Ind vs SA: Faf du Plessis’ method missing in madness

If the shouldering of arms in Mohali signalled confusion, Faf du Plessis' anxiety in Bangalore was even more damning.

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Faf du Plessis isn’t a natural when it comes to playing spin. (Source: AP)

It’s easy to like Faf du Plessis. Occasionally, as a travelling journalist, one tends to hear a stray negative remark about even the best of cricketers — a dig at attitude if not character. But there have been no murmurs about du Plessis. By all accounts he seems to be an excellent team-man, and even in a team that has choked on a few momentous occasions, his grit and temperament has stood out. But clearly something is going horribly wrong with him on this tour, the Test series, that is. It’s not the lack of form, for that can happen even with the best. Du Plessis has batted as if his nerves were shot. He has spontaneously combusted in whites after a prolific run in the preceding ODI series, where he had scored a century and three fifties.

The only whiff about him is that he is carrying an injury, but even if that’s true, it doesn’t account for his meek approach in the middle. He isn’t a natural talent, like a Hashim Amla or an AB de Villiers, but he has more than compensated for it by his tenacity. One of the early signs of his dogged spirit had come in the game against New Zealand in the 2011 World Cup in India. The infamous choke was on and in this strangled air, even as the New Zealanders were giving a fierce lip and pushing the South Africans psychologically, du Plessis had shone. It was a knock, albeit in a losing cause, that had shown that this man was someone to be reckoned with. There was a sense of purpose and presence about him, traits that he further solidified in the years that followed. But something has been amiss this series.

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The panic has been evident. Strangely, it didn’t start in the heat of the battle, but in the comfort of the press briefing room in Mohali prior to the actual action. The way he talked up R Ashwin, and the tone in which the words slipped out of his lips were disconcerting. Something you don’t expect a battle-hardened player to show. It wasn’t the words of praise but the inherent concern that rankled. It suggested that the battle against spin was magnified to an unmanageable proportion inside his mind. An observation that has been validated by the way he has batted so far. Indecisive mind, uncertain footwork, and tense hands.

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If the shouldering of arms in Mohali signalled confusion, the anxiety in Bangalore was even more damning. He didn’t sashay or skip down the track but stumbled out in a rush, like an anxious con artist unable to hide his trick. There was a touch of ‘90s desperation often seen in touring batsmen on designer spin tracks. There was nothing special in that Ashwin off break. It hummed through the air and broke in as any other offspinning delivery. But du Plessis wasn’t quite there. Panic. And he tried to adjust by turning it to the on side but the wrists failed him. It was a more of a firm push to the on side and the ball took the edge and popped out to short-leg. Often, when things aren’t going your way, it doesn’t just slide out of control but spirals out. Sport can often be cruel.

All-arms against spin

It doesn’t help that du Plessis isn’t a natural when it comes to playing spin. He can be all-arms, as the cricketing lingo goes, and as a result push hard at deliveries. In other words, he lacks the soft hands, and the supple wrists to wriggle out of tough corners on pitches like these. However, and this is what has really been surprising, he hasn’t shown any coherent plan, a clarity of thought. He is South Africa’s third-best batsman after AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla, and while those two were expected to react spontaneously to the turning deliveries, trusting their instincts and skill, one anticipated du Plessis to show a clear plan. In the past, even Andrew Hall and Neil McKenzie, lesser batsmen than him, have shown more resolve and a concrete method in tackling spin. And in this series, someone like Dean Elgar has shown it.

It raises the question whether South Africa should trust him at No 3, especially if they bat second on this Nagpur track. Why send de Villiers so low down the order that by the time he is in, they are already in a hole? South Africa probably won’t go down that route and to be fair, du Plessis’ past earns him the vote of confidence. He doesn’t deserve to be remembered by Indians as a nervy batsman who offered no fight at all.

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