Batting coach admits SA need bowlers to perform

With half of the batters already in tracksuits, two days finished, just 97 runs on the scoreboard and Australia’s bowlers making one mistake an hour, how does South Africa win the second Test in Gqeberha?

“We still have to bowl,” came Ashwell Prince’s quick response.

“There is a saying you can only tell how the pitch is playing when both teams have batted. I think there’s still quite a bit of time left in the game so anything is still possible.”

The Proteas have to enter that mental headspace athletes often have to tap into, and become somewhat delusional. The boundaries of their self-belief are going to be tested in the next three days.

It is a dreadful situation, far from what they would have wanted as they sought to bounce back after the naive batting performances in the first Test. But Australia have not allowed them an inch, with Scott Boland, in particular, unrelenting in his examination of techniques and mental fortitude.

The rest haven’t been bad either, and the tourists didn’t even need Josh Hazlewood, who didn’t travel to St George’s Park on Monday, because of a stomach bug. Boland has four wickets, Mitchell Starc has one and Pat Cummins should have had Ryan Rickelton, but Marnus Labuschagne was deceived by the pace at which the ball came to him at leg gully, and was probably also blinded a bit by the sun.

South Africa have had the worst of the conditions - overcast and drizzly, on day one when they batted for only 12.2 overs and lost two wickets. “The only thing really that you can do is try and survive,” said the Proteas batting coach.

Even with the sun out, Australia only had a session of play on Monday and could pour themselves into the pursuit of South African wickets. “There’s no real game plan, it’s a session, you have to bat it out and when I say there’s no real game plan, nothing changes in terms of your original game plan which is to build partnerships,” Prince said of SA’s approach to facing 30.4 overs.

Temba Bavuma and Rickelton managed the only partnership of minor substance - a 52-run stand for the fifth wicket - until Boland got the left-handed Rickelton reaching for a ball outside his off-stump. “He doesn’t miss his spot often,” said Prince.

Boland, he explained, reminded him of Vernon Philander, especially with how accurate he is as well as consistent. “His balls are always in and around the top of the stump which means against taller guys you can leave a lot more balls on length but because he’s hitting the top of the stumps there’s always that uncertainty whether it’s going over the top of the stumps that you can leave or whether it’s hitting the top of the stumps which means it drags you into playing at more balls.”

“You might want to leave a few more (but) he doesn’t leave his spot very often so he’s very consistent and hits the seam. I mean his record speaks for itself, I think the only thing that’s stopping him is that it’s quite hard for him to get in the (Australian) line-up consistently,” said Prince.

Leaving the ball was key to Bavuma’s success, Prince added. “Temba has done that really well. A big part and a big positive in Temba’s play today was decision making. There tends to be a lot of discussion about technique and technical things but I think the decision making so far from him was exceptional.”

The South African captain will have to continue to carry his team on Tuesday and stretch the innings as long as possible allowing the conditions to hopefully get trickier, which his bowlers will then have to try and exploit.

“The ball is moving around. The pitch started softer than usual, so some divots have been forming. If the sun comes out, that might firm up and the ball might move around a little bit faster maybe.”

“But at the moment we’re all guessing. You use some of your experience in summing these things up. But that kind of situation has happened before and obviously from our point of view we’re hoping that would be the case with them having to bat last,” said Prince.