Proteas: genuine threat or flattering to deceive?

McArdle seems to think they'll go home disappointed again. He believes that Smith may be Mitchell J's bunny and that our pace will bother the likes of journeyman McKenzie, Amla and the waning skills of Kallis. He thinks Steyn starts off series notoriously poorly and cites his poor performance on the first day Lord's 'raging greentop' as an example of this. He hopes though that they will be competitive for the sake of cricket.

Proteas: genuine threat or flattering to deceive?
Brendan McArdle
December 3, 2008


THE Kiwis have been thoroughly disposed of, some of the memories of India have been erased, and now all thoughts turn to the South Africans. Have the Australians consolidated, or are we being misled by weak opposition?

It was always going to be a slow build-up this summer: the New Zealand Tests were a trial run for the main event, the spark needed to be rekindled for our bowlers, and some batting positions had to be worked out. But the great unknown is the strength of South Africa.

The Proteas have disappointed so often in the past that it's difficult not to be cynical. We've seen it all before: a pace attack led by the man of the moment in the world bowling rankings, a strong batting line-up headed by a belligerent captain, and an athletic fielding unit. They've been called chokers, but that's probably a little harsh. Maybe they've wanted to win so badly they just couldn't; more than likely they haven't been good enough.

As the second-ranked team in Test cricket, the South Africans will arrive with good form. They have won seven of 11 Tests in 2008 and, like Australia, have just completed a practice series with a thrashing of Bangladesh. Before that, they thumped a disorganised England and did what we couldn't do — held their own with a drawn series in India.

Dale Steyn is carrying the hopes of both countries: Australians badly need a contest, and he's the one who could provide it. There are also other issues — Matthew Hayden needs to earn his Ashes ticket, and there is that small matter of Andrew Symonds at No. 6.

Steyn is fast, swings the ball away from right-handers and keeps running in hard. On paper, he should severely examine a few of our batsmen's techniques, but don't bet on it. Like Allan Donald before him, there is more than a touch of naivety about his bowling. Great bowler though he was, Donald often couldn't put batsmen away when he had them on the ropes, and for that reason he never reached cricket's summit.

Steyn is a notoriously poor starter in series, and in two weeks he'll be confronted with every fast bowler's dream — a quick and bouncy WACA Ground pitch. But will he use it well? The WACA is a unique place for batsmen and bowlers. Four months ago, Steyn began the series against England on a raging greentop at Lord's and proceeded to bowl with brawn rather than brain and England scored nearly 600.

The South Africans wriggled out of that match and England proceeded to unravel and lose the series, but Australia won't afford them such a luxury. In the harsh Australian cricket environment weaknesses are preyed upon, and in a compact series of three Tests in three weeks problems can be compounded.


South African captain Graeme Smith will feel upbeat about his team's chances and will appreciate the absence of the Shane Warne factor, which distracted him on his last visit. He has since matured as a captain. He might also find Brett Lee less threatening than previously, but he needs to beware of Mitchell Johnson: the left-armer is a huge talent and is making a habit of crashing through left-handers with his exciting pace and angle.

South Africa's batting appears strong on paper but has players who are yet to prove themselves on bouncy pitches. Hashim Amla will surely be a target, as will journeyman opener Neil McKenzie. Ashwell Prince has a good temperament but can be slightly ineffectual, and the waning skills of Jaques Kallis will be tested.

The key batsmen may be A. B. de Villiers and Mark Boucher. Both are highly competitive counter-attackers who can quickly change the course of a game.

The Proteas' bowling responsibilities will fall squarely on Steyn and the tireless Makhaya Ntini. Ntini has gone past 300 Test wickets and has been an inspiration for his people, but he is showing signs of wear and tear. Young paceman Morne Morkel is tall and promising but is prone to days when it just doesn't come out right.

Even allowing for the poor quality of NZ's cricket, one senses that the Australians are on the way back. Australia is every chance to again shatter a South African dream.

South Africa's batting will be the key. If they can post 400+ in most of their first inning's, they should win the series. Their batsmen have notoriously had poorer records against Aus than against other teams, but that was with Mcgrath and Warne in the Australian team.

Any team that posts 400+ in their first innings won't lose too many matches.

But will any team WIN matches with 400+ on the board? South Africa have the bowling attack as long as their batsmen come to the party is what I am saying you cock muncher.

Henry wrote:South Africa's batting will be the key. If they can post 400+ in most of their first inning's, they should win the series. Their batsmen have notoriously had poorer records against Aus than against other teams, but that was with Mcgrath and Warne in the Australian team.

Henry wrote:But will any team WIN matches with 400+ on the board? South Africa have the bowling attack as long as their batsmen come to the party is what I am saying you cock muncher.

You deadset deadshit, read what you said. It's there, a couple of lines up, in the 'quote' box'. You didn;t even mention their bowlers. Why don't you go back to giving blowjobs for crack on your Tokyo street corner if you can't handle it when someone points out that you're talking crap?

When did I say I can't handle it when someone points out that i'm talking crap? I'm not the noid man. A spade's a spade, a cock muncher's a cock muncher....

Henry taking it on the chin . . .who'da thunkit . . .

Henry wrote:When did I say I can't handle it when someone points out that i'm talking crap? I'm not the noid man. A spade's a spade, a cock muncher's a cock muncher....

And you're a fuck'wit. Sorted.

Can we stick to the point?

What point is that? That the Aussie media is Australia's 12th man? Old news....

THE Kiwis have been thoroughly disposed of, some of the memories of
India have been erased, and now all thoughts turn to the South
Africans. Have the Australians consolidated, or are we being misled by
weak opposition?

Doing in the Bangers has not exactly been ideal preparation for touring Australia either...

I would rate the South Africans as having some chance in this series. As others have noted, their bowling is their weak suit, though.

Huh? Bowling is the Saffies weakness? Based on what?

I am not sure that SA have the bowling attack. Generally it is one dimensional even though it is very good on that one dimension.

So even if they pull out one win in helpful conditions they tend to struggle on varied wickets and incapable of winning the series.

I realise that stats don't tell the full story, but on their last tour of Australia they only once dismissed Australia under 350, and had an overall bowling average of 44.87.

Australia still has a strong batting line-up, and while we have lost our two champion bowlers since then, I think South Africa's inability to take 20 Australian wickets will be what saves us.

back then they didn't have steyn

I guess that's the unknown, then

Steyn is not better than Donald or Polly at their peak. The problem is the one dimensional nature of their attack not the quality of their pacers. They have always had one or two really good pace bowler since their re entry.

Pollock wasn't at his peak last time SA toured Aus. Ntini is usually crap away from home, Nel was an honest trier, and Langeveldt was pretty crap but also unlucky. The current attack is better than what they brought in 05-06. Steyn and Morkel are their trump cards.

Yes.


Ntini is good: not great, but good.

We don't know how Steyn will go versus Australia: it is trivially obvious to say that several South Africans will good records against others have done nothing worthwhile against Australia.

I was not talking about the last time alone. The current bowling attack is definitely better than the last one, but it is not better than other attacks in the past when Polly and Donald were bowling at the their best. Even then SA still had trouble keeping with the Aussies over an entire series.

Josh Carney wrote:I was not talking about the last time alone. The current bowling attack is definitely better than the last one, but it is not better than other attacks in the past when Polly and Donald were bowling at the their best. Even then SA still had trouble keeping with the Aussies over an entire series.

But when they had an excellent bowling attack (ie the 90's) they had a shit batting lineup. They knocked over Aus for some very low scores, the only problem was that Aus knocked over their batsmen for even less.