No reasonable cricket fan would have expected the Proteas to beat New Zealand. However, losing within three days and in the manner they did was pathetic, writes RYAN VREDE.
Just over a month ago, the Proteas were celebrating a Test series victory over the No 1-ranked India. They achieved that by coming back from 1-o down, building their rebound off resilience, skill, talent, temperament, patience and highly effective gameplans.
The cricket world celebrated them, and their leaders told the cricket world that this side always had it in them. Those leaders rebuked the media who had been critical of their performances in Test cricket leading into that series, subtly questioning their competency.
Now, this. I write this column while the Test should be in progress. Instead, the Proteas crumbled to an innings and 276-run defeat, the second-biggest defeat in South African Test cricket history, within two-and-a-half hours of day three.
It is a giant step backward.
One struggles to see where a rebuttal, the likes of what was seen at the Wanderers and Newlands against India, will come from, such was the depth of the Proteas’ impotence. This New Zealand side is better than that India one. And this Proteas side, without Keegan Petersen, isn’t as good as the one that bounced back against India.
Their troubles run deep but are primarily rooted in their batting.
It is incredibly disturbing that 13 of the 20 wickets that fell came from edges to the wicketkeeper or slip cordon. It speaks to a technical deficiency against the swinging ball. Elite Test batters should not have this depth of struggle, even against the quality that the Black Caps attack possesses.
Their first- and second-innings totals combined were less than half of New Zealand’s first innings’ 482. Batting won the series against India. Batting has now denied them a series victory over New Zealand.
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It would be remiss not to celebrate New Zealand. They were excellent. They look like a side who internalised the shock home defeat by Bangladesh in January, acknowledged that they had lacked the requisite respect for their opponents and, more broadly, the game, and set a course to improve. This, they have.
By contrast, the Proteas looked like a side who believed that victory over India had elevated them into the company of the format’s elite. It hasn’t. The gulf in quality between them and their hosts couldn’t be wider.
The next Test starts on Friday and an immense amount of work will have to be done to remedy their deficiencies. The coaching staff, who were rightfully praised in the wake of the India series victory, have to be accountable for this performance. A team’s success rises and falls on leadership.
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Head coach Mark Boucher attributed the performance to a lack of energy.
“We just haven’t come out and given the energy that’s expected of us. I can see the energies are way below par,” he said on Friday.
I have a lot of sympathy for athletes who are subjected to brutal quarantine periods in hotel rooms. That process must be extremely taxing mentally and physically, and to expect them to perform at optimal levels just days after exiting is unreasonable.
But this? There is no excuse for this. This is an embarrassment.
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The Proteas’ goal at the start of the season must have been to close the gap on the top-four Test teams. That process started superbly with a victory over India. However, with the manner of this defeat, it feels as if they are close to where they started.
There is a Test series against England on the horizon, and Australia lies in wait thereafter. In this context, this was always going to be a defining year for the Proteas.
But they can’t look beyond next Friday, where an exponential improvement must be made to redress their mauling in Christchurch.
