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South Africa aim for the ‘head of the snake’
- Updated: October 30, 2016
Whether Dale Steyn sees the Australian team as a snake or a ship, his intention is to stop them simply by stopping Steven Smith.
“If you can cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the body tends to fall,” Steyn said at the series launch in Perth. “We’ve done that in the past. We’ve tried to attack the captain because he is the leader and if we can cause a bit of chaos there, sometimes it does affect the rest of the guys.”
Targeting the opposition captain has long been an Australian trick. Mitchell Johnson did it to Graeme Smith. Shane Warne did it to Hansie Cronje and Shaun Pollock. But Steyn has already begun to turn the tables. The batsman he has dismissed the most in world cricket is Michael Clarke – nine times in 14 matches although not all of them when Clarke was captain – and now he has Smith in the firing line as South Africa seek a third successive series win down under.
“Aussie captains lead the attack. From history, you look at guys that are great players like Steve Waugh, he stands out. I don’t think many people can name a team underneath him but you remember Steve Waugh,” Steyn said, forgetting Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath and Warne.
“You can remember Ricky Ponting, and Michael Clarke and then Steven Smith falls into that bracket. The moment you can get hold of your captain, the rest of the players rely heavily on him. He leads the ship so when you pull the plug on that kind of ship, and he’s holding it, you can sink it. It’s not very easy but there’s a way to sink it.”
In 2012, South Africa felled Australia by frustrating Ponting. He was limited to 32 runs in three Tests, his waning powers picked at by everyone. Ponting was dismissed twice by the short ball, twice by the swinging one and finally by Robin Peterson, whom he flattered by playing for turn that was never going to be there.
Smith, who has enjoyed some of the best form in world cricket in the last two years, is unlikely to prove as soft. But there are weaknesses in …
