MyKhel Exclusive: South Africa bowlers will require lot of patience to succeed in Test series, says Lance Klusener

Visakhapatnam, October 2: The South African bowlers were struggling to make an impression on a slow pitch here at the ACA-VDCA stadium during the first day's play of the opening Test against India. From a distance, Lance Klusener might be feeling a bit irked seeing the effort.

Klusener was the assistant coach of South Africa in the recent T20I series that ended in a 1-1 draw. The former Protean all-rounder is no stranger to success in subcontinent either, having taken a match-winning 8 for 64 in the Kolkata Test in the 1996-97 series. SA had won the Eden Gardens Test by 329 runs.

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"India is a tough place to tour. If you are a fast bowler, then raw pace could only benefit you this much. You cannot really hustle batsmen with pace but you need to be very clever, outthink batsmen by playing on his patience. The Test series will be a tough challenge for South African bowlers," Klusener told MyKhel.

The first day's play offered a clear validation for Klusener's words. A bowling line-up consisting Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj and Dean Piedt failed to pose any challenge to Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwal as the Indian openers racked up 202 for no loss when the play was interrupted by rain a towards the end of the second session.

Of course, a slow pitch too played its part in rendering the SA bowling unit toothless, there was not much effort from their side either to find an alternative wicket-taking route.

"The key to success bowling in India is to remain patient. Batsmen who grew up on such surfaces will be dominating for one or two sessions a day. You may remain wicketless, but importantly the bowlers should try to keep it tight, bowl at the right areas and force batsmen to take the risks to find runs," said Klusener.

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"You need variations here, outright pace alone will not work. You need to try to get the ball reverse, slower ball, cutters, you will require them all here," he said.

Klusener offered the example of Dale Steyn, who had retired from Test cricket prior to the tour of India. "Yes, Dale knew how to master the conditions. He showed twice that in Ahmedabad (2007-08) and Nagpur (2010). He was lethal in those Tests. At Ahmedabad, Steyn, I think, got a pitch with a bit of carry and grass and bowled at a good pace for a five-wicket haul (5/23) and India were bowled out for 70 (76 to be precise).

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"Couple of years later, he took 7 wickets in Nagpur (7/51) and SA won big. I recollect correct, it was not a pitch exactly conducive for pace bowling but Steyn did not require that kind of wicket, reversing the ball to get his wickets. It was high-class pace bowling," he said.

But Klusener placed hopes on the new set of South African players. "They are inexperienced at this level. But this is their opportunity and they should make it count. Put your hands up and make sure that the team remains in front. It is going to be difficult against batsmen like Virat Kohli, one of the best batsmen around in all formats, and Pujara, but they should be ready for the grind. As I said, patience is the key here.

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"Yes, it could be an advantage. Rabada has played Test cricket here and he has also played IPL matches and he sure would have some knowledge about the conditions and the challenges that could be faced here. Others like Keshav (Maharaj) and (Lungi) Ngdi too have enough exposure to international cricket and now all that could boil down to their mindset to face challenges and find a way to overcome them," he signed off.