South Africa primed for opening game (14 May 1999)

14 May 1999

South Africa primed for opening game

Trevor Chesterfield

LONDON - As South Africa carefully plot what they hope will be the downfall of India in their opening World Cup game at Hove today they were also working on a plan to curb the batting genius of Sachin Tendulkar.

There is no doubt both sides possibly took some comfort from what they saw at Lord's yesterday as their Group A rivals, England and Sri Lanka battled through the showers in a disappointing opening of this year's limited-overs tournament, labelled "Carnival of Cricket".

But for South Africa, favourites at 5/2 to win the event the real work begins today as nine months of team rebuilding and fine tuning were rounded off with the emphasis today designed to minimise Tendulkar's batting influence on the game.

Much of this has to do with the bowlers paying special attention to a couple of ploys designed to control the strokeplay of the little magician who can thwart the plans of the captain Hansie Cronje and coach Bob Woolmer to start their campaign with a victory flourish.

For one thing, careful attention has been given to the fielding in the inner ring during the first 15 overs where Tendulkar has, in past matches with South Africa, shown certain vulnerability. Whether it will be the swing of Jacques Kallis, likely to share the new ball with Shaun Pollock, who can upset the normally fluent strokeplay, or Pollock's late movement is another matter.

The off-cutter has also undone Tendulkar in any number of innings, but late away swing, of which Kallis is starting to master, has often created doubt in the Indian batsmen's mind, sewing the seeds of the sort of destruction which has often crippled any number of world-class batsmen.

We saw it enough during the West Indies tour of South Africa where Brian Lara was undone as much by careful bowling strategy as the batsman's own arrogance and ego.

As it is a confident Indian captain, Mohammad Azharuddin has his own clear views on how he sees the challenge today. Should India bat first he would be looking for a total in excess of 230 to 240. Just the sort he feels which can be defended by his bowling attack with Javagal Srinath the spearhead.

Not the sort of skipper to look for a comfort zone in the close encounters you get at limited-overs level, Azhar does not want his openers, Tendulkar and his likely partner Sadagopan Ramesh, to blitz 50 of the first eight overs and then see the top-order crumble. It has happened often enough: too often for the canny Indian captain.

He would rather see 80 on the board without losing a wicket after 15 overs than be at 100 for four.

"It serves no purpose, if we are to build any sort of target to set South Africa, to lose wickets needlessly just because of the fielding restrictions," he commented. "I would prefer a solid, steady start to the innings.

"We are here to win, not earn second prize. No one remembers who lost, just who won and we are all too aware of that side of it," he added.

Which is a fair argument. He has captained more limited-overs internationals than most and knows his players better than most. It is possibly the reason he declined to issue a final side. The powerful left-hander Saurav Ganguly could be Tendulkar's partner if the weather is such the ball is not going to swing too much. But South Africa's attack is based on swing and seam in which case Romesh may be preferred.

While South Africa's game plan is carefully worked out, Cronje and Woolmer are all too aware of the need to improvise with the bowling as well as the batting. We have seen enough in two warm-up matches which saw the all-too professional approach by a side dedicated to excellence and perfection.

Source :: Trevor Chesterfield