JOHANNESBURG - Aiden Markram admitted that the Proteas have discussed the team's debilitating habit of losing wickets in clusters.
South Africa endured two batting collapses which proved fatal in the first Test against Pakistan, and more than it being a case about conditions, it's a mental shortcoming that needs to be corrected. “We’ve addressed the fact that we want to stop losing wickets in clusters, our thought processes are heading in the right direction and now it's about getting it right in the middle where it matters,” Markram said following South Africa’s defeat by seven wickets in the first Test.
Markram and Rassie van der Dussen’s 127-run second wicket partnership was the only highlight of any otherwise dreadful batting performance in Karachi by the Proteas. They threw away the advantage gained from batting first on a pitch, that while a touch slow, had no assistance for the bowlers on the first day.
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“At the start of the Test it was very nice to bat,” said Markram, who scored 13 in the first innings, before getting a good ball from Shaheen Afridi that moved across him and found the outside edge. But the pitch wasn’t a vicious ‘turner’ like Markram has experienced on previous trips to the sub-continent. “The first innings here is very nice to bat. We’ve always fielded first the other times I’ve played in the subcontinent...so we ultimately started batting when the ball started turning in those matches. Here it took longer to start turning but once it started turning, it was certainly very similar to what we experienced in Sri Lanka and India.”
And Markram and Van der Dussen played very well too, happy to absorb pressure and in Markram’s case changing his thinking about his approach at the crease. Before his second innings 74 in Karachi, Markram had averaged 10.77 in five innings’ in the sub-continent. “Personally I can take confidence from this knock, given what I’ve been through in the sub-continent,” he said.
👀 Watch Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen's 127-run second-wicket partnership on Day 3 of the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi#PAKvSA #SeeUsOnThePitch pic.twitter.com/bC4GtyVWER
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 29, 2021
“It was a slightly different innings for me personally; to accept that I should be spending time at the crease and not worry about scoring. It had to be done on a wicket like that. It was different for me, but nice to have experienced it as well.”
Markram spent more than five hours at the wicket and faced 224 balls. “It by no means is the finished product. It’s a step in the right direction, albeit a small step. There is still lots of learning and growing to do in these conditions.”
South Africa needs to do that learning and growing fast. The second Test starts next Thursday and the batting unit in particular needs to apply itself better if the Proteas are to have any chance of beating a Pakistan side that will now be high on confidence.