South Africa's Dodgy Running Puts Them Short of Complete Dominance

To detract in any way from the brilliance of AB de Villiers' 148 at Newlands seems almost unnecessarily pessimistic.

He is undoubtedly one of the best batsmen in world cricket today, and his knock in South Africa’s third Test against the West Indies once again proved that.

Yet, South Africa's total could have been bulked up a fair bit more had their running between the wickets been slightly more cautious. Although this wasn’t a complete meltdown, needless run outs toward the end of the innings pegged back South Africa’s dominant progress just a touch.

South Africa finished their first innings on 421 all out, with a lead of 92 runs in tow. However, it could have been a very different picture were Vernon Philander and Dale Steyn not run out.

In the 110th over, Philander was the first to go. Philander squeezed the ball to midwicket, and despite knowing he is not the quickest between the wickets, he set off for a single and was caught just a few inches short. Philander is no fool with the bat and can more than hold his own against pace and spin. With plenty of time left in the game, there was no need to make any sort of risk.

Steyn followed not long after Philander, this time directly thanks to De Villiers. In the 121st over, De Villiers was clearly trying to get back on strike for the next one and set off for an unnecessary single, which caught his partner way short. So short, it did not even need to go up for a TV replay.

While De Villiers is a very good runner between the wickets, some of his batting partners are not so blessed.

The man himself has only been run out five times in his entire Test career, but on one day, he was directly involved in two. Perhaps that was down to De Villiers' eagerness to try and keep as much of the strike as possible. Considering he faced just 50 out of the 130 deliveries following his hundred, perhaps that would have helped, but he said that there was no such thinking.

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I wasn’t thinking of getting on strike, I back both Vernon and Dale to score runs. All I was thinking about was getting some partnerships going. There were just some badly judged runs that cost. I would have liked us to get a few more runs on the board, but on a Newlands wicket, we’d have taken that lead if you told us that’s what we’d have.

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West Indies are just a few runs off erasing the deficit and with plenty of time left in the game, they could still spring a surprise on South Africa. The visitors have applied themselves far more than anyone anticipated, and South Africa have their work cut out for them.

If the Test ends up coming down to just a few runs, the poor running could very well be something South Africa end up ruing.

All quotes and information obtained first-hand.