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Cricket: Burden on South Africa’s top order exposed against Australia

Cricket: Burden on South Africa’s top order exposed against Australia

The South African one-day side is battling with a bottom-heavy issue which results in over-reliance on the top order. Even if the top four manage modest runs, the long tail and inconsistent middle order are leaving South Africa with a lopsided configuration. By ANTOINETTE MULLER.

On a batting-friendly pitch at a small ground in the Caribbean, South Africa conspired to lose seven wickets for just 42 runs, losing their third match in the ongoing tri-series by 36 runs against Australia, moving them to second on the table. South Africa’s next fixture will be at the same venue against the West Indies on Wednesday, and having now learned a lesson or two, expectations of their batsmen will be high.

In Saturday’s clash, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first, managing a rather modest total of just 288 with David Warner leading the charge, hitting 109 off 120. On the postage stamped-size ground with a lightning fast outfield, South Africa’s bowlers did a decent job at restricting Australia with only Kagiso Rabada – the star of the thrilling win against the same opposition last week – recording an economy rate of over 6.00.

But South Africa’s bowling is not really their weakness. Even with intimidating names like Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers, South Africa’s batting line-up is under tremendous pressure in the five-bowlers, six batsmen configuration. During Saturday’s match, though, three out of that top four actually delivered the goods to an extent. The problem was that none of them followed through. Hashim Amla added 60 off 64, hitting a ball straight to the cover fielder. Faf du Plessis fished for a wide one and AB de Villiers was undone by a reverse swinging delivery from Josh Hazlewood.

Two of those three wickets were needless and came at a time when South Africa weren’t even under pressure yet. The good news is that South Africa’s captain seemed well aware of just how unnecessary some of those wickets were.

Lots of our dismissals were soft dismissals tonight, including my own,” De Villiers said. “Those things are bad decisions at the wrong time. It’s not really something you can work on. It’s just something we have to fix in the next game, with a better mindset. The wicket played pretty well throughout the game. We’ve got no excuse, we just didn’t bat well enough.”

Du Plessis, too, was brutal in his assessment of things, saying: “I think we can point the finger straight back at ourselves – some pretty poor shots to give them wickets to get them back in the game.”

While it is encouraging that players aren’t beating about the bush regarding their failures, the loss highlights the soft underbelly of the South African batting line-up on this tour. South Africa’s top four are in a league of their own, but they need more consistency from the middle and lower order to prop them up.

Farhaan Behardien, who did well under pressure in the previous match against Australia, is frustratingly inconsistent, while JP Duminy has not averaged above 40.00 in the one-day format since 2011. When this is coupled with the fact that South Africa have an exceptionally long tail, it becomes an uphill battle for the batsmen in almost every fixture.

While Wayne Parnell provides useful variation as a left-arm bowling option, his exploits with the bat aren’t too reliable. In the domestic one-day cup in South Africa, he scored just 90 runs in nine matches. He fared notably better in the four-day game – with 337 runs in eight innings at an average of 48.14 with a high score of an unbeaten 111 – but the domestic game is a far cry from international standards.

Chris Morris is the other all-rounder in the squad and played in the first match against the West Indies. But his returns were modest, with nine runs and bowling figures of nought for 22. Everyone has seen what Morris is capable of with the bat, but he cannot be expected to save South Africa every time they end up in a twist.

South Africa thus find themselves with a considerable weakness in the lower order and an unfathomably long tail. Jamming both Parnell and Morris (provided he recovers from injury) into the starting XI and swapping Behardien for Dean Elgar might be an option worth trying for the next fixture – things certainly can’t go worse than the two abject batting collapses we’ve seen on this tour so far. DM

Photo: Faf du Plessis of South African during the 2016 ICC World T20 cricket match between South Africa and Sri Lanka at Kotla Stadium, Delhi, India on 28 March 2016 ©BackpagePix

Scores in brief:

Australia 288 for 6 (Warner 109, Khawaja 59, Smith 52*) beat South Africa 252 (Du Plessis 63, Amla 60, Starc 3-43, Zampa 3-52, Hazlewood 3-52) by 36 runs.

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