Ken Borland

How the 1st day of the long-awaited Test series between 2025 World Test Champions South Africa and losing finalists Australia went in Durban.

A dull (in terms of the weather) afternoon in Durban saw Australia reach 187 for six in 65.2 overs before bad light stopped play midway through the final session. Anrich Nortje, playing in his first Test since 2023, had earlier taken two wickets in three balls to plunge the tourists into deep trouble on 124 for six and have the sparse number of South African supporters in sheer delight.

Matt Renshaw (46*) and captain Pat Cummins (33*) showed great determination to keep an excellent Proteas attack out for the remaining hour-and-a-half, but the thrill of seeing a genuine fast bowler return to the Test arena, and enjoy success, had been the highlight of the day.

Having not added to his tally of 70 Test wickets at 26.71 since March 2, 2023, Nortje made a brilliant double strike that left the home side the happier of the two and also allowed him to be full of smiles in the post-play press conference.

“I thought I wasn’t going to get a wicket for the next few weeks the way every ball passed the bat,” Nortje said with the sort of hard-done-by-ness that seems to be hard-wired into fast bowlers.

But after that the 32-year-old was all smiles, delighted just to be out in the middle competing in a format he described as “the best there is”.

“It was good to get the first wicket, it got the blood flowing again, but first and foremost it’s great just to be out there, especially wearing the baggie which was getting a bit worn out just lying at home. Aiden Markram actually said it seems to be part of my game that I don’t get wickets for a while and then I get two very quickly.

“I would have liked to have finished that last spell before bad light and I enjoy the hard graft of coming back for a third or fourth spell, when you have to dig deep,” Nortje said after returning figures of 13.2-2-40-2 on Friday. The way he kept his speeds up above 140km/h spoke to his excellent conditioning.

There are many different excuses given for the poor crowd attendances at Kingsmead, ranging from it being the government’s fault for tanking the economy to the Indian Ocean’s fault for looking so inviting, but it was inexcusable that such a long-awaited series, between great rivals and the finalists of the last World Test Championship, should commence at 9.30am under the bluest of skies but with a backdrop of sheer apathy from so-called cricket lovers.

Marco Jansen and Wiaan Mulder had some unruly moments with the new ball after Australia had elected to bat first, but at least they had a plan. Visiting openers Nic Maddinson and Travis Head are both left-handers, and the tactic early on was clearly to swing the ball back into their pads, looking for lbw.

South Africa should have reviewed when Mulder did just that in the fourth over, but the Proteas declined. Hawkeye showed it was very much out.

Mulder, who moved the ball impressively, did get a wicket four overs later when a delivery swung down leg, Head (9) tried to flick it away but edged the ball on to his thigh, from which it travelled into the gloves of Kyle Verreynne.

Jansen, who also used his ability to extract steep bounce to good effect, removed Maddinson for a 33-ball duck as he threw in a fuller, wider delivery, the left-hander’s eyes lit up and he inside-edged the ball into his stumps.

The debate over Maddinson’s selection has not quite reached the halls of Australia’s government, but it is astonishing. The bare facts are that he turns 35 in December, has not played a Test since 2016 or any red-ball game since March 2025. In his previous three Tests, he batted four times and scored just 27 runs.

On the plus side, Maddinson did survive for 50 minutes in what turned into a probing examination of technique and cha​acter.

From 24 for two, the veterans, Marnus Labuschagne (37) and Steve Smith (25) took Australia to the brink of lunch with a 60-run stand. It looked like the boasting rights for the session would go to the visitors.

But with the last ball before lunch, Mulder managed to nip a delivery into Labuschagne’s pads, the South African-born player trying desperately to get outside the line of off-stump, but his review showing he had just failed (umpire’s call).

Three balls after lunch, Mulder was in the gully to snaffle an edge from Smith’s bat off Jansen, the tall left-armer having thundered a lifter into his gloves the previous delivery.

Alex Carey (14) provided some stabilisation with Matt Renshaw for the next hour, before the return of Nortje and his dramatic one-two.

Carey was removed by a beautiful delivery – perfect length, Carey did not get forward and then the ball moved away and across the left-hander, Markram taking the catch at second slip.

Beau Webster clipped his first ball through midwicket for four, but his second saw him trying to defend well outside off-stump, the delivery straightened and he was caught behind. Umpire Richard Kettleborough, who had a tough day, ruled not out probably because the bat had hit the pad, but another excellent review showed the ball had found the other edge of the bat too.

How Renshaw and Cummins progress on the second morning will decide whether Australia have capitalised on a good toss to win.

Nortje has made a decision of his own during his lengthy injury absences. Just like getting a new haircut for your first day back in the office, he is modelling a slightly new action.

