“I struggled throughout the match, to be honest,” he said after the day. “I feel like I haven’t been as consistent as I should be — if that makes sense — as far as line and length. Not everything was clicking.
This assessment applies to parts of the bowling in the three innings completed so far. In Pakistan’s first attack, Kagiso Rabada was by far South Africa’s most threatening attack, but he remained wicketless, while Corbin Bosch admitted that some of his wickets came off balls on which the hitters didn’t need to play.
In South Africa’s first innings, Pakistan were listless at times and gifted too many boundary balls to Aiden Markram early on and then to Bosch later. Then, in Pakistan’s second innings, Rabada and Dane Paterson struggled to find rhythm early on, and Bosch was off the mark before Temba Bavuma turned to Jansen to get things going.
Jansen’s fifth ball was short and wide, and Babar Azam, who had just reached his fifty, could not resist. He cut him deep, where Bavuma had positioned Bosch, and Jansen received his first post-Christmas present. Two overs later, Mohammad Rizwan collected a short ball that was slanting down leg and followed it with a half-hearted pull to be caught behind. Following on from this, Salman Agha drove lead-footed to a full and wide ball. There are questions to be asked about the shot choices of all three batters, but South Africa always expected them to choose those kinds of shots.
“We know that most of their batters like to play a positive brand of Test cricket. So we know that if we respect our lines and our lengths, they might leave one or two (balls), but their tendency is that they will only leave one,” Jansen said. “We always knew we were in the game and we always knew something was going to happen.”
The most comical part was yet to come when Saud Shakeel, on 84, received a full toss which hit him on the pad, while he missed an attempted shot. Shakeel was hit below the knee, which says a lot about where Jansen planned to throw the ball before getting a bit wrong.
“I wanted to go for the yorker, but I probably missed it by a shin length,” Jansen said. “At the end of the day, people can say whatever they want. (But) he missed it, and it’s a wicket. So I’m happy for that.
There was laughter all around when Jansen said this, reflecting how entertaining this Test has been, even if the quality of the cricket has been questionable at times. Because both sides provided disappointing cricket, it created a contest, although it may not have been an elite contest. That was saved in the final 40 minutes, when the Pakistan seamers, while defending just 147, served up spicy opening spells as the clouds gathered above to watch the nerves increasingly knotted of South Africa.
Three of their first four were dismissed because the new ball was bowled at the right length, which was just short of a good length, although the Pakistani quicks also took advantage of the extra bounce and pinch on offer. Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs all had their last laugh on this match, and South Africa couldn’t be too unhappy with what happened to them.
“The three wickets they got were three good balls, so it’s not like we threw away our wickets,” Jansen said. “It’s not to make things look better. But as long as they’re getting us out with good balls, there’s not much you can do as a hitter. You can only play what you see – you can’t anticipate or premeditate what you want to do – because on that pitch you’re going to get yourself into trouble.
“Once the ball gets older it becomes a lot easier to hit and it’s a good pitch to score on. So with the new ball, (it will) definitely move sideways and then the odd ball will go up and the odd ball will also stay low. »
Marco Jansen on the pitch at SuperSport Park
If Jansen ends up going in chase, it could mean South Africa are in trouble, even if they strike deep and he has a plan.
“My mental view is to be as disciplined as possible for as long as possible. We know with the new ball it moves quite sharply here – especially in the second innings of the match,” he said. “Once the ball gets older it becomes a lot easier to hit and it’s a good pitch to score on. So with the new ball, it’s definitely going to move sideways and then the odd ball is going to go up and the odd ball is also going to stay low.
“From my perspective, if the ball goes flying, just spread your hands out, and if the ball stays a little low, just stay nice and tight as far as your bat next to your pad. These two are the ones that are hard to dismiss. We are used to balls moving sideways, so I think these will be the challenges of tomorrow.
Explained in purely cricketing terms, it seems South Africa have a good understanding of what is expected of them. But there will be more than just bat versus ball on Sunday. There is the hope of getting that win to reach the final of next year’s World Test Championship, and the pressure of being South African in a chase. You might be thinking there’s some cushioning too, as South Africa only need to win one in this and the next Test. But putting yourself in a must-win situation at Newlands will bring its own mind game.
South Africa will want to finish the job here, but to do that they will need the type of steel that has yet to be on display at SuperSport Park. But with the stakes so high, maybe it’s time to do something we haven’t seen until now.