Already slipping down the limited overs rankings from their once long-term lofty second place, a shaky South Africa’s preparation for next month’s ICC Champions Trophy has run into further trouble on their Sri Lanka tour. Despite a cheerful front, fissures in the team’s make-up are starting to show after successive limited overs defeats against a sharper, more motivated Sri Lanka side led by Marvan Atapattu.With 18 days left before their first Champions Trophy game against Bangladesh at Edgbaston on September 12, captain Graeme Smith has openly chastised the side for their two batting performances at Premadasa Stadium last weekend.This follows the tourists’ lamentable second Test batting performances against a Sri Lankan attack lacking Muttiah Muralitharan. South Africa lost the Test by 313 runs, their second heaviest runs defeat in 115 years.In a sense the touring management have admitted that while the wheels have not quite come off the team’s pre-Champion’s Trophy planning, there is deep concern as a lack of batting form and bowing consistency plagues the tourists. It is the worst run that Smith has had since taking over the captaincy in April last year.Underlying the team’s batting inconsistency has been the form of Herschelle Gibbs and, to an extent, Jacques Kallis. Despite scoring only 11 runs in four innings and following his disappointing limited-overs series in New Zealand earlier in the year, Gibbs still has the support of Smith and the coach Eric Simons.This comes after missing the first Test in Galle through an ankle injury at a pre-tour camp at the Pretoria University’s high performance centre.As it is the coach, Simons, is under pressure and there is talk of his resignation after the ICC tournament if the Safs fail to win the five-match limited overs series here in Sri Lanka and show a continual run of poor form in the United Kingdom. Simons’s record has been hit by a series of worrying defeats in two consecutive Test series as well as the 5-1 limited overs drubbing by New Zealand. It was this defeat that began South Africa’s slide from second place on the ICC rankings.Smith admitted that Gibbs would be looking to improve his form and would be ‘‘far from happy at the way he got out’’ in the second of the ODIs on the emerald isle of the Indian Ocean. He tried to whip a ball through mid-wicket only to be bowled for seven by a fuller delivery by Nuwan Zoysa last Sunday.The captain said he could not justify the Safs batting efforts after the second Test at the SSC and the two limited-overs games at Premadasa Stadium. South Africa were blown away by a class bowling performance on Sunday but qualified this with the comment that it was not either, a pitch where a team should have been reduced to 50 for six chasing a target of 214.‘‘We played a few loose shots, and at the moment we are batting about as badly as a club side’’, Smith said. ‘‘It’s not good enough and it is disappointing we have lost so badly (in two of the last three games).’’Zoysa’s five for 26 surpassed Muralitharan’s best limited overs figures against South Africa. But the truth of the matter is that like India, South Africa’s plans are seriously stalled and are in need of a pick-me-up that seems as distant as the horizon.
