Johannesburg - South Africa’s bowling coach Allan Donald believes that besides the plethora of wides delivered on Sunday, the home team’s attack is on the right path as far as implementing their World Cup bowling strategies is concerned.
The South African bowlers were put under pressure for the first time in the five-match series against the West Indies and succumbed to a flurry of big hitting from Andre Russell and Darren Sammy, failing to hit the right areas - mainly full - on a consistent basis.
Donald, once an advocate of bowling ‘yorkers’ as the primary weapon at the end of an opposing team’s innings, has had a change of heart, citing lessons learned on South Africa’s limited overs tour to Australia last year, as having changed his mind.
“I knew (Sunday) would be a little bit scrappy. I thought the intensity in the first 10 overs was right on the money,” he said. “Andre Russell and Marlon Samuels were fantastic. From having the game in the pocket at 73/5, the extras, the wides, the no-ball, they really ate us up, again. In a World Cup situation we really can’t afford that kind of thing. It changes the game.”
Wides and no-balls were a problem in Australia too, proving costly in at least two of the matches in that five-game series that South Africa lost 4-1. Until Sunday they’d kept a wrap on the extras with the 12 (total of wides and no-balls) bowled in the second ODI at the Wanderers, off-set by the brilliance of the batting.
In Port Elizabeth however, when put under pressure by the West Indies, the disciplines slacked off, though Donald isn’t too perturbed at this stage. “Wides and no-balls are things we can control, you will bowl the odd wide - especially when it is reversing - and overstep - which we absolutely don’t want to do. But to have the number we had Sunday (14 wides and one no-ball), that should not be happening. When we get put under the pump we will have to control that as best as we can.”
Of equal concern is the seeming lack of control when bowling at the ‘death’ of the innings, with South Africa having allowed opposing sides to get away from them too often recently. In New Zealand they allowed two record 10th wicket partnerships in the One-Day Internationals played in Mt. Maunganui - something Donald put down to rustiness at the time - while in Australia the lapses had a greater effect on the outcome of matches and ultimately the series. Australia was able to score at between eight and 10 runs an over in the last 10 overs in three matches in that series.
South Africa’s major strengths with the ball lay with the damage they do up front and Imran Tahir’s attacking thrust through the ‘middle overs,’ but in times when teams survive that initial attack or as the West Indies showed on Sunday, hang around through the middle overs, there needs to be more precision in the way plans are executed in the final 10 overs.
“We’ve spoken very hard about the last 10 overs of bowling, we know where we are going and what we have to do,” said Donald. “I’d rather not have that many yorkers at the back end … at the World Cup, we want to be unpredictable in the last 10 overs, and that is not going to be about bowling 40 yorkers in the last 10 overs.”
Donald pointed to some fruitful training sessions in PE in which the bowlers practiced against AB de Villiers. “Bowling at the ‘death’ and sharing thoughts and ideas with him - the best in the world when it comes to hitting balls out of the ground - it was outstanding. The advice he gave, alongside Gary (Kirsten) and the whole bowling group was outstanding.”
The benefits of those sessions need to be seen on the field however, and Wednesday’s final One-Day International against the West Indies would be a good time to show them off.
Meanwhile national coach Russell Domingo said that Quinton de Kock would open with Hashim Amla in Wednesday’s match after making a speedy recovery from his ankle injury. De Villiers will sit out the last international match South Africa will play before they head to Australasia next Wednesday.
The Star