da doce： The Champions Trophy was supposed to be the perfect stage for South Africa; perhaps hosting a tournament isn’t conducive to them performing strongly
Dileep Premachandran at Centurion23-Sep-2009
Dale Steyn was the only South African bowler who performed well•AFP
If South Africa do wish to win a major competition, perhaps hosting itisn’t the best way to go about it. Back in 2003, an inability to makesense of the Duckworth-Lewis chart at Kingsmead saw them eliminated beforethe Super-Six stage. Then, two years ago, Rohit Sharma’s defiance with thebat and a tigerish Indian display in the field saw them fall short of thetarget that would have ensured qualification for the World Twenty20semi-finals. Till that point, they hadn’t lost a game in the tournament.Now, in a competition that was supposed to be the perfect stage for themto reemphasise their new status as the world’s top side, they findthemselves at the wrong end of an embarrassingly one-sided defeat on theopening day. At least now there’ll be no confusion. There’s no margin forerror. Another defeat, and it’s off to bed without the No. 1 dessert forGraeme Smith and his boys.Everything that could have gone wrong today did, but in truth South Africadidn’t help themselves either. Winning the toss and bowling first, withboth Roelof van der Merwe and Johan Botha in the side, struck severalpeople as being slightly bizarre, especially with Muttiah Muralitharan andAjantha Mendis in the opposition ranks. There was no great smattering ofgrass on the surface, and little evidence to suggest that the openingbowlers could scythe through a Sri Lankan line-up with several batsmen interrific form.Smith’s bowlers then compounded his error by bowling dross. Dale Steyn wasthe honourable exception to the general rule. Tillakaratne Dilshan, unlikemany batsmen from the subcontinent, thrives on the cut and pull, and youngWayne Parnell proceeded to feed those two strokes with distressingregularity. After a couple of overs, it should have been pretty obviousthat this wasn’t a surface on which you strove for variation, but thescattergun approach was persisted with until the Sri Lankan run-ratetouched seven an over.Even after the game though, Smith insisted that he wouldn’t have doneanything differently. “The wicket played really well throughout,” he said.”We were just tentative with the ball. We lacked the basics. I don’t knowif our not having played for three months had anything to do with it, butDilshan played really well upfront.”We weren’t able to hit the channels. We bowled both sides of the wicket.It was only after 16 overs and the first drinks break that we got somesort of control.”Questions also need to be asked of how South Africa chose to prepare forthis event. The other leading sides had meaningful competition [though howmeaningful Australia will consider their 6-1 romp over England remains tobe seen] before they journeyed to the highveld, while South Africa’s onlyouting was against a side that can generously be called West Indies C.Prior to the match, Smith had spoken of how they would attack Mendis basedon what other teams, notably India and Pakistan, had done against him.That ignored two factors. Firstly, the Indians struggled horribly againsthim last year, both in the Asia Cup and also the Test series thatfollowed. It was only with increased exposure that they developed somesemblance of a tactic to combat him. As for Pakistan, they’re blessed withsome freakish bowlers of their own, in addition to being pretty handyagainst spin. To think that gung-ho would work just as well for SouthAfrica was to tempt fate, and the memories of two Durban cock-ups shouldhave been reminder enough that you shouldn’t do that.”The first time you see a bowler, it’s always a challenge,” Smith said of Mendis.”He bowled well tonight. We’ll be better for the experience. He showedgreat control and variety.”There were words of encouragement for Parnell – “he’s still young;he’s going to have his ups and downs” – but the time for talk is now longgone. “Today was a good wake-up call” was Smith’s final assessment, but ifhe and his team don’t rouse themselves from off-season slumber onThursday, dreams of undisputed-champion status will become yet anothernightmare.