Island thriller: Script wide open for batsmen

Today the South Africans were bristling with confidence as they sat and looked at the media with Allan Donald joining captain Shaun Pollock and Eric Simons, the coach, all suggesting that repeat result of the October 1998 final is a distinct possibility. South Africa beat the West Indies in the final in Dhaka. Since then New Zealand annexed the title but were blown away by firm favourites Australia, who are still trying to be a little too coy about their efforts this tournament.

Sure, South Africa are confident although looking at the two sides it would suggest that India have more depth in batting. Pollock did not dwell too long on the fitness of the players. Nicky Boje is still doubtful with young Port Elizabeth all-rounder Robinson Peterson on stand by. Boje is to have a fitness test before tomorrow’s game.

Alan Dawson seems to be fit but and Steve Elworthy has been brought in for the cover needed in case of an injury recurrence. Whether Dawson is the answer is another matter. Omar Henry, the convener of the national selectors, has said that Dawson brings the added ‘swing’ dimension to the attack, which seems to have created some contradictions from Henry’s selection colleague Pat Symcox.

If Symcox’s words are to be taken seriously, Elworthy manages as much sideways movement as does Dawson. This is quiet a surprising admission at this stage of the tournament programme. Elworthy was left out of the home LOI series by the previous selection against Australia. Not that this means too much as the previous selectors had an agenda which mitigated against those players whose ‘play by date’ they considered has expired.

Yet South Africa’s major problem has been a weakness in the top order. Graeme Smith has not been fully tested and the Indian attack has the quality in Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan. They rocked England last Sunday at Premadasa and while Nasser Hussain did not say so in as many words, the combination of the two left-arm bowlers created early problems. Marcus Trescothick was unsettled and it showed and Hussain did not live too much after the dropped catch by Rahul Dravid.

Herschelle Gibbs scored a facile century against Zimbabwe, his timing was seriously astray at times and he looked as though he had failed to learn from his previous errors. Not that the Zimbabwe bowling is going to cause too many problems. They gave a good impression against India but that was more due to loose batting than anything else and self-induced dismissals have been one of India’s occasional problems.

It is India’s all-round strength which has seen them overcome stronger sides than South Africa; for one thing the batting is more settled and has depth with Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh the two who add the extra depth in the lower middle-order. South Africa’s depth comes from their all-rounders and they have failed to offer a genuine challenge either in Morocco or at this Champions Trophy tournament. Both sides may want to experiment for the World Cup, but the South Africans are not as convincing as they have been.

As England head for home with a much wiser captain who acknowledged that they needed to try something different as the bowling attack is no doubt reshaped for Australia and a rethink for the World Cup. ‘‘When you have someone come at you in this fashion, it is a matter of looking for something different,’’ Hussain admitted. ‘‘They (Sehwag and Ganguly) have done it before (at Lord’s) and we knew what to expect. But when the bowlers get it wrong it is hard to keep such tactics in check.’’

It was as though Hussain was admitting that England had gone into the game with the wrong attack. Not at all the clever thing to do. But they had neither the answer nor the ability in the field to stem the flow of runs. Even defending 269 was beyond their capabilities and to lose the game with still more than 10 overs to be bowled is an indication of just how poor the attack was in such conditions. Pollock and Simons might do well to heed Hussain’s comments, if not they will be flying out by the time Australia prepare to meet Sri Lanka for the second semi-final — far wiser than they were at today’s conference. (TheWicket.com)