Kohli’s wicket is key, says Morris

Kohli’s wicket is key, says Morris

On India’s tour of South Africa, Virat Kohli has pulled further away from the pack of contemporary batsmen and into increasingly rarefied heights. In three Tests, none of which were played on batting-friendly surfaces, he topped the charts with 286 runs. In the One-Day Internationals, he’s gone even further with 318 runs already in three matches, and only one dismissal.

While the South African batsmen have their own challenge from India’s wrist-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, the bowlers have the battering ram of Kohli to get past. And they need to do it on Saturday (February 10), in the fourth ODI of the series, because India are already 3-0 up.

“You always want to get the main dog out in a team. He’s the big dog and the guy scoring runs for them at the moment,” said Chris Morris on Friday at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. “I mean look, 34 ODI hundreds speaks for itself. He’s got a hundred in every single country he’s played in. The guy’s in serious form at the moment, and he’s in form anywhere he plays in the world. He’s a good player but we know if we bowl well enough to him we could get him out. We know he’s the main guy in the team, and if we can get him out we can put India under pressure.”

As for plans against the Kuldeep-Chahal threat, Morris said that in between losing the third ODI in Cape Town by 124 runs and now, the team had done some even more intensive homework on the duo, and hoped to be able to read them better.

“I wouldn’t say there are any new plans to be very honest. I think there will be a lot more video work done, lots of guys watching the hand and watching the ball and I think just maybe change our options,” he explained. “That’s probably the biggest thing. I don’t think there’s major plans with different techniques and different tactics against the spinners. It’s just about doing a little bit more hard work and playing a positive game, focussing on hitting the cricket ball and stop focussing on what’s around you.

“We’re not panicking, hitting more balls – it’s not panic station. We know we played badly against spin, so we’ll take it on the chin and move on.”

South Africa’s batsmen haven’t been able to deal with the flight or turn and Morris conceded it was ‘possible’ they had not been reading the spin well. “We had a chat about it in Cape Town and we’ve just got to take it on the chin. We haven’t been playing them well, we’ve been a bit tentative towards them,” he said. “Maybe a different tactic or ploy against them. But we don’t need to change anything. We don’t need to hit more balls, we don’t need to change anything about the way we’re playing the game. We just need to focus on what’s going on at the moment. Maybe situations have caused a bit of tentativeness to play the game, but that’s part of cricket. Like I said, the only way we can combat that is doing a bit more homework and focussing on what’s going on ahead of us.”

To a question on whether he believed his side could score runs against them, Morris grinned, “Absolutely. They’re human, eh?”

While giving wholesome credit to their skills, Morris said that if South Africa was in a more dominant position when the spinners came on, it could well herald a much more positive approach against them. “It depends on the situation. Obviously, in Durban I had to consolidate and eat up a bit of pressure and bat some time,” he said, referring to the first ODI where he made 37 in a 74-run stand with Faf du Plessis that resurrected South Africa. “Centurion (bowled out for 118) we don’t really need to talk about, I had to play my game. If we are 100 for no loss after 11 overs when the spinners come on, I tell you what, we’re not going to sit back. It’s simple as that, you are going to play your game because we are on the front foot. Every time the spinners have come on, we’ve been on the back foot, unfortunately. Except for Cape Town I don’t think we were on the back foot, but they’ve bowled really, really well. So that’s all situation based. If we decide to go, we go. If we don’t, we soak up a bit of pressure and see them out, then that’s obviously what the game-plan is in that moment and on the day.”

In saying that, Morris also emphasised that none of the team was surprised at the quality of the bowling, saying that was expected from a top side like India. “You never get surprised by spinners, especially Indian spinners,” he said. “They do so well at home for a reason with spin bowling. They are a seriously good one-day unit, a seriously good Test unit and T20 as well. You never get surprised when an Indian team comes up because you know what you’re going to get, and that’s quality.”

What Morris was hoping to get from the pitch at the Wanderers Stadium was less help for the spinners, though he reiterated that pitches couldn’t be used as an excuse for South Africa’s dismal show in the ODIs so far.

“I think every single cricketer is hoping for an old Wanderers wicket because they were quite nice to bat on. They were not very nice to bowl on,” he smiled. “Look there’s been a lot of chat about the pitches but to be fair, we’ve just got to get on with it as cricketers. It doesn’t matter what you arrive to play on: if it’s turning, if it’s quick, if it’s seaming, it’s low and slow – we’ve just got to play, simple as that. There’s no complaining about it, there’s no hiding behind it, we’ve just got to play. Simple as that.”