Sunday Times
TELFORD VICE, Hamilton
FAF du Plessis did on Wednesday what he has not done in a test since December, 2013, in a one-day international since January of the same year, and in a T20 since December the year before.
But, as he stood at his mark habitually flicking the ball out of the back of his right hand and snugly into the palm of his left, where it lodged each time with a satisfying frip, he looked like he had been bowling all his life.
Du Plessis sent down three overs of leg spin in SA’s World Cup warm-up match against New Zealand at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. He took no wickets and conceded 21 runs - not dazzling, but more decent than some of those who tried to keep the lid on a Kiwi total that would reach 331/8.
Together, Du Plessis, JP Duminy, Aaron Phangiso and Imran Tahir bowled 15 overs, or almost a third of the innings. They took 2/151 - not quite half the runs for a quarter of the wickets.
Perhaps those underwhelming numbers explain why SA bowling coach Allan Donald struggled to sound excited about the prospects for spinners to make an impact at this World Cup when he was asked how the role of slow poison had changed since Dipak Patel startled the game by taking the new ball for New Zealand the last time the tournament was played in Australasia, in 1992.
“Where one-day cricket is now compared to where it’s been is a different ballgame. You expect a lot of runs and you expect some brave cricket, especially with the ball. It’s going to come down to that when you’re under the pump, especially in Auckland.
“The other grounds - the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), the SCG (Sydney Cricket Grounds) - are big grounds. This ground (Seddon Park in Hamilton, where SA played Zimbabwe on Sunday) is very small, and sides who chase here have won quite comfortably.
“That’s an emphasis on those first 10 overs. Bowling on a ground this size, we’re going to have to hit Zimbabwe hard if we bowl second.”
Translation: in a one-day game that discriminates against bowlers much more shamelessly than it did 23 years ago, when only one total over 300 was recorded in the World Cup, and in conditions that promise to be borderline unfair for anyone who does not bowl at express pace, spinners will be this tournament’s untouchables.
It might not have been thus had the International Cricket Council (ICC) not denied its own World Cup of the services of the highest ranked one-day bowlers, off-spinners Saeed Ajmal and Sunil Narine.
Both were banned in the ICC’s ill-advised witch-hunt against off-spin. Ajmal was cleared too late to be included in Pakistan’s squad while Narine, who is also free to bowl again, justifiably blamed the interruption for his decision to pull out of tournament.
So, come on you quicks. You’re all the World Cup has left for bowling fireworks.
Comments
No comments yet. Start the conversation.