Moment we’ve been ‘crying out for’... and how it exposed Bazball’s most enduring ‘cop out’

When Simon Katich walked into Kingsmead Stadium on Friday, he was swift to pull his mobile phone out to capture a monument to one of his fondest memories as a cricketer.

It is now 17 years since the Australian scored a century in Durban yet somehow played second-fiddle to one of the most dynamic Test hundreds played by an Australian as Phil Hughes signalled his talent to the world.

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“When you come back to a venue where you know you have made a hundred - I actually didn’t know where the Honour Boards were, but then I walked in and thought, ‘Oh, hang on, they must be around here somewhere’ and in the foyer I found it and thought I’ll take a snap,” Katich said.

“It’s a great Honour Board when you have a look at it and it’s nice to be on it. You know, I didn’t get as many Test hundreds as I would have liked, so when you do know you’ve scored one in a venue, it’s always nice to come back.

“When you’re at a first class venue where you’ve had success, you always enjoy going back, particularly as a batter, because a lot of batting is around visualisation and seeing yourself having success at a venue. So when you’ve had it, you have that in the memory bank and it makes you want to try and do it again because you want to repeat that success.

Before taking a trip down memory lane to chat about the brilliant partnership he shared with Hughes in Durban in 2009, Katich was keen to reflect on the deeds of another left-hander who flourished with distinction on Saturday.

Matthew Renshaw joined a rich club of Australian left-handers to score a century at Kingsmead Oval with a superb and Test-changing 190.

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It was the type of exceptional innings that fits well with a club that features Hughes and Katich, Matthew Hayden and Neil Harvey, who produced an epic innings back in 1950 to lead Australia to a famous comeback at the ground.

Katich was a tough batsman and he loved the manner with which Renshaw knuckled down with Australia in significant peril and shepherded the tail.

It was, he said, the type of disciplined innings Australian cricket has been “crying out for” and one that should set Renshaw up to succeed in his 30s.

“(It was an) outstanding performance under pressure in what is a massive series,” Katich told

foxsports.com.au in Durban.

“He’s only just come back into the team, and he has put any sort of questions around his spot when coming back in to bed, much like Cameron Green did in Darwin when all the talk was around that he needed to make big scores.

“I think when you can do that early, it just obviously allows him to play now and moving forward, he probably can start innings in his own mind knowing that if I keep playing like this, I can make this spot my own for the next 12 months.

“There’s always that element of doubt but he’s come in and he’s put it to bed early and he’s done it in a very convincing fashion with a really strong game plan. Technically, it was excellent.”

Katich said there was another aspect to Renshaw’s old-school approach to batting, where he was judicious letting balls go and tactically astute when protecting the tail from the South African quicks under the blazing sunshine.

Katich said the mantra that there was a ball that had a batsman’s name on it, which was part of the Bazball approach to the craft, had been too widely adopted and that there was a place for those willing to put a price on their wicket.

“I’ve been hearing that a lot in domestic cricket and the game, probably not just here in Australia, but around the world,” he said.

“A lot of us have got sick of hearing it because it’s a cop out. Yes, you’re going to play on surfaces that are going to do a bit. Like you expect that when you’re playing at this level, you’re going to play guys that move the ball. Otherwise, they’re not going

to get to this level.

“So I think it’s a mindset thing and I think he’s proven … that with the right mindset, you can play well in these sorts of conditions and swing it back around to the bowler. Because at the end of the day, the bowler’s job in Test cricket is to bowl you out, and if you don’t give them a sniff with strong temperament and technique and application, like he’s shown and Cummins has shown and Lyon has shown, look what happens.

“The pressure goes back on the opposition. They get worn down and in the modern game, because they do play a lot in fast forward, they’re not always equipped to bowling 30, 35 overs, as we’ve seen here, and they’ve dropped away really quickly.”

Fast forward cricket was not necessarily the fashion when Katich and Hughes strode out to bat in Durban on March 6, 2006.

Australia had arrived in South Africa smarting after being beaten by the Proteas at home in the previous series and were determined to atone.

The Aussies started in superb fashion with a brilliant win in Johannesburg, with the young left-hander making 75 in the second innings.

But in Durban, Katich and his younger teammate combined for a 184-run opening stand to put the Aussies on the path to victory. And the young dasher was dynamic.

Hughes famously made twin centuries in what was just his second Test and while Katich, who is in South Africa providing expert analysis for SEN radio back to Australia and also for the host television network, loved every minute.

“Fortunately we won the first test in Jo’burg at Wanderers, but then coming here, I’ll never forget it, because we weren’t sure what we were going to do with the toss just because of the way the wicket looked,” he said.

“It was an ugly-looking wicket. It was sort of a bit patchy with grass on it. I’d been here previously for an academy tour in ‘96, and it looked like the Gabba and it played like the Gabba. It was a beautiful wicket, but it was really evenly covered with grass, and this one looked different.

“So we weren’t sure whether it was going to be two-paced or one-paced, but it actually played pretty well on day one and thankfully Hughesy and I made the most of it.

“And I just basically got down the other end and watched him because he put on a masterclass in attacking batting, and like anything, when you get in the punch, it becomes easier for you and thankfully we put on 180-odd and had a lot of fun together.”

Katich had batted with Hughes, who tragically died in 2014, at domestic level for New South Wales and knew the left-hander was a phenomenal talent.

“Because we’d batted together a lot for New South Wales before he got picked, and spent a lot of time together in the Shield final batting together when he got that 100 and he’d open, but I’d batted three, so we were together a lot in that innings,” he said.

“I think just knowing how he liked to play, he was never going to die wondering. He was a free spirit and it was a remarkable two innings, really, but the first one was particularly special because we batted a lot together.”

Keen-eyed observers will have noted Gold Coast Suns captain Noah Anderson around the Australian camp in South Africa, with the star midfielder swapping snaring possessions by the dozens for picking up tips on what makes the side a success.

Katich took the chance to have a chat with the star in Durban and understands the opportunities that experiencing the inner-workings of another code can offer having worked with the GWS Giants at the end of a 56 Test career in which he made 10 centuries.

“I got a huge amount from my time at the Giants, just seeing how professional the players are, and also how they develop young talent,” he said.

“From a coaching perspective, having gone into coaching after my role there, there are a few little things, particularly from an analysis point of view (like) watching footage that they do regularly with the players, which we’d never really done in cricket, or in my time as a player (that were important).

“It’s coming into the game now and it’s got a big role to play, particularly when developing the younger players’ tactics and thinking, particularly in T20 cricket, where they’re making decisions ball after ball. So that’s something I certainly learnt.

“But for him, I actually saw Noah yesterday morning while waiting outside the hotel and had a quick chat with him and he’s just pumped to be here. He can’t believe he’s experiencing all this.

“It would be a great experience for him to see how another sport goes about playing a format of the game that’s so different to what he plays.”

One thing Katich never envisaged during his playing career was offering analysis on the sport but sliding behind the microphone has proven a good fit.

“I never thought I’d do it and then it happened by chance when I started coaching,” he said.

“The opportunity came up to broadcast and I thought maybe this is meant to be with the timing of it all and then I got to work with a couple of teams.

“I’ve absolutely loved it and a lot of my love for it is the people I work with and that’s what keeps bringing me back.

“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve always loved watching the game and hopefully I’ve been able to offer some of the insights that people enjoy listening to.”