SA vs Pak – Marco Jansen wants SA to be disciplined when WTC final beckons

“I’ve been fighting the whole game, to be honest,” he said after today’s game. “I feel like I haven’t been as consistent as I should be — if that makes sense — in terms of line and length. Everything’s not clicking.”

That assessment applies to parts of the bowling in all three completed innings so far. In Pakistan’s first, Kagiso Rabada was by far the most threatening of South Africa’s attack but went wicketless, while Corbin Bosch admitted some of his wickets came from balls the batsmen didn’t need to play on.

In South Africa’s first innings, Pakistan were lethargic at times, offering too many boundary balls to Aiden Markram initially and Bosch later. Then, in Pakistan’s second innings, Rabada and Dane Paterson struggled for rhythm initially and Bosch was off the mark before Temba Bavuma turned to Jansen to make something happen.

Jansen’s fifth ball was short and wide and Babar Azam, who had just reached his fifty, couldn’t help it. He cut it to a deep point where Bavuma had placed Bosch and Jansen received his first gift since Christmas. Two overs later, Mohammad Rizwan got a short ball angled down leg and followed it with a half-hearted pull to be caught behind. In the over after that, Salman Agha drove the lead foot on a full wide ball. There are questions to be asked about the shot selection of all three batsmen, but South Africa always expected them to pick that kind of shot.

“We know most of their batsmen like to play a positive brand of Test cricket. So we know if we stick to our lines and lengths they might leave one or two (balls) but their tendencies are, that they will go one. Jansen said. “We always knew we were in the game and we always knew something was going to happen.”

The most comical was yet to come when Saud Shakeel, on 84, was the recipient of a full toss that hit him on the pad as he missed a flick attempt. Shakeel was hit below the knee, which says something about where Jansen planned the ball to go before getting it slightly 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 what they want. (But) he missed it and it’s a wicket. So I’m happy about that.”

There were laughs all around when Jansen said that, reflecting how entertaining this Test has been, even if the quality of the cricket has been questionable at times. Because both sides have delivered some underwhelming cricket, it made for a contest, albeit perhaps not an elite one. That was saved for the last 40 minutes as Pakistan’s seamen, while defending just 147, dished out spicy opening spells as the clouds gathered overhead to stare down South Africa’s increasingly knotted nerves.

Three of their top four were dismissed to the new ball, which was bowled at the right lengths, which was just short of a good length, although the Pakistan quicks also took advantage of the extra bounce and nip on offer. Tony de Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs have all had their say in this game 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 our wickets away,” Jansen said. “It’s not to make it look better. But as long as they’re getting us out with good balls, there’s only so much you can do as a batter. You can only play what you see – you can’t anticipate or pre-meditate what you will do—for on this course you will get yourself into trouble.”

“Once the ball gets older, it becomes a lot easier to bat and it’s a good scoring spot. So with the new ball, (it) will definitely move sideways and then the odd ball will shoot up and the odd ball will also keep low”

Marco Jansen on the SuperSport Park pitch

If Jansen ends up batting in the chase, it could mean South Africa are in some trouble, even if they bat deep and he has a plan.

“My mental point of 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 game,” he said. “Once the ball gets older, it becomes a lot easier to bat and it’s a good scoring spot. So with the new ball, (it) will definitely move sideways and then the odd ball will shoot up and the odd ball will also keep low.

“From my perspective, if the ball shoots up, you just have to get your hands out of the way, and then if the ball stays a little bit low, you just have to stay nice and tight in terms of your bat next to your pad. The two are the difficult ones. The balls that move sideways, we’re used to that, so I think those will be the challenges tomorrow.”

Explained in these purely cricketing terms, it sounds like South Africa have a good understanding of what is required of them. But there will be a lot more than just bat vs ball going on on Sunday. There is the expectation of securing this victory to reach next year’s World Test Championship final, and the pressure of being South African in a chase. You might think there is some dampening too because South Africa only need to win one out of this and the next Test. But putting yourself in a must-win situation at Newlands will come with its own set of mind games.

South Africa will want to finish the job here, but to do so they will need the kind of steel that has yet to be on display at SuperSport Park. But with so much at stake, it might be time for something we haven’t seen before.