‘A lot of us haven’t picked the googlies’ – JP Duminy

Along with Virat Kohli’s imperious batting – 318 runs in three games with two centuries – the big reason for India running away to a 3-0 lead in the six-match One-Day International series in South Africa has been the success of their two young wrist-spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

Chahal so far has 11 wickets with a strike rate of 14.9, while Yadav is only marginally behind with 10 wickets at a strike rate of 15.0.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that, unfortunately, we just haven’t played their spinners well enough. They have taken 22 [21] out of the 30 wickets, so that’s certainly something that we are going to have to look at and see how we can be better,” said JP Duminy, South Africa’s highest scorer with 51 in the third ODI, which India won by 124 runs with Kohli scoring an unbeaten 159-ball 160 and Chahal and Yadav picking up four wickets apiece.

“The series is not lost yet. I think that will be a big enough motivator for us to come back and try and revive the series for us.

“What they have done really well is that they've assessed conditions in terms of what they need to do, what sort of speed and length they need to bowl. They haven’t made it easy for us to get ones. Unfortunately a lot of us haven’t picked the googlies. And that’s what it has come down to – we’ve not been good enough in understanding … yes, we have game plans, but unfortunately they have bowled well enough not to give us the balls to play in our game plan. We’ve got to come up with different ways of countering how good they have been. You’ve got to put your hand up and say they have just been too good for us; they have outplayed us in all departments.”

Though Chahal and Yadav have picked up only some of their wickets with googlies, the fact they can do a lot of damage with that delivery has kept the South African batsmen guessing.

“We haven't picked the wrong 'uns and when you are not picking their wrong ‘uns, you are not necessarily going to be comfortable at the crease, you are always going to be a little tentative,” he said. “Once you become comfortable with picking their deliveries, that's when you can play with confidence, with ease, with freedom. We need to find a way to get that right. They've bowled a touch slower than our spinners. They haven't bowled the ball full enough for us to get to the ball, to hit down the ground. That's where we have been successful in South African conditions, and they haven't allowed that. We need to make sure we have different strategies, not only scoring boundaries but finding the ones square of the wicket as well.”

While Chahal and Yadav have made life difficult for the South African batsmen, the bowlers have come up against an immovable object in Kohli, who has scores of 112, 46* and 160* in the three games.

“Just looking at Virat’s innings today [in the third ODI], the way he paced it, wasn’t batting at a 100 strike rate today but picked it up at the end,” pointed out Duminy. “He is up there with the world’s best. You have to take your opportunities when it comes, specifically in his first 20 balls. We’ve created the chances but unfortunately haven’t got them to stick. But yeah, he is in really good form at the moment. He’s had an unbelievable year. He’s just carried on and he oozes confidence, so we’ve got to come up with different plans and ways of getting through to him. Look, we have managed to pick up one or two early wickets but we haven’t been able to carry it forward.”

From the South African batting point of view, Duminy’s 51 has been the only 50-plus score apart from Faf du Plessis’s 112 in the first game.

“We've spoken about how crucial partnerships are. We haven't had the opportunity to put together partnerships. The only standout performance was Faf's in the first game,” said Duminy. “As a batting unit, we've got to make sure we are better. We've got take it on the chin and take responsibility and know we are better than that. Throughout this series so far, we've lost wickets in clusters so we haven't given ourselves a chance. It comes down to execution. We've got plans of how to counter their spin but we haven't managed to execute.”

Du Plessis fractured a finger in that game and has since been ruled out of the remainder of the series, while Quinton de Kock hurt his wrist in the second game to go out of action too. South Africa have also missed AB de Villiers for the first three games, but with the talismanic batsman coming back, Duminy hoped for better results. “It’s a massive boost,” said Duminy, adding, “He will bring confidence to the team and his leadership within the group will add a lot of value as well.”

No one will perhaps gain more from de Villiers’s ‘leadership’ than Aiden Markram. The 23-year-old batsman who led South Africa to the title at the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2014 was handed the captaincy reins in only his third ODI – the second game of the ongoing series – and has overseen disappointing performances so far.

“I think quite a few guys have helped him out. He’s obviously confided in a few guys on different ways of doing things. But look, this is probably the quickest way to learn, going through difficult times. The kind of character he is, he’ll get through it. And it’s not a process he needs to go through alone. It’s a team. At the end of the day the team hasn’t played well. It’s not as though he hasn’t led well,” argued Duminy.

“We just haven’t put in the performances. As a captain you can only do so much, you can only say so much, motivate so much; at the end of the day as players we’ve got to stand up and put in those performances that we get paid to do.”