NEIL MANTHORP: Super Giants snooker themselves over De Kock and Klaasen
Their two best batsmen should be batting in their customary positions higher up the order
21 January 2025 - 05:00
byNeil Manthorp
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Quinton de Kock in action. Picture: FRANCIS MASCARENHAS
A few seasons ago in a domestic T20 match, when Jos Buttler was at the peak of his form and striking at about 180 in the Power Play, unencumbered by captaincy, he faced only five of the first 24 balls of an innings. It seemed highly unfortunate for his team but it actually had very little to do with fortune.
The opposition’s strategy team had planned the Power Play meticulously to deny Buttler the strike. Plans can go wrong but this time they didn’t. Every ball from each of the bowlers was delivered in exactly the right place and Buttler’s opening partner hit each one where he was supposed to, especially the last delivery of the first three overs — for singles.
It is even said that Buttler’s partner was provided with an opportunity to hit a boundary from the fifth ball of the first three overs because it increased the chance of him taking a single off the final ball and keeping the strike — and keeping Buttler away from it. The fielders surreptitiously dropped a little deeper.
It is not uncommon for specialist “hitters” and “finishers” to decline singles in the company of tail-enders at the back end of an innings to face more balls themselves and increase the likelihood of boundaries, but nobody would have the balls to do that to their opening partner. (Excuse the pun.) The theory was that, as good a player as he was, he couldn’t hurt them as much as Buttler might in the first six overs.
As formulaic and prescriptive as T20 cricket may seem, and as forgettable as the results can be, much subtlety and nuance goes on behind the scenes, far too subtle and nuanced for most of us to see, never mind understand. Sometimes, however, you can’t help wondering whether tactics aren’t just too subtle for us, but far too clever for the teams themselves.
Lateral thinking is to be encouraged and applauded, even when it doesn’t work or goes wrong. For every good idea there may be 10 bad ones. The man who invented the first domestic vacuum cleaner built 5,000 prototypes before he got it right (or something like that.)
The key to success in cricket may be the courage to go back to the drawing board and start again, recognise when you’ve headed down a rabbit hole.
I once, briefly, persuaded Mickey Arthur to consider doing without a wicketkeeper in the closing overs of a T20 match on a flat pitch. Who needs one? Move fine leg finer and he can field the bye if the batter misses the ball. Put the ’keeper in a run-saving and catching position at gully. It was ridiculous, of course, and it didn’t take Arthur long to reach that conclusion. But nobody was harmed.
This column is the Durban Super Giants’ fault. It is hard not to wonder whether they are over-thinking things. Who are their two best batsmen? Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen. Where has De Kock scored more than 10,000 T20 runs? As an opener. And where has Klaasen batted for most of his 5,000 runs at a strike rate of 150? At No 4 or 5. Right.
De Kock started the SA20 at No 3 for the Super Giants before moving to No 4. Klaasen started at No 5 before moving to 6 and, in the most recent game during a spectacular collapse against the Sunrisers, he was “saved” until No 7 when there wasn’t anybody worthwhile left to bat with.
The problems may have started well before the season began — at the auction and other “secret” player recruitment events. Jamaican opener Brandon King was hired and Matthew Breetzke is also an opener. New Zealander Kane Williamson, for all his brilliance, is a slow starter so he needs to get in early — No 3.
Then comes the now super-fashionable obsession with left hand/right hand combinations and matchups pitting the “right” batsmen against their most suitable bowlers — Klaasen against the spinners, for example. And you also want Klaasen at the crease in the “death” overs, because there’s nobody better. So, he isn’t sent in too early, in case he gets out ...
DSG have lost their last three matches scoring 141 all out, 107 all out and 115/8. They have two games this week atKingsmead before finishing with three on the road to try to make the play-offs. It may be time to put De Kock back at the top of the order and keep Klaasen at No 4. Maybe ask the 30-year-old Jamaican with an average of 26 whether he minds batting at 5 or, better still, Breetzke.
