By Ken Borland
CENTURION, South Africa Dec 15 (Reuters) – Keeping it
simple in seamer-friendly conditions again paid dividends for
South Africa’s Vernon Philander who continued his impressive
impact in tests with another five-wicket haul on Thursday.
The 26-year-old rocked Sri Lanka with figures of five for 53
on the opening day of the first test — his third five-wicket
haul in his first three tests.
Philander took 14 wickets in two tests in his debut series
against Australia last month and produced another impressive
display as Sri Lanka were skittled for just 180 at Centurion.
“I just try to keep it as simple as possible. There was a
bit of assistance there today and I tried to exploit it,”
Philander told a news conference.
“For me, I just tried to bowl as if it was a flat pitch.
Sometimes you get on a greentop and you think you should bowl
bouncer, bouncer, yorker and then bowl the middle stump out. But
the assistance is there, why try to bowl any differently?”
Philander is not new to South Africa’s national team, having
played seven ODIs and seven Pro20 matches between 2007 and 2008,
but he was considered ill-equipped mentally and physically for
the rigours of international cricket and dropped.
Since then, Philander has taken 151 first-class wickets at
an average of just 17.80 to suggest his omission was ill-judged.
He is also a hard-hitting lower-order batsman who has scored
two first-class centuries and averages 27.13 with the bat.
Continued…
