SA rekindle the fire

A few years ago Fanie de Villiers argued that South Africans don't quit. In his more recent incarnation as a television broadcaster, De Villiers says lots of things and not all of them make immediate sense, but at Sydney in 1994 he was able to explain in a few short words exactly why South Africa were able to beat Australia by five runs.

In Kandy this week, South Africa again stared down their opposition. When it got really tight and tough, when the second Test match had boiled to a test of nerve rather than technique, South Africa kept their gaze steady. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, dropped their eyes.

It was a memorable victory, an important moment for South African cricket (and for South African sport, for that matter) and all those who wondered about Shaun Pollock's ability to lift his team or exactly what Graham Ford was doing in the dressing room should now applaud these two.

It was also an improbable victory. Not many teams come back after going into first innings arrears by the end of the second day with six opposition wickets still standing. Not many non-Asian teams, come to think of it, win on the sub-continent - and that includes Australia.

The right-handed South African batsmen have worked out a way to deal with Muttiah Muralitharan and that is by getting across and playing him outside the line of off stump. The bowlers, too, performed with far more common sense than in the first Test, and with Lance Klusener shortening his run and bowling off-cutters, South Africa were able to compensate, at least partially, for their lack of an off-spinner.

But there are still areas of concern, the most obvious of which are the use of Neil McKenzie as an opening bat and the form, or lack of it, of Paul Adams. The latter is not bowling well after a long layoff through injury. Added to this, Sri Lanka have worked out how to deal with him, and that is by attacking him with their left-handers.

Adams doesn't like being hit. Almost immediately he starts fiddling with his line. He bowls flatter, wider, faster. In this series Sri Lanka have dictated to Adams and he has not responded well.

McKenzie, meanwhile, is out of position at the top of the order at a time, oddly, when South Africa have three options to choose from as Gary Kirsten's partner. There is McKenzie, Boeta Dippenaar, who was drafted into the squad as a Test opener, and Andrew Hall who had a good one-day series.

To deal with the last first, there is an enormous difference between opening in a one-day game and a Test match where seam and swing bowlers are unhindered by the wide laws, captains freed from fielding restrictions and one or two days stretch out ahead at the start of an innings. Hall would struggle at the top in a Test match.

But there could be one solution for South Africa. Bring in Dippenaar to open, play McKenzie or Hall in the middle order and leave a bowler, Adams, out. This would strengthen the batting and still leave Pollock with five bowlers, including a spinner, with whom to juggle.

But it would be an all-white team. Would the United Cricket Board go with this? I somehow doubt it.