The Hindu : Sport : Commitment is their hallmark

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 22, 2004

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Sport

Commitment is their hallmark

By S. Dinakar

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Andrew Hall (left) and Zander de Bruyn during their 144-run partnership. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

KANPUR, NOV. 21. When the South Africans embarked on the campaign of Sri Lanka earlier this year, they had words "Dare to live your Dream" inscribed on their track shirts. The tour of the emerald island concluded in a nightmare for Graeme Smith's men, but then every end in itself can mark a new beginning.

The Proteas continue to chase the sub-continental dream. Andrew Hall knows much about nightmares and dreams, darkness and light, and the eventual triumph of spirit. Here is the man who stared at death, when a mugger pumped a bullet into him six years ago in a Johannesburg suburb, and then walked back into brightness. He is a survivor.

As he looked out through the helmet grill on Sunday and then scanned the

field before settling into his stance and sweeping Anil Kumble past the ropes to bring up his maiden Test hundred on the second day of the first

Test, the 29-year-old all-rounder had more than just stayed alive.

Iron resolve

The make-shift opener's 454-ball 163 that oozed with commitment — he batted well over four sessions — also reflected the resolve of a South African side dotted with several unfamiliar faces, but possessing rather familiar fighting qualities.

Hall's methods might not have been daring, but there was much courage and

character in the manner he met the top of the order challenge in his eye. For a free-stroking late middle-order batsman, whose principal job was to deliver lively medium pace, this was an innings of self-denial and discipline.

Debutant Zander de Bruyn's effort of 83 — he occupied the crease for 308

minutes — too dripped with determination and for the Indians, it must have

been a humbling experience at the Green Park ground. The two days also took us to a great sporting truth — the game is not about superstars alone.

Even as he caught the action in the middle from the press box, his visage

betraying a smile of satisfaction, the chief of the South African selection

panel and former left-arm spinner Omar Henry said, "They showed a lot of

teeth, didn't they? It's a learning process and they are doing it well. Hall's a street fighter and you couldn't get past him easily. Zander de Bruyn applied himself well."

"There was plenty of pride on view and that has always been the hallmark of South African cricket. We had lost our way briefly for whatever reasons but are back on track." Indeed, a side that several felt would be hard pressed to hold out for six hours, has lost only seven wickets so far.

Surprise selection

Back to Hall. In the beginning of the series, with the mercurial Herschelle

Gibbs unavailable, there was a question mark over Smith's opening partner.

The names of Jacques Rudolph and Beota Dippenaar did the rounds, before the South African team-management settled on Hall. And how well he responded to the demands of the occasion!

His ten previous Tests had fetched him only 297 runs, but Hall would chart a fresh course this time, getting firmly behind the line to Zaheer Khan, pushing forward to the spinners, and concentrating hard. That he did not lash out even after his hundred, and instead, focussed more on the task ahead on a slow pitch with a hint of low bounce, speaks for his single-mindedness and commitment to the team's cause.

De Bruyn has the reputation of being an all-rounder with limitations. A

rather late developer, he has been a heavy scorer in South African domestic

cricket, with percentage batsmanship rather than flamboyant ways. And he is also someone who operates to a nagging off-stump line than swing or seam the ball big, or bowl at a blinding pace.

Hall and De Bruyn dared to live their dream here in Kanpur. Chasing dreams is not such a bad thing after all — you never know when they would be realised.

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