Defeat at Cape Town could usher in drastic changes

South Africa have to continue their winning ways

Ken Borland

December 31, 2006

The South Africans are justifiably jubilant after the win in Durban but they cannot afford to be complacent © Getty Images

As even tyrants tend to discover, judgement can only be delayed for so long. And despite their victory over India at Kingsmead to level the series, the South African team will surely feel that sentence has not yet been passed on them - the jury is still out.

The record books show that since isolation, South Africa have lost just one series - to England in 2004/05 - at home to any team other than the Australians and should Graeme Smith's side become the first to lose a series to sub-continental opposition at home, axes will automatically be sharpened.

The South African sporting public is as fickle and unforgiving as any and defeat to India in Cape Town in the new year would be unthinkable for them and their ensuing outrage would surely force the national selectors to make some fresh call-ups for the series against Pakistan which starts just five days later.

So victory in Durban has merely deferred judgement.

Calls for captain Smith's head are unlikely to bring any response from the selectors so close to the World Cup. His 59 in the second innings at Kingsmead was a timely return to form and he has captained the side well and clearly still has the support of his team.

But there is a full round of provincial first-class action on the go during the third and final Test against India and impressive performances there could lead to public opinion forcing a couple of changes should South Africa lose the series.

The selectors will surely not mess with senior players like Smith, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini, while Ashwell Prince should be added to that list after captaining South Africa in Sri Lanka and batting with such good sense in Johannesburg and Durban.

One change that looks set to happen immediately is the dropping of South Africa's first Test cricketer of Asian descent, Hashim Amla. The selectors will spend the dying hours of 2006 consulting with Kallis over his ability to bowl in Cape Town. The star allrounder has recovered from the back spasms that kept him out of the second Test, but the 31-year-old is not always the most enthusiastic of bowlers and may well want to rest his injury for a while yet from that sort of strain on what has recently been a flat pitch. Unfortunately for Amla, that means Kallis will have to return for a batsman and the Natalian has had a sorry time of it lately.

Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers may have partially emerged from the batting blues in Durban, but more failures in Cape Town, coupled with a historic Indian victory, may consign them to history.

The South Africa attack were impressive at Kingsmead, although two changes are possible for Newlands. The South Africans are traditionally shy to play spinners, but the left-armer, Paul Harris, is likely to make his debut, Cape Town being one of the more spin-friendly venues in the country. The hard-working Andrew Hall is likely to make way for him and Morne Morkel could end up on the sidelines too if Dale Steyn has recovered fully from his thigh injury.

Just as the appearance of one swallow does not make a summer, so, too, one victory over India will not make a season for the South African Test side. Smith spoke after the Durban victory of the job only being half done. He is dead right; the nooses of the hangmen are still tied, although they may not be in the immediate vicinity of the players just yet.

Ken Borland is a journalist with the MWP Sports Agency in South Africa

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