He tightened his game to get the best out of himself after being promoted up the order in Gqeberha
Firdose Moonda05-Dec-2024Ryan Rickelton doubted himself. He wondered if, after being among the top run-scorers in domestic cricket for several seasons, he could transfer that talent to the international stage. More importantly, he doubted if, on 98 in his first innings in his preferred position at No.3, he had hit the ball and been saved from an lbw decision.But he was two runs away from proving his own potential to himself and scoring a first Test century, and South Africa had all three reviews available so he decided to challenge umpire Joel Wilson’s decision despite being unsure. Someone, or something, was looking down on him and the final call went his way with replays showing his bat had made contact with the ball, despite his own uncertainty.”I didn’t think I hit it at all,” he said at the post-day press conference. “I think I might have got a little bit lucky there with some scratches on the UltraEdge. I was reviewing because I was on 98, and because I was thinking maybe it was outside the line, but I didn’t feel anything.”Related
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Except “relief” two balls later when he drove Vishwa Fernando down the ground to bring up his hundred. He could stop his self-questioning over whether he was good enough. “I’ve been in and around this team for probably about four or five years, having played a handful of games, but I’ve always believed that I can do something useful at international level,” he said. “It was always just a case of can I do it and can I prove it to myself.””So it was a relief to say to myself I’ve waited my time, but I can do it. Because there’s always those doubts. They live in everyone, they definitely live in me. After a couple of failures here and there, ‘am I actually… can I do it? Am I speaking a good game?’ It was just the relief of being able to do it, and do it for the team as well.”The individual achievement aside, Rickelton also put in a performance that rescued South Africa from a top-order wobble and was able to do so because he was batting where he is more comfortable.Ryan Rickelton stuck to his game plan even after being set•AFP/Getty Images
It is in the top three that Rickelton has been at his most productive domestically, where he averages over 60, but in a Test squad where he was the newest batter in 2022, he was slotted in at No. 5. At the time, Keegan Petersen occupied the No. 3 spot; most recently Test coach Shukri Conrad has given it to Tristan Stubbs but after Stubbs’ century at No. 4 in Durban and the decision to pick an extra batter in the line-up for this Test meant that Conrad offered Rickelton the No. 3 slot.Rickelton “jumped at the opportunity”, because he knows he is at his best when conditions are most challenging. “Playing against the new ball in red-ball cricket actually helps me, it tightens me up,” he said. “If I come in at No. 5 or 6, I actually get a bit too loose or maybe a bit expansive. I had my game plan, having had some relative success in the past domestically, and just tried to stick to it for long parts of the day.”That plan also worked because South Africa were on the ropes, and he knew he could not afford to slip up. “Being 44 for 3 solidified my plan. We were in a bit of trouble, so I knew that I had to probably tighten up even more. Cricket’s funny. I think the better things go, the looser individuals become. I’m one of those guys. Under pressure, I kind of made myself tighten up, and luckily for me, Temba [Bavuma] was seeing it really well and playing incredibly well. He actually took a lot of pressure off of me by scoring so freely on what actually was quite a tough morning.”Bavuma dominated their fourth-wicket stand, outscored Rickelton and was the batter who looked odds on for a hundred but played at a ball he could have left and was dismissed before tea. In the end, Rickelton also went for a delivery he didn’t have to play at and was out before the end of the day. But he believes he has left South Africa in a good position. “In PE [formerly Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha], if you’re hovering around 350, it’s a really, really good score,” he said. “We are one decent partnership away from setting a really nice score.”