Debutant Duminy lives the dream

JP Duminy: "It's something that definitely I will cherish for the rest of my life" © PA Photos

Test debuts don't come much more rewarding than the one JP Duminy experienced in Perth. He struck the winning runs in the second-highest chase of all time and with the same cover-driven three went to 50 not out, an invaluable innings that helped South Africa forget about their past heartbreaks against Australia. Duminy could have been forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about.

At 24 and having never played an international of any format against Australia, Duminy was free of the memories of South Africa's previous failures. The significance of the triumph certainly hit home as the squad celebrated that night. Veterans like Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher have spent more than a decade trying to get one up on these opponents, while many other great names have faded into retirement without tasting that success.

"A lot of the guys got text messages from guys that have been here and they sort of understand what this victory means to everyone," Duminy said. "I think we understand what it means to everyone back home and we're grateful for it. Hopefully we can pull off another victory."

But if Duminy didn't know the pain of losing to Australia he at least knew the disappointment of being a teenage fan of South Africa during some of their lowest moments. As a 15-year-old cricket nut, he watched on in horror as Allan Donald was run-out in the semi-final of the World Cup, leaving the match tied and sending Australia into the decider.

"I've lived through all those days of just near, nearby," Duminy said. "Definitely the World Cup in '99 [was the worst], especially with the run-out, I think I watched every ball of that game, so it was a bit painful."

Now Duminy is doing his part to help write a new chapter in South African cricket. The value of his innings at the WACA cannot be underestimated. When he came to the crease at the fall of the fourth wicket they still needed 111 and he was due to be followed by Boucher and then one of world cricket's less convincing lower orders.

He had also managed only one run in the first innings. Talk about pressure. But he was batting with AB de Villiers, a man he had grown up playing with in under-age representative teams, and rarely did Duminy look flustered as he calmly bunted away danger-balls, lofted the spinners with confidence down the ground, and cut with precision. He didn't look tense. He was.

"I just made sure that I didn't want to portray a sort of nervous, uncomfortable feeling out there," Duminy said. "I was definitely feeling the pressure but my main objective was just to soak up everything and take it ball by ball. Myself and AB spoke a lot in the middle about just facing it ball by ball."

When Duminy left the field the hugs from his team-mates were tighter than those afforded to de Villiers, whose century earned him the Man-of-the-Match award but whose calmness was less surprising as he was in his 47th Test. The captain Graeme Smith could not have been happier with Duminy's effort.

"It's incredible," Smith said after the match. "He's travelled with us for a period of time now, he's watched so many Test matches with us over the last year-and-a-half from the sidelines, probably gaining a bit of experience, seeing what it's all about. He's played his fair share of one-day games now so he's had a taste of it.

"As I said to him now in terms of the pressure he faced today, he's not going to get any worse probably ever in his Test career so he played superbly. A guy at this stage of his career, an innings like that can only really do wonders for him as a person."

His opportunity arrived only because Ashwell Prince hurt his thumb and while Prince is no certainty for the Boxing Day Test, Duminy is resigned to losing his spot whenever the more experienced man is ready. His position may vanish but nothing can erase the mark he left on Test cricket in his debut match.

A lowdown on fourth-innings run-chases

 Of late, sides have achieved targets batting last far more often than they used to

	India's win in Chennai was the highest successful run-chase in the country, beating the earlier record by more than 100 runs © AFP

Over the last two months Test cricket has witnessed two stirring fourth-innings run-chases: in October in Chittagong, New Zealand overcame a first-innings deficit of 74 and Bangladesh's spin attack to chase down a victory target of 317 with three wickets in hand. The opposition admittedly wasn't of the highest quality, but it was a huge achievement for New Zealand, considering their flaky batting line-up - they scored only 171 in their first innings - and that Bangladesh's spinners were bowling in familiar home conditions. By far the more high-profile chase, though, was India's 387 against a spirited England team in Chennai, after falling behind by 75 in the first innings.

