What would JP do?

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

WHAT would JP do? Apologies for the messianic tone, but the question lurks like swirling smoke above the debris of SA’s one-day series in Australia.

Ruled out of the rubber with a recurrence of his longstanding knee problem, Duminy cast a giant shadow for a man who only just makes it to six feet tall. Without his calm, steady influence to walk SA across the troubled waters of the middle overs, SA sank: not without trace but significantly enough to lose the series before the last match in Sydney on Sunday.

Twice in four games, their middle order was asked - as middle orders are - to win the match. Twice, they failed. Another time, SA’s bowlers had decided the issue before anyone picked up a bat. Still another time, SA batted first, finished 30 runs light, and lost with an over remaining.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a setback,” SA coach Russell Domingo said after the series was won and lost in Melbourne on Friday. “It’s probably a good thing because you always get spoken up before these events. When we got here, we were probably being spoken up a lot as well.

“It’s a great reminder for us about how much work still lies ahead before we can seriously challenge for that competition in three months’ time.”

Ah, yes. The World Cup. That is, after all, what this and everything else SA have been doing for at least a year has been all about. And Domingo could not ignore the Duminy-shaped hole at the centre of SA’s ambitions.

“Obviously, not having JP here with his experience is a big loss for us. But it’s afforded us an opportunity to look at some other batting options.

“A guy like Farhaan (Behardien) has done extremely well domestically. He’s had a look-in and we’ve had a look at what he can offer.”

Behardien scored 54 runs in his first four innings in the series, and he is 11th on the list of runscorers in the franchise one-day competition this season - behind players like Colin Ingram, Stephen Cook, and Neil McKenzie.

There is value in Behardien’s nuggety bowling and tenacious fielding, but whichever way you spin it he is no Duminy. No-one in SA is.

Not that Domingo was at liberty to say so: “Not having JP has been a very good exercise for us. We could look at our depth. It’s about trying to find the right group of players to go to the World Cup.

“The domestic T20s are being played at home at the moment, and without being disrespectful there’s a big difference between playing in a domestic T20 and playing in a World Cup. Performances there are very important, but we sort of know the group of players we are looking at.

“It’s not a closed shop by no means, but we’re pretty close to finalising what we think is the 15 we want go forward with.”

And, lo, it was written that thou shalt not expect to challenge at the World Cup without JP Duminy.