Triangular Tournament
South Africa v Kenya
Sunday, October 7, 2001

The South Africans strolled to their second successive win of the tournament, and while the match itself was dull, there were some interesting lessons in it for India.

Firstly, Thomas Odoyo, when he pitched the ball up, extracted seam movement that not only earned him the wickets of the openers, but also made Jacques Kallis and Neil McKenzie play watchfully early on. That is the length that Indian seamers would be better off bowling in their next match against South Africa, at Centurion on Wednesday.

Secondly, the South African batsmen didn't look in command against the Kenyan spinners - even though they weren't up against prodigious turn. In my experience of playing against South Africa, I have always felt that they tend to be far too circumspect against spinners, unlike the Australians, who are equally adept against pace and spin. This should be a pointer for the Indians to rethink their bowling attack for the rest of the tournament.

Kenya were second-best in all departments of the game today. Steve Tikolo apart, they batted poorly. And their bowling attack doesn't look likely to bother top-class batsmen. Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs should have made bigger scores, but paid the price for being too greedy. Though they were entertaining in their brief stay at the crease, they missed out on some easy international runs.

South Africa ended with a bonus point because of the margin of their victory. I think that this new system is a good innovation. It certainly adds to the interest in each game, especially the lop-sided matches that are bound to occur when a lesser team like Kenya goes up against one of the big boys.

Sanjay Manjrekar, mainstay of the Indian batting in the late '80s and early '90s, was talking to S Rajesh. He will be commenting for Wisden.com on each session of the tri-series in South Africa.

More Sanjay Manjrekar
SA v Kenya: Bad batting - with one exception
India v SA: India missed Harbhajan

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