“After the T20 World Cup last year and the IPL, my action wasn’t looking great. When I compared it to old footage I could see how bad it was, in terms of my action, my angles and the flow of my arms.

“So I decided to make it right so I could be more consistent and help my body to prolong things. I decided that I had to change things up, I couldn’t go back to what I was doing in 2020 otherwise muscle memory would just take over again and I’d be back where I was.

“So I’ve been working on a new action, the angles of my run-up, my jump and how my arms flow. It might look the same but it’s not, technically it’s slightly different. My action is always a work in progress, I’m never 100% satisfied, but it feels better than ever and I’m very happy with where I’m at,” Nortje said.

And so he should be. As should the Proteas after a successful opening day of the series.

Back-to-back Rugby World Cup champions South Africa’s franchises have battled to make the same impact in club competition as they seemingly look down from their castle at a tournament as storied as the Champions Cup.

The four South African United Rugby Championship franchises were controversial inclusions in European competition and the failure of any of their teams to make the playoffs has again cast doubt on whether they should be included in an elite tournament, the pinnacle of European club rugby and an event with much romance attached to it given its history.

Springbok prop Steven Kitshoff, who won the World Cup in 2019 and 2023, has experience of European club rugby, having played for Bordeaux from 2015 to 2017 and then for Ulster in 2023/24, and he believes South African clubs under-value the Champions Cup.

“I’ve played in Europe before and I remember when I was with Ulster how big a deal the Champions Cup was. It was more important than the URC, but it seems to be vice-versa in South Africa. Our teams seem to prioritise a strong performance in the URC, which then means you qualify for the Champions Cup.

“If you make a bad start to the Champions Cup then a good URC performance will get you back in there. But I think it will take a while for South Africans to realise just how important the European competitions are, and we also have budget issues here,” Kitshoff told sportsboom.co.za in an exclusive interview.

There is definitely a mystique that surrounds the Champions Cup, but as newcomers to the tournament, South African administrators, players and fans have yet to feel the magic.

“Winning in Europe was always the big challenge when I was overseas and the clubs compete as hard as they can in those competitions. I’ll never forget my first game for Ulster was in the Champions Cup and the week leading up to that match was more momentous than when we played Leinster in the URC,” Kitshoff said.

But in order for South African teams to fully embrace the Champions Cup, Kitshoff believes the format of the competition needs to change. At the moment, the four pool stage rounds, for the four pools and six teams, and four knockout rounds are spread out between December and May.

“I think South Africans will catch on but the schedule needs to change so we can send stronger sides to Europe. We play a lot of rugby and then there is the Springbok schedule as well. A lot of locally-based players miss games because of the URC and the Springboks’ end-of-year tour,” the 32-year-old who will shortly start his rehab from what he described as “very positive” neck surgery, said.

Kitshoff’s views were backed up by Springbok legend Naas Botha.

“In my opinion, the Champions Cup is next in importance to the World Cup because you are playing against the best in Europe and South Africa. But we seem to be concentrating more on the URC, which is fine, but Toulouse have proven that beating our teams in our own backyard is what makes you a real champion.

“I don’t get the feeling that South Africa prioritise the Champions Cup, judging by some of the mediocre teams they send overseas. I know the travel is difficult, but looking at it as an outsider, we don’t seem to rate the Champions Cup too highly.

“There are a couple of things that SA Rugby need to reconsider and the first is that there should be no financial cap. If you want to spend a billion rand on a team, why can’t you? It’s your money. You see the Stade Francais budget is more than R800 million while our teams have a cap of R67 million. We have so much talent, but we shouldn’t allow our best players to all play overseas, we must have enough money to keep them here and not go overseas.

“Make the Champions Cup a knockout tournament and that will make it a tournament people really want to win. I loved SuperRugby, I love the URC, but we need to think about the structure of the Champions Cup. At the moment there are too many things that don’t make sense. Do we take it seriously enough? I want to see the best playing against the best.

“The Champions Cup needs to be our franchises’ number one priority. I would also love to see the Champions Cup winner play the SuperRugby winner and the Six Nations champions play the Rugby Championship winners,” Botha said.

South Africa captain Temba Bavuma says the success of their Champions Trophy campaign hangs on how well they bat in good batting conditions in Pakistan.

And the Proteas skipper is heartened by the good form most of his batsmen have shown in the ongoing SA20, which concludes on February 8, nearly two weeks before they open their Champions Trophy campaign against Afghanistan in Karachi on February 21.

David Miller has not only captained Paarl Royals to the top of the log and a place in the playoffs already, he is averaging 91.50 with the bat at a strike-rate of 134. Rassie van der Dussen is averaging 50.40 for MI Cape Town, while his opening partner Ryan Rickelton has been restricted to just four innings due to a hamstring strain, but has passed 50 twice in that time.

