Marco’s cheat code
South Africa had two half chances go against them. The Harmer ball to Matt Renshaw was exquisite, though the line and height was certainly an issue, but I think most people give that out. However, the umpire’s call on height meant it was not out. Then you had the Cam Green edge that was caught at slip, but was also very close to the surface. I think the third umpire should have looked at more angles, but the decision was probably right, even if the process (as it almost always is) was poor from the third umpire.
At that point, the pitch was flat. Kagiso Rabada was sick, Gerald Coetzee was not doing anything, this was not a Wiaan Mulder situation and Simon Harmer got his two wickets in an over a long time back.
It was a period where Australia was on top, and something weird had to happen.
What followed was something familiar to modern cricket fans; a team unable to keep the foot on the neck by losing two wickets in a row.
But more than that, it was because Marco Jansen was really tall.
I wrote a feature about Marco Jansen the other day, so there is no reason to go back to that. But what we saw today is why he’s so special. The ball did not seam, and South Africa couldn’t get it to swing (though their lengths didn’t help that). Gerald Coetzee’s extra pace did nothing either. This was not a pitch for bowling on really.
And then Jansen got one to bounce big. Renshaw played a weird shot, an up and under cut, from a ball very close to him. He can play this shot, but on this pitch, in his 70s, why not just leave or defend it? Instead, he got some bat on it, and had to wait with the worst poker face for the third umpire to correct the decision.
Then a few minutes later, Cameron Green came forward to the ball. Now he is massive, and he can usually play on the front foot to anyone. But Jansen’s release is also towering, and so he ended up getting one to bounce and took the top part of his bat.
This was tall on tall crime.
And this is what makes Jansen impossible, because he takes the pitch out, and can still do magic.
But, in order to do that, he has to actually bowl.
On a day when Rabada was spraying it on and off (I assume) the field, Jansen bowled 11 of South Africa’s first 80 overs. They had one great bowler ill, and the other was invisible. This is a surface that needed freak magic, and South Africa put their rabbit back into the hat.
The other baffling decision Bavuma made was never going to short pitch bowling with the field out for it. The one time they went short, Green was almost caught, but he never moved the field or asked his fast bowler Coetzee (who was a near non-entity at times) to come and do his job. Or let Jansen (whose bouncer averages 14) to try it.
Today Jansen became the 17th left-arm seamer to take 100 wickets. If you add Garfield Sobers, who probably took that many when bowling seam, it is still only 18. We are used to more lefties in modern cricket, but he is a rare sight in the sport.
Sadly for South Africa, he was an even rarer sight at the crease.
Simon Harmer’s back
In the first Test, every time Simon Harmer delivered a quick ball, it looked so forced that it led me to call contacts and check his first-class record. It turned out he had been struggling, and many questioned if his back was well.
It would be unfair to say Harmer is just his faster ball, but so much of his bowling relies in the fact he change up his pace without any difference in his action. He looked impotent without It.
That lack of pace showed up so much that in Durban he spun the ball at 78KPH, or changed his action to fire it in at 90KPH and the batters picked him. In the last, he could bowl quicker with spin effortlessly. Before it all felt forced.
In this match, and the previous one, he’s appeared more fluid.
It was clear with the Marnus Labuschagne dismissal that it was a quicker ball the batter didn’t pick. So he was stuck on the crease, trying to play from the backfoot and it was actually one to come forward to.
South Africa have made a huge call with Harmer being their main spinner. We know part of it is Australia’s left-hand fetish, but Harmer has been the number two. And the fact that South Africa have handled it so well is a credit to how they play the game.
Harmer has a better record in Tests than Maharaj, but there is a bit of the Stuart MacGill paradox in this: Harmer has mostly played on wickets as the second spinner, meaning the pitch is expected to spin, whereas your poor first-choice option plays on pitches regardless.
