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Graeme Smith wasn't too happy as catches were dropped and the bowlers failed to follow plans
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The Australians are visiting another country following their difficult
summer at home but it was Graeme Smith's men who appeared to be on
vacation in Durban. In the first two sessions of the opening day there
weren't many moments to justify happy holiday snaps for the South
Africans, whose minds were elsewhere when they should have been
focused on making a bold statement to give their series a much-needed
boost.
As catches were dropped, as the bowlers failed to follow their plans,
as the senior men turned into teapots with hands firmly placed on
hips, it was impossible not to think that South Africa had signed off
from work when they flew out of Australia. In Johannesburg they were
at times flat but in the opening stages in Durban they looked
completely lethargic and seemed to be feeling the effects of the short
three-day break between games.
Thankfully for the sake of the match and the series, they gradually
began to find some rhythm later in the day. Through the strong efforts
of Paul Harris and Dale Steyn in particular they collected four
wickets and gave Marcus North and Michael Hussey some uncomfortable
moments when the second new ball was sailing around chests and heads
in the fading light.
If only they could have tested Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes with
similarly unnerving bouncers in the opening session. In the lead-up to
the match the coach
Mickey Arthur spoke of their plans to Hughes, who was showered with short stuff at the Wanderers in a fiery battle with Steyn and Morne Morkel. They felt he had a weakness they could exploit
on the bouncy Kingsmead surface but after stumps Arthur said the pitch
had been so slow in the first session that a short-pitched barrage was
impossible.
So plan B was to bring Hughes and Katich forward and aim for edges.
Instead they overcompensated and a succession of half-volleys,
particularly from Morkel, allowed Hughes to make such a brisk start
that he went to lunch on 75. Drives raced down the ground and there
was a lack of intensity in the field. While the square-leg umpire Asad
Rauf embarked on a series of leg-stretches to get his blood flowing,
the South Africans stood flat-footed.
Ricky Ponting was criticised in Perth for his poor body language as
the match slipped away and at one point at Kingsmead the South African
field was littered with crockery as Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and
Neil McKenzie all stood with hands on hips, teapot-style, waiting for
something to happen. The whole frustrating situation meant a
disappointed dressing-room at the lunch break.
"Instead of chatting to everybody in general we took the bowlers away
as a unit and sat with the bowlers and discussed what we had and
hadn't done in that first session," Arthur said. "It was forceful but
it certainly wasn't ranting and raving. I thought the guys came back
very well after that. We've got to understand the margin for error out
there was very, very small."
Morkel copped the brunt of the "lunchtime chat" after his first two
overs cost 25. Instead of targeting the ribcage of Hughes, as he did
in Johannesburg, Morkel aimed for the stumps with nearly every ball in
his early spell. It was then that Australia's run-rate really
ballooned and Arthur said Morkel had failed to read the situation
properly.
"Morne is quite an intense boy, I think he just tries too hard,"
Arthur said. "It certainly wasn't a wicket he was going to bowl them
out on. He probably had these ideas of a bit of grandeur coming in and
said, 'I'll knock the guys over and get us on the front foot'. With that
comes a major lesson and that's on good wickets, good players are
going to hit you around."
That Morkel came back after lunch to create some chances was a
positive. It made it all the more frustrating for the South African
camp that he had Hughes dropped at slip by Kallis and missed out on
two potential wickets when the third umpire fairly decided Katich had
not edged behind and overturned Hussey's lbw because it had pitched
fractionally outside the line.
Throw in a dropped catch by Hashim Amla off Dale Steyn's bowling and a missed opportunity in the first over after lunch when Katich edged Steyn through the second slip region that was vacant - an inexplicable decision so early in the game - and
South Africa's second session wasn't looking much better than the
first. Gradually the run rate eased and the odd wicket arrived but
centuries to Katich and Hughes and a stumps score of 303 for 4 meant
it was clearly Australia's day.
A few wickets in the morning and South Africa might be back on task.
The first step is to turn up at 10am bright and energetic. If they
make a slow and ineffective start on day two they may as well take a
holiday because this match could quickly slip out of their reach.
Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo