Glancing over the New Zealand team sheet, there is every reason to believe South Africa should wallop them on a regular basis. The fact that they are, and did so emphatically again at McLean Park on Thursday to seal the one-day series, should, though, be hugely commended.
The Black Caps have traditionally been a difficult beast to slay at home in ODIs, with South Africa being handed a 5-1 drubbing the last time these two proud sporting nations met on New Zealand soil. In their unique conditions, they are always a handful, but not this time, with AB de Villiers and his men determined to put last year’s World Cup blowout behind them.
The home side have their injury worries and are missing players like captain Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram and former skipper Daniel Vettori, who no longer plays limited-overs cricket, but to hold this against a Proteas team who have won both ODIs by a comprehensive six-wicket margin would be a great injustice.
Under De Villiers, South Africa have proved to be innovative, calm under pressure and much more tactically astute than their opponents.
The Proteas have won the “big moments” in the series, a fact Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum alluded to yesterday. “Some of our options weren’t great, and the execution of those options was even worse. Those key moments, when we’re losing them, we’re losing them badly,” admitted McCullum, who top-scored for his side with 85 out of a well-below-par total of 230 all out.
It was the batting powerplay that killed off New Zealand’s challenge. While it is meant to provide impetus to the batting team, it can often have the reverse effect – like the Kiwis discovered on Thursday.
Their captain and Kane Williamson departed during this period, which allowed South Africa to tighten their vice-like grip and they proceeded to claim nine wickets for 99 runs as New Zealand’s series hopes were dashed by an inspired spell of fast bowling by Morné Morkel.
The beanpole fast bowler ripped the heart out of the middle-order after Lonwabo Tsotsobe (3/43) had made inroads with his initial strikes. Morkel claimed the last five New Zealand wickets, which saw him finish with a career-best 5/38.
“I am very happy, I feel that I have been bowling well before the game and it all came together tonight,” a beaming Morkel said. “I am just glad I could put in a special performance for the team in such a crunch game with us 1-0 up. It was important for us to close out the series ahead of Eden Park, where the ground has different dimensions and anything can happen.
“I’m just happy I could put in that special performance when the team needed it.”
And if Morkel illustrated South Africa’s superiority with the ball, Hashim Amla did a similar job with the bat. Back in 2008, when Amla was taking his first tentative steps into the hurly-burly world of ODI cricket, Mickey Arthur, the Proteas coach at the time, pleaded with an overly critical public to give the Dolphins player “time” and promised that “he’ll get there”.
Arthur certainly knew what he was talking about, because Amla has certainly got there. Four years on, he is the No 1 ODI batsman in the world, and it’s been no fluke, as De Villiers describes him as “the hardest-working batsman in the team”.
Amla had briefly shown glimpses of his ability in his previous four innings on tour without stamping his authority on play. But such is his consistency that nobody within the Proteas outfit had even noticed as they knew the star opener would shift a few gears when it was required.
And that is exactly what the KwaZulu-Natalian did on Thursday on his way to a superb 92 off 107 balls that took South Africa to the brink of a series victory.
Ultimately, that was the only concern for the Proteas on the day. They had come to put past disappointments behind them, and achieved it with the clinical efficiency that they will hope to carry with them to the dead-rubber third ODI in Auckland on Saturday.
While that result may mean nothing in terms of winning and losing the series, it does have significance in the long term, especially after De Villiers’s men lost the last two matches of their home series against Sri Lanka after galloping to a 3-0 lead.
“I am very happy and feeling very good,” the skipper said. “I am very proud of the boys, because I thought we played consistently well in all three disciplines. Morné bowled very well and we picked up wickets consistently, but it’s not over yet.
“I was very disappointed at how we finished the Sri Lanka series, and we now (again) have the upper hand and it’s important to keep that momentum heading into the Test series. We’re still a young side and guys are still finding their feet, so I am looking forward to another good performance.”
Meanwhile, De Villiers is “hopeful” Graeme Smith will be ready for the third and final one-day international at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
Smith missed Thursday’s game as his severely bruised right forearm prevented him from gripping the bat properly
“We are hopeful,” De Villiers said. “It is worse than what we originally thought, and he shouldn’t actually have played in the first ODI, but he was happy and the physio had given him the all clear.”
In the context of the ODI series, it means nothing now as South Africa are set to give “bench” players like Wayne Parnell and Justin Ontong, who replaced Smith in Napier, more gametime in Auckland as De Villiers and coach Gary Kirsten explore more of their one-day options.
But it is the Test series that starts in exactly a week’s time on March 7 at Dunedin’s University Oval that is of greater concern to the Proteas. Smith is still the Test captain, and is a vital member of a unit that will be looking to achieve a status as the No 1-ranked Test team in the world. South Africa need to complete a 3-0 whitewash over the Kiwis to topple England.
De Villiers, however, said that is still a far way down the road and is expecting to have Smith by his side at the former Rugby World Cup final venue on Saturday.
“He will hopefully be ready for the last game,” De Villiers said. “It was a bit of a disruption today, but Justin (Ontong) was told a while before the game so he could prepare properly and everybody else knew what was expected of them in their new roles.” – Cape Times