When Hansie Cronje and his troops earned South Africa their maiden Test series win in India 25 years ago, Nicky Boje’s left-arm spin had an important role to play in the triumph.
Boje took 5/83 in the second innings of the Bengaluru Test as South Africa won the game by an innings and 71 runs to sweep the series 2-0. He finished with a match haul of seven wickets.
However, the role of South Africa’s then fast bowling group was even bigger, feels the Proteas’ former pace spearhead Allan Donald. His new-ball partner, Shaun Pollock, was South Africa’s highest wicket-taker in that series with nine wickets, while Donald finished with seven.
Donald agreed that in both the opening Tests of that 2000 series and the just-concluded one, South Africa were the team under pressure, having conceded a first-innings lead. But what leaves him “bemused” is the kind of struggle the Indian batsmen went through at the hands of the spinners at Eden Gardens and in Guwahati during this series.
“The first Test (at the Eden) could really have gone either way. To an extent, yes, it was quite similar to the one (in Mumbai in late February 2000) where we were under the pump.
“It was our pace attack that really won us that series back in 2000, though Nicky Boje had taken a five-for in Bengaluru. But yes, I’ve never, never seen India struggle against
spin this much. I’m pretty bemused as to how easy it was for the South African spinners and also surprised as to how badly India responded,” Donald, with 330 wickets from 72 Tests, told The Telegraph from Cape Town late on Wednesday night.
“However, I’d have to say that this is a far, far better spin attack than we had back then in 2000. This is a serious spin line-up that South Africa have got.”
Tough spell
With stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli no longer available for Tests, India will have to deal with this difficult period for some time now, Donald feels. “It’s always going to be a bit of a tough spell when you lose two quality players in Rohit and Kohli. It’s not easy to replace those two names and think it’s all going to be good,” he said.
“Yes, India have got their bases covered in terms of seamers and spinners. But this win, especially in the second Test, was almost too easy for South Africa. India losing by 400-plus runs is a proper beating. So, there will be questions asked, for sure.”
Missing Rabada
What makes this series win for South Africa even more special is accomplishing their mission without their lead pacer Kagiso Rabada, who missed both games with a rib injury. “It only goes on to show how well the rest of the attack fared even though
KG Rabada couldn’t play. They did a magnificent job,” Donald acknowledged.
“If you look back at this series, it was won by South Africa’s spinners as they got the majority of wickets. However, Marco Jansen too did very well as a support bowler, doing a very good job every single time he took the ball. His six-for (in Guwahati) aside,
those two early wickets he took in Calcutta (in the second innings) was some outstanding piece of bowling,” Donald explained.
Springboks’ mindset
Temba Bavuma and his teammates’ visit to the South African Rugby team camp, commonly known as Springboks, in a camp at Cape Town before the World Test Championship final in June was massive in lifting the Proteas’ mindset, Donald emphasised.
“In the camp, they (Springboks) spoke a lot about their culture and where they are as human beings. And that they play for the nation… That mindset of playing for
South Africa, for the people, because of everything that goes on in South Africa, which makes it very challenging for a lot of people.
“It just shows how this current Test team has been able to absorb that kind of mindset and are staying in the hunt. Hansie, too, used to speak about this exact same mindset of playing for a different cause,” Donald said.