Dead pitch frustrates SA's pace pack

When Charl Langeveldt took over as South Africa's bowling coach, he would have known this day was coming: to front up post-play. As a player, that would only have happened to him when he had done well. As a coach, it happens when none of the players have done well enough and he has to explain why.

It was unfair in this case. Langeveldt was only appointed last month, and is on his first series. He did not have any time to work with the Test attack apart from the few days before the series began. So it was hardly surprising Langeveldt when did not seem to have any actual answers for why South Africa's pace pack was so pedestrian on Wednesday in Chittagong.

Langeveldt admitted "any bowling coach would want more," from his attack than what South Africa delivered, but he said he "will take," their performance anyway and applauded the effort.

"I am very happy with Dale and Vernon. They are still world-class bowlers," he said. "They put in the hard yards. They were a bit unlucky, beating the bat a lot especially with the new ball. It went past the bat of Tamim. It was one of those days. It could go your way. You could be bowling gun and get no wickets and no rewards and then Stiaan comes and gets a leg-side stumping."

Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander toiled as much as anyone involved in the match because the surface did not allow things to happen easily or quickly. But the hard work did not equate to smart work. Steyn searched for the edge by pitching it up, but did not once steam in and deliver a snorter to properly surprise Bangladesh. Morkel sent down only one or two. There was no barrage, no bruising, no blood on the brain.

Bringing out the brute in Steyn usually happens either after he has hit a good rhythm bowling a bucket-load of overs, or if he gets a bit of bad press. Since Steyn stepped into this series straight off the surfboard, this time it will have to be the latter that spurs him on.

Steyn had sent sparks flying after his comment about "wasting" balls on Bangladesh, and he will have set off a few more more after going wicketless for 13 overs in his quest for 400 wickets. The combined combustion may see Steyn come out spitting fire. "He is a big game player. He is a guy who bounces back. He always comes up with the goods when his back is against the wall," Langeveldt said.

If that happens, it will solve the problem, but not address the issue of preparation, which may also have affected Morne Morkel, who had just one game in the ODIs before stepping into the Tests. Perhaps more than Steyn, Morkel needs net time since his lack of match practice was abundantly clear.

Morkel is by design (read:height) South Africa's most dangerous bowler, which Langeveldt noted, but still, was not threatening enough. For Langeveldt, that may have had more to do with the conditions than the cricketers in his attack. "Morne was the most aggressive; we were aggressive. The SG ball does get soft quickly so you need to be aggressive in your lengths and lines and attack the stumps more," he said.

And then there is Philander - the only member of the frontliners who was rewarded, but whose flagging form should be a concern. Philander exploits surfaces with a little something. He only needs a little, but he also needs the something. When there is nothing, he ends up as he did today. With a lot of nothing in South Africa's immediate Test future - one more match in Bangladesh and four more in India - something needs to be done.

Philander is a proven performer, but the stark contrast of what is becoming a career of two halves cannot be ignored. In his first 19 Tests, Philander took 102 wickets at 17.56, including nine five-fors. Nine of those Tests were at home, six across England and New Zealand, two in Australia and just two in the nothing conditions in the UAE. In his next 11 Tests, including this one, Philander has taken just 20 wickets at 44.35. There have been no five-fors. Seven of his last 11 Tests have been at home, three in the nothings of Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. This is is the fourth.

Hindsight may have South Africa wondering if they should have instead used Kagiso Rabada, who has at least shown he can do something with nothing. They may have a chance to try that in the next Test.

For now, South Africa will hope their seamers are not overshadowed by their part-timers, one of whom was conspicuously absent from the action. Langeveldt offered no reason for why JP Duminy did not bowl at all, except to indicate it was a tactical move and not enforced by injury. "It is up to the captain if he wants to use JP. Harmer was bowling well so obviously they didn't use JP," he said.

Harmer found appreciable turn, which was encouraging for South Africa, and shared duties with Stiaan van Zyl and Dean Elgar while Duminy did his job in the field. Langeveldt will hope that in the coming days, one of them has to attend to the post-play interview. If that happens, it will mean that the tactics paid off.