Proteas - down, but not out
With the series in India lost, SA's attention switches to the next challenge on the horizon. England are coming.
|||With the series in India lost, South Africa’s attention switches to the next challenge on the horizon. The English are coming, and they will have been heartened by what they saw happen in India.
But, as South Africa will no doubt point out when they return home tomorrow, playing in Durban instead of Delhi is proverbial chalk and paneer.
They will return home wounded by the defeat, but they would also have learned many lessons.
Dale Steyn is already home. The spearhead, injured for pretty much the entire Test series, had been sent off early, in the hope that he can finally shake off the groin strain that has kept him from playing a decisive role in his last Test tour of India.
Leaving India without making a mark has hurt him, but his absence also opened the door for others to step up. Morne Morkel was exemplary, displaying new tricks in his armoury, and leading with passion and persistence.
Beside him, Kagiso Rabada has learnt more in two months than in the previous five years of his budding career.
The rest he earned in the final Test would have given him a chance to reflect and look ahead to what is around the corner.
Perhaps most intriguingly, Kyle Abbott also emerged from this trip with his reputation enhanced, with his T20 form at the beginning supplemented by an SOS starring role in the final Test, with a second five-wicket haul at this level.
“My brother asked me which one meant more - this one, or the seven on debut. The debut was obviously special for many reasons, but this one was under totally different conditions, and I needed to show other skills,” Abbott explained.
“A lot of people may have questioned my ability and, hopefully, this performance has put those doubts to bed. It was tough, physically, especially late in the day, but you get your rewards if you keep asking questions.”
Abbott’s franchise form has consistently asked questions of the national selectors and he knows that there is another summer of competition for places coming up.
Durban is next on the agenda and the manner in which ‘The Replacements’ (Abbott, Dane Piedt and Temba Bavuma) performed in the final Test, suggests that the Proteas’ selection panel are in for long evenings ahead of the opening Test on Boxing Day.
“I was very chuffed for Dane, and you could see what those wickets meant to him, after what he has been through over the last 12 to 18 months.
“The same with Temba - he has come in and made a difference and it was a pity he couldn’t kick on and get a big one,” Abbott said.
The same sentiments apply for him, too, as he battles for a slot in the pace battery for the first Test. Steyn could be fit, Vernon Philander is unlikely to be, and Rabada will be rested. Abbott, who has more than taken his chance in Delhi, knows only too well that nothing can be taken for granted in international cricket.
He knows only too well that there is a block-buster on his home patch in a few weeks. On the basis of his efforts in this final Test, it would be a brutal call to cull him ahead of the Kingsmead cracker.
But, Abbott has been down this road before! - The Star