Nortje turns up the heat on West Indies

When Anrich Nortjé was bowling 25 overs in searing heat in Melbourne last December, he might have thought how ridiculous this fast bowling work is. 

It wasn’t pleasant in Melbourne. The Proteas batting had failed — again — Dave Warner was on top, the Proteas’ World Test Championship hopes were gone, the spidercam assaulted him and it was hot.

Still, there was Nortje bowling 150km/h-plus, zipping balls past Warner’s outside edge, crashing others into his bat handle and generally bowling with the kind of fury that suggested he was not happy with what life had dealt him that day. He claimed three wickets, earning widespread praise, including from Warner himself, who’d made a double century and said Nortje’s spell was the fastest he’d faced. 

Nortje was in all likelihood not remembering that day as he charged in at the West Indies here Wednesday, but at some point he may reflect on how the universe’s need to create balance allowed for rich reward at SuperSport Park. 

It’s not that Nortje didn’t bowl well, but Wednesday’s performance wasn’t of the same sustained quality he produced at the MCG. But that’s just how cricket works.

Here he had a wide short ball hit by Joshua da Silva straight to Marco Jansen at point. Alzarri Joseph patted another short wide one, to the same fielder, while earlier Jermaine Blackwood was caught off an inside edge. 

They weren’t wicket-taking balls, nor was there any kind of lengthy set-up involved in any of them. Nortje was just disciplined and, of course, pacy. 

“There was something out there most of the time with the ball and I was just trying to use that — the wind was blowing across for the right handers, 'KG' [Kagiso Rabada] bowled well, in his four-over spell and I was trying to capitalise on what he did.”

Nortje did, producing a five-over burst that brought four wickets for just seven runs, causing a West Indies collapse that provided the Proteas with control of the second Test. Some of that initiative was ripped back by the West Indies who took four wickets themselves in a high octane 45-minute conclusion to the second day’s play. 

It’s been a Test where virtually all the wicket-taking action has occurred in the final session. Just five wickets fell across the first two sessions on each of the first two days. In the last periods of play, 18 wickets have been lost for 233 runs. 

Nortje didn’t have an insightful explanation. “In general at SuperSport Park, wickets fall late in the day, it could be because of the sun, there’s just more happening in the wicket.

“It’s a regular occurrence here. Here and there the ball is misbehaving, which could possibly be contributing to it.”

That misbehaviour, while not physically dangerous — yet — clearly had an effect mentally on all the batters on Wednesday. The indentations caused when the pitch was softer on the first morning, had been baked by the sun and hardened and if the ball caught the edge of any of those it could play tricks. 

“I don’t think, even if you bat for any length of time on it, that it's a surface you ever feel really in on. There’s a bit of variable bounce, which was a contributing factor to the wickets that fell today,” said West Indies all-rounder, Jason Holder. 

Dean Elgar attempted to deal with the extra bounce again by using the ramp shot and again missed the fact that the West Indies had posted a deep third man. Temba Bavuma became the fourth player to make a pair on his debut as Test captain, while Keegan Petersen played as if the ball shot through low, trapping him lbw, but it really had not, giving Holder his 150th Test wicket.

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