Ken Borland

+ Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller are settled in the middle-order: The two experienced campaigners fulfilled their roles to perfection in the two matches they played. Van der Dussen had scores of 123 not out and 60 and they were contrasting innings to suit the situation. His century was a backs-to-the-wall effort after the Proteas had slipped to 55 for four and his second knock – off just 37 balls – provided crucial acceleration just when it was needed.

Miller performed his finishing role superbly; in the first ODI he stabilised the innings with Van der Dussen and then provided some impetus with his 50 off 56 balls, and in the second ODI he took advantage of the platform laid by Temba Bavuma and Van der Dussen to lash 50 not out off just 27 deliveries.

+ Welcome Verreynne & Malan to the Proteas family, now keep them there: Janneman Malan has now scored 222 runs in his four ODI innings, at a strike-rate of 89.87, and has now surely done enough to keep his place ahead of Aiden Markram, who has looked so good, but continues to get out when well set. The whole Markram package is so enticing, but at the moment it is Malan producing the numbers.

Kyle Verreynne has 163 runs at a strike-rate of 94.21 in his four innings and has shown tremendous composure and fight in his two half-centuries. He can play as a specialist batsman, as he did in the last ODI, and must have moved ahead of Heinrich Klaasen now in the queue.

+ Maharaj is as good in Green & Gold as he is in the Whites: Spinner Keshav Maharaj carried his brilliant domestic limited-overs form into the third ODI and was simply outstanding. Left-arm orthodox might not be as sexy as wrist-spin in white-ball cricket, but Maharaj’s teasing accuracy and flight showed how effective it can be. He’s a useful hitter too that will deepen the batting order and Tabraiz Shamsi must know he has a battle on his hands for the first-choice spinner role.

– The way Pakistan tore into the death bowling, Proteas bowlers have no idea what to do when the batsman tees off: In the second and third ODIs, Pakistan scored 51 and 65 runs respectively in the last five overs of their innings. When Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali or Babar Azam were teeing off, the Proteas did not seem to have good plans at their disposal; , or was it just their execution that was so poor? Either way, as bowling coach Charl Langeveldt acknowledged, they ain’t winning no world cups at the moment with that sort of death bowling.

– Rabada & Nortje having to pick up the tab for a lack of fast bowling depth: While Rabada was classy as ever, an economy-rate of just 4.70 speaking to his accuracy, and Nortje was superb with his controlled aggression, the rest of the pacemen were disappointing. Lutho Sipamla was wayward, Lungi Ngidi failed to take wickets or keep the run-rate down, Andile Phehlukwayo bowled some excellent overs but some extremely poor ones too, and Daryn Dupavillon and Beuran Hendricks had little impact.