When Dane Paterson joined Nottinghamshire as an overseas player in 2021, he was 31, had 103 first-class matches and 354 wickets to his name and thought he knew his game as well as he could have. Then he met Kevin Shine.
"He saw that I closed myself off as I was about to take my jump, so he just lengthened my run up and tried to free me. That gave me more space off the deck," Paterson said in Gqeberha before he knew he was due to play in the second Test against Sri Lanka.
The change helped Paterson find late movement, the kind that could challenge batters used to playing the swinging ball. "Things happen quicker when it comes to nip or late swing. In England, all the batters are used to swing bowling because of the Dukes ball but once you nip the ball, you're in position to pose some danger, especially in county cricket."
The results spoke for themselves. Paterson took 180 wickets in 45 matches between 2021 and 2024 for Nottinghamshire, including 56 in the 2022 season, where he finished as the third-highest wicket-taker in Division 2.
"I trained so hard and I listened," Paterson said. "As an older experienced guy, you could think, 'What is this guy [Shine] talking about when he says he is going to open me up, he's going to try and get more energy off the ground and things like that?' I'm glad I opened my ears and I listened and did the things that he told me to do."
Since joining Nottinghamshire, Paterson now plays pretty much all year and would return to the domestic circuit in South Africa hoping he could replicate what he learnt albeit with the Kookaburra. Since his first county game, he has played only 14 red-ball matches in South Africa but has taken 54 wickets at 21.11. Though the sample size of matches is small, the improvement can be seen in his average, which sat at 24.41 in South Africa before his overseas deal.
Sometimes, he had to remind himself of his new technique in different conditions when he "tried to do things the old way", and soon it became second nature. "After the first season, I could see that it was working. When I came back to South Africa, I just tried to keep those mental notes in my head.
"Bowling is never perfect and you're always going to have a bad day but it was just remembering those small points. We really broke down my run-up and I just had to remember when I was training to go back to that. I looked back at videos and thought about what I should do and I worked on it. And like we say: you can teach an old dog new tricks."
Those skills and his old relationship with Test coach Shukri Conrad earned Paterson a place in South Africa's Test squad to New Zealand in February, which many would have thought was a one-off. But Paterson has found himself in squads to tour West Indies, Bangladesh and now, to play against Sri Lanka at home, where he has been confirmed to play at St George's Park. He may not have got the chance if both Wiaan Mulder and Gerald Coetzee had not been injured in Durban, which speaks to the carefulness with which Conrad has planned his replacements.
At a venue that can be slow, requires discipline and can offer swing in certain weather conditions, Paterson is an obvious choice and was picked ahead of 18-year-old tearaway Kwena Maphaka and instead of spin-bowling allrounder Senuran Muthusamy.
Speaking to reporters two days before the match, Paterson said he was prepared to do the "dirty work" of holding up an end so Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen could operate at full intensity and that is exactly what the South Africa captain also expects of him.
"If you look at all our bowlers, apart from Wiaan Mulder, he's probably the one guy that can hit the stumps more consistently, being shorter in stature," Temba Bavuma said of Paterson. "St George's is one of those wickets where the lbw, bowled and even the nick off becomes predominant in terms of wicket-taking options. He adds that variety to us as a team, where we have a guy who can target the stumps more From a skill point of view, there's not many guys who are better than Patto in terms of getting the ball up there, swinging and nipping it around."
The westerly, drying wind is currently blowing in Gqeberha and may only change later in the match, when there could be swing on offer which means that batters can expect the best of the early exchanges even with significant grass on the pitch. Still, South Africa have chosen to go in with only four frontline bowling options and Bavuma accepts it may take a "bit longer" than it did in Durban for wickets to fall.
Patience is something Paterson has in multiples. He waited four seasons to move from what was then provincial cricket to franchise cricket (essentially B team to A team domestic cricket) and when he did, he debuted for the Cobras at St George's Park. He waited six more summers to get international recognition and when that came, it was at St George's Park.
It's a venue where he has 31 first-class wickets at an average of 21.22, which reads a bit like his Nottinghamshire numbers and suggests it's somewhere that suits him. So it was no surprise to hear he has a plan for how to bowl here. "Find your length and settle on it," he said "As the Test goes on it gets quite squatty so I think that's when things like nip come into play."
At optional training the day before the Test, Paterson was the only one of the seamers in the playing XI at the ground. He spent around 40 minutes bowling on a practice pitch with Maphaka, overseen by Test bowling coach Piet Botha. And it was clear who was preparing for a match.
Paterson ran in purposefully, had zip and hit a similar spot throughout. Maphaka must have been instructed to take it easy and was far more languid. They did not speak much and any communication was done with the eyes, in much the same way Paterson would have experienced things when he was a youngster.
"I played with the likes of Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt and Johan Lowe and I learnt from them especially in the nets, especially when I played B team cricket. I would just go to nets and learn," he said.
That knowledge is why South Africa have named Paterson in the XI for a must-win Test, with the World Test Championship final three wins away. When Paterson considered quitting South African cricket on a Kolpak deal four years ago (which was then scuppered by Brexit), he would not have imagined he'd be part of a team challenging for the title. And now? He can dare to dream.
"The amazing thing about it is the calmness with which we are going about this," he said. "Every Test is a must-win and we remind ourselves this is the goal, but that's where it stands. We're not speaking about it all the time. There's a calmness in the group, which is very good."