Aiden Markram is leading from the front for Sunrisers Eastern Cape, averaging 40.50 at a strike-rate of 138, while all-rounder Marco Jansen averages 32.80 at a strike-rate of 131 for the same team.

Even key finisher Heinrich Klaasen found some form in his last game as he plundered 66 off 43 balls for Durban Super Giants against high-flying MI Cape Town at Newlands.

Miller (6^th), Van der Dussen (3^rd), Rickelton (7^th), Markram (4^th) and Jansen (10^th) are in the top-10 run-scorers list.

“I’m really glad that the core of our batting line-up is doing well in the SA20. In Pakistan we should get friendly pitches for batting, so you need in-form batsmen so that you can take control of matches over there,” Bavuma told sportsboom.co.za.

Interviewed as one of the celebrity guests for a South African Breweries function, Bavuma did, however, admit that the loss of several high-profile Proteas bowlers to injury was concerning. Gerald Coetzee, Anrich Nortje and Daryn Dupavillon, who has played two ODIs, were all recently ruled out of the SA20 tournament, while Nandre Burger, Lizaad Williams and Beuran Hendricks were all forced to withdraw before the event started.

Lungi Ngidi last played on January 18 and has been surrounded by a fitness cloud for most of the summer. He and Nortje were both named in South Africa’s original Champions Trophy squad. No replacement has yet been named for Nortje, with coach Rob Walter hoping Coetzee will recover in time from his hamstring strain.

“There are more question marks over the bowling, but obviously injuries are part of the game,” Bavuma said. “Bowling has always been our strength and you want to be in the position where you can select from everyone. But I have a lot of pride in this team that they always find a way, even if they have to do it the hard way. These sort of injury questions are nothing new.”

Bavuma is probably entitled to feel it will all be okay once they hit the big stage in Pakistan due to the tenacity his team have shown previously. After a torrid start to the World Test Championship, they have regrouped and qualified for the final against Australia in June.

“That this team always seems to find a way speaks to the character and environment in the squad, you are allowed to be yourselves. There have been lots of positives in the last year and the team has been successful in making the Test final.

“We ticked that box, that is a step in the right direction, but we are not at the end of our journey, we still want to achieve more. But we’ve shown we can win away from home, even though we are an inexperienced side. It’s about managing the space. The youngsters have stepped up, the way they have reacted has definitely contributed to our success.

“We obviously want to continue in that vein, but we want to be a lot more disciplined because that will lead to excellence,” Bavuma said.

The Proteas will be able to ready themselves for the Champions Trophy in an ODI tri-series with Pakistan and New Zealand in Lahore and Karachi from February 8.

What happened on Pink Day sealed the deal for Ken Borland

The Ball in Play

Both the Proteas and Australia agreed at the end of their Pink Day ODI at the Wanderers on Sunday that it had been the South African spin bowlers who had once again been the difference between the two great rivals.

Sure, Temba Bavuma scored a masterful century and David Miller smashed a career-best (statistically and maybe in terms of what it meant personally too) 142 to take South Africa to 365 for nine after being sent in to bat.

But when Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head had added 130 for the first wicket in just 17 overs and Australia were ahead of the required run-rate, it was the spinners who turned the tide once again for the home team.

Left-arm spinners Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin repeated their heroics of the first ODI in Durban on Heritage Day [September 24), and this time they had the support of part-time off-spinner Aiden Markram.

Together, that triumvirate of twirlers all bowled their full ration of overs and took five wickets for 179 in 30 overs. Not only did they go for less than a run-a-ball at a venue which can be very tough on spinners, but they also removed five of Australia’s top six.

Having been the key factor in the ODI series win with a game to spare, I believe Proteas coach Shukri Conrad should also look to spin for the Test series that starts on October 9.

When the fixtures were announced for this Australian tour back in February, the fact that the three Tests were being played at Kingsmead, St George’s Park and Newlands got me thinking.

All three matches being played at coastal venues made me wonder if Conrad, who often dissents with the popular or cliched view, was planning to attack the Australians with spin. South Africa’s coastal venues, especially Durban in recent years, are the most spin-friendly in the country.

Keshav Maharaj is based at Kingsmead and Prenelan Subrayen and Senuran Muthusamy all made their Test debuts while playing for the KZN Dolphins, such has been the success of spin in Durban.

St George’s Park in Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth, can also be very spin-friendly depending on the wind. When thinking of the Test venues, my mind immediately went back to April 2022 when Maharaj and Simon Harmer destroyed Bangladesh, taking all 10 second-innings wickets at Kingsmead as they bundled them out for just 53, and then repeating the feat further down the coast in the next match, where they shot the tourists out for just 80. They are the only pair of bowlers to have achieved this in back-to-back Tests in the history of the game.

