Though coy about the identity of South Africa’s third frontline seamer for Thursday’s first Castle Test against India in Centurion, Corrie van Zyl was a lot more frank about the most important aspect for both teams in the much anticipated series – execution.
All the strategising, video analysis and pitch readiness in the world will count for peanuts if the players don’t execute on the day. South Africa has recent examples on which to call with the Pakistan series still fresh in everyone’s memory. In the United Arab Emirates they had surfaces that weren’t conducive to playing good or at least result oriented Test cricket, but failure to execute in the first Test meant they weren’t able to turn the advantage they built up in the first four days into a positive result.
“We are going to play on wickets that will benefit our style of play. There has been a lot of talk about pace and bounce, which is what we would like to see in South Africa. But it is one thing playing in those conditions, it’s another thing to execute,” Van Zyl said yesterday.
The same holds true for the expected bouncer barrage the South Africans are supposed to unleash at India’s batsmen. “(Short-pitched bowling) is part of Test cricket and will definitely be part of this series. It’s about the execution. Short stuff is good as long as it is part of a plan.”
You’d swear the hang man’s noose was waiting to be deployed at Centurion, so often was the word “execution” used on Monday. India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni mentioned it as well in explaining the impact Gary Kirsten has had on his team and how they expected to turn around a dismal record in South Africa, which has seen them win just one out of 12 Tests in this country in 18 years. “(Kirsten’s knowledge of local conditions) will help us, not just because he knows the conditions, but he knows the mindset of the South African players,” said Dhoni.
“And not just that, in the last three years he has done very well, and besides the good players we have had, Gary is the best thing that has happened to Indian cricket, he’s input will be an advantage. Ultimately, though, you can set your plans, what is important is how you execute them.”
Strangely India appear to be more clear about the make-up of their attack for Thursday; with Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Sree Sreesanth forming a very dangerous pace triumvirate that will be backed up by the off-spin of Harbhajan Singh. South Africa is yet to decide on their third seamer; will it be Lonwabo Tsotsobe or Ryan McLaren? Before last week’s MTN40 final at SuperSport Park, that questioned seemed to have a simple answer.
Tsotsobe had bowled well in Pakistan and had worked on his strength and conditioning to the extent that Van Zyl explained on Monday concerns over his ability to bowl a strong second and third spell late in the day had subsided a great deal. “He has grown tremendously as a bowler and a lot of it has to do with him being more confident.
“He played a Test in the West Indies and played the one-day series there and then went on and had an unbelievable one-day series against Pakistan. Lonwabo is not the bowler that he used to be, just from a pure confidence point of view. He’s more of a threat as a result.”
McLaren, a player Van Zyl knows well from his days as coach of the then Eagles franchise, however, has given the selectors some food for thought after an outstanding showing last Friday night when he claimed 3/23 in eight overs. Van Zyl flat-batted an inquiry about his possible inclusion: “I’m not comfortable answering that question.”
South Africa had a training session in the middle of The Wanderers on Monday, with Graeme Smith facing throw downs using a tennis ball, before retreating to the in-door nets where he again took under-arm throws with a hard ball. Van Zyl said Monday Smith had been given the all clear by medical consultants, but a clearer picture of his readiness will be made on Tuesday when he faces the hard ball from some of the quicks at SuperSport Park.
Smith suffered a broken hand in the second one-day international against Pakistan on South Africa’s recent tour.