‘Proteas must play ball, not the man’

The Proteas will have to win the third Test against India in Nagpur, if they want to win the Test series.

The Proteas will have to win the third Test against India in Nagpur, if they want to win the Test series.

Published Nov 23, 2015

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Nagpur - The joys of filling up a week of rain during a cricket tour are endless. Some, like India, dance the time away, while others sleep.

South Africa, according to JP Duminy kept themselves entertained in the dressing-room. After reports of some ‘interesting’ karaoke offerings from the Hard Rock Café in Bangalore, comedy in the South African dressing-room can’t be in short supply.

“We’ve actually enjoyed it,” Duminy said of the long week of non-activity that they have had. “We played a lot of games in the change-room and kept ourselves busy. It’s (the weather) something that’s out of our control unfortunately. We pride ourselves on being a team that tours very well, so we just accept what circumstances we are faced with. That was out of our control and our focus now is solely on what lies ahead.”

What lies ahead, of course, is two test matches over the last fortnight of this 72-day trip, matches which must be won to put a cherry on what would rank as South Africa’s greatest voyage yet.

But, in order to get to that point, the tourists will have to find a way past the best spinner in the world at the moment, one Ravichandran Ashwin.

“You’ve got to give credit where credit is due and, over the past year I would say he’s been the most successful international bowler in terms of spinners,” Duminy admitted.

“But I also think he’s played in conditions that have suited him. But he’s still got to take the wickets. He deserves a lot of respect for the performances that he’s put in. But we pride ourselves on not focusing too much on the opposition,” he added.

Ashwin and his ‘spin-walla’ Ravindra Jadeja have a dozen scalps each, in three innings, and Duminy said their impact is something that needed to be addressed.

“We understand what we’re going to be up against, but we need to understand how we’re going to negate that; how we’re going to challenge ourselves against that. That’s the most important thing for us. It’s not to play the person but to play the ball. If we can focus solely on that we give ourselves the best chance of performing.”

It was never rocket science that India would rely heavily on spin, but there was so much talk about it – too much, even – that it seemed to exaggerate their threat even before a ball was bowled in Mohali.

“Guys have admitted to the fact that we made a few errors, especially in that first test. We’d like to rectify it going forward. We understand that their strength lies in their spin, and there’s no point in trying to deny that. It’s about tackling that head-on and having a game-plan against it,” Duminy continued.

Of course, the danger of a bowler consistently getting on top of batsmen is that is becomes mental, much like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath used to do back in the day. But, Duminy explained that the team was in a good space.

“The psyche is pretty good at the moment in the change-room. We know it’s a tough challenge for us, but we also know we have the capability of facing those challenges.”

Having had a week to reflect on what has gone, and what must come, South Africa approach Nagpur with hope renewed. After all, the series is not dead just yet.

“We’ve done it before. We’ve come here and played well in all formats. There’s two more tests and there’s still a long way to go in this series. “ - Cape Times

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