IND vs SA: In a Seam Dominated Proteas Bowling Attack, Spinners Have Always Played Second Fiddle

The upcoming Test tour of India would serve as an ideal opportunity for Maharaj to once again prove his artistry will the ball on the spin friendly tracks at Pune and Vishakhapatnam

After South African got re-instated into international cricket in 1991 post the deconstruction of apartheid, the African nation made rapid strides to reach the pinnacle of Test cricket and have since been a force to reckon with in the longer format of the game. The Proteas produced all time batting greats of the game in Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, AB De Villiers, and also quite a few seam bowling stalwarts - Dale Steyn, Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, who were hailed as the best exponents with the red cherry. However, there has always been one chink in their armour which made their near to perfect line-ups in red ball cricket incomplete. The lack of a quality Test spinner in their ranks has always been a telling weaknesses. A look at the leading wicket takers for South Africa in Test cricket will further make the point crystal clear. The top six Test wicket takers for SA have all been seam bowling greats - right from Dale Steyn (439), Shaun Pollock (421), Makhaya Ntini (390), Allan Donald (330), Morne Morkel (309) and Jacques Kallis (291). A further look at the numbers reveal that only three spinners - Hugh Tayfield (170), Paul Harris (103), Nicky Boje (100) have picked 100 or more wickets in Test cricket for South Africa. With the exception of spin great Hugh Tayfied (170 wickets in 37 Tests) who donned the South African jersey way back in the 50s, Proteas bowling attacks have been largely been built around quality seamers who formed the nucleus of their powerpacked attacks. Well the absence of a quality spinner never quite hurt them as their potent seamers were outright match winners on seam conducive tracks back home and even had the skills in their repertoire to produce match winning spells on the low and spin friendly decks of the sub-continent. Unlike a Kumble-Harbhajan and Ashwin-Jadeja for India, Mushtaq-Saqlain, Ajmal-Rehman for Pakistan, Muralitharan-Herath for Sri Lanka, , Warne-MacGill combination for Australia, Giles-Swann-Panesar for England; South African's never quite had spin twins who could be deemed as the strike bowlers of their bowling arsenal. History suggests that South African spinners always played second fiddle to their more fancied pace bowling counterparts. If one were to draw a fair comparision, the South Arican Test bowling fact-file is pretty much similar to Windies cricket, which also over the years relied heavily on their pace batteries to outgun the best of bowling lineups. Lance Gibbs was the lone world class West Indian spinner who stood his ground amidst a galaxy of seam bowling greats in the 70s and 80s. When South Africa were readmitted back to top flight crcket in the early 90s, Pat Symcox was a handy spinner who plied his trait effectively in ODIs but was never the same force in the longer format. Then came along the left-arm chinaman bowler Paul Adams who created quite a buzz with his 'frog in a blender' action. 'Guga' with his unique and unorthodox action found his groove in Test cricket for a couple of seasons but sooner than later got worked out by oppositions. Post Adams, Nicky Boje became the lead spinner in red ball cricket but was more used as a defensive spinner to choke the run flow and create pressure on the opposition. In all fairness, Paul Harris who did a have a longish spell donning whites for SA, played more of a containing role for his side. Star leg spinner Imran Tahir went onto become an outright match winning spinner in white ball cricket and loads of success but lacked the craft to replicate that success in red ball cricket. After a long time, South Africa can boast of a spinner who has the pedigree of being considered somewhere close to Test match quality. Left arm orthodox spinner Keshav Maharaj has proved his worth in the longer format by picking up 94 wickets in merely 25 Tests. His wickets have come at an impressive average of 28.44 and already picked up 5 Fifers in a career that promises much more to offer. His match winning spells have gone pretty unnoticed at a time where the world took notice of the feats of Steyn, Morkel, Rabada and Philander. The noteworthy fact about Maharaj's performances is that most of his match winning spells have come on seam friendly decks in South Africa, Australia, England and New Zealand; which don’t assist spin bowling in a big way. The upcoming Test tour of India would serve as an ideal opportunity for Maharaj to once again prove his artistry will the ball on the spin friendly tracks at Pune and Vishakhapatnam. Maharaj picked up a bagful of wickets in his last tour of the sub continent where he ran through the Lankan batting order in the Galle Test match. So it will be interesting to see whether Maharaj with a bagful of tricks can leave a telling impact against hosts India and outshine his more fancied pace bowling partners - Rabada, Philander and Ngidi in the 3-match Test series.