SA vs Pak – 1st Test – What can Pakistan learn from their history of trauma in South Africa?

On By Littum

Perhaps Pakistan cricket only has the emotional capacity to work on one form of mental scarring, and it had spent most of the last generation treating to work on it. For Pakistan, it is Australia, the country they can’t seem to buy into; they’ve lost every one of their last 17 Tests there for the best part of three decades, picking up some truly heartbreaking ICC defeats along the way for good measure.

But during that same time they have suppressed all the trauma inflicted in battle wounds against another side, one that in away cricket seems to have an equally strong stranglehold on them. Since 1995, when they first played South Africa, Pakistan have been doing it won only two Tests in the countryhalf of what they have managed in Australia. They have lost 12 of the other 13almost all chastening defeats: three by over 200 runs, another three by seven or more wickets and a couple by one innings. In 2013 they were bowled out at Wanderers for 49 by Prime Minister Dale Steyn; it remains their lowest total in Test history.

And while each defeat in Australia has produced its own epic, the losses in South Africa are building into one. The bowlers have been ground into the ground, the batters shot out in the blink of an eye. There’s the odd good session, quickly followed by two of self-destruction, a wistful what-if, and everyone moves on. The masochistic tendency to relive and agonize over every defeat – like Pakistan does against Australia – is not quite there. About twice a year, the same performances are rinsed and repeated, and the same losses are meted out almost at random.

Mickey Arthur, who has sat in both dugouts on such trips, feels he understands exactly what is happening each time, without quite knowing how to solve it.

“I think South Africa is one of the hardest places to hit in the world,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “(When I was) with South Africa, we knew that with Pakistan, if we could build pressure for long periods, we would eventually get good results. We always felt that Pakistan’s breaking point was quite low as a team. We could get in between them, and I wouldn’t say bully them, but we could come hard and be aggressive with the ball because eventually they would succumb.”

It’s a pattern South Africa have caught Pakistan in every time they tour here, both with bat and ball. In the first Test the two teams played, in Johannesburg in 1995, Pakistan had South Africa under the cosh by 168 for 5 in the first innings. But a sixth-wicket monster between Jonty Rhodes and Brian McMillan got the hosts out of that mess and when Pakistan broke it they were mentally shattered themselves. The last two wickets added another 93 as a Pakistan team that included Wasim Akram and Aaqib Javed sent down 64 overs. Pakistan would be bowled out for exactly half of South Africa’s total, losing by 324 runs.

Not much had changed on the last trip. In 2018 at Centurion, where the first Test of the current tour will be played, Pakistan had worked their way into an exceptional position at tea on the second day; they were 101 for 1 in the third innings on a surface where fast bowlers had enjoyed complete dominance for much of the first five sessions. As soon as the second wicket fell, however, there was a breakdown; Pakistan lost their last nine for 89 and South Africa were coasting home before tea the next day.

“When I went there with Pakistan,” says Arthur, “I knew exactly what the template was. We tried to make sure our batters were in the best possible way in terms of belief, confidence and skill to make that happen . And apart from a really shocking session in Centurion, it seemed for a while with your bowlers that you have to be patient pace and bounce too much and you can get caught.”

That is the other frustrating mystery for Pakistan in South Africa. Pakistan’s batting in such conditions is almost a certainty to be strategized around, but in arguably the most pace-friendly conditions in the world, Pakistan’s own notorious pace battery pretty much disappointed.

Akram averaged nearly 40 there in two Tests, Aaqib just under 37. Mohammad Abbas, Umar Gul and Azhar Mahmood have each contributed between 46.20 and 47.00 runs for their wickets, while Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, two of Pakistan’s more successful seamen, managed solid sailors. but unspectacular averages of 28.30 and 29.30 respectively. Only Mohammad Asif (18.47) and Mohammad Amir (23.58) have really excelled. Shaheen Shah Afridi, who averages a very respectable 26.66, is not part of the current Test side.

“They (Pakistan’s fast bowlers) are bowling the wrong lengths,” Arthur says bluntly. “In South Africa, you get a bit too excited when you see the ball fly through to the keeper. If you go too short, the South African batsmen will beat you away. You have to be disciplined and get enough balls in the right area. And if you do that, can you break them as a team.

“I see so many teams getting beaten by South Africa in the last session of the day. You lose a session badly and there’s no coming back from that.”

Mickey Arthur

Arthur makes no effort to hide his feelings about Afridi not being part of the Test squad. When the teams for this series were announced, he was not named after the red ball side; he will instead play in the Bangladesh Premier League, suggesting that this format, in which he was among the world’s best until two years ago, may no longer be one of his priorities.

