JP under pressure
JP Duminy’s Test career is in danger of ending with a whimper.
|||JP Duminy’s Test career is in danger of ending with a whimper.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2008 must seem a long, long time ago for the smooth, elegant left-hander. That majestic innings of 166 remains his highest Test score, but in 33 Test since he’s added just three more centuries.
Heading into the Centurion Test against New Zealand, his average has dipped below 32 and when AB de Villiers returns Duminy is the most likely candidate to fall out of the South African starting team.
Eight years ago it was very different, Duminy was pushing hard for a spot in the playing XI, worrying many of the starting players back then who could see his potential when they watched him in the nets. He’d travelled with the team for almost three years before that trip to Australia and a very bright future beckoned.
His first two Tests were the stuff dreams are made of - he scored the winning runs in a record run chase against Australia in Perth and then came that remarkable innings at the MCG, which saw him first rescue the team from a precarious situation and then put them in a position from which they won the Test and the series. In Test terms for Duminy - it’s been downhill ever since.
His last Test hundred was scored two years ago - against Sri Lanka in Galle - he averages 17.38 since then and has made just one half-century, against Zimbabwe.
That one so talented should struggle as Duminy does in Test cricket is hard to fathom. And the reasons aren’t easy to isolate. He’s had problems with off-spinners, which can happen to a left hand batsman with the ball turning away from the bat. It appears that he’s allowed that problem to build pressure on other parts of his game.
Last week given the chance at No 4 and he looked solid, played some lovely strokes down the ground but then, having seemingly settled at the crease threw his wicket away with a very poorly executed pull, falling into a very conspicuous trap set by New Zealand.
Given his experience it was the kind of error Duminy should not be making and is perhaps indicative of a mental state in which he’s struggling to find where he’s best suited to playing for South Africa.
Being dropped for the Newlands Test last summer hurt and Duminy on that occasion went away and made a double hundred on a flat pitch in Paarl. He returned for the final Test at Centurion but he failed to grasp that opportunity making 16 and 29. In the meanwhile Temba Bavuma has moved past him.
Where to from here for the 32 year old?
The cross-roads of his Test career seemed to come last summer when he was dropped. Now he’s standing on the edge of a cliff and if he doesn’t take the opportunity to make a major contribution at Centurion in the second Test starting this Saturday may well find himself surplus to requirements in the Test team.
* SuperSport Park is honouring South Africa’s troops as part of the venue’s 30-year anniversary. Spectators have been encouraged to wear camo gear for the first day’s play on Saturday.
Weekend tickets range from R60 to R100. Scholars will pay R40 for tickets on the grass embankment. Tickets are available through ticketpro.co.za - The Star