Paul Adams ready to step into history

Cape Town - Hansie Cronje has come in for his fair share of criticism for his lack of runs this new year of the century, yet as a Test captain he is still a cut above most of the others. It showed again at Newlands during the fourth Test in the way he carefully plotted England's downfall on what was the last day.

His patience in handling Paul Adams this summer has been just as impressive and is also an example of his understanding of the needs of the young left arm wrist spinner's ability and quality, which is starting to reveal its own story of a trust developed during months of hard off-season work.

Yet it has become a fair quiz question in an era partly dominated by Shane Warne, Daniel Vettori, Muthiah Muralitharan, Anil Kumble and Saqlain Mushtaq, to ask anyone who is South Africa's second most successful spinner? After Hugh Tayfield, that is. It is a little like those trivial pursuit questions appended as a footnote to a page of top bowling analysis marked "and now for something different".

Before this summer it was the great all-rounder Aubrey Faulkner, with 82 wickets. So far Adams has managed 90 wickets in a career of 29 Tests spread over four summers and some stage this year, most likely during the tour of India, he will collect his 100th Test wicket. Which, when you think about it, is a scary statistic.

Apart from showing the traditional thinking of South Africa's selectors and their faith in the fast and seam bowlers, it also underlines how South Africa, Tayfield apart, have ignored the role of a spinner as a potential match-winner.

Yet 100 wickets is quite an achievement for the young left-arm wrist spinner who turns 23 two days after the Centurion Test is scheduled to end, and spent almost a season lost in the shadows of the fast and seam bowlers during the West Indies tour and that of New Zealand.

Yet the hours spent travelling South Africa with Warne's mentor, Terry Jenner, and hours in the nets on his own are starting to show signs of reward. So far he has managed one haul of five wickets in a Test; against India in Kanpur in 1996/97; he came close enough to doing it a second time against Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein when he wrapped up the innings with four for 31.

Adams is not one for experimenting too much in games. He learnt a lot about bowling from angles to improve his ability to exploit the rough. It was his inability to hit the rough on a wearing pitch at Old Trafford on the last day, a performance which some British commentators suggest cost South Africa so dearly in that third Test of the series against England. He bowled 51 overs but managed only one wicket, giving away 90 runs.

"It was the sort of pitch which cried out for a Shane Warne, only, wrist-spinner Paul Adams failed to answer South Africa's need," was the comment of the Independent writer Derek Pringle.

This summer though we have seen a more confident Adams emerge from the bowler who many thought would not break through after his extraordinary debut summer four seasons ago when England were last here.

"He has become a more confident bowler," Cronje said. "He has his control back and we are learning all the time, I know I am . . . He has really come along and is now an integral part of our bowling attack."