On a typical WACA pitch, Australia’s fast bowlers outdid those of South Africa, who bowled far too short, far too often, to let David Warner race away to a quickfire fifty
Firdose Moonda in Perth03-Nov-2016The promise of pace was so alluring that one Perth resident ended a 30-year hiatus from Test cricket to pursue it. Shortly before 10 am on the Red Cat Number 2 bus, said denialist told his fellow travellers he was making a special trip to the WACA to watch the quicks. The South African quicks.”Their fast bowlers are really fast,” he said.As it turns out, so are Australia’s.Mitchell Starc clocked speeds, in kph, of 147.3, 145.9, 141.5, 147.6, 146.4 and 145.9 in his first over. Peter Nevill caught the first three balls at shoulder height. The bounce and carry would have, in Dale Steyn’s own words, “got him going”, had the fourth ball not taken Stephen Cook’s outside edge.What followed was the most intense hour of Test cricket South Africa have played in recent memory, comparable to the pressures of last summer but not. Same same but different. In India, the spin challenge was expected to exploit areas of the game South Africa are not supposed to be good at. Here, they were in familiar territory, facing fast bowlers on a fast pitch.They may not have grown up with a slew of Starcs but there are enough Marchant de Langes and Hardus Viljoens in South African domestic cricket to keep everyone on their toes. All the surfaces in South Africa are not as spicy as the WACA, but everyone makes enough trips to the Wanderers and SuperSport Park to have some idea of how it can play. Yet for the first 13 overs, it looked like South Africa had none. Truth be told, they even looked a little afraid.The usually sure Dean Elgar didn’t know if it would swing – it did, but only a little – and was beaten, wasn’t sure if he could leave and did tentatively, and wasn’t always sure where the fielders were. He came close to giving Usman Khawaja a catch at short leg and was lucky the ball popped out. It hardly mattered because he nicked off in the next over.All that meant was that South Africa missed AB de Villiers a lot earlier than they would have liked to. By the 13th over, his absence loomed large. South Africa were 32 for 4, with their two most experienced batsmen, Hashim Amla and JP Duminy, already out. The inexperience of their middle order was laid bare and the prospect of being embarrassed, especially after all the big talk, was real.If they are to take anything positive out of this day, it will be what happened next. Temba Bavuma played his most accomplished innings to date, more impressive than his maiden hundred against England last summer which came when South Africa already had more than 400 on the board. This one showed his temperament is up to Test cricket, something which continues to be unfairly questioned because of the transformation targets.Bavuma is compact, not just physically, and has a solid defence. He is not easily intimidated, even when he becomes the subject of an interrogation. His first one came from Josh Hazlewood who, having seen the full ball dealt with, pulled his length back a touch. He hit Bavuma on the hip, then aimed for his ribs, and when Bavuma pulled off a flick, stuck a fielder in to invite him to try again. Bavuma did, but was struck on the thigh pad. Starc opted for the more traditional line off attack: full, full, full, full, bouncer, but Bavuma swayed out of the line. Bavuma warned the short ball would not scare him and stayed true to his word.Though they occasionally discomfited Australia’s openers with it, South Africa’s quicks perhaps overdid the short ball•Getty ImagesHis ability to block out the surround sound served him best when he was joined by Quinton de Kock, who complemented him perfectly. De Kock’s natural game is to play his shots and find runs and neither reverse-swing nor an impending collapse would stop that. He coped by counterattacking.It would be too easy to suggest that de Kock demonstrated the approach his team-mates should have taken because none of them can play with the same freedom. Instead, the partnership itself showed what should have been done. A bit of fortitude, a bit of a fightback, a bit of fortune, even. It’s not even that the rest of South Africa’s batsmen did anything particularly poorly; they were shot out by an attack even Australians had underestimated.If the man who hasn’t watched a Test in three decades hung around until the last hour, he would have got what he wanted. Sort of. South Africa’s fast bowlers got their chance and should have taken it.Questions will be asked about why they did not go all-pace and the official line is that Morne Morkel is not yet at the level of match-fitness they want him to be at, and why their quickest bowler, Kagiso Rabada, did not open the bowling, and the explanation may lie in the fact that Vernon Philander is his most effective up front. The biggest question will be why South Africa got so carried away with the surface that they defaulted to a short-ball strategy that was not working. Mitchell Starc noted that in the 21 overs Australia faced, 88% of the deliveries were short. “Too short,” he said.The big talk about cutting the head off the snake and getting nasty did not turn into any big action. The only real words were those of disbelief when Warner nicked one over the slips.”Did you mean that?” Steyn asked him.”No,” came the reply as Warner shook his head and practiced the shot he wanted to play. The upper-cut which came later. Steyn did not need to wonder what Warner’s intentions were for the rest of the day. Or for the rest of the innings.Australia are on top and can drive home an advantage over the next few days but South Africa won’t count themselves out just yet. Four years ago, they scored 17 fewer first-innings runs and still won the match. Then, they bowled Australia out midway through the second session on the second day. If they are to repeat that, their “really fast,” fast bowlers will have to be fierce too.
