‘We don’t want to lose series’

The South African all-rounder stresses that the home side is looking forward instead of bothering itself with the disappointments of the previous Test

If you’re an Indian cricket fan, you know what it feels like to be caught at the short end of the stick. If you’re an Indian cricket scribe, the depressing stories of failure and doom evoke a sense of déjà vu.

It’s interesting, therefore, to be on the happier side of things then and observe the pictures of hopelessness that are being drawn for the rivals.

The South African team isn’t quite the flavour of the festive season here, at least not with the pundits. Their loss to India in Johannesburg has provided enough fodder for the analysts to chew on. Team selection, top-order batting and even the much-touted bowling attack has come under criticism. Nothing seems to be taste right about the hosts’ situation when experts, including their chief national selector Haroon Lorgat, had predicted a very Christmas pudding-ish outcome to the Test series.

Even the weather wasn’t giving them any cheer on Sunday, when the day’s humidity translated into an afternoon shower just at the time the Proteas were scheduled to practice. Indoor nets could only cater to the batsmen so their bowlers, including the recuperating Dale Steyn, would have to wait for Monday, and hopefully fair weather, to give their much-rested muscles a work-out. The buzz surrounding their line-up is change.

Herschelle Gibbs, it is being speculated, may well bat down the order to give the in-form AB De Villiers a go at the top along with the run-parched Graeme Smith. Their selector, in fact, is taking no chances and was seen in deep discussion with coach Mickey Arthur at the grounds on a day when most of South Africa was holidaying.

But it is that time of the year, and the South Africans have really no other choice, to be positive. The phlegmatic Shaun Pollock, former captain and war veteran, simply shrugged the criticism aside as merely “good stories” and “media talk”.

“It is not often that we have fallen behind. We have done very well in South Africa over the years. It’s always there in the back of our minds that we don’t want to lose the series,” he said on Sunday. “We need to level the series here, go on to Cape Town and hopefully win there. It’s big and I know the guys are motivated. We are feeling very positive in the change room at the moment. We had good nets yesterday and are looking forward to two more days’ preparation and then the game starting. We normally play very well here in Durban.”

Durban is also Pollock’s hometown and that can only be an added incentive apart from the task of salvaging pride. “From a personal perspective, I am ready to go. I have a lot of confidence from the way I bowled at the Wanderers. I am playing in my home ground now, staying at home, so that’s fantastic. And having to play a big part in trying to get us back in the series, there comes the motivation from my point of view,” he said. “From the team’s side, it is very much the same. We are disappointed at having lost the Test - it was a severe blow for us. It damaged our pride a little bit, so we are very keen to set the record straight.”

The disappointments, he said, are many. “We are quite disappointed on the bowling front, we could have done better. On the batting side, to be knocked out for 84 is just unheard of for South African sides, especially back home. Well, there are a lot of disappointments but we haven’t focused too much on that. We are moving forward now,” he said. “It is a different kind of wicket, so what we discussed there doesn’t really count for this.”

Does this wicket, then, have room for a spinner, for instance left-arm spinner Paul Harris? “I am not too sure whether he will or won’t play. I think that decision will be made after having a look at the weather, see if it is still hot and whether the wicket will break up. But when we get to Cape Town, I think it will be definite there,” he said. The attack, as it is, has enough variety, according to Pollock.

“You can’t call it one-dimensional at all. If you look at the five that played at the Wanderers, we have got the sheer pace of Dale Steyn who shapes it away, Makhaya Ntini shapes it in, Andre Nel is a tall bowler who has got a different action, myself, I am the sort of the guy who hits areas and Jacques Kallis is a genuine away-swing bowler, so if that’s lacking variation, then I would hate to see a combination that has got variation,” he said.

“When things don’t work out, people start to look and analyse and come up with maybe a bit of media talk or explanations for why it was not effective. Probably, the only thing missing was a spinner.”

Whether that will or not be changed for Durban, what must alter is the fortunes of a side in distress.