JOHANNESBURG – With South Africa’s batsmen’s weakness against spin bowling highlighted again in the defeat to Pakistan in the first Test last week, the Rawalpindi pitch is not likely to be as seamer friendly as is usually the case there.
Pakistan’s coach Misbah ul-Haq, under slightly less pressure following that seven wicket win for his side in Karachi, said he was happy to make changes to the starting XI, that won the first Test, if conditions dictated, even if that included dropping a spinner.
“No doubt Pindi and Karachi stadiums have different conditions,” said Misbah. “We are monitoring the situation and will decide on the final combination once we inspect the final shape of the playing surface.”
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“We have had some fine dry spells here (in Rawalpindi). Hopefully, things would turn up to our liking,” he added.
The South African team had its second training session at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, but if Anrich Nortje is to be believed, they seem none-the-wiser as to what to expect from the pitch, having glanced at it on Tuesday.
“It’s changed quite a lot in the last 24 hours,” chirped Nortje, adding he wouldn’t be looking at it again until the start of the match on Thursday.
While Nortje highlighted several errors the bowlers made in the Karachi Test and would like to fix in the second match – including being more patient – the onus is very much on the Proteas batsmen to improve their performance if the tourists are to tie the series.
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South Africa produced flimsy batting efforts in Karachi, highlighted by collapses in both innings, something that has become a habit with the Proteas in recent years regardless of conditions.
No one has as yet put their finger on why these collapses keep occurring with Rassie van der Dussen earlier this week claiming there wasn’t one reason for the failures. “It’s a conglomerate of different circumstances. I don’t think there’s one answer. When you go in you have to take responsibility to give yourself the best chance to play a long innings.”
From the bowling perspective, Nortje said he and the rest of the attack got a lot right in Karachi. “Patience was very key in that game and there were stages where we did that really well and then there were stages when we were off the mark, myself included,” said Nortje, who took four wickets in that match.
“You can’t be searching for wickets. We’re not very far off them...there were some moments when we were on top and hopefully we can bring that momentum into (the second Test),” Nortje added.
IOL Sport