Proteas are wary of a struggling but ‘mercurial’ Pakistan

Chennai — With the Proteas deep into  the most hectic part of their round-robin schedule, it wasn’t at all surprising that just eight players chose to attend Thursday evening’s optional training session at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Including Tuesday’s match in Mumbai against Bangladesh, the Proteas play four matches in 13 days, a demanding schedule whatever the circumstances, but made that much tougher with the vast travel across India involved. 

On top of that, their opponents on Friday, Pakistan, are journeying towards the last chance saloon, in a tournament which, following two weeks of tedium, is finally filled with jeopardy. 

SA are not vulnerable yet, but are understandably wary of taking their foot off the pedal lest they get dragged into what is turning into a dogfight for the semifinal spots. 

The Proteas will welcome back captain Temba Bavuma, who said he was feeling “close to normal physically” after a bout of gastric illness. Friday’s team will also contain wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, and which of the quick bowlers will sit out will be decided after a final assessment of the pitch.

SA suspects it will spin, which is the way at this venue. In their win against Pakistan here on Monday, the Afghanistanis bowled 38 overs of spin. The Proteas are relying heavily on bowling coach Eric Simons, who has been on the Chennai Super Kings coaching staff for almost a decade. 

“With his experience, obviously from having coached in this part of the world, there’s a lot of nuggets of gold that are coming from Eric,” said Bavuma. Simons would have sat in many team meetings in which MS Dhoni, the wily Chennai skipper, would have formulated plans to spin opposing teams in knots.

Besides the frontline duo of Shamsi and Maharaj, it would come as no surprise if Aiden Markram, whose off-breaks have hitherto been unused, were to play a part with the ball as well. 

For their part, Pakistan’s spinners have struggled throughout this tournament. All four of them are averaging over 90, which isn’t helping a bowling unit that overall has lacked penetration. 

Still, Bavuma remains wary of them. “I saw one report that described them as ‘mercurial’. I had to Google what that meant. It spoke about how a team can be good one day and not so good the other day. So, we want to make sure that when they’re good, we are good as well.” 

The Proteas’ record against Pakistan in International Cricket Council ODI events is not a dominant one. SA have won three of the five World Cup matches, but those two defeats have come in the last two tournaments; in Auckland in 2015, when Pakistan also with their backs to the wall, unleashed all manner of fast bowling fury to successfully defend 222, while at Lord’s in 2019, a battered and bruised Proteas were smashed by 49 runs. 

“I had them as one of the top four teams at the end of the group stages,” said Bavuma.  

For all their problems, which aren’t helped by being confined to their hotel rooms for security reasons — which players from other teams don’t have to endure — Friday’s is the type of match when Pakistan can catch fire.

“With everything that is happening around their team, the things that are not happening well for them, I think that humbles us as a team and it really gets us, I guess, to just pull ourselves back and make sure that we still focus on playing good cricket,” said Bavuma.