Johannesburg - Chris Morris has shown he can win games for South Africa with swashbuckling batting at the end of an innings. Now he needs to do the business with his main suit - the ball - ahead of the ICC World T20 in India, starting with Wednesday’s final T20I against Australia at Newlands (6pm start).
Morris clears the boundary effortlessly and is able to turn around seemingly hopeless situations with that rhythmical cover drive over the top or a hoick over cow corner.
But he has been a bit expensive with the ball in the recent ODI and T20 series against England, and in the first two T20s against Australia.
The tall 28-year-old went for 3/74 (off 10 overs), 1/52 (nine) and 0/59 (eight) in three ODIs during the England tour, and recorded 0/32 (four) and 2/33 (four) in the T20s against the same team.
In the two Australia T20 games, it’s been 1/35 (off three overs) and 1/39 (four). In the last match at the Wanderers on Sunday, Morris delivered an outstanding 19th over as he conceded just seven runs and claimed the wicket of danger man Glenn Maxwell for 75.
But he had lost his radar in his previous over - the 17th of the innings - when he went for 17 runs. Morris conceded just seven in the first five balls, but bowled a full-toss no-ball above waist height to Maxwell, which was hit for a boundary and resulted in a free hit.
Morris bowled two more wides, and when he got it on target, he went for two, which meant that the “last ball” of the over was worth nine runs in the end.
He is renowned for his death-bowling skills as he bowls an excellent yorker, and Proteas bowling coach Charl Langeveldt stated that the Titans quickie’s first two overs were an issue in T20 cricket at the moment.
Perhaps Morris - who was signed in a million-dollar deal by the Delhi Daredevils for this year’s IPL - would be best suited to bowling all his overs at the end of the innings at the World T20 so that he can be in “death” mode throughout his spell.
Independent Media understands that he would be keen to fulfil such a role, but at the moment, the likes of Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada are generally entrusted with that responsibility.
Asked this week if he is concerned about Morris’ bowling, Langeveldt said: “Yeah, especially the first two overs. We’ve spoken long and hard about it, what is the best way forward for him - because he has proven that he can bowl at the death. But it’s the first two overs that we need to work on.
“It is a work in progress, but we need to step it up now to speed up that process because come the first game in Mumbai, we need every guy ready to be able to perform.
“Wanderers is an unfair contest for the bowlers - the altitude, the outfield, the ball flying everywhere. It’s difficult to stop when guys bat like that. We couldn’t have done anything better. If you say we could’ve tried this or that, it wouldn’t have worked as even the mis-hits went for six!”
Kagiso Rabada had to defend 11 runs in the final over at the Wanderers as Australia chased a target of 205, and after clean-bowling David Warner for 77 with a magnificent yorker, Rilee Rossouw went on to the field with a message for Rabada, with James Faulkner on strike.
Suddenly, instead of sticking with his quick yorkers, Rabada tried a wide ball outside off, and bowled another wide in the over, and Mitchell Marsh hitting the winning runs off the last delivery.
Langeveldt was adamant that neither he nor Proteas head coach Russell Domingo had sent out instructions to Rabada. But the 20-year-old has been terrific for South Africa, and will hope to finish off the job at Newlands on Wednesday.
“I think that’s up to KG and the captain. I don’t even know what Rilee went up to go say to them… But I think - because we try to encourage the guys to think out of the box sometimes - if he thought out of the box and it didn’t work, hopefully on Wednesday he can maybe do it again and (it works),” Langeveldt said.
“If he had landed those two balls, it would’ve been won. He still bowled a good over, but it’s about centimetres and if you don’t get it right, you lose the game. That’s 20/20 cricket.
“He could’ve bowled the 18th over, or the 19th - like I said, one-day cricket is about a lot of ifs and buts, and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. But you can’t say that, it’s a bit harsh to say he should’ve bowled (earlier).
“But I think we still would like to defend that because that’s what winning World Cups are all about. If you want to win the World Cup, you need to be able to defend a 200 score, because Mumbai would probably be in a similar mould, a similar type of wicket.”
* Follow @IndyCapeSport on Twitter for live updates of the final T20 international between South Africa and Australia at Newlands. Play starts at 6pm on Wednesday.
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Independent Media