I had my first taste of commentating on TV during the game in Paarl on Wednesday and I have to say I’m not very sure that it’s for me.
I will be working at the rest of the one-day matches and I guess I will get the hang of it, but it was very strange to be on the other side of the fence. I found it interesting to see that, as a commentator, you are free to say what you like, without actually experiencing what it’s like to be on the field in those conditions, and without feeling the stresses and pressures that the players go through during an international cricket game.
I guess the best route for a commentator is to be completely honest. If you say what you believe is happening out there, without having any axe to grind, then no-one can point a finger at you for what you say.
As far as the first ODI is concerned, I think winning the toss was very important. You had to be in Paarl on Wednesday to understand just how hot it was and to bowl first in those conditions was very difficult.
The Sri Lankans did not do themselves a favour by producing a very slow bowling rate. That meant that, according to the rules, the time allocated to the change of innings was reduced to just 15 minutes, down from the normal 45 minutes, and they only had themselves to blame for that.
I don’t think enough has been said about the effect that this had on the eventual outcome of the game. Their players would have been hot and uncomfortable and they then had to rush through a shower and would have not had enough time to eat properly.
Importantly, there would not have been time to have a proper team talk and to work out a plan on how to go about the run chase and that showed in what happened.
I thought the Sri Lankans stuck to their task quite well in the field and they did well to pull us back in the closing stages when it looked like we were going to get a really big score. Lasith Malinga showed the value of his experience and he kept a cool head, giving a great display what bowling at the death of innings should be.
The damage was already done, though, and thanks to Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB De Villiers, we were able to set a target which would have required a record score to reach.
So it was always going to be difficult for them, but I never expected them to fold so quickly. The hot conditions obviously had an effect on their batsmen who looked out on their feet, while the short break, as I said, meant they didn’t have the time to properly prepare themselves mentally either.
We also needed a good bowling display from the South African team, and that’s what we got. Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe were both great.
Morne took some criticism during the Test series and he reacted to it in the best way a player could possibly do – by coming out with an even greater hunger for success. He choked the batsmen by bowling the perfect line and length and, because of the size of the total they were chasing their batsmen had no choice but try to score off him and play some poor shots.
It was recipe for disaster, and the speed at which the wickets fell only increased the pressure on the remaining batsmen coming in and even Kuma Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, with all their experience, ended up throwing their wickets away.
At the other end, Lonwabo Tsotsobe was also great. He hadn’t featured in the plans of the selectors in the games leading up to this one and, like Morkel, he responded by coming back hungrier than ever. To bowl as quickly and accurately as he did after such a long period of not playing, showed that he really has what it takes to play at this level.
So, the question now is can the Sri Lankans bounce back from such a heavy defeat? We should remember that the same question was asked after they lost heavily in the first Test in Centurion. I wrote at the time that we should never under-estimate them, and they proved me right. They have too many excellent batsmen, capable of making big scores and many of those have the record to prove it.
Malinga has boosted their bowling attack and he showed at Paarl that he can destroy a batting lineup. If we had lost the toss and he bowled later in the day things might have been different.
Tillakaratne Dilshan is their key batsman. If he gets in and makes a big score today it will lift the other batsmen and we could be in for a difficult time.
During the Test in Paarl I was shown the Powerade Performance Tracker for the first time. I wish we had that sort of technology when I was playing. It was interesting to see that Morne covered 132.4km in the Test Series and made me wonder how much ground I used to cover. It’s all about work load and work rate while a team is in the field and by measuring the exact mileage that each player gets through in a day, the coaches have a scientific basis on which to regulate workloads to maximize the player’s performances and change training patterns to suit their requirements.
The way that Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe bounced back after adversity to secure the win in Paarl Makes them my joint Powerade Chosen Ones for this week.
Drinking a sports drink, like Powerade, after the game helps your body to recover more quickly after strenuous physical activity.
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| Morne Morkel at the Paarl Press Conference after winning the Man of the Match award |
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| Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn show us the GPS devices used for the Powerade Performance Tracker |
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