Cricket: Top batsmen must accept most of blame

JOHANNESBURG - New Zealand Cricket does not so much need a new coach to take over from David Trist next year as a highly-qualified bomb disposal expert.

As hard as they tried - and all signs pointed to over-anxiety rather than carelessness - the New Zealand team managed to blow their series apart in the space of two hours at Port Elizabeth, and are now facing a huge task to avoid a clean sweep when the third test starts on Friday.

Contrary to what we all feared, the biggest problem has not been the greenhorn bowling attack, but rather the inability of the senior batsmen to accept the responsibility of making runs.

Much has been made of the fact that New Zealand are missing Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori and Dion Nash in a wicket-taking capacity on this tour, but they seem to be missing them just as much when runs are concerned, and have looked lost without the extra insurance of a productive lower order.

There was a keen fightback in the first test at Bloemfontein and some more moments of resistance at St George's Park, but the top order have proved themselves one of the more fragile line-ups in world cricket of recent seasons, and in this respect the three most senior batsmen - Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan - must accept most of the responsibility.

With a new opening combination and a No 3 having played just a handful of tests, the onus was on Fleming, Astle and McMillan to show leadership in terms of nurturing and organising the batting in South Africa, not only in terms of scoring heavily themselves, but also in developing and sustaining meaningful partnerships.

There is no doubt that Astle is a useful test batsman, but if you did not know it you would have never picked it from watching him in this series.

The Canterbury right-hander has strung together scores of 37, 8, 2 and 18 for an average of 16.25, and on present form would struggle to make runs if the bowlers were blindfolded.

Fleming had a good first test, but fell to a pair of lame dismissals at Port Elizabeth, and McMillan has managed only one half-century in four innings.

He also played poorly in the second test, throwing his wicket away to an ambitious hook shot off Pollock, before departing first ball to the same bowler in the second innings.

The first dismissal might have been a sweet victory for Pollock in particular, who was caught up in an exchange with McMillan during the first test at Bloemfontein, but it was a naive shot from the 24-year-old right-hander, not only ending his own innings on 39, but also exposing New Zealand's inexperienced and vulnerable tail.

Things are not altogether fantastic elsewhere in the order, either, with Craig Spearman averaging just 13.50 at the top and Adam Parore a mere 7.50 down at No 7. And even though Mathew Sinclair impressed with his 150 at St George's Park, he has failed in his other three innings and has yet to demonstrate the consistency required of a top-class batsman.

This is nothing new for the New Zealand cricket team, who among the test-playing nations rank 10th out of 10 in terms of centuries scored compared with tests played, but it is something that needs to be addressed before the side can make much more progress in the international arena.

The other sobering thought is that South Africa have not really been extended in the series and have actually played some pretty scruffy cricket themselves. The bowlers have struggled and the top-order batting, apart from a couple of isolated exceptions, has proved about as effective as New Zealand's.

However, they have managed to produce just enough to stay ahead of New Zealand and are expected to apply huge pressure through their bowlers when the final test gets under way in Johannesburg on Friday night. The question is whether the New Zealand batsmen can handle that pressure without collapsing like a deckchair.