The Centurion Park has turned out to be a fortress for the South African team. Since November 1995 when the home team led by Hansie Cronje and England led by Michael Atherton played the first Test at the new venue, the local fans have not seen its team beaten more than two times. South Africa has played 26 Tests at this venue, and won 21 for a success percentage of 80.77. It lost to England in 2000 and to Australia in 2014. It has won the last seven Tests there hands down.
India have played two Tests there; the first one in December 2010 when it lost by an innings and 25 runs and the second one almost four years ago when it went down by 135 runs. The fast bowlers responsible to bring down India were Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada.
Fast bowlers have generally had a jolly good time at this venue; on Friday India vice-captain KL Rahul talked about the peculiar behaviour of the pitch at the Centurion which is not far from the Wanderers in Johannesburg. Rahul said that four years ago, the surface was slow initially before “quickening and again becoming slow. He also said that South African cricket history reveals that the new ball plays a big part.
The South African pacemen have taken 664 wickets at the Centurion at 28.10; the visiting fast bowlers have taken 245 wickets at 37.88. India’s fast bowlers have been at the receiving end taking 15 wickets at 50.40.
Rahul also pointed out yesterday that there was a good reason to arrive at the Centurion early and that was for some intense practice sessions so that the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav can get used to the conditions and ascertain the lengths they have to bowl at.
Talking to News18.com, the former South African captain Ali Bacher said: ““The first two Tests are to be played in Centurion, which is nearly 5000 feet above sea level and the Wanderers, Johannesburg which is nearly 6000 feet above sea level. The rarefied atmosphere at these two Test grounds plus the fast bouncy pitches at the Wanderers and Super Sport Park generally favour fast bowlers. The current Indian team has the best pace attack I have seen in the past thirty years. Therefore, India will start as favourites for the first two Test matches.”
Bacher’s comments should be music to the ears of the Indian fans. Clearly, Bacher who is a keen observer of the sport played across the world recognises the potential of Bumrah (101 wickets), Shami (195), Siraj (33), Sharma (311 wickets) and Yadav (157), whose wonderful displays he has noticed in Australia and England.
The current Indian pace pack has been moulded by Virat Kohli in the last four years with the captain firm in his belief that only the fast bowlers can help the team compete and win in overseas conditions. In the course of the press conference Rahul went to the extent of emphasising the virtues of deploying fast bowling tactics which has been so successful in Australia and England.
Indian fast bowlers have met with a high degree of success on the South African pitches. The home team’s fast bowlers have always had the edge, but though leg spinner Anil Kumble leads the list with 45 scalps in 12 Tests, the speedsters led by Javagal Srinath (43 wickets) have taken 220 wickets at 33.29. Srinath is followed by Zaheer Khan (30), S. Sreesanth (27), Shami (21), Sharma (20), Venkatesh Prasad (17), Bumrah (14) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (10).
The opening new ball pair of Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar took 17 wickets in four Tests at a very economical run rate of 2.23 in 1992, but on the next tour in 1996, Srinath and Prasad more than doubled the tally to 35 wickets in three Tests at 3.49 an over.
The individual skill and drive of the Karnataka pair resulted in South Africa being restricted to 235 and 259 in the first Test of 1996 at Kingsmead, Durban, but India still lost the Test by 328 runs, shot out for 100 and 66.
The cloud cover over Kingsmead was exploited by the fast and seam bowlers; Srinath (5 wickets) and Prasad (10 wickets). For South Africa Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock accounted for the dismissal of 14 Indian batters.
At the conclusion of the Test, skipper Cronje had told his reporter: “”If India had two more like Srinath and Prasad, the Test would have been a close one.” India’s third seamer at Kingsmead was David Johnson who got 2 for 52 in the first innings. Doda Ganesh played the second and third Tests at Cape Town and Johannesburg.
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But easily the best Indian new ball combination has turned out to be Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, who took 50 wickets on tours to the Rainbow Nation in 2006-07 and 2010-11.
India lost the last tour of South Africa 1-2, and the victory at the Wanderers was plotted by the fantastic showing by Bumrah (5 for 54 in the first innings ) and Shami (5 for 28 in the second innings). India’s pace attack took twenty wickets with Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar chipping in. India’s fifth seamer was Hardik Pandya, now cooling his heels at home. In fact all 40 wickets in the Test were taken by the speedsters with the Indian batters falling to Rabada, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Ngidi and to Andile Lucky Phehlukwayo.
The South African spinners have accounted for 31 Indian batters in 20 Tests at home, with the speedsters taking 310 The Indian spinners have taken 88; Kumble (45) and Harbhajan Singh (18) adding up to 63. The numbers are very clear, South Africa is a place for fast bowlers and their ilk.
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