Following the recent Testsin India, here’s a look back on the tour and review of what was learned from the India vs South Africa series.
Lessons learned from India vs South Africa
- On their own soil, India are still an incredibly difficult nut to crack
Playing India in India is one of the biggest challenges on the international Test cricket calendar. Losing a series in India is not a disgrace, despite it being South Africa’s first away reversal since a tour of Sri Lanka in 2006.
They are not alone in travelling to India and struggling to compete in the last decade. South Africa themselves are the last team to record even a Test match victory as they did in a drawn series in 2009/10, while the last time India lost a home Test series (other than the defeat at the hands of England in 2012-13) was in the 2004/05 match up with Australia.
Clearly the influence of pitch conditions, the proliferation of talented batsmen and the stream of spinners spear-headed over the last decade by the likes of Anil Kumble and Harbajhan Singh makes cricket in India a daunting proposition. What this series tells us is that that the old guard may have moved on but the new breed of Indian cricketer is just as difficult to overcome, and led by an aggressive and motivated Virat Kohli they will continue to be so.
2) Without Dale Steyn, South Africa are a tamer beast
If your best quick bowler, who happens to be one of the world’s best, pulls up in the first of a four-match Test series then you are going to struggle. Forget the nature of the surfaces, Steyn has proved himself overseas and on the sub-continent. His injury, and the psychological impact that would have had on his own team, would have been significant.
Add in the additional loss of Vernon Philander and the fast bowling resources were severely tested. Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott ran in with plenty of heart and managed to get some life out of some pretty lifeless surfaces, from a fast bowling perspective, but the lack of a world class spinner really haunted them.
Imran Tahir was too inconsistent and that Dean Elgar took a career best 4-56 in the first Test, to put India momentarily on the back foot, simply highlighted the inability of Tahir and to a lesser extent, Simon Harmer, to deliver.
Tahir is a match winner when he is confident but his tendency to release any pressure with frequent poor deliveries meant that Amla could never rely on him for long periods. He only bowled 95 overs across the four Tests, which is indicative of that, although he did finish as South Africa’s leading bowler with 14 wickets.
South Africa have relied heavily on the likes of Steyn, Philander and Morkel to spearhead their attack in recent years with spinners playing a much more subdued role. Back in South Africa, where they host England, Australia, New Zealand Sri Lanka in 2016, their attack is a different proposition and their limited effectiveness in India can be ignored somewhat.
The squad announcement for that first series against England sees Tahir and Harmer not included with Dane Piedt selected as the only spinner – which firstly reflects on the perception of their performances in India but also indicates how heavily they will rely on the pace attack.
The injuries to Steyn (recently) and Philander (currently) and the volume of Test match cricket that South Africa is committed to over the next 12 months is significant. This will place pressure on resources and with a World T20 to play for too, both their returns to cricket will need to be handled carefully.
3) The South African top order has a soft underbelly
This shouldn’t surprise too many people given the experience in Test cricket that the new look top order has at the moment and the fact that four players had never toured India before. Totally reliant on the bedrock of Amla and de Villiers they were exposed to the turning ball on every occasion and failed to make a significant impression in any innings.
In a low-scoring series where a half century was passed only eight times by a batsman on either side (de Villiers made South Africa’s only two), Ashwin and Jadeja caused serious problems, both mentally and technically. Even Amla himself failed to average more than 20 across the series and with Duminy, du Plessis, Stiaan Van Zyl and Dane Vilas all averaging fewer than 15, South Africa never ever got themselves in a position to put any pressure on the hosts.
Putting India under greater pressure with the ball may have made things easier for South Africa when it came to batting – less close fielders, less runs to play with, greater urgency to take wickets. The reality though is that this is a relatively inexperienced line up; prior to the India series the top five (minus Amla and de Villiers) had just over 50 caps between them and Vilas had a solitary cap batting at seven in the order. Missing the likes of Jacques Kallis, Ashwell Prince, Jacques Rudolph and Graham Smith in recent years has put a much greater strain on Amla and de Villiers to make the majority of the runs.
The Test series against England coming up is now likely to be a battle between the two pace attacks, and all eyes will be on both sides to see how their top orders perform. Both are brittle and lack experience with key men out of form or lacking experience. Indeed South Africa’s immediate response to the defeat in India is to drop Vilas, make de Villiers keep wicket and bring in uncapped Rilee Rossouw.
