Ken Borland

Fast bowler Duanne Olivier is starring in four-day domestic cricket, back in South Africa for the first time since February 2019, when he took four wickets in the Proteas’ infamous second Test loss to Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth, when the tiny island nation became the first subcontinental team to win a Test series here.

He then added to the sense of shock in South African cricket at the time by taking a Kolpak contract to play in English county cricket for Yorkshire. Olivier did play in the Mzansi Super League for the Jozi Stars at the end of 2019, but with the Kolpak door now closed, the 29-year-old should be back in the local game permanently.

Olivier was named in a powerful four-man Central Gauteng Lions pace attack on Friday in their CSA Four-Day Domestic Series match against the North-West Dragons at the Wanderers, and was in fine form, taking four for 50 in 14.2 overs. And it wasn’t just all fire and brimstone either, there were clearly intelligent plans at play too.

As a fiery strike bowler, Olivier is always expected to take wickets and be the spearhead of a successful team. Certainly in English county cricket, he will be looked to by Yorkshire as the overseas pro who will win them matches and get them into contention for silverware.

Despite fairly modest returns of 75 wickets in 25 first-class games for Yorkshire at an average of 32.42, Olivier has been signed as an overseas pro through to the end of next season.

The owner of an excellent Test record of 48 wickets in 10 matches at 19.25 will have the same level of expectation from the Lions, especially since their home base of the Wanderers is ideally suited to his high-energy, high-impact bowling that can drag life out of most pitches.

Olivier said he is loving the pressure that is on him to perform.

“I always feel pressure because I am always trying to do well for the team. I actually enjoy it, it’s a part of the game and it helps a lot that in the UK, you are also always under pressure,” Olivier said on the eve of his Lions debut.

“This is a different structure now in South African cricket, which means there is different pressure, and I will embrace that. Every year is a challenge, with different ups and downs, and every year I just understand my game a bit better.

“Obviously cricket is performance-based and if you take wickets then it looks like you’re making an impact, but for me it’s about the process and how well I have bowled.

“It’s always nice in Johannesburg because it’s more suited to fast bowling. But I will just try to keep it as simple as possible. What I’ve achieved before is irrelevant, it’s three or four years since I last played at the Wanderers, and it’s a fresh challenge,” Olivier said.

St Lucia, the venue for the Proteas’ first Test against the West Indies starting on Thursday, is a typically beautiful tropical island but it also has very unpredictable weather.

As pace bowler Lungi Ngidi said on Tuesday: “It’s tricky conditions, similar to Durban in terms of humidity and heat, but it’s also very windy and the overhead conditions seem to change every 30 minutes. It goes from scorching heat to pouring rain very quickly and you never know what to expect.”

So what must the Proteas do to ensure the first Test in the two-match series goes well for them?

*Make every moment count: The three previous Tests played at Gros Islet in June have all ended in draws, and they have all been interrupted at crucial times by rain. St Lucia is heading into its wet season now and, as the Proteas have already discovered, the rain can be pretty intense. There will always be high temperatures and humidity though, and, being an island stuck out practically in the Atlantic ocean, the north-easterly trade winds are strong and consistent. So everything the Proteas do, whether with bat or ball, is going to have to be done with some urgency. They cannot allow the West Indians to settle into their groove.

*Slip in the short ball often: Although the pitch at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium is not as quick as the Wanderers or SuperSport Park, it is not nearly as sleepy as so many of the Caribbean tracks. As Ngidi has noted, there is bounce on offer, so the Proteas fast bowlers must definitely slip in the odd bouncer just to keep the batsmen on their toes.

*Consider swing as a weapon: While bowling coach Charl Langeveldt likened the conditions to England and there will certainly be seam movement, the old Beausejour Stadium is famous for being a venue where swing is on offer. While every paceman will probably allege they are a swing bowler as well, Rabada, Nortje and Ngidi are not known for moving the ball sideways through the air much. Left-armer Beuran Hendricks is probably the best swing bowler in the squad, but playing him would mean leaving out a spinner or batting Keshav Maharaj at seven, neither of which is likely. It’s why Wiaan Mulder is tipped to play as an all-rounder.

*The batsmen must use the friendly amenities: For all the talk about what will assist the bowlers, the Gros Islet pitch also offers friendly amenities for batsmen. The Proteas don’t have to worry about there being much turn, even in the closing stages, although inconsistent bounce could become a feature towards the end of the game. It will certainly be desirable for South Africa to put big runs on the scoreboard in the first innings.

One never needs to blackmail players to go and tour the beautiful Caribbean, but the Proteas’ heads may have just dropped a bit when the schedule for their series in the West Indies starting next month was released on Friday and it revealed that both Test matches will be played on the island of St Lucia.

The tour starts with the two Tests from June 10-14 and June 18-22, and they will both be hosted by the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground at Gros Islet on St Lucia, a venue where South Africa have never managed to win a cricket match.

It was the venue of their infamous 2007 World Cup semi-final when “Brave Cricket” saw them crash to 27 for five against Australia, who cruised to victory by seven wickets with 111 deliveries to spare.