It’s a team game after all, the experimenting hasn’t worked and now there are games to be won. But well done for trying something different.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
NEIL MANTHORP: Super Giants snooker themselves over De Kock and Klaasen
Their two best batsmen should be batting in their customary positions higher up the order
A few seasons ago in a domestic T20 match, when Jos Buttler was at the peak of his form and striking at about 180 in the Power Play, unencumbered by captaincy, he faced only five of the first 24 balls of an innings. It seemed highly unfortunate for his team but it actually had very little to do with fortune.
The opposition’s strategy team had planned the Power Play meticulously to deny Buttler the strike. Plans can go wrong but this time they didn’t. Every ball from each of the bowlers was delivered in exactly the right place and Buttler’s opening partner hit each one where he was supposed to, especially the last delivery of the first three overs — for singles.
It is even said that Buttler’s partner was provided with an opportunity to hit a boundary from the fifth ball of the first three overs because it increased the chance of him taking a single off the final ball and keeping the strike — and keeping Buttler away from it. The fielders surreptitiously dropped a little deeper.
It is not uncommon for specialist “hitters” and “finishers” to decline singles in the company of tail-enders at the back end of an innings to face more balls themselves and increase the likelihood of boundaries, but nobody would have the balls to do that to their opening partner. (Excuse the pun.) The theory was that, as good a player as he was, he couldn’t hurt them as much as Buttler might in the first six overs.
As formulaic and prescriptive as T20 cricket may seem, and as forgettable as the results can be, much subtlety and nuance goes on behind the scenes, far too subtle and nuanced for most of us to see, never mind understand. Sometimes, however, you can’t help wondering whether tactics aren’t just too subtle for us, but far too clever for the teams themselves.
Lateral thinking is to be encouraged and applauded, even when it doesn’t work or goes wrong. For every good idea there may be 10 bad ones. The man who invented the first domestic vacuum cleaner built 5,000 prototypes before he got it right (or something like that.)
The key to success in cricket may be the courage to go back to the drawing board and start again, recognise when you’ve headed down a rabbit hole.
I once, briefly, persuaded Mickey Arthur to consider doing without a wicketkeeper in the closing overs of a T20 match on a flat pitch. Who needs one? Move fine leg finer and he can field the bye if the batter misses the ball. Put the ’keeper in a run-saving and catching position at gully. It was ridiculous, of course, and it didn’t take Arthur long to reach that conclusion. But nobody was harmed.
This column is the Durban Super Giants’ fault. It is hard not to wonder whether they are over-thinking things. Who are their two best batsmen? Quinton de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen. Where has De Kock scored more than 10,000 T20 runs? As an opener. And where has Klaasen batted for most of his 5,000 runs at a strike rate of 150? At No 4 or 5. Right.
De Kock started the SA20 at No 3 for the Super Giants before moving to No 4. Klaasen started at No 5 before moving to 6 and, in the most recent game during a spectacular collapse against the Sunrisers, he was “saved” until No 7 when there wasn’t anybody worthwhile left to bat with.
The problems may have started well before the season began — at the auction and other “secret” player recruitment events. Jamaican opener Brandon King was hired and Matthew Breetzke is also an opener. New Zealander Kane Williamson, for all his brilliance, is a slow starter so he needs to get in early — No 3.
Then comes the now super-fashionable obsession with left hand/right hand combinations and matchups pitting the “right” batsmen against their most suitable bowlers — Klaasen against the spinners, for example. And you also want Klaasen at the crease in the “death” overs, because there’s nobody better. So, he isn’t sent in too early, in case he gets out ...
DSG have lost their last three matches scoring 141 all out, 107 all out and 115/8. They have two games this week at Kingsmead before finishing with three on the road to try to make the play-offs. It may be time to put De Kock back at the top of the order and keep Klaasen at No 4. Maybe ask the 30-year-old Jamaican with an average of 26 whether he minds batting at 5 or, better still, Breetzke.
It’s a team game after all, the experimenting hasn’t worked and now there are games to be won. But well done for trying something different.
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