Newlands in Cape Town has also traditionally been a favoured venue for the spinners, Paul Adams and England’s Colin Blythe are both in the top-10 wicket-takers in Tests there, while Paul Harris, Shane Warne, Nicky Boje, Johnny Briggs, Hugh Tayfield and Maharaj are all in the top-20. When I was growing up, Western Province leg-spinner Denys Hobson was always a threat for visiting teams in domestic cricket, and I remember Transvaal’s slow left-armer Alan Kourie routinely winning games there on the third day, using the wind superbly.

The best red-ball return at Newlands in the last four seasons is left-arm spinner Kyle Simmonds’s seven for 39 against the KZN Dolphins in 2023/24.

My learned colleague Stuart Hess, whose coverage of South African and domestic cricket for TimesLive and the Sunday Times should be compulsory reading for cricket fans, did rather dampen my spinner daydreams when he informed me Conrad had told him the thinking around the fixtures was early-season pitches on the coast seaming around, the coach mentioning when Marco Jansen took seven for 13 at Kingsmead as he bowled Sri Lanka out for a measly 42.

But that match was actually at the end of November in 2024. Normally when I have disagreed with coach Shukri, he has invariably proven me wrong, but I would be very surprised if, having seen what has transpired in the ODI series, he is not thinking of attacking Australia with both Maharaj and Harmer.

Conrad did say this week that the double-spinner tactic, planned before what he called the “hamstring pandemic” amongst the quick bowlers, had “exposed” some weaknesses in the Australian ODI team, but he added that their Test batting line-up is very different to their limited-overs personnel.

But just to strengthen my argument, I can report that marvellous Miller agreed with my idea when he spoke to the media after his magnificent 142 off just 93 balls.

“I would love to see us test the Australians on days three and four with turn because we have great spinners. Playing our spinners has probably been a weakness for them. Our spinners are extremely good at holding a good length and asking questions. When the surface holds a bit, it takes a lot to hit them off that length,” Miller said.

Australian all-rounder Jack Edwards, who was their best bowler with five for 67 in just his second ODI and then scored 25 to give them a sliver of hope, explained why facing the Proteas spinners has been such a problem.

“The spinners are both really good at controlling their length and when the pitch is a bit dry and the ball a bit softer, one delivery will turn sharply and the next one skids through. So it’s a considerable risk to try and hit boundaries, they are quality bowlers,” Edwards said.

But let’s go back to Bavuma and Miller, who are both such inspirational figures in the batting line-up.

Captain Bavuma had to come in after the shock of Aiden Markram, back in the team for the first time since the T20 World Cup, being dismissed first ball of the match courtesy of a spectacular Cooper Connolly catch. A lengthy delay before the opening delivery was bowled – either due to SuperSport delaying things or the event managers getting their timings wrong – probably did not help him.

Bavuma looked in fine touch from the get-go and played some of the most elegant strokes of the day, while also showing he is capable of brutal dispatching too as he collected 10 fours and two sixes in his 103. Bavuma now averages 49 against Australia in ODIs, striking at 85, and averages 41 in Tests.

Whether he is still batting at number three in the next World Cup will become more clear in the months ahead, but what is certain is that he will be the lynchpin in the South African batting line-up, allowing the strokeplayers and boundary-hitters to bat around him.

Just like Miller did at the Wanderers. Their ground-record partnership of 156 off 135 balls for the fourth wicket featured timing as sweet as the most invigorating balsam, and just as medicinal for South Africa’s health after they had slipped to 93 for three after a difficult first 15 overs when the ball moved around and there was some steep bounce.

The previous fourth-wicket record for the Proteas at the Wanderers was 105 between AB de Villiers and JP Duminy, against India in 2013/14.

There are some who have written off the 37-year-old Miller’s chances of making the 2027 World Cup squad, but he has not averaged below 40 in his last four seasons of ODI action, while striking at 114. He has scored three centuries and seven half-centuries in that time.

His strokeplay had the large Pink Day crowd purring with delight, especially when he sent the Australian bowlers over the boundary fencing on nine occasions. His record against South Africa’s greatest rivals is extraordinary: He now averages 59.20 against them, at a strike-rate of 106, with four centuries.

“I just want to contribute in the best way I can, make an impact. I just try to stick to my processes, I’ve been around for a long time so it’s also time for me to lead from the front and stick my hand up.

“I was pretty hungry today. You can never 100% guarantee that you’re going to make the World Cup squad and I still have a lot of hard work to do. This is a very important series because we haven’t played at home for a long time. It’s going to be very nice to have a big summer here against some really good opposition before we host the World Cup next year.

“The key for us leading up to the World Cup is to find our balance and ensure our depth is good. There are a lot of batsmen coming through, and it’s similar with the bowlers,” Miller said.