Yesterday I looked back at the most successful England cricketers in home series against South Africa. Today I'll focus on the visitors. As with the English, just three of the likely 2012 starters are in the fantasy eleven, starting with the number one and outstanding skipper of a generation, Graeme Smith.
He has really taken a shine to English bowler in the past two tours. 1083 runs in only nine Test matches is an impressive total. Back in 2003, consider he was only 22 and already the skipper of a formidable team. First game of the series and he goes and whacks 277, including a triple-century opening stand with Herschelle Gibbs. He scored 85 in the second innings, too. A week later, he disappoints, making a 'mere' 259 before being bowled by an even more youthful Jimmy Anderson. This time the Saffers won by an innings. Smith had a dismal run thereafter but what an amazing start! Five years later, he scored two more centuries, the best being a match-winning unbeaten 156 at Edgbaston.
By then his old partner Gary Kirsten had retired but he deserves selection for this team. He played on three tours to these shores. 1994 wasn't a great one. Four years on he was out five times in single figures yet is remembered for a steady 210 at Old Trafford which almost set up an innings victory. 2003 was his best tour, featuring two successive hundreds and a couple of 50s. Not a flair player but he was a fine opener, representing his country 101 times in Tests.
Herschelle Gibbs is renowned as a one-day stroke maker but he was also a decent first-class cricketer. In 2003, he aggregated almost 500 runs against England, including two big hundreds, topped by his 183 at The Oval where England managed to pull off a series-saving triumph. Much has been said about Jacques Kallis' poor record in England, but that only really applies to his batting. He now contemplates his fourth tour having scored 586 runs and taken 35 wickets at only 27 apiece. Headingley 2003 was the scene of his best statistics; 6-54 to round off a 191-run win. He's in the side as a bowling all-rounder!
Abraham Benjamin de Villiers only came here in 2008 but was typically successful as a specialist batsman, notching up 384 runs in the four Tests. AB's best knock was the 174 at Headingley where he shared a double-century stand with Ashwell Prince who he pips to a place in this fantasy side. At number six, I've gone for Jonty Rhodes, a stalwart of the 1990s. Not a flashy batsman, he did nonetheless contribute almost 500 runs, 117 of them coming in the Lord's triumph of 1998. Jonty could make the side on his fielding alone. I reckon he's one of the few players in memory who you'd watch in the covers rather than the batsman at the crease; he was so electrifying. How many times would you in the crowd, or the TV cameramen, pan to the boundary only to realise that Rhodes had pulled off a remarkable stop as the ball rocketed across the outfield?
It's no compensation for his enforced retirement the other week but Mark Boucher is the obvious choice as wicketkeeper. Like Kallis, this was his fourth tour of England, and had a similarly mediocre batting record. However, 60 catches, two stumpings, some useful late-order runs and that great attitude make him a shoo-in. Anyway, he days of Dave Richardson behind the stumps belong to a different era!
When it comes to fast bowling, present-day fans marvel at Steyn, Morkel and Philander. None make my team because between 1994 and 2008, South Africa could boast, in addition to Kallis, three all-time greats. At number eight, Shaun Pollock has an even better record than Kallis with the bat (351 runs at 44) and took 35 wickets at 25. His 6-39 at Trent Bridge nine summers ago should have been a match-winner but, of all people, Richard Kirtley eclipsed him that day. Nevertheless, Pollock was a superb cricketer. Allan Donald was an even faster, fearsome strike bowler, the aggression enhanced by his white sunblock strip, glowing like warpaint as he steamed in. Well versed in English conditions, he took 45 Test wickets here in only eight fixtures. There were five 'five-fors' amongst them, four in successive Tests in 1998. He claimed 5-32 at Lord's and bowled an exhausting 40 overs to take 6-88 in the Old Trafford game where Stewart and Croft defied everything Donald, Kallis and my other two bowlers could throw at them.
These two were Mukhaya Ntini and Paul Adams. Ntini, like Morkel these days, was quite expensive but he played in 101 Tests in all, 11 in England, where he took 43 wickets. At Lord's in 2003, he took five in each innings as South Africa enjoyed one of their most convincing victories. Adams, like Imran Tahir in 2012 was almost seen just as the token spinner. Someone to give the seamers a breather. He took only 17 wickets at 37 across two tours but he was a better bowler than these stats suggest. A left-armer with a delivery action which makes Murali or Malinga look conventional, he could hold up an end for hours and now he props up my SA-in-England XI.
To re-cap: Smith (*), G Kirsten, Gibbs, Kallis, De Villiers, Rhodes, Boucher (+), Pollock, Donald, Ntini, Adams.
On paper, they ought to make mincemeat of the England XI. However, like many of their real matches, they haven't always lived up to their promise, starting well and throwing away the last game. However, they always produce a thrilling Test series so let's hope we are served up another this summer.
