Practice won’t make perfect, says Proteas guru

Practice won’t solve the Proteas’ batting woes in Sri Lanka.

National batting coach Dale Benkenstein won’t be a popular man for airing such an opinion – particularly given that South Africa slumped an embarrassing 73 all out in their second innings in the first Test – but he’s fairly emphatic.

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“These players have practised very hard,” the former Dolphins captain said on Monday, following a 278-run loss.

“I don’t believe practices are going to make a huge amount of difference. Mentally there are a few things we have to put right, we have to remind ourselves that we are back in Test match mode, it’s tough. But it’s not the end of the world.”

However, even if hundreds of more balls against a bowling machine or a teammate in the nets won’t help the batters, there are technical issues to sort out.

Opener Dean Elgar’s technique and judgement led to his downfall twice in Galle, while Hashim Amla’s defensive technique on the front foot against off-spin needs a tweak.

Benkenstein doesn’t deny that but rather preaches an approach based on mental toughness.

“Technically you have to have faced a spinning ball, there are few things technically that you have to adjust to. I would say 90 percent is about being tough mentally, being used to the ball spinning past the bat.

“We were weak on that side, when you have had a lot of Test cricket you are ready for the pressures and we were a bit low on that,” he said.

One thing the local cricket fraternity can be certain of though is that the whole team is taking accountability for a poor performance.

“All the players take responsibility, as well as the coaches,” said Benkenstein.

“I don’t think we are far off, in the little time that I have had with the national team, we have had some poor days because we are off. It is not a big gap.”

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