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SuperSport's Bangladesh Diary - Week 3
TUESDAY, 12 APRIL
Keshav Maharaj took 16 wickets at an average of 12 and Simon Harmer 13 at 15 apiece. They claimed 29 of Bangladesh’s 40 wickets and, truth be told, some of them were amongst the cheapest and easiest wickets they will have taken since the under-13s.
But that doesn’t matter because there’s a good chance that all the special, unplayable deliveries they bowled to actually ‘earn’ some of their wickets put the jitters into the Bangladesh batters to such an extent that they were reduced to batting like nervous school boys. As Pat Symcox once said after an unusually straightforward collection of wickets against Pakistan many years ago: “I don’t care if they give them to me on a silver tray wearing while gloves, they’re still mine.”
Harmer tried hard to make a case for South Africa sticking to two spinners for the three tests in England in August and September but the likelihood of that happening at Lord’s in the first of three tests is remote. Nonetheless, a bowling attack of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, the spin-twins and one of Wiaan Mulder or Marco Jansen is a mouth-watering prospect.
Captain Dean Elgar said after the series that it would be unfair for the ‘IPL Five’ to walk straight back into the test team. His message sounds like sets the right tone but, ultimately, the IPL and other, lucrative domestic leagues will claim more ‘loyalty’ than national teams. It is the way the game is heading, just it did decades ago in the soccer world.
Ryan Rickelton made the greatest strides of the new faces and should start the next test at the Home of Cricket. His senior Lions team mate, Rassie van der Dussen, will have to fight to regain a place in the middle order. It is to be hoped, too, that Khaya Zondo is given the chance to compete for a second cap after earning a debut in the most bizarre circumstances imaginable.
A Covid substitute for Sarel Erwee, Zondo fielded for 58 minutes on the final morning as the last seven Bangladesh wickets fell thus becoming the 10th man in the history of test cricket to not bat, bowl, take a catch or make a stumping on debut.
SUNDAY, 10 APRIL
A two-nil series victory is all but a weather-denied certainty for the Proteas and, although it may not be remembered as a ‘special’ achievement in years and decades to come, because it was ‘only’ against Bangladesh, it will be recalled with enormous affection by the players involved. Mostly because of the players who made themselves unavailable for selection.
The most common question asked was why the home team felt the need to bat again without enforcing the follow-on with a lead of 236 runs.
South Africa manoeuvred themselves into an unassailable position by the close of play which was exactly what Elgar intended to do by declining the chance to enforce the follow-on.A first innings lead of 236 might well have been enough to win the game but, however small the chance was that Bangladesh might muster together a total of 350 and then claim two or three early wickets with the Proteas requiring over a hundred to win the game, it had to be eliminated. A scenario in which South Africa could find themselves under pressure on the last day of a test match which they had dominated at every stage simply wasn’t worth contemplating.
Follow-on innings are not in terminal decline but they are less common than they used to be with pitches not deteriorating as much as they used to and batters far less intimidated by the weight of history than they used to be. Whereas fourth innings scores of 200+ used to be a rarity and a exception to the ‘rule’, scores are more consistent throughout the four innings of a test match.
There was no need for Elgar to be concerned about resting his bowlers with seamers Duanne Olivier, Lizaad Williams and Wiaan Mulder having bowled just six, four and seven overs respectively in the morning session and a decent rest for all of them upcoming.
Thoughts of a South African test team out-spinning a team form the sub-continent on South African pitches in two successive tests, with two world-class spinners, would have been as far-fetched as any cricket fairytale imaginable. But here it is, happening before our eyes.
FRIDAY, 8 APRIL
There’s only one thing more frustrating for a batter than making ‘a start’ without going on to make the big innings they crave, and that’s not making a start. So, whereas Dean Elgar (70) might be annoyed with making three consecutive half-centuries, they are a lot more satisfying than three single figures scores.
The same applies to Keegan Petersen (64), whose fourth test half-century in his last five tests once again oozed with style and class. As Jacques Kallis was quick to point out during his brief spell as Proteas batting consultant against England two years ago when Petersen was first added to the squad, “this guy can really play.”
Elgar pointed specifically towards his team’s lack of centuries at Kingsmead as an area he would like to see improved. It was almost like a jinx with both Temba Bavuma (67) and Ryan Rickelton (42) adding to the list of ‘starts’.
There were just glimmers of the simmering tension of the Durban test during the first day’s play at St. George’s Park on Friday, probably because the Bangladesh players were physically on the back foot for most of the day but possibly also because Dean Elgar had put them on the emotional back foot before the game started.
The South African test captain bristled at suggestions by the tourists that his team had taken their sledging to an “unacceptable” level during the 22-run victory at Kingsmead: “By no means did we swear or use foul language towards the Bangladeshi cricketers, because we respect them. I think they need to harden up and play the game at a level that maybe they're not used to,” Elgar said in characteristically un-minced words.
"One of my messages to the players is that we do everything with dignity, and we don't throw our badge or our name away. I didn't see any bad sledging out there, even from their side. This is test cricket, and we need to dry our eyes sometimes., "Elgar said. “We'll play the game at a hard level, but we're not there to use language to try to intimidate guys. We'd rather try and intimidate by our skill.”
