South African players celebrate the dismissal of New Zealand's Neil Wagner during the day two of the first Test. Photo: Marty Melville/AFP
Johannesburg - The Proteas head coach Mark Boucher admitted Friday that even he couldn’t explain the dreadful performance produced by the players in the first two days of the opening Test against New Zealand.
“It’s been a tough two days, extremely disappointing. Especially after the series we had against India, I think there were high expectations from everyone,” Boucher said after the second day’s play at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
Everything that could go wrong has; from the toss, to the first innings with the bat, the display with the ball, the fielding and then the second innings with the bat in which South Africa were reduced to 4/3 by the start of the fifth over.
They trail New Zealand by 353 runs.
“I haven’t put my finger on it at the moment. I can see the energies are way below par and the results have shown that as well. We lost the toss, got behind the eight ball after the first session and we just haven’t been able to get back in the game. All three departments; batting, bowling and fielding have been very disappointing.”
For the second time in the match, South Africa lost its first wicket with a single figure on the board. Seven of the last 11 opening stands for SA have been worth less than 10 runs. Two others during that period were worth 10 and 14. The highest opening partnership in the last six Tests is 47, which came in the second innings against India at the Wanderers. “Sometimes you go through bad periods in your game, it’s a lack of confidence. The wickets we have played on have been tough especially for opening batters, with the new ball. There are a few different things; certain guys’ personal form is not where they want it to be, and that has definitely added to it, and not only to the opening partnership, but certainly also the whole top order.”
Aiden Markram would have come into this series knowing he was under pressure for his position, but scores of 15 in the first innings and then 2 in the second, means he now will face even more scrutiny ahead of the second Test next week.
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The 27-year-old, who is playing in his 30th Test, last made a century a year ago in Rawalpindi and in his last 10 innings’ is averaging 9.7.
It’s not as if South Africa doesn’t have options, with Ryan Rickelton, the most in-form batter in this season’s domestic four-day competition, in the squad. Boucher contradicted selection convenor Victor Mpitsang, by stating Rickelton’s home form, meant he wasn’t only viewed as a wicketkeeper/batter. Mpitsang said Thursday that Rickelton, who is averaging 118.25 for the Lions in the four-day competition, wasn’t considered for the extra batting position that opened up with the dropping of Keshav Maharaj for this Test, because, “Rickelton is the back-up keeper/batter, Zubby (Hamza) was there as the replacement batter once Keegan (Petersen) couldn’t go.” Petersen missed the tour to New Zealand after testing positive for Covid-19.
“He is not,” said Boucher when asked if Rickelton only offered cover as a wicketkeeper. “Ryan’s been scoring quite a few runs in domestic cricket to warrant him being here as a batter replacement as well.”
“The batting lineup we went with - we felt the opening berth was something that had to be looked at. Sarel Erwee’s been in the (squad) on quite a few different tours, he’s been waiting and we felt that was the position to get another guy in. And then there was the sixth batter and we decided to go with Zubs, that’s just how we felt the line-up needed to be.”
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