Gutsy Harris adds string to bow

2008-08-10 21:31

Rob Houwing

Cape Town - Paul Harris, the Proteas' left-arm spinner, has copped some flak in the Test series in England, and not all of it unmerited.

Cold statistics, after all, point to the fact that, with one innings bowling opportunity left in the four-Test series, he averages 47 with the cherry for a modest six scalps: it is a little shy of what the proverbial doctor would have ordered.

Harris probably knows it, even if, in fairness, his designated "holding" role does not often allow for the luxury of an ambitious mindset in the field of wicket-taking.

He will also be acutely aware that if he is to become some sort of Ashley Giles-type asset to the national cause, his batting in the bowels is going to have to blossom in the way Giles's progressively did until Monty Panesar - irreversible batting rabbit, yet true big-hauls factor - assumed England's spinning mantle.

Yes, if you are not going to be a consistent match-winner at your main trade, you need to be able to add a few other ingredients to the overall pot.

And on Sunday at The Oval, "Harro" reminded us that, even if is bruises-for-the-cause contribution with the blade may not be enough to prevent an England victory in the dead-rubber Test, he is keen to comply with the requirement.

South Africa have only about a 35% chance

The home team have all three sessions of day five to knock off the 197 runs needed to win, and fourth-innings statistics for this venue show that South Africa have only about a 35% chance of snatching the spoils themselves.

But 35% is significantly better than the 10-15%, arguably, when Harris took to the crease at the fall of the seventh Proteas wicket: his team were a mere 96 runs in credit.

Instead, the resolute tail-ender helped senior partner AB de Villiers add 95 runs to give the tourists a more credible sniff.

Harris survived a sustained short-ball barrage from Andrew Flintoff and company - once he was struck flush on the back of the helmet and discreetly asked the physio for some headache pills between overs - to post 34 himself, and played with a commendably straight bat almost all the time.

Add the 88 minutes he occupied the crease for, to the 68 for his unbeaten 13 in the first innings, and you can see that the former Fish Hoek surf rat proved more than bothersome to England.

Castled by a shrewdly swifter delivery

Consider, too, that in the decisive third Test at Edgbaston, Harris, as nightwatchman, partnered Neil McKenzie in a second-wicket alliance of 77 during the Proteas' first knock - the stuff of cameo gold.

He has thus averaged 24 with the bat for the series which is "useful", as they say, and he may now even threaten Morne Morkel's right to the No 8 spot if his bowling is good enough to keep him routinely in the Test line-up.

De Villiers's 97 (he was castled by a shrewdly swifter Panesar delivery as he tried to whip him away for the boundary that would have brought up three figures) was the primary reason South Africa went past 300 to take the game to what ought to be a chunky part of Monday.

It came on the very day Rapport suggested he is being earmarked as Graeme Smith's eventual successor as national captain: was this a skipper-in-waiting wishing to underline his commitment to "responsibility" and leading from the front, a la Smithy in Birmingham?

Who knows?

- News24