"When I started playing test cricket (against Australia), the environment was a lot harsher, you were told everything that you didn't want to know about yourself.”
Bangladesh opted once again for the high-risk, four-bowler strategy and, as in Durban, it backfired when they lost the toss and were forced to bowl first. It was a defensive and conservative approach to play a seventh specialist batter when 20 wickets are required to have any chance of levelling the series.
WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL
Rather than licking wounds, the Proteas enjoyed another day reflecting on their success in the first test against Bangladesh at Kingsmead, a crushing 220-run victory with their opponents dismissed for a feeble 53 in their second innings on the final day.
Ryan Rickelton, one of two debutants alongside seamer Lizaad Williams, contributed 21 and an unbeaten 39 towards the victory. There was an air of contrition to go along with his enjoyment at a long-awaited debut, and the win.
“It was an awesome experience and I’m really honoured to represent my country, I’ve dreamt about it since… when I started playing. Dad came down (from Jo’burg) on Wednesday night to be a part of it, we’ve been through the thick and thin of it together since I was a little boy. I think he was even more excited than I was, which was fantastic,” Rickelton said on Wednesday.
Reflecting on his debut, which included scoring his first runs with a reverse-sweep, Rickelton said: “It was either brave or very stupid, probably a little bit of stupidity. I was probably a little bit too excited and played too many shots, too expansive and I gave my wicket away. But I felt really comfortable at the crease. It’s not the first time I’ve found myself being too excited – but it’s tough to fight it, you just have to go with it, maybe try to calm yourself down just a little bit.”
There was no doubt, however, that he had the backing of his team-mates: “That’s the hallmark of the team, celebrate each other’s success and support each other. I’ve been with the squad for over a year and I know I have the support of not just the players but the support staff, too,” Rickelton said.
“To win by 220 runs shows a level of dominance but there were definitely areas we could have improved on – being 100 for no wicket in the first innings, we should have driven a nail through Bangladesh and pushed on to 400 or even 500, so we let ourselves down there as a batting group. With the ball we were exceptional, especially Kesh and Simon, obviously, but we also dropped a few chances so that’s another area we can improve on.”
The decision to play two specialist spinners was ‘brave’ according to the Gauteng left-hander, but: “If you have two world-class spinners then the decision is made a lot easier and 14 wickets between them just shows how good they are.”
MONDAY, 4 APRIL
What a wonderful day. What a short day. What a win – by 220 runs – when there were concerns that South Africa had been bowled out too cheaply. There were plenty of pundits making Bangladesh favourites chasing 274 for victory in the fourth innings. Instead, they were bowled out for 53.
Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer added their names to a short list of great bowling combinations which have dismissed an entire test XI without the aid of a single over bowled by anybody else.
It was the 28th time it has happened in test history but just the seventh in modern times since 1994 when Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh dismissed England for a total of 46.
The first 20 occasions all took place before the war and there were two more of these rarities in 1937 and 1957 before the great West Indian duo dismantled England at the Queens Park Oval in Trinidad.
The equally great Pakistani pair of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis humbled Sri Lanka for 71 in the same year while Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie saw off the West Indies for 51 in 1999.
England’s James Anderson and Stuart Broad embarrassed New Zealand for 68 in 2013 but it took just four years for the Black Caps to return the favour with Trent Boult and Tim Southee seeing off their visitors for 58 at Eden Park in Auckland.
Broad completed the feat a second time in partnership with Chris Woakes when Ireland were sent packing for 38 at Lord’s in 2019.
Note they were all fast bowlers operating in extremely helpful conditions. South Africa’s ‘Maharmeraj’ pair are the only spinners on the list and, while it was a fifth day pitch, it was anything but unplayable and the Bangladesh batters are raised on a staple diet of spin bowling. Everything about their performance was brilliant, starting with their selection.
Having become the first two specialist spinners to start a home test since Kelly Seymour and Grahame Chevalier against Australia at Newlands in 1970, they became the first two South Africa spinners to claim all ten wickets in an innings since Hugh Tayfield and Norman ‘Tufty’ Mann who did so against Australia in 1950, also at Kingsmead.
Maharaj and Harmer grabbed the headlines but, as always in a test match victory, there were plenty of other important contributions. Captain Dean Elgar will feel he should have built much further on his pair of 60s but his team might have been in considerable trouble without them. Vice-captain Temba Bavuma remains in search of more Test centuries but his 93 was vital and he averages over 50 in the last three series. They will come.
After the match the Bangladesh Cricket Board operations chief, Jalal Yunus, said they were planning to lodge an official complaint with the ICC about South Africa’s “deplorable” sledging and the overall standard of the umpiring from Marais Erasmus and Adrian Holdstock who, he said, offered no protection to the Bangladesh players.
“Instead of controlling the situation, the umpires warned our players whenever we made complaints against the sledging,” Yunus told Cricinfo.
“Sledging definitely took place from both sides but when they started it and took it overboard, we complained to the umpires. It wasn’t acceptable, we properly condemn it. We have to accept the umpires’ decisions, but the ICC must reinstate neutral umpires.”
Not sure how that will play out over the next few days…
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