Winning creates heroes, losing creates villains. That is one of the unwritten laws of the sporting world, and world in general I suppose.
We’re all guilty of this. As a bra who has eelte on his fingers from trying his hand at Fifa 22 after a hard day’s work, I know the feeling. The game sucks if I go on a losing run, while it excites me to play it every time I hit a winning streak.
Winning feels good. Ask any fan of the Proteas team after their Test series victory over India. But are the five takeaways from the series we just had?
Proteas coach Mark Boucher deserves credit for orchestrating a victory over the top Test team in the world.
How he and his coaching staff managed to turn things around after losing the first Test by 113 runs is no easy feat.
But he needed a strong leader to execute the plan in the middle and Dean Elgar proved to be that guy.
Elgar’s 96 not out in the second innings of the second Test to guide South Africa to a seven-wicket win was better than most centuries I’ve seen at Test level.
The skipper took balls to his body from India’s spoedvrate, but he remained as cool as a cucumber and as solid as a rock.
That innings inspired his teammates to believe that with attitude anything is possible.
With that knock, Elgar showed that he will bleed for his country and as a true captain at war, he led his troops into battle with aplomb.
Paarl gave South African cricket fans a real pearl over the summer.
Keegan Petersen was simply a delight to watch as he bagged the Man of the Match award in South Africa’s seven-wicket third Test win, as well as the Man of the Series gong.
It was legendary South Africa’s leading Test run-scorer and former batting consultant Jacques Kallis, who worked with Petersen at the start of last year, who predicted back then that the 28-year-old “is going to get a lot of runs going forward”.
Kallis, who was one of the best technical batsmen to watch and also batted at No.3 for SA, also praised Petersen’s batting technique - high praise from the former allrounder.
We saw his prediction come true, with KP scoring the most runs in the series - 276 at an average of 46, while doing so with technical expertise.
He didn’t get to the three-figure mark, but his three 50s were worth as match as centuries. His highest score is the 82 runs he scored in the second innings of the third Test to add to his 72 in the first innings which won the match and series for SA.
Fast bowler Marco Jansen, who bagged 19 wickets at 16.47, was the other big find.
Keshav Maharaj bowled a total of 32 overs in three Test matches at Centurion Park, the Wanderers and Newlands.
As a frontline spinner, that’s a waste of time for what should have been 15 days of hard work.
Instead, we saw pitches made for fast bowlers and that gave us only 12 days in the middle.
The first Test was played over five days, only because Day Two rained out, while the other two both finished inside four days.
With a plethora of fast bowling options, the Proteas will be better suited to load their attack with quicks and get the likes of Aiden Markram and Elgar to work on their part-time spin bowling.
Speaking of Markram, he totalled only 76 runs at an average of 12.66.
That’s nowhere near good enough to open the innings for the Proteas and while I still believe he has a future in the team - maybe at No.4 with Rassie van der Dussen moving down a bit - he should not open with Elgar at this point in time.
Rassie van der Dussen (117 runs at an average of 23.4) and Kyle Verreynne (21 at 10.5) will not be happy with their efforts either.
This Test team has a lot of potential and even without Quinton de Kock, who retired from five-day cricket after the first match, the future looks rosy.
As far as De Kock’s replacement is concerned, Verreynne has what it takes to keep wicket for years to come.
Batting depth is perhaps something that has not yet been tested properly and could be an issue going forward.
In terms of bowling, South Africa, as always, look pretty healthy.
Now, bring on the Kiwis.
dudley.carstens.co.za