How South Africa can win the Cricket World Cup

The one thing AB de Villiers has not yet done

In South Africa’s current World Cup campaign captain AB de Villiers has done just about anything that can be asked of one man: he has scored 417 runs, 110 more than his next team mate, Hashim Amla, his average of 83.4 is almost 15 more than that of David Miller, his strike rate of 144 is almost 10 higher than that of Rilee Rossouw, and second only to Farhaan Berhardien’s 206. But then Berhardien has scored only 74 runs in two innings. On top of that he has taken six catches to match wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla, and only one less than Rilee Rossouw. Overall, he has managed his bowlers and fielders well, and has been relatively successful at restricting the flow of runs from opponents.

Of course, he has not kept wicket yet, but that may be about to change. Quinton de Kock has been desperately out of form, and in the only innings he spend substantial time at the crease, when he scored 24 against UAE, he was visibly nervous, and on several occasions did not respond to Rossouw’s call for a run. The last thing South Africa needs is for De Kock to run out Amla and Faf du Plessis, before getting out for a single digit score himself. It is time for De Villiers to step up to the plate and take the gloves. De Kock will have to play himself back into form in a setting that is not the knock-out stages of the World Cup.

There are more reasons to make this switch. South Africa has been selecting teams with the luxury of an extra, seventh batsman. The strategy makes no sense: when South Africa posts 400, the extra batsman inevitably doesn’t get to bat, when they fail to chase 200, the extra man contributes nothing of substance. Given the absence of any meaningful contribution from De Kock, they have effectively been playing six batsman all the same. In any event, selecting an extra batsman shows an over-conservative, English approach to the game, where you hope you don’t get beaten too badly. That is certainly not the way you win the World Cup.

The switch makes even more sense if one considers the attack: South Africa has been selecting only four recognised bowlers. This would work if Dale Steyn was in top form, leading the attack. As it is, in the tournament so far, Steyn has the worst average and economy of the recognised bowlers, and only Vernon Philander has taken (slightly) fewer wickets per game. More to the point: Steyn has shown little ability to threaten batsmen, or stem the flow of runs, even with the new ball in hand. Against UAE Steyn conceded 13 runs off his first three overs, without threatening. He was replaced by Morné Morkel, who took a wicket with his fourth ball and had figures of 5-2-7-2 at the end of his spell. The man Steyn keeps out of the team, Kyle Abbott, has the best strike rate and average of all the bowlers, is within spitting distance of the best economy, but more importantly, has looked by far the most threatening of all the bowlers. Steyn, is of course, far too experienced to be lightly dropped from the team, so the obvious solution is to select both Abbott and Steyn, at the expense of De Kock.

But, if South Africa is to win the World Cup, there is one more thing that De Villiers needs to do, and it has everything to do with the team’s obvious struggles when chasing modest totals. Consider the fact that against Pakistan the required run rate never exceeded five runs per over. And yet four South African batsmen (Rossouw, Duminy, Steyn and De Villiers himself) lost their wickets trying to play big shots that were not required. Of those four, only De Villiers may be excused, as he was concerned that he may be running out of batting partners by then. It should never have come to that. In similar situations, Indian captain MS Dhoni is quick to tell his batting partner to put away the big shots and make sure he does not give away his wicket, as he did again against Zimbabwe.

The one (additional) thing De Villiers needs to do (on top of scoring most of the runs, taking most of the catches, and now, keeping), if his team is to chase modest totals, is to walk down the pitch and to tell his partner to calm down and stick around. Afterall, if the captain is still there, the situation is under control.