South Africa and de Villiers await callow England

On Wednesday it was Chris Gayle; it will be AB de Villiers. There is no obvious respite on the horizon for England’s young bowlers. There is not much time to ruminate and none to feel sorry for oneself or fretful about taking on a powerful South African side.
As Jos Buttler, the vice-captain, a relative veteran at the age of 25 and the rare English owner of a lucrative IPL contract, pointed out in a pre-match interview that was bound to be positive, “That’s tournament cricket. If we lose one game and win five in a row and win the World Cup we’ll be happy with that”. It seemed churlish to point out that England, a month ago, lost five matches in a row against South Africa – as well as being blown away by Gayle on Wednesday.
 “That’s the beauty of it”, said Buttler. “There is a game in two days’ time so you don’t get caught up in what’s just happened. It’s irrelevant now. So go on to the next game and focus on all that we can do to win it”.
The beauty of tournament cricket, when the format makes sense, is that there is very little leeway for a losing side to hang on. However that is now a beastly prospect for England. It is possible for Eoin Morgan’s side to lose to South Africa today and to qualify, but it is a path fraught with difficulty and enough permutations to have you searching for the paracetamol. So England badly need to beat a South African side, which probably contains more match-winners than the West Indies. Yet inevitably the focus will be on one man: de Villiers.
Recently Buttler has witnessed two of the most intimidating batsmen in the world from a distance of about four feet, a privilege albeit a painful one on Wednesday night. “They are very different”, he says. “Chris never looks under pressure. He feels like he can hit sixes at will. They are two great players. De Villiers has a much greater range of shots but Gayle has that power and he doesn’t really need to try anything else.
“We weren’t the first side and we certainly won’t be the last either [to be blown away by Gayle]. I think it highlights that you really have to be 100% on your game against someone who’s capable of that sort of innings. You’ve got very small margins,”  Buttler added.
Too small for England bowlers who were hindered by their inexperience and by having to operate with a wet ball once the dew had set in on a balmy Mumbai night. Buttler reassured that England make sure that they practise with a wet ball in training, sometimes in a swimming pool (for the fielders). However the fruits of their labour were not obvious on Wednesday. Mind you, it is hard enough bowling at Gayle with a dry ball.
At the Wankhede Stadium the spinners were unable to grip the ball or to spin it sufficiently to find any deviation. Likewise when the quicker bowlers turned to their devilish array of cutters and slower balls there was no knowing where the ball would land. It will be a shame if the outcome of many games in this tournament are to be heavily influenced by the toss of a coin.    
But there have been two “big” tosses already, won by New Zealand on a dustbowl in Nagpur and the West Indies in Mumbai. Whoever wins the toss tonight will bowl first and hope to avoid some of the dew. It would be fairer to schedule these matches earlier in the day but, of course, there is as much chance of the ICC sacrificing the commercial attractions of a 7.30pm start as there is of driving on a deserted Mumbai road.
England’s batsmen were competent enough, without devastating on Wednesday but their bowlers were found wanting in mighty difficult conditions. It did not help them that when the ball was new and relatively dry Gayle was invariably off-strike.
They never threatened to dismiss him. They will have to remove de Villiers relatively early to prevail tonight. The only possible change to England’s side – and it is an unlikely one - would have them turning to the extra pace of Liam Plunkett.
The situation offers a wonderful test of temperament as well as skill. Of course Buttler is confident. “This is a great place to come and play (as he hopes to discover when turning out for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL next month) and we’ve got characters in that dressing room who enjoy the big occasion, who will stand up to it and look to take the game on”.
Encouragingly Buttler gives the impression that he has an appropriate sense of perspective about it all. He was one of the England players returning from lunch on a rest day who stopped to have a look at a game in the park before joining in. “Having a hit with some locals is a nice thing to do and a fun way to get used to local conditions”, said Buttler. It may be slightly trickier at the Wankhede Stadium tonight.
Teams
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (captain), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Chris Morris, David Miller, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn, David Wiese
England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, James Vince, David Willey