INDIA TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2018

How do you play against South Africa? Ask Holding and Wessels

by Kaushik Rangarajan • Last updated on

When Virat Kohli and Co. travel to the Highveld for the second and the third Tests, they're unlikely to get any respite from pace. © AFP

A good hour and a half after the dust had settled on a fabulous Cape Town Test, South Africa coach Ottis Gibson came to the media box. He named Duanne Olivier as replacement for the injured Dale Steyn and then went ahead and added another fast bowler, Lungisani Ngidi to the squad. It was a statement. In the ensuing sparsely attended press conference, he all but suggested a four-man pace attack was the way forward for South Africa.

So, when Virat Kohli and Co. travel to the Highveld for the second and the third Tests, they're unlikely to get any respite from pace. Most certainly not from two of the fastest surfaces in the country. In his post-defeat assessment, the Indian captain suggested a more positive approach to batting - to take on their bowlers and force them to come back for second and third spells.

That doesn't necessarily translate to Kohli batting like how Hardik Pandya did in the first innings at Newlands. The easier analysis would be to say: "You'll have to counter-attack like AB de Villiers." Obviously, there's a need for more context. Any batsman who has made it as far as the starting 11 of the No.1 Test side clearly knows to bat. Not being able to, in this context, is not knowing how to attune oneself to the fluid set of circumstances that the game produces.

So, Kohli must do what he knows best. And ditto Vijay. Here, self knowledge is everything: "I remember Greg Chappell struggling against us [the pace quartet] in Australia once in the 80s," Michael Holding tells Cricbuzz. "He kept on getting low scores. And a journalist went up to him and said, 'Have you ever thought about just going out and throwing the bat at the ball to see if it works'. And Greg Chappell - in my opinion - gave the correct answer. He said, 'No. That is not what my training is. My training is to rely on my technique and hope to get a start and then to build my innings. Not to go like a madman and throw the bat at the ball.'"

Despite their short preparatory period heading into the series, India's batting training has been meticulous. It showed in the way Rohit Sharma batted on the second morning in Cape Town. Rohit allowed himself to be lulled into periods of stasis, an understandable reaction to the play stretching out before him, and yet also the response of a man who felt that his natural game may equal irresponsibility. Rohit allowed himself to be beaten by the unplayables all the while ensuring his hands weren't going away from the body. Twice he received leg-side freebies from Morkel but was unable to put them away. It cost his innings the proverbial momentum. Eventually, he was done in by a searing quick delivery that came back into him.

It was a technical hole four Indian batsmen dug themselves into. Murali Vijay also added a shuffle and was only reprieved by a DRS call when Philander brought one back. Wriddhiman Saha got out to the inswinger in the second innings. Most important of all, Kohli allowed himself to be setup with his single-minded focus on not nicking another away-going one.

"I think the key thing is to keep him [Kohli] quiet and to make sure you set him up for the other one," Philander said, deconstructing his method to dismiss Kohli. "It was about two and a half overs of away swingers and then one back into him. It was definitely a plan to keep him quiet and also to drag him across and make sure that when you do bowl the other one, he's on the other side of the off-stump."

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So how do you play an attack that is both relentless and has plans to out-think your preparations? And how do you do it from 0-1 down in the series. Kepler Wessels, the former South African captain, knows a thing or two. Playing for Australia in the 1984-85 home series against an attack of Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Courtney Walsh - Wessels made 13 and 0 in the first Test and just about survived the axe. He finished the series with 505 runs at an average of 56.11, a feat he remembers to date with pride despite his side losing the series 1-3.

"You've got to look to score against them," Wessels tells Cricbuzz. "Your mindset is going to be that you have to be physically very brave. So you're not going to mind if you get hit because that's part of the job. You've got to defend well, yes, but you also got to attack whenever you possibly can.

"Yes, Pujara plays differently. He is technically correct and he is patient. You need a guy like that in your lineup if you've got some flamboyant guys at the other end. So you need one or two of those guys.

"I don't think they did anything wrong. But I think going forward, they'll probably look to run more aggressively between the wickets, look to maximise the bad delivery a little bit more and look to maybe not just survive but score as well. Not quite to the extent of Hardik Pandya but to that thinking process."

Wessels goes on to offer a specific checklist on the practice against each kind of bowling threat India will face through the series.

"What you have to do is assess what they are going to bring to the game," he tells. "You know Morkel is going to bowl short, you have to practice letting the hands drop, leaving the ball well, watching carefully for the short ball. Somebody like Philander and Steyn, you know you are going to play on the front foot a lot. You got to leave well, you have to play late."

The scoring options become crucial too. "Absolutely, your scoring areas have to be planned. Against each bowler definitely. Against Morkel, you'll be looking to score off the cut shot on the backfoot. Philander, he doesn't give you much to hit, so you're going to be looking to leave well, make him bowl straight at you and be alert to score through the leg side. Rabada bowls a few short balls, so you'll be looking to play the cut shot again. That's how you have to assess the options."

Ajinkya Rahane has demonstrated how delicate the equilibrium of a batting order can be. Sometimes absence becomes a player like nothing else. At his best, Rahane was the insurance bank of the triumvirate he formed with Pujara and Kohli. His solidity and tempo - capable of attacking and defending - let the other two be themselves. Without him, India lacked the nuanced middle-order enforcer that is so crucial for these conditions.

Wessels had sympathy for Rahane. "Always thought he was a good player. He's got a good away record. I know he hasn't scored lately but I know as the next two Test matches come along, he will come into consideration. He must do. But that's the Indian selection. That's their thought process. But he's certainly a very good player."

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On paper, India's top-five managed a best score of 28. It was a big letdown to their ambitions of starting well. But it cannot be ridiculed for lack of effort or technical inadequacies. There's little shame in coming second to that four-man pace attack.

But India must believe that there's a way around even the best of attacks. Holding and Wessels have offered pointers. Gumption and scoring shot-selection are hardly rocket science but it could serve as timely reminders for a batting group that is in need of answers and then some.

© Cricbuzz

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