New attacking style for Proteas needs ‘tinkering’

Today’s second ODI may provide another look at another aspect of the new style

● For all the talk about an aggressive style being pushed by the Proteas’ new coaching regime, Rassie van der Dussen believes the team only has to do some tinkering in order to mix it with sides like England on a consistent basis.

Besides their fighting spirit, any evidence of a new style during the opening match of the series on Friday night was limited to skipper Temba Bavuma scoring his runs at the highest strike rate he’s ever managed in his ODI career.

“In white ball cricket we’ve performed quite well in the last few years and so won’t drift too far from what we are doing, but just build on those things we have done well so far,” said Van der Dussen, who anchored South Africa’s innings with a knock of 111, his fourth ODI century.

“They will come in with new ideas and energy and that is probably good in a team environment,” he said of the two new appointments, Rob Walter for the limited overs unit and Shukri Conrad, who will oversee the Test team.

Bavuma said before the series that it would take time for evidence of a new approach to become clearer.

His strike rate of 128.57 on Friday

In white ball cricket we’ve performed quite well in the last few years and so won’t drift too far from what we are doing, but just build on those things we have done well so far Rassie van der Dussen

Proteas player

seemed to provide early proof of something more advanced, but upon his dismissal the rest of the batting was quite conventional.

Today’s second ODI, which will also be played at the Mangaung Oval, may provide another look at a another aspect of a new style.

However, Conrad was quick to point out last week that any approach in the match would be dictated by the conditions, something South Africa, according to Van der Dussen, did well to adjust to on Friday. There was a noticeable slowdown in scoring after the power play in both innings, which necessitated the Proteas adjusting their initial target of 300-plus to something in the region of 280-300, said Van der Dussen. “I don’t mind doing the dog work, myself and Klaasie had to do that given the conditions. It probably doesn’t look glamorous, to rotate the strike and go at fours and fives an over. But it is something that I enjoy and the prolongness of applying that skill throughout the middle overs to get your team in a good position, is a skill that I like.”

Even England, and lately India, who’ve adopted the same high-end attacking approach in the 50-over format, have acknowledged that because conditions do change over the course of a OneDay match — more so than a 20over game — it demands some conservatism.

“To have that conviction and commitment to our game, and to keep taking it on, is something that has served us well for a very long time. That doesn’t mean we are always trying to hit fours and sixes,” said England captain Jos ● Buttler.

Boundaries are only one measurement — England out-hit the Proteas by 33 boundaries (28x4, 5x6) to 27 (21x4, 6x6) on Friday night but found no-one who could bat through the innings once the ball started reversing and the inconsistent bounce began playing a more prominent role.

What it boils down to for the Proteas is mindset and Van der Dussen used Bavuma, who was dismissed chasing a big shot over the legside, one ball after hitting a boundary, as an example. “Temba and Quinny were aggressive. Even the way Temba got out was fairly unlucky — the intent was there, to keep the foot down after getting us off to a really good start.”

Therein may lie the first piece of evidence of the Proteas’ new way.