4) India have world class spinners
Everyone knew this already but the utter dominance of the combined performance of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who took 34 wickets between them, was hugely impressive. Ashwin finished with four five wicket hauls and a fifth man of the series award, equalling the Indian record for this feat, albeit doing so in far less series (12), than Virender Sehwag (39) or Sachinj Tendulkar (74). More pertinently, Ashwin’s awards have come in five of the last six series that India have won, highlighting his importance.
Facing world class spinners, and there is no doubt that Ashwin is world class, irrespective of conditions, is a hard enough task for the best players in the world, but for an inexperienced line up hustled out of the first Test in less than 40 overs in the second innings, this was always going to be an incredibly tough challenge.
There is no doubt that conditions played a huge part in the outcome of this series, and specifically the speed at which pitches fell apart or spun appreciably from the first day. However, Ashwin’s control, the ability to build pressure and the support from a revitalised Jadeja at the other end meant that scoring runs became a risky business. The pair quite simply put a spell on the South African top order that became increasingly difficult to break. Mentally defeated by the prospect of facing either bowler, some of the decision making was then very ordinary.
There was no getting away from them either. Of the 482.3 overs bowled by India throughout the series, Ashwin and Jadeja combined to deliver 305.3 of them, a massive 63%.
5) Winning the toss in the sub-continent helps
This is to state the obvious but combine all the factors above together and then put South Africa at a disadvantage in all the meaningful Tests by having to bat last meant that the outcome wasn’t really too surprising (the one occasion that Virat Kohli chose to bowl first was heavily affected by the weather and only four sessions of play were possible). Amla must have been close to sending out a deputy to perform the function of calling correctly by the time the two sides arrived in Delhi.
Alastair Cook also found, to his peril, that losing the toss in the sub-continent is to put your side on the back foot almost immediately. Batting last in each of the three Tests, the only reason they escaped without a 3-0 whitewash was courtesy of a monumental 263 from the captain in the first Test.
Losing the toss and watching the very best of alien conditions being used by the home batsmen time after time is a soul destroying fate. It certainly got the better of South African morale.
6) The very best can adapt
It may have been in vain but the fourth innings blockathon to try to draw the last Test match of the series proved that whilst T20 cricket has been a huge hit with global audiences, it has not completely destroyed the art of a good forward defence. Strike rates have soared in one day cricket and players have developed a vast range of shots to take advantage of bat friendly rules and conditions.
De Villiers, who, in the past calendar year, made 100 in 31 balls against the West Indies in a one day international, batted for nearly 300 balls and six minutes short of six hours to make 43 while Amla managed an even slower strike rate from the 244 balls that he defied. Du Plessis’ most useful contribution of the series (10 from 97 balls) meant that the game extended into the final session.
The point is that only the very best can adapt to different conditions and perform in completely different ways in order to suit the situation. South Africa might not have survived but in batting nearly 150 overs they showed that concentration and a refusal to play shots can still be achieved in modern day cricket.
That de Villiers was the man to dominate that final day in the most notable rear-guard performances since Mike Atherton and Jack Russell in Johannesburg, 1995, highlights his extraordinary ability. He was the only South African in the top six run highest run scorers in the series, the only one to make more than 150 runs (he made 258), the only one to pass 50 in any innings. He faced more balls than any other of his team-mates (only Amla got close) and finished the series with the highest strike rate of any meaningful South Africa batsman (despite his mammoth effort in the last Test). The only player to score more runs than him in the series was Ajinkya Rahane, with 266, of which 227 came in the fourth Test.
De Villiers is a joy to watch at his lethal best and has taken many attacks to the sword, not forgetting that it was his three ODI centuries in five games against India earlier in the tour that led to a 3-2 series victory for the visitors.
His innings in Delhi to take South Africa close to salvaging a draw from a horrible Test series showed a mentality and determination to succeed, whatever the situation. It didn’t look pretty but it nearly saved a Test match they had no right to save.
Conclusion
Don’t read too much into this defeat. India at home is a serious proposition. Yes, this was the first away series defeat that South Africa have suffered for a decade but with an inexperienced batting order, particularly in those conditions and facing brilliant spin bowling, and without the attacking threat from spin bowling in reply, they simply weren’t a credible opposition.
Come the first Test in Durban on the 26th December it will be an entirely different encounter and a different South Africa. However, the mental scars might still be there and there is definitely fragility at the top of the order. The major questions will be whether England can exploit that and whether their own batsmen can overcome the South Africa attack.
