“I’ve spoken to a couple of the guys and they don’t particularly enjoy it.” - Heinrich Klaasen on the Australians’ opinion of Potchefstroom.
Telford Vice / Cape Town
POTCH — or, if you’re not from around there — Potchefstroom, has been good to South Africa’s men’s team. They’ve played 14 matches across the formats there and lost only one, and that was more than eight years ago.
They could with a dash of that Potch positivity on Tuesday, when they will try to stop Australia from winning their sixth consecutive match in the country. Mitchell Marsh’s side swept the T20I series 3-0 and are 2-0 up in the five-game ODI rubber. The Australians have scored 237 more runs across the five matches, conceded 253 fewer, taken 15 more wickets, and dropped two fewer catches.
South Africa haven’t won any of their last nine matches against Australia. The last time they beat them in any format anywhere was in March 2020, when despite Marnus Labuschagne’s 108 they wrapped up a 3-0 ODI series success with a six-wicket win with 4.3 overs to spare. The venue? Potch.
Was there something in the water in this drowsy university town of fewer than 150,000 souls 120 kilometres southwest of Johannesburg? Sort of, Heinrich Klaasen said on Monday: “It’s more that we bring the big teams to Potch. There’s not a lot for them to do here. It’s nice and quiet. So we don’t give them the glamorous life that South Africa can provide.
“I’ve spoken to a couple of the guys and they don’t particularly enjoy it. So [it’s good] for us to bring them to these types of venues, where quite a lot of the younger guys in the group play a lot of domestic cricket and we know the ground well. For other teams to come here, it’s quite a different place. It’s out in [the middle of] nowhere for them. But we love this venue. It’s normally a good pitch and the crowd is always fantastic.”
Hazlewood, who bowled Quinton de Kock off the edge and had Janneman Malan caught behind in that 2020 ODI in Potch, had the good sense to dodge the question: “It’s only the second time I’ve been here, and it was only for two days. I’m still getting to know the place. We’re only going to be here for a couple of days again.”
Klaasen and Hazlewood are too young to know off the tops of their heads that Australia requested Potch as their base to complete their preparations for the 2003 World Cup, which was hosted in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The Aussies did so because of the high standard of the facilities there, but also as they knew there would be less to distract their players than in other centres. Spain’s men’s football team were also stationed in Potch before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Australia and Spain triumphed in those tournaments, not least because Potch allowed them to focus on their games in ways they might have struggled to do in the bright lights of bigger cities.
The magic of Potch is that it leaves teams alone and lets them get on with deciding what works, and what doesn’t, in the way they are playing. Australia have a solid idea of that equation already. Not so the South Africans, whose performances have veered far below their potential. They will hope to find a way towards respectability at JB Marks Oval on Tuesday.
When: September 12, 2023; 1pm Local Time (4.30pm IST)
Where: JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom
What to expect: A dry day/night blessed with moderate temperatures. And, despite the usually flat pitch, not that many runs. Teams have breached 300 four times — in one instance soaring past 400 — in the 19 concluded ODIs here, but the average total in the first innings of completed ODIs at the ground is 252.
Team news:
South Africa: Anrich Nortjé will not be considered because of the lower back spasm that afflicted him during the second ODI in Bloemfontein on Saturday. Sisanda Magala, who missed the first two games with a knee problem, has been cleared to play.
Possible XI: Temba Bavuma (capt), Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Sisanda Magala, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi
Australia: Spencer Johnson has tweaked a hamstring and won’t be in action.
Possible XI: Travis Head, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
What they said:
“They’re doing the basics very well, and we are quite far off with our basics. The intensity they’re playing at is far higher than ours. We need to catch up very quickly. We’re performing at 60%, if we’re honest, perhaps even lower. If we can get that from around 80% to 95% — I don’t think anyone gets it to 100% — we’ll be in a good position tomorrow.” — the difference between the teams, according to Heinrich Klaasen.
“We might go back to picking an extra quick and only the one spinner, and making up the overs with allrounders.” — Josh Hazlewood plays selector.
Cricbuzz
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