The glaring weakness in Australia’s armoury heading into their Champions Trophy match against the Proteas is their depleted bowling attack.
The Aussie attack, which is missing Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood, was hit to all parts against England in their tournament opener. The English scored 351/8 in their allowed 50 overs batting first, as the seven Australian bowlers struggled to stem the run-flow.
However, Australia’s fearsome batting line-up is their big strength, and the batters came to the party in a big way, chasing down the total with nine balls in the innings to spare.
Josh Inglis smashed an unbeaten 120 off 67 balls and was well supported by Matthew Short and Alex Carey. The Aussies also have Travis Head, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and South African-born Marnus Labuschagne in their line-up, which is a scary prospect for any team.
So, while the Aussies are light in the bowling stakes, they certainly make up for it with their hard-hitting batsmen capable of destroying opposition attacks on these flat Pakistani wickets during the Champions Trophy.
So where does that leave the Proteas ahead of Tuesday’s match between the two teams.
Well, they certainly produced a professional performance to start the tournament with a convincing win over Afghanistan. It wasn’t spectacular, but they got the job with clinical cricket to avoid defeat in a rather tricky opening fixture.
And they managed to do it without their superstar batter Heinrich Klaasen, who was such a key man in the middle-order during their 2023 ICC World Cup in India, where the Proteas succumbed to Australia in the semi-finals.
However, Klaasen’s ability to bat aggressively and at a good rate was missed against the Afghans, as a total close to 340-350 ended up at 315/6. Of course, Afghanistan’s wilted in their brief stay at the crease, managing only 208 runs as the South Africans romped to victory.
But the Australian batting line-up is a totally different proposition. They will back themselves to set or chase a target on these flat tracks, because they have the quality and the depth of batting to go hard at the opposition’s bowlers for the full 50 overs.
The Proteas may need to mimic that approach, which is something they showed during the World Cup two years ago. But that team had the power of Klaasen, who is still in doubt for Tuesday’s clash. So essentially the other batters in the line-up need to up their intent and strike-rates.
The Proteas’ batting approach in their first game against Afghanistan was solid but lacked a bit of intent in the middle overs. Ryan Rickelton 103 off 106 balls (strike rate of 97), Temba Bavuma’s 58 off 73 (strike rate of 79) and Rassie van der Dussen’s 52 off 46 (strike rate of 113.04) set the foundation, while Aiden Markram’s unbeaten 52 off 36 (strike rate of 144) added some late impetus.
But those strike-rates aren’t going to cut it against Australia, especially batting first and trying to set a target their bowlers can defend.
Upping the tempo is not necessarily about batting recklessly, but going in with an aggressive intent to try and dominate. Australia’s depleted pace attack gives the Proteas that opportunity to try and target a score of 350 and more, which may anyway be needed to win the match.
There is no doubt that the likes of Head is going to come hard at the South Africa's bowling on Tuesday. The Proteas, however, need to fight fire with fire with the bat - whether that is with or without Klaasen.
@JohnGoliath82