ACS Oveseas First-Class Annual 2013

South Africa in 2012/13 The 2012 and 2012/13 seasons represented a time of triumph for South Africa’s Test side, when its results finally did justice to its undoubted wealth of talent. In England in 2012, South Africa conclusively demonstrated its superiority over the hosts, winning the three-Test rubber 2-0, with England, in soccer parlance, “lucky to get nil”. This success also wrested from England the top place in the ICC Test ratings, and South Africa proceeded to consolidate its hold on the crown in 2012/13. South Africa’s first assignment, as top-ranked side, was the demanding one of a three-Test tour in Australia. Rain and a slow pitch condemned the first Test to a draw, but the second was a classic. The first day was a nightmare for South Africa’s bowlers as Australia plundered 482-5 off only 86.5 overs, and even after a dogged rearguard action the visitors found themselves staring at defeat as they went into the last day at 77-4 against a notional target of 436. Yet at the end of what had been an epic encounter – a true Test in every sense of the word – Australia were unable to seize the final wicket that they needed to claim a match they had dominated virtually from the first ball. And then, like the great side they show every sign of becoming, South Africa comfortably prevailed in the last Test to claim a 1-0 series win. South African supremacy was then affirmed by clean sweeps in two rubbers at home. A New Zealand side weakened by internal disputes succumbed to predictably heavy defeats, but the next visitors, Pakistan, looked on paper like stronger opponents. Yet they were swept aside with equal ruthlessness; only in the second of the three Tests did the home side find itself under any real pressure. A Test team cannot be consistently successful without powerful bowling and South Africa is no exception. South Africa’s only weakness in this department is the continuing inability to find a Test-class spinner: the Pakistan-born leg-spinner Imran Tahir, in whom high hopes had been vested, suffered a terrible mauling on the tour of Australia. South Africa could perhaps console themselves that the experience of the West Indies in the 1980s shows that a credible spinner, although highly desirable (it will be recalled that West Indies gave repeated opportunities to R.A.Harper, among others), is not indispensable to a dominant team. The excellence of South Africa’s faster bowlers provides some support for this view; indeed, the dismissal of New Zealand and Pakistan for 45 and 49 respectively, coupled with Australia’s ignominious 47 last year, meant that, of the four occasions in the present century that a Test side has fallen for fewer than 50, three had been inflicted at the hands of South Africa’s bowlers in the space of fifteen months. (The remaining instance was West Indies’ 47 against England in 2003/04.) The reasons for South Africa’s success were not far to seek. It was not so much the fact that the side possessed a nucleus of really outstanding players. This, although obviously important, had equally been the case over recent years when other nations – Australia, India, England – wore the Test crown. One major factor in South Africa’s improvement was the emergence of V.D.Philander, who by the end of the season had captured 89 wickets at an astonishing average of 17.13, while his strike rate of a wicket every 37 balls eclipsed even that of D.W.Steyn (41). But perhaps even more significant was the way the less celebrated members of the side – players like A.N.Petersen, F.du Plessis and D.Elgar – began to make major contributions at crucial times. Let Petersen stand as an example. In a Test career that began in 2009/10, he had shown flashes of ability but had failed to establish himself; as he arrived in England for the 2012 tour, the hosts, still then top of the rankings, might reasonably have looked on him as a potential weak link in the side. Yet his 182 in the second Test showed that he can deliver the goods when it matters: the innings was the centrepiece of a total of 419 (next highest was G.C.Smith with 52) that meant that England, already 1-0 down, was effectively shut out of the series. 391