Ken Borland

Putting together a successful team is not as simple as just buying the biggest names with the greatest strikepower; even The Avengers had one Thor but also important, more down-to-earth members like the Wasp, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

The same will apply to the SA20 franchises when they put together their final 17-man squads at the player auction in Cape Town on Monday, according to the veteran coaches who participated in a round-table discussion on Thursday.

“Planning is key before the auction, you need to have a clear outline and know exactly what you want,” Joburg Super Kings coach Eric Simons said. “It gets pretty hectic when the paddles start going up, so you need to be very clear about where the player you are bidding for fits into the team, rather than just going for someone because they’re a big name.

“You’re after two or three skills in one player and, from a Super Kings perspective, you also want local players who understand the conditions and the fans can get behind them.

“You need to build a common strategy and synergy, it’s 17 individuals but you have to make a team out of them, choose players who will play for that uniform,” Simons said.

“It’s not just 11 players who will win you the competition, probably 15 will have to get you over the line,” Durban Super Giants coach Lance Klusener said.

“The guys who come into the side as back-up towards the end of the competition become really important cogs.”

So one can expect old heads with intimate knowledge of all the domestic venues like Rassie van der Dussen, Dwaine Pretorius, Reeza Hendricks, Dane Vilas, Wayne Parnell and Jon-Jon Smuts to attract plenty of interest.

While it is a pity that the weakness of the rand means prices of overseas players are over-inflated, Simons, who has been coaching at the IPL for a decade, said the focus of these franchise leagues should always be on the local players.

“A lot of people make the mistake in thinking that the IPL is all about the international players. It’s not, it’s about Indian cricketers and it’s a privilege for us from overseas to be involved.

“The SA20 will be no different, it’s the local players who will make up the strength of the team. Building a very solid local component is a vital part of success.

“A lot of those South African players are very good value, but so far we know only their base prices, who knows where the bidding will end?

“There are certainly some guys who missed out on the pre-auction who I have no doubt there will be great interest in,” Simons said.

There is no sense of inertia among South Africa’s batsmen, they know they have to contribute more and bigger runs when the decisive third Test against England starts at The Oval on Thursday, Keegan Petersen said on Tuesday.

The hundreds scored by Sarel Erwee and Kyle Verreynne in New Zealand are the only centuries scored by the Proteas this year, while only Petersen and the injured Temba Bavuma average over 40 in 2022.

“Quite obviously we need to score more hundreds, our batsmen haven’t been there for a while and the lower-order has had to save us,” Petersen said on Tuesday.

“It’s time for us to step it up now and get big scores. It’s just mental, nothing else, we’re getting starts, we’re getting in but just not going on.

“Both Tests were lost in the first innings. Conditions did lean towards the bowlers, it gave them the advantage, but if we can play the first innings better then we should be the team that comes out on top.

“We would love to play for five days for once, but there’s a lot on the line and even if it is another low-scoring match, I think it’s going to be a good game,” Petersen said.

While the media talk around the South African team tends to veer towards their lack of Test cricket in the new FTP, despite them currently being in line to play in the World Test Championship final, Petersen said the Proteas will not err by focusing on anything other than the decisive final Test of the series against England.

“It hurt to get beat like that in the second Test, but we’ve had some time away from the game now. We’re not thinking about the World Test Championship final, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

“Our focus is only on the next Test, there’s a lot at stake and hopefully we can turn things around from Manchester. We don’t feel the pressure to make any statements in that way, about our Test future.

“We’re just trying to prepare for whatever situations we will face out in the middle, we know it will be tough.

“Personally, kicking on is the problem right now, and I’m still trying to figure out what to do. I’m trying to get to triple figures and hopefully it will happen soon,” Petersen said.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar knows as well as anyone that batting first at Old Trafford was not going to be easy, but he expected the batting line-up to show more resilience, saying the poor performance with the bat on the first day was why South Africa lost the second Test against England by an innings and 85 runs on Saturday.

Having selected two frontline spinners in their XI, it was almost inevitable that the Proteas would bat first after they won the toss to allow Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer to bowl on a deteriorating pitch in the fourth innings. But that plan was torn to shreds when South Africa were bundled out for 151 shortly after tea on the first day.

“Obviously the lack of first-innings runs was where the game was lost,” opening batsman Elgar said after the Manchester thumping that sends the series into a decider at The Oval from September 8. “That’s when you stabilise your game and scoring 300+ gives you the best chance of competing. We got half of that.

“We did not bat well. Sure, the ball moved around, but this is Test cricket and you must deal with it. Losing two wickets just before lunch was crucial. If we had been 80/3 then we would have been in a good position.

“But we were five down and then we were always playing catch-up. The pitch deteriorated like we thought it would and there was plenty in it for both seamers and spinners.

“It’s all been a bit of a blur since Day 1, it all happened so quickly after that. England’s batting let them down in the first innings at Lord’s and it happened in this Test as well. You set yourself up nicely if you score runs in the first innings,” Elgar said.

Before what should be an exciting finalé to the tour back in London, Elgar said it was important the Proteas don’t panic despite the horrible loss in the second Test.

“Sometimes you can go into panic mode after a defeat like that, but myself and the coach definitely won’t be doing that. We know we’re not suddenly a bad side.

“I know have a couple of days to process everything, but I won’t change my approach because to do that now would be letting myself down. And I think the players enjoy my honesty.

“Sometimes time away from the game is good, we will do things as a squad though, touch base again, get connected again. We need to pull ourselves towards ourselves and let the dust settle.

“It’s an adult environment and I won’t treat the players like schoolchildren because I know I would not have liked that as a young player. But there are a few tough decisions coming our way,” Elgar said.

One of the big surprises of the second afternoon when England put themselves in a wonderful position to win the second Test against South Africa through centuries by Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes was that Proteas captain Dean Elgar did not lean more heavily on fast bowler Anrich Nortje at Old Trafford on Friday.

The explosive paceman had claimed three of the wickets to fall as Stokes and Foakes came together on a difficult 147/5, but Nortje had only eight balls against the pair at the start of their partnership before understandably having a break. But much to the batsmen’s delight, he did not reappear for 30 overs, by which time their partnership was already worth 92. The failure to use Nortje in the first 35 minutes after lunch was particularly baffling.

But the 28-year-old said after the second day’s play that he was happy with captain Dean Elgar’s plans and it was simply a great pitch to bat on. South Africa will certainly hope so as they go into the third day 241 runs behind.

“It was a really good wicket to bat on and I don’t think one should look too deeply into who bowled when and from which end,” Nortje said. “It was obviously a much drier pitch compared to Lord’s.

“So we had to go 100% according to the conditions and Dean had a plan according to what the situation told him. I had a decent stint from both sides.

“We had to go according to conditions and sometimes utilise the spinners at both ends. And as the ball got older, it became even harder to bowl. But we bowled our best balls and they batted very well,” Nortje said.

While many onlookers felt Elgar had given Stokes and Foakes early birthday presents by keeping Nortje or even Kagiso Rabada away from them straight after lunch, Nortje praised the duo for their discipline and determination at the crease as they added a match-turning 173 for the sixth wicket.

“When they first came in, that was definitely the key period for the day, that was the major time after we got wickets in the morning. We tried to keep that pressure on, it was the ideal period to try and get some more sticks.

“At the start of the day it felt like there was plenty of opportunity, balls were missing the bat here and there, and we really felt in it. But they absorbed pressure really well, a few things went their way and they turned the momentum,” Nortje said.