A return to a problem of old hampered South Africa the last time they
played in the shortest format at the World Twenty20. Middle-order
batsman Farhaan Behardien suggested instability in the line-up was to blame for the team returning empty handed.
"Where we struggled in Sri Lanka was that we lost early wickets and then
the slow bowlers come on and it was difficult to rebuild," he said.
Apart from the match against Zimbabwe, which South Africa won by ten
wickets, they lost their first two batsmen for a maximum of 28 runs in
the other fixtures.
The combination of Richard Levi
and Hashim Amla did not work and when Levi was dropped for the final
match, Jacques Kallis partnered Amla also with little success. Neither
Kallis nor Amla is part of the current squad, although Levi is. If he
plays, he is expected to be joined at the top by either the captain Faf du Plessis or the uncapped Henry Davids , who could also form a partnership of their own.
While different pairs could solve the issue to an extent, South Africa's
floating middle order also unsettles them. As they aim to build a
new-look T20 side, starting with the matches against New Zealand, role
definition and countering the spin threat have become two of the major
areas under consideration.
Behardien indicated that the first of those had already been ironed out,
especially for him. "My job is assessing the risk. If we lose early
wickets upfront, my job is risk management and seeing how we can
maximise the remaining overs to get to a high total. And to play the
spinners low risk," he said. "But if we have a good start, without too
many wickets in the first few overs, we can take on the spinners. That's
one of our focuses going forward."
Even without Daniel Vettori in the New Zealand line-up, South Africa are
wary of New Zealand's spinners. Ronnie Hira, the left-armer, took three
wickets in the warm-up match against South Africa A,
including that of Justin Ontong, while Nathan McCullum was economical
in his three overs of offspin. "We've had a lot of practice against spin
in the one-day cup," Behardien said.
With the major emphasis on technical aspects, South Africa could forget
that a transition phase also involves building a new team culture but
Berhardien said that has been equally high on their agenda. With regular
limited-overs captain AB de Villiers opting out of the series, stand-in
leader du Plessis will have to create his own environment for the
players to excel in.
Du Plessis captained South Africa A against Sri Lanka A in June and the
players who were involved in that series, like Behariden, got a taste of
his leadership style. "He is very big on team culture. Everybody is not
for themselves. You've got to give, you've got to be selfless, whether
it be throw-downs, extra catches, helping generally, packing up the kit-
those very small things."
Most importantly, with the pressure of a major tournament not hanging
over them, Berhardien hopes the mood in the camp will lighten. "It's all
been a bit serious over the last while and sometimes we forget that we
need to have fun and express ourselves.
"As players we get stiff and we get tight because we want to do so well
and perform for our country. So you forget that this is what you've been
wanting to do since you were a little kid and when you forget about
those values then you don't really perform at your best, because you are
too tense and worrying the whole time about the results."
Russell Domingo, South Africa's new Twenty20 coach, said he will not
look as far ahead as the 2014 World T20. The upcoming matches are more
about laying the groundwork for a short-form unit that can go on and
replicate the successes of the Test side.
"The team culture won't be much different to what is in the Test side,"
Behardien said. "It might be tweaked a bit with a new captain and a new
coach. Sometimes the same thing can be said in a slightly different way
and it could make a world of difference to the individual and something
could click. I think it is a fresh approach and I am quite excited to be
a part of it."
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