South Africa vs Sri Lanka: does it really matter?

08 January 2017 - 02:00 By TELFORD VICE AND KHANYISO TSHWAKU
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Does Thursday's third test between South Africa and Sri Lanka at the Wanderers matter? Not a jot. If cricket had any sense, it would be cancelled.

South African players celebrate a dismissal of a Sri Lankan batsman during the second test at Newlands Cricket Stadium in Cape Town. File photo
South African players celebrate a dismissal of a Sri Lankan batsman during the second test at Newlands Cricket Stadium in Cape Town. File photo
Image: AFP

That's in the bigger scheme of things.

On a smaller scale, the match matters plenty.

It is the first time South Africa will play a test without AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel or Kyle Abbott since November 2004.

South Africa have learnt how to win without the first three players on that list, who are all injured.

But the omission of Abbott, who announced on Thursday he had removed himself from the equation by going Kolpak could hurt them most.

Abbott neither has Steyn's fire and presence nor Morkel's bounce. But he is more consistent than Steyn and he does more with the ball than Morkel.

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The sheer quality of Abbott's bowling has given South Africa the leeway to allow Kagiso Rabada to let fly for all his youthful worth, and made Vernon Philander an even more dangerous prospect than he is.

Philander. Abbott. Rabada. Good luck finding chinks in that armour.

"Test cricket is about controlling the game, and that's exactly what we've been doing with Kyle and Vernon," team captain Faf du Plessis said after South Africa clinched the series by winning by 282 runs with more than a day to spare at Newlands on Thursday.

Abbott took no wickets in the match but he was key to Rabada's 10/92, a performance that wrote another chapter in the story of what could be one of the great careers and confirmed that, no, he does not need a rest.

"He's the perfect bowler for a captain because, exactly what I tell him to do or ask him to do, he does that," Du Plessis said. "If I want him to bowl a thousand short balls in a row, he'll do it."

And if South Africa ask for, and are given, the kind of generously grassed pitch at the Wanderers that they won on at St George's Park and Newlands, a thousand short balls could be the required dose.

"If there's one or two percent I can add as a captain and making sure we get the conditions that we ask for then, definitely, I'm going to try and scream it from the top of my lungs to make sure we get it," Du Plessis said.

"It's important to make sure you maximise the conditions you have."

Dean Elgar proved, in his innings of 129 and 55 at Newlands, that the grass can be greener on this side of pitch preparation, even for openers.

But there's reason to think carefully about that approach at the Wanderers.

Hashim Amla, breaker of records and stereotypes, a fine player and a redoubtable man, will play his 100th test.

Amla's career has been as much a journey for South African cricket as for the man himself.

But he is not in the best of form.

So, keep off the grass, skipper.

Sri Lanka batsmen must do better

Cricket writer Martin Johnson once said the 1986/87 England touring side to Australia had one simple problem: "They couldn't bat, couldn't bowl and couldn't field."

Could the same be said of the touring Sri Lankans who have been caned by 206 and 282 runs in two tests?

Judging from those lopsided results, that has to be the case but it would be a simplistic conclusion that needs to be expanded.

There have been times when Sri Lanka have bowled well; one example being the first two sessions of the second test when South Africa found themselves at 66/3 and 169/5 before salvage jobs by Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock helped the Proteas to a match-winning total of 392 all out.

The pace provided by Lahiru Kumara and the control from Suranga Lakmal in conditions similar to a humid Lord's morning asked questions of South Africa's batting temperament and their ability to get through difficult batting conditions.

With Angelo Mathews also providing a modicum of control with his medium pacers, it's easy to see that Sri Lanka are able to hold their own in the first innings when the conditions allow them to, before their batsmen let them down massively.

The efficiency of the Sri Lankan bowling attack has to be down to Graham Ford's knowledge of local conditions and batsmen.

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Some of the dismissals, the lines of attack to specific batsmen, especially the containment of out-of-form Hashim Amla, has Ford's intelligentsia written all over it.

But the inability to provide two centres of pressure, especially when Nuwan Pradeep is bowling, has given South Africa an escape avenue.

The pressure release and lack of turn has also negated the excellent Rangana Herath, even though the chunky left-arm spinner has kept the run-rate in check.

It's a pity the hard work has not been reciprocated by the batsmen, who have not delivered even though the surfaces in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town have not been overly difficult to bat on.

If the visitors had been subjected to green tops, their struggles would have been excused but batsmen of the quality of Kusal Mendis, Dhananjaya da Silva and Dinesh Chandimal could have and should have adapted much better after two tests, but that hasn't been the case.

Mendis in particular has been a big disappointment, especially after his success in England in adverse conditions.

He was able to tame James Anderson in England, which makes his inability to adapt to South Africa more galling.

While batting in Sri Lanka, England and South Africa requires different skills, any international cricket side worth their salt has to have the ability to cope with different conditions.

Chandimal and Mendis displayed considerable grit and flair to succeed in any country but their contributions have been disappointing.

It left Mathews with the burden and he hasn't kicked on in a manner that's been expected of him.

While Thursday's third test at the Wanderers is a dead rubber, there's the matter of having to salvage some pride and bat better.

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