AB’s struggle on turning tracks

Rohit Mahajan

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Nagpur, November 28

The extreme nature of the spin-friendly wicket here was exemplified by the two failures of AB de Villiers, the genius batsman in the South African camp.

There was not a single half-century in the third Test here as the batsmen were tested by the extreme conditions. A total of 652 runs were made in the game, at the cost of 40 wickets — that amounts to a measly 16.3 runs scored by each batsman.

De Villiers made 0 and 9 in the two innings here. This is a sharp decline from the form he displayed in the initial part of the tour, which began with the T20 and ODI series. In the T20 series, de Villiers made 51 and 19. He added scores of 104*, 19, 4, 112 and 119 in the five One-day Internationals, before smashing another century (112) in a practice match against the Board President’s XI.

He now seemed primed for the real thing, the Test series, which kicked off in Mohali. The wicket was a slow turner, and de Villiers was quite scratchy in the initial part of his first innings. He was made to struggle because Ravichandran Ashwin, in particular, bowled brilliantly to him; and the wicket was not ideal for strokeplay, which is his natural instinct. When on 7, he was dismissed by Ravindra Jadeja, but it turned out to be a no-ball, and AB was called back. He got his eye in and began to attack, and got to 63, the highest score of the match for South Africa. In the second knock, he made 16, bowled by Amit Mishra, when he played for turn which wasn’t there.

Playing his 100th Test, on an easier pitch in Bengaluru, AB got a terrific 85 even as wickets fell in a heap at the other end. Rain saved South Africa, and denied him a second chance to get a century in his 100th Test.

Failed instinct

Nagpur’s wicket has been the toughest of the series so far — the ball turned square right from the first session, and strokeplay has been very difficult.

De Villiers is an attacking genius — but on this wicket, a very different sort of batsman was required: a defensive master who could despatch the bad balls to get the runs when possible. Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla were able to do this for over 46 overs on the third day.

But during that partnership, runs were scored at an average of 1.55 an over. That’s certainly not the way de Villiers prefers to conduct business. That’s not how he bats. In the first innings, when he found himself in the middle, the score reading 12/4, even he must have baulked at the prospect before him. He could either hit back hard (much like Kevin Pietersen did with 186 against India in Mumbai in 2012), or try to bat time, play defensively, get his runs in a trickle.

Virat Kohli had, cleverly, kept an inside-out field —which means that while there were close catchers, there were vast spaces unoccupied by fielders in the outfield. De Villiers attempted to hit Jadeja against the turn into the empty midwicket region —the ball gripped the pitch and slowed down and turned, and de Villiers gave an easy return catch to Jadeja.

In the second knock, de Villiers fell to a brilliant ball from Ashwin, the carom ball, which the batsman failed to read. It was an embarrassing way to go for the genius, being so comprehensively deceived by Ashwin’s sleight of hand. Sanjay Manjrekar, the cricketer-analyst, said that an Asian batsman would have played that ball differently. “When he got out the way he did, that wasn’t like a great batsman getting out,” Manjrekar said. “The reason for that is that it was an obvious variation, the carom ball, and it was obvious that it was not an off-spinner. I thought the South African instinct, not having played that much spin, got the better of AB de Villiers. I think an Asian batsman would have spotted that delivery better.”

“It was an angled ball, and AB played for the angle,” Manjrekar added. “On a pitch like this, you’ve got to account for the ball just gripping the pitch and not going with the angle. He played what was a good-pitch defensive shot, and was deceived by that.”

De Villiers is an attacking genius, an inventive master. He uses the length of the pitch and width of crease to move around; this enables him to manipulate the lines and lengths the bowlers bowl to him. But when the pitches are as difficult (underprepared?) as the one in Nagpur, it’s a very different kind of challenge.

For South Africa, the series is lost, but de Villiers has some unfinished business to attend to — he would love to demonstrate that he can play a decisive innings, defensive or offensive, on the difficult, square turners of India.