Vernon Philander is confident of success in Test cricket, and his domestic stats back-up his belief
Firdose Moonda12-Nov-2011Much like an average burger, a bowler whose speed seldom tops 135 kph, needs to have a different flavour to get noticed. Sometimes it can be the conscientious ability to hit the same area over and over again, like Shaun Pollock, whose discipline made him remarkable. Other times, it’s the unusual twist, like Zaheer Khan’s ability to swing the ball.For Vernon Philander, who took eight wickets on Test debut, it’s his seam movement and aggression. He has transformed from the bumbling newcomer who played a few forgettable games when he first represented South Africa in 2007 and 2008 – and spilled catches aplenty during the World Twenty20 – into an accomplished and authoritative bowler who can now rightfully say he deserves his place opening the bowling for his country.The first thing that is noticeable about Philander is his quiet, yet supreme confidence. When asked, he will say that he felt completely justified at being included in South Africa’s squad because of the work he has put in at the domestic level. “I’ve been the most consistent bowler over the last few years, so I have rightfully earned my place in the Test squad,” Philander told ESPNCricinfo in Potchefstroom during South Africa A’s tour match against the Australians.In that match, on a spicy pitch up country, he bowled with the right kind of fire. His spells mixed bounce, variation and movement and he was rewarded with two wickets, including that of Ricky Ponting. For Philander to come back into international cricket and dismiss Ponting twice in the same week is a feat on its own, but it’s his achievements in the two seasons before this that give Philander a real reason to be proud.In the 2009-10 season, he topped the SuperSport Series rankings with 45 wickets at an average of 14.73. The following season, he took 35 wickets at an average of 16.11. A more remarkable statistic is that before this match, Philander has lowest average of any first-class bowler who had taken more than 250 wickets, a sign of his maturity and progress. “Back then [when he first played for South Africa], I was a bit immature and I was a bit young, so now I am a bit more ready for it,” he said. “I am a lot fitter and a lot stronger; then I was just out of school.”Philander has been open to learning and the improvements he has made are obvious to those who have known him for some time. “Vernon is a very skilful bowler,” Vincent Barnes CSA High Performance coach said. “If there is anything in the wicket, he can exploit it. Over the last two years, he has been the outstanding bowler of the domestic competition.”Philander is unusual because he prefers the longer version of the game. It’s over the course of a few days that he learnt to ply his trade, taking lessons from the likes of Allan Dawson and Charl Willoughby. It is the intricacies that go into bowling spells that Philander enjoys. “When you talk about good variations, you talk about the one-day format. But the Test format is more your skills, the structure of your overs and your planning,” Philander said. “You’ve got to have a good bouncer, a good back-up ball.”Although the bouncer was not well executed against Ponting, Philander has shown that he is not scared to use it when he thinks it can be a weapon. Conditions at Newlands suited him and he bowled “like he had been here for a while”, according to Graeme Smith. “He brings control to the attack,” the South Africa Test captain said.Smith showed intuitive captaincy when he handed Philander the new ball ahead of Dale Steyn’s regular opening partner, Morne Morkel. Philander opens the bowling in domestic cricket and said it was “no surprise” for him to do so on his home ground. He used the lessons he had learned from Shane Watson in South Africa’s first innings, he said, to help him demolish Australia in their second.”After we got bowled out for 96, I had a look at what Watson did and I thought, ‘That’s actually right up my alley, this is my game.’ I thought if we could bowl them out for about 150 or 170 and end up chasing 350, it would at least give us a chance of achieving something in the game. To bowl them out for 47 is obviously more than a surprise. But we’ll take it any given day.”His game-plan was simple enough. “I was sitting in the changing room and looking at the areas in which he [Watson] bowled, which was fullish on off stump or on the fourth stump [line],” he said. “And that was all it was – I ran up and hit the fourth stump on a good length and got rewards for it.”Things are going to get much tougher for Philander, though, who won’t be able to roll up the Newlands pitch and take it with him. His next match is likely to be at the Wanderers, where he has not played since 2005 in a first-class game. But the trademark confidence resurfaced, as he emphasised he was not afraid to play there. “With my type of skill, it doesn’t matter where you play in the world.”The competition among bowlers in South Africa is fierce, with left-armers Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell, allrounder Ryan McLaren and youngsters like Marchant de Lange all catching the selectors’ eyes. Philander is convinced that he is the man who will stick. “Lopsy and Parny are good one-day bowlers, so I’ll give that to them, but in the longer format they haven’t quite hit their straps as yet,” Philander said. “That’s where I fit into the picture.”
