Shoddy shots put South Africa up the creek, searching for a paddle
South Africa's reckless batting undid the gains made by their bowlers, leaving them 40 ahead with four wickets down and a mountain to climb
A baby, maybe eight months old, crawled on the shaded concourse under The Oaks on Newlands’ southern boundary on Thursday. Her mother followed closely. The child stopped, sat, and smiled up at strangers all around. “She’s much faster on all fours than when she’s walking,” mom said.
It was after lunch on the third day of the deciding Test against Australia, who had just been dismissed 99 ahead. Mom wouldn’t have been heard in South Africa’s nearby dressing room, but what she said applied just as well there. As in don’t walk before you can crawl properly. Run? Not against these bowlers.
Aiden Markram didn’t get the message. He drove Mitchell Starc limply into cover’s hands in the third over. Markram had a case for mitigating circumstances; the ball seemed to stop in the surface, delaying contact with the ball past the optimum point. But David Bedingham had no defence against his reckless pull off Josh Hazlewood in the eighth. The top edge was caught on the square leg boundary.
Marques Ackerman couldn’t do much about the snorter from Starc that took the edge of his bat, then the grille of his helmet, then smacked into slip’s hands.
Temba Bavuma had no business driving the eighth-last delivery of the day. Nathan Lyon turned that ball sharply, but Bavuma would have had a greater chance of surviving had he not launched himself at it with uncharacteristic rashness. After batting for almost three hours, and with five minutes left in the day’s play, he was bowled through the gate.
This was running, not walking, nevermind crawling, and it took South Africa to stumps 40 ahead and without their top four. Simon Harmer didn’t play any of those ill-considered strokes. But he was lumped with the responsibility of explaining them.
“Pressure is a funny thing, and sometimes it is easy to sit on the balcony or in the stands and pass judgement on some of these innings or how people get out or how they play a shot,” Harmer told a press conference. “But there's a lot going through your head when you’re waiting to face a bowler and sometimes you make the incorrect decision at the wrong moment.
“I’m sure the players who feel those shots weren’t good enough will be the first people to put their hands up. Everybody sitting in that dressing room wants to contribute, wants to win the game for the team, and is despondent when they get out.
“I’m my harshest critic. If I do something that affects the team, regardless of what I read or see on social media, I am the person who is going to be hardest on myself.
“I’m sure guys would have preferred to have not got out in certain ways but it boils down to a lot more factors than something as simplistic as shot selection.
“Everybody wanted us to get to the end of play with three wickets down. Nobody is going to be as shattered as Temba for getting out. But, again, it’s the situation. You don’t want to go back into your shell right at the end of the day. You’ve played a certain way. And that’s cricket. It happens.”
If South Africa had batted as well as Harmer spoke, they wouldn’t be quite so far up the creek wondering where their paddle had gone.
Consider that they dismissed Josh Inglis — for a flinty 102 — Alex Carey and Pat Cummins in the space of 31 balls, and then Lyon and Cooper Connolly in five deliveries. They took 6/59 on Thursday to limit Australia’s lead to 100. Harmer bowled with nous and persistence on a pitch that didn’t offer him much help to take 4/104 in 37 overs, which is why he was sat behind the microphones. And a good thing too: few players would have done such a good job in such adverse circumstances.
How big a lead would make South Africa feel as if, just maybe, the series hadn’t slipped away?
“It’s cliched and simplistic, but the most important part of this game for us is the first hour tomorrow morning,” Harmer said. “We can’t get caught up in what we want and what would be nice and what is defendable. Because whatever that looks like is not achievable if the first hour doesn’t go well.
“I’m pretty sure that’s what the chats will be around. It’s about making sure we don’t get carried away and look too far ahead. That we try and keep it as simple as possible. If we have a good hour tomorrow morning it puts us in a much stronger position than trying to get 200 and getting sidetracked.”
To that end, South Africa will resume with Matthew Breetzke having batted for almost an hour-and-a-half and faced 59 balls for his unbeaten 19; a most unBreetzkelike innings. And with Ryan Rickelton eight not out off six.
The home side also have Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen and Harmer himself to come before things get silly. How might Harmer handle that challenge, which will surely come his way?
“The hardest part of batting, for me, is the first 20 balls. When you get out there everything’s moving at a million miles an hour. But as you start to face more balls everything starts to slow down and you can think more clearly.
“That’s the way I negotiate situations and try to get myself in. I think the pitch will dictate how you need to play, but I can’t sit here and be like, ‘We need to reverse sweep Nathan Lyon and we need to do this to certain bowlers.’
“They’ve got an incredible bowling line-up and we know the pressure is going to be on for all 90 overs tomorrow. But, as we’ve seen throughout the series, there are going to be periods where it’s going to be easier to score and periods where they’re going to bowl well.”
Asked how he might approach bowling at the Australians when the time comes, Harmer spoke of “many ways to skin a cat”. For example, he said, “As an off-spinner you want to bowl a right-hander through the gate. That’s the dream delivery.”
Like it was for Lyon. For Bavuma, not so much.
