Times Media - February 10, 2014
TELFORD VICE, Centurion
Spin bowlers are expected to lurk in the wings of the first test between SA and Australia starting in Centurion, leaving the spotlight to merchants of seam, swing and serious speed.
Centurion’s reputation for lively pitches precedes it. Teams have been dismissed for less than 200 in 13 of the 44 completed test innings at the ground - or 29.55%. In tests played, for instance, at Newlands since re-admission, that percentage is only 18.55.
Most of those wickets have been taken by fast bowlers, and the focus will be on them again what with six of the world’s leading pacemen likely to be involved.
Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Ryan Harris, cricket’s top three bowlers in that order, will surely wreak havoc. Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson and Morne Morkel, who are ranked seventh, ninth and 13th respectively, will help ensure that the series will not want for quality quick stuff.
In fact, the notion that SA would be better off not wasting a place in their XI on a specialist spinner in Centurion is swirling out there.
Did that make Robin Peterson, the only frontline slow bowler in SA’s squad, worry about his chances of cracking the nod to play on Wednesday?
“There’s nothing to get nervous about,” Peterson said yesterday. “The team hasn’t been picked yet and, anyway, there’s nothing I can do about that.
“Maybe, with all the moisture about, the variation of spin will come into play.”
For all the anticipation of the fast bowlers’ dominance in Centurion, if Peterson is called on to bowl in the perennial pace paradise he does not intend to alter his approach.
“Field placings might change, but your gameplan never changes - spin the ball hard and land it in the right place,” he said. “If the batsman tries to hit you for six, that’s his problem. If he doesn’t and he runs past the ball, you get him out and it’s happy days.”
But he was under no illusion that SA’s speedsters were the stars of the show.
“I’m bowling behind No. 1 and 2 in the world, and I don’t think batsmen’s eyes are going to light up when Morne Morkel comes on,” Peterson said.
His Australian counterpart, Nathan Lyon, has been similarly subdued about what he might bring to the visitors’ challenge, saying he would prefer to “stay under the radar” and leave most of the wicket-taking to the faster men.
The slow poisoners would appear to share a healthy resect of each other’s abilities.
Peterson suggested that Australia’s first two losses in England last year could be pinned on Lyon’s omission: “Maybe the Ashes in England would have been different if they had picked him in the first two tests.”
Lyon has said Peterson was “a world class spinner - if you’re playing test cricket, you must be doing something right”.
And why not: at Centurion the spinners are likely to need all the encouragement they can get, even if it comes from the opposition.
* JP Duminy, who is battling a wrist injury, took throwdowns during SA’s net practice yesterday and is scheduled to bat today. Team management said his recovery was progressing as expected.
Shaun Marsh arrived in SA at 4am yesterday morning after flying out from Australia as an emergency replacement for Shane Watson, whose calf injury has ruled him out of the first test.
Comments
No comments yet. Start the conversation.