Captain's Log: We've Been There Before (16 December 1998)

16 December 1998

Captain's Log: We've Been There Before

By Brian Lara

PORT ELIZABETH - An inept batting performance has cost us the second Test match, and has been behind nearly every Test match defeat that I can recall during my international career.

In the first Test match, both teams found it difficult to bat, not because of the state of the pitch but mainly because of the superiority of the bowling. We talked about the importance of battling for a good first innings score anywhere around the 300-run mark - not a great Test score but competitive against the South Africans.

Scores of 121 and 141 still fall short of what we expected in the first innings.

The last-minute withdrawal of Philo Wallace was definitely a telling blow. He would have been a key player on such a track.

The extra pace and bounce that Allan Donald and company would have been striving for would have played into the hands of such an attacking player.

Anyway, he had to be left out, but I was expecting whichever XI chosen to still achieve the team goal.

Mention must be made of the reshuffle of the batting order because of another illness. Chanderpaul was in the unfamiliar position of opening the batting and Ridley Jacobs, thrust in at No. 3.

One must be wondering, too, about my sudden drop down the order.

This can be explained simply by pointing out that with Shiv moving up to open the batting, it meant that our three most established batsmen would be going in at Nos. 2, 3 and 4. I thought that should be broken up a bit, hence I went in at No. 5.

I must say that sitting inside for the first 20 overs gave me enough time to recollect my thoughts and assess the match better.

I am always a nervous starter, but after a few balls I get comfortable and it was unfortunate that wickets fell so rapidly around me. The match was virtually over before I got going.

The South Africans are a very professional and disciplined team.

They have done their homework on all our players and are thinking all the time. They seem to be spot-on about most of our players' technical weaknesses.

This leaves us no choice but to spend more and more time in the nets or in the middle during the practice games to iron out some of our problems.

I have had similar difficulties in the past with Glen McGrath in Australia, and one must understand, it is easier for the bowler to keep plugging away at a batsman's weakness and expect success at the end. It just takes one ball to get the batsman out.

When he begins to worry about his weakness or to have doubts about his ability, then he creates a great problem for himself.

Mental toughness and maintaining one's confidence are the ways to come out of such a crisis.

Courtney and Curtly continue to bowl really well, as do Pollock and Donald.

But, whereas Terbrugge and the other South African back-up bowlers can bowl at two runs an over and get wickets as well, ours go for four an over and struggle to move through the South African middle-order batsmen after our top two bowlers have removed most of the top order.

We are in a similar situation to our tour of Australia in 1996-7, going into the Boxing Day Test match two down with three to play.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)