South Africa is one of the top cricketing nation in world cricket. A lot of excellent cricketers have played for the nation with quite a few of them can easily be termed as great. The likes of Jacques Kallis and AB De Villiers comes to mind. The South African team is the only nation to have won 3 consecutive series in Australia over the last 30 years. This is an achievement most teams will not be able to claim. However, their performance over the last few years have deteriorated significantly.
There was a time when winning against South Africa was as difficult as climbing Mount Everest. They were that good. Especially, when playing outside of South Africa. For such a team, series wins of late have become very rare. The absolute nadir came just about a year ago when they lost a series against Sri Lanka in South Africa and had a horror run in India. Granted, most of the excellent cricketers have either retired or have gone onto England but to lose a series to Sri Lanka was something no one would have expected. Some of their former cricketers would have been shocked at the turn of events. The only highlight over the last 3-4 years was a series win against Australia. Otherwise, it was bleak.
The South African quota system
Most of us are aware of the stringent stipulation under which their sporting teams are required to play. South Africa is the only team that has to maintain a rare balance. They are required to have atleast 3-4 black players in the team all the time. This is probably the only reason they are not always able to field their best playing eleven. They always had to play under some kind of compromise. As a result, a lot of deserving players moved onto another countries. The classic case of Kevin Pietersen comes to mind. He felt so stifled that he had to move to England. Just imagine a team of Amla, Smith, KP, Kallis & AB. They would have dethroned Australia a longtime ago but it wasn’t to be. Now that the quota is here to stay, they will have to play with it.
England and Kolpak
The one good news for South Africa is the exit of Britain from the European Union. This means that all kinds of Kolpak deals are off and their players will not be wheeled away by an English county as a local player. This essentially means that the players who went to England are also available to play for South Africa and the emerging players like Rabadda or Nortje are not in any danger to leave South Africa.
What the current series win means for South Africa
South Africa came into the series with a lot of inexperienced players. Apart from Faf, de Kock and Bavuma, the rest put together would not add upto more than 50 tests. Moreover, De Kock was in his first series as captain. Rabadda was missing because of an injury. If the series was expected to be a close affair no one would have been wrong.
Sri Lanka are coming off 4 consecutive test wins against SA and that includes the couple in South Africa. The Sri Lankans were quietly confident but injuries wreaked a havoc amongst the team and the team that played the 2nd test missed 7 of the regulars. It was not really a surprise that the Sri Lankans lost rather tamely. This is not to take anything away from the South Africans. Dean Elgar continues to prosper at the top but the real find for them were the fast bowlers.
Anrich Nortje is brutally quick. Whenever Rabadda is back, they both will be lethal for any batting lineup. The new ones, Mulder & Simapla were adequate if not brilliant. Ngidi might struggle to find a spot in the future SA bowling attack. This series win will give the South African much needed confidence that they still can compete at the highest level. They will be encouraged by their fast bowling stock. However, the batting leaves a lot to be desired. Du Plessis himself wasn’t satisfied with his knock and Bavuma has been given far too many chances. Du Plessis is not getting any younger. They rest of the batsmen are inexperienced and it will take them lot of time to perform at the highest level.
Future series
Their next series is in Pakistan who themselves are coming off a brutal thrashing at the hands of New Zealand. However, Pakistan at home will be a different team now that they will be playing a series at home after a very long time. South Africa will hope to draw the series at the most and nothing more than that. If they can achieve that, they can consider that to be equal to a series win. South African fast bowlers will not find much help on those wickets and they have only Maharaj to help them keep the Pakistan batsmen from scoring too many runs. After Pakistan, Australia will be visiting South Africa. Australian bowling against South African weak batting and the result is already known.
Much needs to be done
World cricket requires a strong South African team. 5-6 strong teams are needed to ensure that the games remain competitive and South African team is one among them. Back in 1990s and 2000s, a competitive South African team made for compelling viewing. Games between Australia & SA were always fought hard though Australia went onto win all but one series between the teams. Asian teams with the exception of India never had a chance. Hence, a strong SA team is very much a necessity.
What do you think of SA’s win? Do you think it will help them gain confidence? Do you think they have achieved progress or they still remain where they were? Please let me know in the comments section given below.
Other topics related to South African cricket can be read here and here.