South Africa’s highly rated pace attack flopped in the first Test against England because they allowed pre-match hype to make them complacent, according to assistant coach Vinnie Barnes.
Barnes wasn’t happy with what he saw from strike bowlers Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Makhaya Ntini as England piled up 593-8 declared in the first innings at Lord’s.
He insisted pundits’ claims that South Africa had the fastest bowling attack in international cricket had a negative effect, but he is convinced they can bounce back in the second Test, which starts at Headingley tomorrow.
“We have a young attack and it was a huge occasion for them playing their first Test at Lord’s,” Barnes said. “There’s no doubt that they were overawed.”
FASTEST
“There was also a lot of hype in the media about the South Africans having the fastest attack since the West Indies in the 1980s — and the guys started to believe it all,” he said.
“We were also unable to get onto the field because of the bad weather preceding the Test and couldn’t get a feel of the ground, and in particular the slope,” Barnes said. “They all have a strong feeling that they’ve let the team down — and they’re desperate to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Barnes has been working to restore morale among his bowlers after the drawn match.
He feels it is only a matter of time before they hit their stride and has been showing them videos of their best moments to underline the point.
“We’ve reminded them that they lost their game plan,” Barnes said. “Bowling is all about patience, pressure and operating in partnerships. The guys just didn’t apply their skills.”
VIDEO ANALYSIS
“I’ve done technical work with the guys and a lot of video analysis,” he said. “I’ve sat down with the bowlers individually, for two hours each, and shown them examples of what they can do when they were bowling well.”
“I showed Dale Steyn his bowling at Newlands in the New Year Test against the West Indies when he was bowling at 150kph and swinging it big, and one of his best spells at Chennai against India when he took four for 10 in eight overs with the old ball,” Barnes said.
“Makhaya has tended in the past to make slow starts to series,” he said.
“We worked hard to get his intensity up, so that he knew his first ball had to be his best ball. But it didn’t happen. Nevertheless, we are confident he will get better,” Barnes said.
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