Looking back at the Sri Lanka tour, I would say the words “hot and cold” sum up the performance of the South African team for me, and I find it a bit worrying.
I say that because we had some brilliant wins in both the Tests and the One Dayers, but we also played poorly in some games and lost quite badly. Overall, I can’t remember ever feeling 100 percent confident that the side were going to win any particular game, even though I believe we always had the players to win them.
Why it’s worrying is because the team now go off to New Zealand, and later to England, to meet two of the most difficult sets of opponents I ever played against, and in conditions that are going to be very difficult for them. If we were unable to really click against an inexperienced side on wickets we are used to, and in almost perfect weather conditions, how are we going to do against New Zealand, who showed in their recent series against Australia that they are a very good side. Or against England, who are now a very settled team and looking like the best in the world.
I remember New Zealand as always being cold, even in the summer the chill seems to be just about to start. And England is always wet. It’s a far cry from our perfect summers and the players are going to have to adjust pretty quickly.
It’s not all gloom and doom, however.
We have good players and both the experienced ones and the newcomers have put up their hands at different times during the Sri Lankan tour.
What’s required is to get it all to come together, consistently and to stop blowing hot and cold. That means having a plan and sticking to it. We have a new coach and new captain in the One Day games, and it obviously takes time to put things into place, but if we don’t get it right quickly, we could come unstuck overseas.
Looking at the bowlers, I believe you have a specific plan in place for every situation that arises in a match. You have to know exactly what to do when you need an all-out attack because taking a wicket is crucial. You have to know what to do when keeping the run rate down is all you can do at that stage.
You have to know how to contain one end and attack the other, and you have to have a plan if the wicket isn’t turning and your spinner is of no use to you, etc.
Those sorts of plans are worked out between the bowlers as they become more experienced and play with each other more often.
We got to know the major batsmen in the other teams and would have a specific plan for each of them. We would know what to try if one of our bowlers wasn’t firing on a certain day – which happened to both Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel during this summer.
Having said that, of course, it was good to win both the Test and the One Day series.
It was especially good to win a Test series at home after such a long time.
Winning would have built the confidence levels and the coach and captain used the tour to try out new combinations, to give the squad players some match time and to rest some of the senior players ahead of the difficult tours coming up.
That’s got to be good for team spirit and it will stand us in good stead for the rest of the year.
lMy Powerade Chosen One is AB de Villiers. He has stood up when it counted throughout the tour and did it again at the Wanderers on Sunday.
lPOWERADE HYDRATION TIP – Exercise can cause the body to lose between 300ml and 2000ml per hour during exercise. Help replace your lost fluids with Powerade.