“I can’t believe it,” Arthur says. “If he’s not bowling in South Africa, where the hell are they bowling him? It’s almost the best place to bowl in the world. Also, he gives you left-arm options. I know they have Mir Hamza, but Shaheen is a game-breaker and match winner. I’m not in the know as to why they haven’t picked him, but out of sheer skill I’d have him in South Africa in any team I pick.”

Curiously, some of Pakistan’s most prominent spinners have enjoyed bowling here. Mushtaq Ahmed was behind Pakistan’s first win in South Africa, taking nine wickets in Durban in 1998. In their only other win here, achieved while Mushtaq was bowling coach, it was another leg-spinner, Danish Kaneria, who took seven wickets in Gqeberha in 2007 as Pakistan clinched a tense victory.

In the 1998 Durban Test, Mushtaq found a way for the surface to help him. Late on the fourth day, he began to work his way through the South African top order as they set up in pursuit of 255. In an attack that included Waqar and Akhtar, it was Mushtaq who assumed the leadership role, bowling 37 off 88, 2 overs, took six wickets as Pakistan squeezed home by 29 runs.

“The main thing I told myself was that on the fourth and fifth day, spinners get help, no matter where in the world you are,” Mushtaq told ESPNcricinfo. “In fact, you get more help in South Africa and Australia than anywhere else because on dry pitches like those you get pace along with turn. So if a batsman plays a bad shot or misreads line and length, they won’t have time to adjust on Asian pitches, even if you deceive a batter off the pitch or in the air, the lack of pace allows them to adjust.

“Our fast bowlers are often used to reverse swing. And for reverse swing you have to bowl full. Whereas in South Africa you will have bowlers like (Kagiso) Rabada, (Anrich) Nortje, (Glenn) McGrath bowling into the pitch Den, top bowlers like Naseem Shah can do will be successful there.”

For Mushtaq, however, the key is patience. “South Africa require good overs, not good balls,” he says. “I took wickets there because I knew how to use the bounce. Shane Warne also enjoyed himself in South Africa. Overspinners, especially legspinners who have variations, will always be successful there because the pitch helps you. You get bounced and the bounce is a lot useful whether it’s Tests or ODIs because some go straight on and others turn and the natural variation only comes to overspinners.”

That is why, he says, Yasir Shah never quite managed to crack South Africa, Australia or New Zealand. “In the UAE, where he got so many of his wickets, on the dry pitches you had to bowl over 90km/h because it gave you grip,” he says. “It brought lbw and bat-pads into the game. Yasir was too fast and South African pitches require you to bowl slower, sometimes as slow as less than 80km/h. For overspin, reduce the speed and let it spin in the air When it picks up those spins in the air, it gives you natural pace off the pitch that batters will never get.”

But this time, plagued by Yasir’s experience, Pakistan are unlikely to give leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed a run, especially in Centurion where conditions, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said, never fail to help the fast bowlers. But for Pakistan, seam-friendliness hasn’t necessarily translated into seam success, which is probably the key reason for their underperformance here.

“South Africa requires good overs, not good balls. I took wickets there because I knew how to use the bounce”

Mushtaq Ahmed on the key to success in South Africa

Arthur also believes that Pakistan’s fast bowlers have tended to fall away with the older ball at the end of long days, letting the game get away from them. In 2007, when Pakistan won a Test, they had a golden opportunity to press home the advantage in Centurion, where Asif had reduced South Africa to 53 for 3, removing each of Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis in a brilliant effort with the hosts trailing by another 260. But as the ball got older and the day wore on, Ashwell Prince and Herschelle Gibbs dug in; by the end of the day, South Africa were up to 254 for 4 and would ultimately seal a routine seven-wicket victory.

“That was one of the reasons why we (Pakistan) worked so hard on our fitness and on getting our bowlers mentally tough,” says Arthur. “You get conditions you can work with. But the moment you fall away and your first spell is excellent, your second spell is okay, your third spell falls away, you’re going to be penalized in the last session of the day And I see so many team to be beaten by South Africa in today’s final session.

There is the bigger picture silverware down the line for South Africa. A win across these two matches will guarantee a place at the World Test Championship final, and while Pakistan no longer have any realistic hopes of that crown, they can still play spoiler as India, Australia and Sri Lanka all battle for a berth.

For the visitors, however, the victory in South Africa does not need to be translated by context of any kind. Apart from the two Tests they have won, they have never realistically run South Africa close. It has, perversely, meant that there is less scrutiny of the heavier defeats, which are usually due to superior opposition and unfriendly conditions, rather than a rethinking of how to reverse that toil.

Mushtaq summed it up pitifully. “When we go there (now), it takes time for the Pakistan team to adjust. It may take a couple of weeks and by then the Tests are pretty much over.”

Danyal Rasool is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000