South Africa's early Super Six strategy (2 June1999)

2 June 1999

South Africa's early Super Six strategy

Trevor Chesterfield

LONDON - As England contemplate an immediate bleak future without the World Cup in their sights and work towards rebuilding their side for the tour of South Africa later this year, Hansie Cronje is already plotting the next step in the Super Six stages.

Not that he said much which was not already known yesterday as the side, having planned an afternoon in the nets at Lord's found themselves reduced to 90 minutes session of throwdowns because of the blustery and wet May spillover into June. And this after the offer of an indoor net facility in Finchley, in the north of this sprawling city was politely turned down.

Indoor nets other than those at Lord's and The Oval are not what you have come to expect of places such as SuperSport Centurion. Which is why Cronje and Co felt it wiser to have session of throwdowns than subject the players to the erratic bounce of a surface as eccentric as your average Scottish lowlands narrow road in need of repair.

Cronje, in assessing the strengths of the side, felt the match with the new World Cup favourites, Pakistan, was going to be a key outing for both. He also agreed both would be looking for a victory, not so much to take the points through to the next round as that is not possible because it is the semi-final but as a form of some psychological edge.

It is, as Bob Woolmer points out, where winning becomes the cutting edge of the tournament. No words of comfort at all, you lose and you are out and it is, sadly for those who lose, time to go home. No doubt he is hoping that the one bad game syndrome is now out of the South African team's system. "I'm pleased (losing to Zimbabwe) happened now. It would have been terrible in the semi-final," said Woolmer. "But in going through with two points we know what we have to do."

Which says a lot but nothing at all if you listen to some of the older sages such as former Australian captain Allan Border who feels South Africa are serious contenders although he would prefer to see Lance Klusener moved up the order to six, which means batting ahead of Jonty Rhodes. Not a bad idea if you feel that the Natal all-rounder is the only South African to score consistently.

One argument is that he should also bat ahead of Cronje who has done little in the way of run-scoring this tournament, although he has taken more wickets than say Shaun Pollock.

Klusener is still second among the wicket takers with 15 and comes in at 12 among the top run-scorers with 164 in four innings and a top-score of 54 not out; he has not been the most economical among the South Africans, that honour belongs to Steve Elworthy. Yet South Africa's ability to contain sides over the final 10 overs: in five matches they conceded 217 runs at 4.34 to Pakistan's 236 at 4.72.

South Africa are third, however, when it comes to the beefing up the run rate in the final 10 overs of an innings: 5.94 compared to 8.30 by Pakistan and India 8.20. Bottom of that heap are England at 3.98.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield, Pretoria News