Indians fans have been blessed to see Test cricket’s pantheon on home soil with the exception of Don Bradman and there are a vast number of the old faithful who regret not watching a vintage Bradman wield his willow. The first Australian team visited in 1956, under the captaincy of Ian Johnson, eight years after the greatest modern Test batsman’s retirement.
By and large, fans spread over many decades have been able to witness some of the greatest players, who have produced thundering knocks and done remarkable feats with the ball on India’s slow wickets.
There are at least two in the current South African team capable of lifting the profile of the four-Test series by delivering a high brand of cricket — the vibrant A.B. de Villiers and the hot-to-handle fast bowler Dale Steyn.
Skipper Hashim Amla, who has demonstrated a remarkable appetite to score heavily off the Indian bowlers, is poised to reach the milestone of crossing 1000 runs in India which only the likes of Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge and Matthew Hayden have achieved.
Redefining batting But the focus would be on how > de Villiers keeps himself busy at the crease ; he, along with New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum, have changed the concept of batting across all formats. Their refreshing idea to follow the same principle for Test, ODI and Twenty20 cricket has not escaped the notice of fans and de Villiers will be central to South Africa’s plans to subdue the home team in the Test series.
Previous South African greats like Herbie Taylor, Arthur Dudley Nourse, and Bruce Mitchell may not have any connect with the present generation of Indian fans, but Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards — though they did not get the opportunity to play in India — have a following because of accessible cricket literature.
South Africa’s finest cricket writer and historian Louis Duffus tells how Taylor followed Ranjitsinhji and Archie McLaren’s backplay method as against the coaching he received in school that emphasised on front-foot play.
Duffus also reveals that Nourse was a product of “natural surroundings” of lamp posts, street cricket and not in the traditional cricket nets and how Mitchell used a “dusty road, a thoroughfare on which there was very little traffic and close to a towering white sand of Johannesburg’s mine dump’’ to practice.
de Villiers is a product of modern coaching system and still, in the post Twenty20 and IPL era, a self-made batsman full of ideas that would evoke acknowledgment from both the purist and the post IPL follower of the game.
Just the other day, a commentator wondered how he managed to stretch his right foot towards point and still dispatched the ball to the boundary with a reverse hit.
Fluent century Last Saturday, he scored a fluent century against the Board President’s XI team, starting with a cut shot four. “I thought I bowled a good ball, he thought it was a bad ball; he under-cut the ball,” said seamer Shardul Thakur about the short conversation he had with de Villiers.
de Villiers, with only 372 runs in five Tests in India with 217 not out as his highest, has scored four centuries on this tour and promises more.
South African fast bowlers have taken 134 wickets in India and Steyn leads the list with 26 wickets at 20.23 in five Test matches and with seven for 51 at Nagpur as his best.
Steyn will have Morne Morkel to hunt as a pair as well as Vernon Philander and Kasigo Rabada.
Speedsters have taken more wickets at Mohali and that should be good news for the visitors. Indian fans have seen the likes of Allan ‘White Lightning’ Donald, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Makhya Ntini, Steyn and Morkel.
As de Villiers will look to score quick runs, Steyn will go for wickets with the new and old ball. It promises to be a great sight.
