Why Donald and Pollock come first and Shoaib second best

Centurion -There is often the impression in South Africa there is no greater national hero than the man whipping up more pace than your average turbo boosted rocket, particularly when he is sticking it to the Poms or the Whingers of Oz.

Allan Donald may not, at this stage of the Test series against England be as great in terms of sporting popularity as say the illusion South Africa, having beaten a third-rate Scandinavian side, have also ended some European hoodoo. Delusion though is what you make of it: whether it is on a scale of epic grandeur or the size of mole hill; all is a matter of rose-tinted fantasy.

That is soccer for you: corrupt, arrogant and aggressive, run by people who have their own agenda, squabbling among themselves, adopting a belligerent attitude. Beating a side which has not had a chance to train together for a month and they start beating the tom toms. Not even that modern trick artist, David Copperfield can work such magic, although those who dwell in Safa fantasyland genuinely believe there is a tooth fairy who can deliver the 2006 dream instead of relieving them of what is more than likely to be a massive tooth ache.

Come the fifth Test in the real world of sport, Centurion in January, and the second of the new century, the number of wickets Donald needs to reach that 300 mark may, depending on injury and/or fitness, be about to be achieved.

Which is the sort of reality Donald has to face if he hopes to reach the 300 figure mark at the same venue where he broke the 200 mark the renamed SuperSport Park (in Centurion) - and not too long ago, either: March 1998 against Sri Lanka. Just the sort of hype to fill a Test venue in a series which could reach a tantalising conclusion.

At the start of this series against England Donald needed 32 wickets: five short of Hugh Tayfield's record for a series by a South Africa against England.

There was a lot of help as well on a bowler friendly surface at the Wanderers last week and Shaun Pollock, deserving of richer rewards than his eight wickets. What was interesting was the pace the ball was delivered: speeds of between 125 and 137 kmp/h were the norm; when England were bowling, there seemed to be a problem with the speed gun as it did not work.

At least South Africa's two fast bowlers, are not at paranoid as Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar. While they are conscious of talking wickets to win matches, Shoaib, from what we have seen in the series against Australia, was more focused on becoming the first bowler to deliver a ball at 100 mph than taking wickets. Like Safa's dreams of delusion, Shoaib believed in lie in the hype.

Which is no doubt why he failed to be the destructive force he should have been. In three tests his figures make dismal reading, especially after so much hype in a couple of South African sports magazines spread their own false imagery among their impressionable readers. Eight wickets (Pollock's haul at the Wanderers) at an average of 66.40 and a strike rate of 92.4 balls a wicket has, hopefully, in the manner of a David Copperfield wave of the magic hand, ended the illusion of Shoiab's abilities to beat the fast bowler's sound barrier.

Donald's 11 wickets at 11.54 and a strike rate of 20.72 explains why focus is more important than being clocked at speeds in excess of 160 kmp/h and failing to achieve anything other than a record for some wicketkeeper conceding byes. Pollock's average of 10.00 at a strike rate of 29.4 also comes highly recommended.

By this time next week it could be a different story at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth and not even Copperfield can gaze into the sort of crystal ball foretelling the way that Test is going to shape and whether it is going to be a feast or a famine for the pace duo.