Australia v South Africa: Scott Boland’s record-setting accuracy is moving Australia’s bowling group beyond ’Fab Four’ era

For years, Australia worked on the principle of their Fab Four – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon – being an impregnable quartet who demand selection whenever fit, and they worked perfectly together. Dovetailing in skills and strengths, they helped each other to milestones and made each other better.

But, in the last 12 months, Australia have moved away from that approach, growing their cartel of fast bowlers to include Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Cameron Green and most famously, Scott Boland. Today was, in microcosm, a lovely example of how Cummins’ team have kept the qualities of the old set-up, and blended them with the new.

It was far from stiff resistance from the Proteas – despite their highest score in nine innings – but this was yet another day where the balance of Australia’s attack was on show. Boland hammered away at a good length all day, building dots and slowly strangling the South African resistance. Starc flew in, a change of angle and method, while Cummins alone churned out more maidens than South Africa managed in the entirety of their bowling effort.

Boland, in particular, stood out in the afternoon. The delivery which pinned Kyle Verreynne shortly after lunch, just full of a good length and nipping back into the pads, was a classic of the genre, exactly the sort of subtle incision that Boland has made his trademark in a meteoric 12 month rise.

That accuracy and subtlety stands out not just when compared to his teammates, but when compared to anyone in the last 15 years. Since ball-tracking data exists (2006-present), no bowler has managed to exceed Boland’s ability to land the ball on a good line, and a good length – in fact, no other established bowler can claim to do so more than half the time.

When it comes to the fundamental act of finding that in between area, where batters don’t know whether to get forward or back, and match it with a dangerous channel line that brings both stumps and edges into play, even the very best in the game miss more often than not.

But Boland doesn’t.

With all due deference to cliches around fire and ice, the contrast between Boland and his teammate at the other end was clear.

Starc’s spell to open the day up was a cracker, a fast and dangerous phase of play that was rendered all the more impressive given the injury to his middle finger which could have easily prevented him from bowling at all. Slightly down on pace, understandably given the context, Starc was far more accurate than usual, nailing his lines while maintaining a full, aggressive length.

The gem of the spell was an elegant, sloping inswinger to Sarel Erwee, yorker length and catching the left-hander’s toe before the bat. According to CricViz’s Expected Wickets model, based on ball-tracking data, the delivery was the eighth most threatening of the Test, but you would be blessed to bowl any of the seven better balls.

Starc’s capacity for moments of genius, extreme deliveries which stand apart from the mundanity of line and length, is up there with the best to have played the game. In an attack primarily built of bowlers who work with accuracy and methodical plans, Starc simply tries to take a wicket every ball.

Alongside ticking timebombs – be they Scott, Josh, or Pat – Starc’s the explosion.

At times, that threatened to be more a comment on the left-armer’s temper than his bowling. A potential run out of the non-striker – or Mankad, as some call it – was a spicy addition to proceedings, Starc twice warning de Bruyn that he was out of his ground. Indeed, the first warning came seconds before he blew Erwee’s right toe off. That slight edge to his game is something that offers Australia another dynamic, an edge that once again counters the more even temperaments in the attack.

It’s also why integrating Lance Morris into the set-up is so key, so they can keep this balance.

The injury to Starc’s finger is likely to see him out for four-to-six weeks, a recuperation period that may well see him miss plenty of the India tour. Conditions in India are clearly worlds apart from Australian ones, but the desire for a balanced attack – one which offers pace, accuracy, swing and seam – remains just as present.

The depth of the metronomic seam role has grown in the last 12 months, with Boland and Michael Neser coming to the fore as trusted performers. Who stands out as backup for the out and out quick is a question as yet unanswered, but given the volatility of injuries you’d expect for Starc – not just impact injuries like this game, but muscle blows as he gets older – is arguably the most important selection call of the next 12 months.

But in the meantime, with a series win still fresh in the air, Australian cricket should be rightly satisfied with the depth, dynamism, and variety of the pace options.

Ahead of a crucial 12 months for Cummins’ side, the quicks could hardly be better placed.