In 1898 Tests, only 24 times have teams chased in excess of 300 to win, and two of those chases happened within the last couple of months. It's a phenomenon that is on the rise: since 2000, this feat has been performed eight times, the highest in a single decade; it happened six times in the 1990s, and just once in the 1980s, when Gordon Greenidge's sensational double-century helped West Indies chase down 344 for the loss of just one wicket at Lord's.

Perhaps it's because pitches today are better than they used to be in the past, or perhaps Test cricket progresses at such a frenetic pace these days that teams play their fourth innings well before the final day, when the pitch is usually at its most unpredictable. The reasons could be many, but the result has been several exciting and successful run-chases, and records being rewritten. India's 387 is by far the biggest target ever chased down in the fourth innings in India: it beat the earlier record, West Indies' 276 in 1987, by more than 100 runs, and is only the fifth instance of a successful chase of more than 200 in India.

As the table below indicates, the 2000s have been the best years for run-chases: of the 66 times 200-plus targets have been achieved since 1970, 31 have been since 2000. This isn't only due to the increased frequency of matches this decade. If you define the relevant games as decisive fourth-innings matches that had teams chasing between 200 and 420, or draws where teams had to bat at least 80 overs to save the Test, the win percentage in the 1970s was a meagre 14.29; in the 2000s it has doubled to 28.44. In the 1990s there were 53 losses in such games to only 15 wins; in the current decade the losses have only gone up by one while the wins have doubled.

Fourth-innings performances over the decades

Decade	Wins (target>=200,<=420)	Losses (target >=200,<=420)	Draw (>=480 balls)	Total games	Win %
1970s	9	34	20	63	14.29
1980s	11	24	16	51	21.57
1990s	15	53	23	91	16.48
2000s	31	54	24	109	28.44

Breaking down the numbers in the 2000s, it's clear that England and South Africa are the best venues for these run-chases: each of those countries has witnessed six successful chases in excess of 200 this decade. Among the six in England, the home team have been the winners on five occasions, including the famous chase against Australia when Mark Butcher led them to 315 for 4, the highest of the lot. New Zealand have been on the receiving end thrice, while South Africa are the only overseas team in the list, thanks to their excellent chase of 283 at Edgbaston earlier this year. The South Africans aren't as dominant in their own list of six, featuring only thrice, including the superb win in Durban against Australia in 2002.

Sri Lanka and West Indies, on the other hand, are the worst venues for these run-chases, with nine losses in each. Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end on four of those nine instances, including one at Galle when they were bowled out in just 45.2 overs against Australia. On five occasions the team losing has been dismissed for less than 200. West Indies have fared even worse, losing seven out of nine times.

Host-country-wise fourth-innings results since 2000

Host country	Wins (target>=200,<=420)	Losses (target>=200,<=420)	Draw (>=480 balls)
Australia	2	7	3
Bangladesh	3	1	1
England	6	8	3
India	2	4	2
New Zealand	3	4	2
Pakistan	3	2	2
Sharjah	0	1	0
South Africa	6	7	3
Sri Lanka	2	9	4
West Indies	4	9	3
Zimbabwe	0	2	1

A team-wise list also reveals that England and South Africa have been the most successful, winning six times each in these chases. The interesting number, though, is in the losses column for West Indies: they lead the way comfortably with 13 defeats, including seven at home, three each in Kingston and Port-of-Spain. Out of those 13 losses, seven times they were bowled out in less than 75 overs, and an equal number of occasions for less than 200.

Team-wise fourth-innings results since 2000

Team	Wins (target>=200,<=420)	Losses (target>=200,<=420)	Draws (>=480 balls played)
Australia	5	4	3
Bangladesh	0	1	1
England	6	7	3
India	4	5	4
New Zealand	1	3	2
Pakistan	3	4	3
South Africa	6	8	3
Sri Lanka	2	5	1
West Indies	4	13	4
Zimbabwe	0	3	0

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo