Summer bodies are made in winter, and Proteas spin bowler Keshav Maharaj is already reaping the rewards of the hard work he put in during the off-season.
At 36-year old, Maharaj is one of the elder statesmen in South Africa’s senior national men's cricket team, but his performances against Australia suggest he is showing few signs of slowing down.
Heading into Wednesday’s third and final ODI at Senwes Park in Potchefstroom at 1.30pm, Maharaj tops the series wicket-taking charts with six scalps at an average of 12.33. He is also the most economical bowler across both teams, with an economy rate of 3.83.
Maharaj made a particularly telling contribution in the first ODI in Durban, taking 4/20 as South Africa bowled Australia out for 230 in reply to the Proteas’ 297/8. He followed that with 2/54 in the second match at the Wanderers, which South Africa won by 32 runs to seal the three-match series 2-0.
The numbers are a reflection of Maharaj’s off-field work in winter, when he made some minor tweaks to his approach and, most importantly, placed a greater emphasis on his conditioning.
“We don’t always – with the amount of cricket being played – get the opportunity to work on the physical aspect of the game in terms of conditioning,” Maharaj explained, at a pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
"So, I really put a big emphasis, in the last six months, on my physical fitness … just paying attention to the details of various things.
“I do carry my own food and things like that on tour because I just want to give myself the best opportunity. It is a long season ahead – if you look at it, there is a lot of back-to-back cricket. So, that aids recovery in terms of eating right and healthy. I’m not getting any younger, so giving that extra bit of love and attention to your body doesn’t hurt anyone.
"It also gives you the confidence that when you get out there, you know you did everything you can and left no stone unturned.”
In terms of what he tweaked on the field, Maharaj says he does more analysis on opposition batters.
“I went back to the drawing board after last season after the India tour,” he explained.
“Conditions were slightly different and I just wanted to keep evolving from that aspect. I feel like the best in the world always try to keep evolving and I said why can’t I be that person and try to evolve a different aspect of the game.
“I worked on a couple of things. I haven’t changed too much on the way I bowl, but I probably put a little more emphasis on analysis work.
"I’ve always been a scholar of the game who looks at the analysis part of the game in-depth. But I’m looking at it from a different angle and a different direction and still not losing that feel of the game. I think league cricket throughout the off-season has kept the cricket awareness sharp.”
Shifting his attention to Wednesday’s match, Maharaj says the Proteas have not yet decided on their final XI. But whoever gets to play will go all-out to bag South Africa a series whitewash.
“It’s important, you want to be as clinical as possible in a series of this magnitude,” said Maharaj when asked if it is an opportunity to lay down a marker against Australia ahead of next year’s ICC Cricket World Cup.
“They are the world champions, so it’s always nice to build confidence. Yes, it is just over 12 months away from the World Cup, but it is a wonderful stepping stone and foundation to build on.
“It shows character, it also shows a champion mentality to try and get the series 3-0. It’s also about the process we are focusing on behind everything and letting it play out that way and just sort of doing the basics really well.
"Obviously there are areas where we can improve and areas we can keep building on. If we can execute that, then hopefully we will come out on the right side of things,” he concluded.