Their other two games at the then Beausejour Stadium in the hilly north-east of the beautiful tropical island were in the 2010 T20 World Cup when the Proteas lost to both India and Pakistan.

They have never played a Test there but the last five-day game at Gros Islet saw a good cricket pitch on which England beat the West Indies by 232 runs, both fast bowlers and spinners doing well as Mark Wood was man of the match with figures of six for 93 and Moeen Ali took seven for 135. The tourists scored 361 for five declared in their second innings.

Contrary to expectations emanating from the Caribbean that Trinidad would be South Africa’s main base for the tour, Grenada will then host the five T20 Internationals between June 26 and July 3 at the National Cricket Stadium at St George’s. The Proteas’ record there is better, winning all three of their ODIs against the West Indies, but being beaten by New Zealand during the 2007 World Cup on a pitch that made batting very difficult with plenty of assistance for the bowlers.

CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith said the change from the big island of Trinidad, that is closer to the South American mainland, to St Lucia and Grenada was for safety reasons in these times of Covid.

“We have been working with the West Indies cricket board weekly and they decided to go to islands that are safer because of Covid, St Lucia and Grenada have had less cases than other venues,” Smith told Saturday Citizen.

South Africa have not played a Test in the West Indies since June 2010, when Smith himself captained them to a 2-0 series win.

South Africa tour to West Indies fixtures:

AB de Villiers & Hashim Amla – South Africa’s two captains in Sri Lanka

South Africa have been gunned down in 13 of their 16 ODIs in Sri Lanka so their brains trust were in no doubt about the daunting task lying ahead of them as they set off for the sub-continental island yesterday.

The Proteas’ tour of Sri Lanka starts with three ODIs from next Sunday, followed by two Tests in Galle and Colombo. South Africa have won two and lost four of the 10 Tests they have played there, so it’s a tough place to tour across the board.

“Sri Lanka know their conditions well and they’re very dangerous at home, especially in the short formats. They’ve done very well in ODIs and T20s in the last five years,” ODI captain AB de Villiers acknowledged yesterday.

“The heat is stifling so even though a place like Hambantota offers more pace and bounce, your fast bowlers have to bowl shorter spells. At Colombo, Galle and Kandy, spin comes into play so that suits their attack.

“And batting in Sri Lanka is anything but easy. There’s turn and the pitches are abrasive so there’s also reverse-swing. And sometimes there’s a bit of movement with the new ball as well, especially at night,” coach Russell Domingo said.

“It’s a tough place to tour because of the conditions and Sri Lanka are playing pretty well at the moment,” Test captain Hashim Amla acknowledged.

Notwithstanding those dire warnings, Domingo said the results at the end of their previous trip to Sri Lanka, when the newly-appointed coach steered them to a 2-1 triumph in the T20 series last August, encouraged him.

“The way we finished last year – we won the T20s which was the first time we had won a shorter-format series over there – showed us what we could achieve over there. It was a strange tour last year, there were a lot of disruptions and injuries. There was no Dale Steyn nor Jacques Kallis and Hashim missed a couple of games as well.”

The return of Kallis will please De Villiers as it will give him much more solidity in the batting line-up, as well as another experienced, proven seam bowler in testing conditions for pacemen.

A top six of Amla, De Kock, Kallis, De Villiers, Duminy and Miller engenders confidence and South Africa will also be taking a better attack to Sri Lanka than last year. Steyn, Morkel, Philander, Kallis, McLaren, Parnell and Hendricks provide a better mix of consistency and striking ability, while Imran Tahir, always a factor on the sub-continent, is likely to be the first-choice spinner.

“Imran had a wonderful 2011 World Cup in similar conditions. He’s an attacking bowler and I’d like to see him get game time and get his confidence going ahead of the Tests,” De Villiers said.

Sri Lanka is the heartland of attacking spinners, however, and Amla said the Proteas will be particularly wary of the unassuming, orthodox left-armer Rangana Herath, fresh from a wonderful tour of England.

“We’ve always viewed Herath as a very good bowler, especially if the pitches are turning. He has a lot of experience and, no disrespect to their seamers, he will be Sri Lanka’s key bowler,” Amla said.

In little more than seven-and-a-half months, South Africa will be involved in another World Cup campaign and Domingo said it is crucial he starts to build confidence within the squad.

“There are still 26 ODIs before the World Cup, so it’s quite a lot of cricket, but we want to get to Australasia with confidence, we want to be one of the teams to beat. We want to get ourselves higher on the rankings. This group is pretty close to what we’ll take to the World Cup,” Domingo said.

The coach said South Africa are likely to play one specialist spinner and JP Duminy in the Tests, leaving the number seven position open for a frontline batsman like Stiaan van Zyl or Quinton de Kock, or another pace bowler with Vernon Philander capable of moving up the order.

“It’s a tough decision and we’ll have to see what conditions are like. But we will always play one frontline spinner and JP, who I see as a frontline spinner anyway. So we have both bases covered – the extra seamer as well as an orthodox off-spinner [Duminy], a young, exciting offie who can bowl the doosra [Dane Piedt] and a leg-spinner [Tahir]. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll play all three of those,” Domingo explained.