Reasons for South African misery against Indian wrist spinners

The ongoing six-match One-day International series between India and South Africa was chalked-out to be a contest between the number one and two sides in the world as far as 50-over format is concerned which saw South African batters had a dismal show.

The eagerly anticipated series has turned out to be a lop-sided contest with Indian basically steamrolling their opposition in all the matches they have played so far.

The reason behind the disparity is quite visible as the South African have failed to negotiate with the two wrist-spinners in the Indian camp, by the names of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

The duo ran through the South African batting order thrice this series without even breaking a sweat.

While Chahal clinched 11 wickets in the series by far, Kuldeep has bagged 10 wickets to go neck and neck with his partner in crime in the list of highest wicket-takers in the series.

Letting alone scoring runs off the two deadly spinners, the South Africans have failed to even survive in the last two ODIs — to see through their spells as they lost wickets to the two in heaps.

After the completion of third ODI in Cape Town, Yuzvendra-Kuldeep shared 21 scalps in first three matches.

Role of Team Analyst:

This means that even after three outings, the men in green are not able to figure out a way to cope with the spinners from the two. This is where the team analyst, Prasanna Agoram from Chennai, has to be proactive in collecting clips of the various range of deliveries.

The batters until now have played in the opposite direction of the ball which means that they have not done their homework properly.

Stand-in skipper Aiden Markram’s dismissal in the last match is a prime example of the statement mentioned above.

Emulation by Tahir and Shamsi as South African:

After reading all these variations from the two, such as the back of the hand deliveries, googlies, wrong ones and the traditional spinners, the likes of Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamzi could emulate the two Indians in the nets, so that the batsmen may get accustomed to their variations.

It is understandable that it is easier said than done because being a leggie and chinaman coupled with the discipline with which the impressive Indian duo bowl with would take years of practice from the likes of Tahir and Shamsi.

Use of feet and crease:

With the two South African trying to emulate Chahal and Kuldeep, the batsmen may get accustomed to the line and length of the deliveries by using their feet and the crease.

Clearly, the Proteans do not have the courage to step out of the crease or play from behind.

Tahir himself may be accused of bowling in defensive trajectories. Therefore, it won’t hurt for the leggie to give in some flight in the nets and emulate the same against the Indian batsmen during match situation because clearly, Tahir is afraid to toss it up against the visitors.

Unorthodox and counter-attacking cricket:

The other method to negotiate with the two wrist spinners in the upcoming matches is to unsettle their rhythm upfront with some unorthodox batting.

This is where South Africa has been missing the services of their ace batsman AB de Villiers who always has a few tricks up his sleeves to counter-attack under grim circumstances.

Hopefully, with him back for the ‘Pink ODI’ the rest of the South African middle order can pick up few clues as to how to cope up with the Indian wrist spinners.

Offering wickets for wrist spinners in South Africa:

The Rainbow Nation has traditionally been known to provide tracks assisting the hit-the-deck kind of fast bowlers. However, the adept of the Indian spinner even the conditions of South Africa has clearly surprised the hosts.

Which tells us that the South African management still hasn’t learnt from South Africa’s torrid series against India back in 2015 where spin caused a considerable amount of carnage.

Perhaps, the focus should be on creating tracks which could assist all forms of bowlers and not a certain kind of them.

More subcontinental ‘A’ tours:

The last remedy for South Africa to avoid such embarrassments would be to send their ‘A’ team frequently to places like Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka such that they have enough expertise to deal with spinners, apart from the quicks.

Here you could read about AB de Villiers: AB de Villiers – the superman of modern era for South African cricket