South Africa fast bowling legend Allan Donald said South Africa is one of the toughest places for overseas players to bat as well. While talking about Indian batters’ struggles, Donald said that players whose footwork is not spot-on will find themselves in trouble, claiming that Sachin Tendulkar is among the few to do well. India faced an embarrassing innings and 32-run defeat in the first Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion as well.
Talking on Team India’s batting woes in South Africa, Donald was quoted as saying in a PTI report: “It’s not an easy place to combat. We see that daily in South Africa, the ball does nip around more than it does in Australia or England. If your footwork isn’t 100 percent then you are in trouble. Only person I know who played us well was Tendulkar, who triggered (had a trigger movement) while batting in South Africa rather than stand on middle-stump. He pressed forward and left the ball amazingly well.”
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Sharing advice for Indian batters on how to tackle South African conditions, Allan Donald added that knowing which ball to leave is crucial as well.
“If you leave the ball well here, you can score runs. You got to get bowlers to come to you and search a little bit more. They start coming to you, the opportunities of scoring get better.”It’s an interesting phenomenon as it’s tough to bat. In Cape Town though, it will be a very good Test pitch. It will flatten out quickly, so you need to work very hard,” the veteran added.
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“For India, there was one debutant (Prasidh Krishna). I thought (Jasprit) Bumrah, but Indian bowlers searched too much for things to happen.”They quickly reverted to shorter balls and then lost their length a bit on the shorter side and then got opened up on either side – square leg, off side and SA batters capitalised,” Allan Donald concluded.
