South Africa are using old footage of Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis – former bowling greats of the same team they crushed in the first one-day international by 125 runs on Sunday and swept aside in the Test series– to perfect their yorkers and become the best death bowling attack.
"We want a group of guys who have the confidence to be able to execute yorkers at will at any stage," South Africa’s bowling coach Allan Donald said.
"If anything, that's been a letdown for us in the past when we've been defending a total; we haven't been all that great. Nailing yorkers is our number one priority."
Donald said Akram was the best in the world and South Africa want to learn from Wasim and Waqar to put pressure on the opposition.
"The best the world has ever seen is Wasim Akram," Donald said.
"We watched some footage of Wasim and Waqar the other day for the bowling group to understand what it is to execute the yorker.
"We want to become the best death bowling unit in the world; we want to close games out under enormous pressure."
He further added that the Proteas were working on making their bowling unit unpredictable and therefore, difficult to play.
"When you faced Wasim Akram at the death, there was almost no hope," Donald said.
"When I'm under pressure, I know my go-to ball is a yorker. Halfway through my run-up, I just might not trust that. My default ball might be a slow bouncer or a slower ball. That's when it goes out the ground.
"The ball that takes care of that is a fantastic yorker - whether it is wide, sliding into the pads, or swinging away from the lowest angle. That's the ball that wins games. The ball that really does it, especially when you need a wicket - is a gun yorker."
Donald added that “project yorker” was still being fine-tuned. However, Pakistan should be warned ahead of the second ODI on Friday, as South Africa have changed their approach during training in order to master the yorker.
"We've gone away from normal net sessions where guys bowl their five overs," he said.
"We're moving into the game scenarios and executing those skills under pressure. Training for us is practising the specifics, under pressure, that we require to win a one-day international."
