ahmed, edged it instead, and fell for 67 to a diving spear of a catch by Litton Das. That ended a stand of 113, the second time in as many first innings that this pair have shared a century partnership. Erwee fetched a ball from Mehidy Hasan that might have hit silly point, had one been deployed, and dragged it onto his stumps to go for 41.

Even so, it still looked like South Africa were set for big things. But Mehidy’s rasping direct hit from point to run out Keegan Petersen and Ryan Rickelton’s yanked pull off Edabot Hossain, which only flew as far as mid-on, meant the home side had lost 4/67 — two of those wickets earned, two gifted.

How much of Bangladesh’s fightback could be ascribed to their bowling? “After lunch, when they got their lines and lengths right, it was quite challenging when they hit that top-of-the-stumps length,” Rickelton told a press conference.

How much of the visitors’ sudden success could be blamed on South Africa’s propensity for losing their way early in the piece was more difficult to say, but it was clear that they would need a sturdy effort to halt further inroads. It would need, in other words, Temba Bavuma. He was still there when bad light forced an early close, having put on an unbroken 53 with Kyle Verreyynne. Bavuma’s experience showed in his 53 not out, the product of 119 balls of flinty discipline and resolute application. These qualities should shine out: Bavuma is playing his 50th Test.

Rickelton is at the other end of that scale, or on debut. His path hasn’t been straightforward. Having scored three centuries in five first-class innings for the Lions this season, he was rewarded with a place in the squad for the series in New Zealand in February. He played in neither of those matches, and in his only game in whites since then he made 24 and nought for the Lions.

Maybe some of that frustration showed when he reverse swept Mehidy for four to register his first runs as a Test player, a shot he described as “just one of those things”. All his sitting around in New Zealand might also have spawned the stroke that cost him his wicket.

“I’ve been desperate to play for South Africa,” Rickelton said. “I’ve really trying to put my hand up for South Africa domestically, by scoring runs and trying to make a name for myself. It was tough, because I had been playing nicely going into that New Zealand series. I was champing at the bit to get a game there, and those six weeks of not playing any cricket, and then coming back to get a few low scores in domestic cricket, makes you think twice. It was difficult, so coming into this game is not the best I’ve felt. There’s definitely not as much confidence behind my batting right now.”

Lizaad Williams is South Africa’s other debutant, not least because the IPL has annexed their first-choice attack. With Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi and, when he regains his fitness from a hip injury, Anrich Nortjé set to serve as hired guns in the tournament, which will also feature Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram, South Africa took only 202 caps worth of experience into the Kingsmead Test. That’s 40 fewer than Bangladesh and 83 down on what they deployed in their previous Test, the rousing triumph in the second Test in Christchurch.

Little wonder Elgar and Bavuma were South Africa’s most successful batters on Thursday. Between them they had faced more than 80% of the entire XI’s total number of balls faced in Test cricket. Elgar had handled more than half himself.

At 233/4, the fate of South Africa’s innings remains in the balance. They have two set players at the crease and decent batting ability to come. A total of anything less than 400 would represent failure. It takes more than one good session to cure a bad habit. Just as true is that one good session can begat another. Bavuma and Verreynne are key to that happening.

First published by Cricbuzz.