Ken Borland

Stand-in Proteas captain Keshav Maharaj is a cool, laidback customer and so he is not going to agonize over South Africa’s poor record in ODIs in England as they left for a three-match series starting on July 19.

The Proteas have played England in 26 ODIs on their home soil and have won just eight of them, losing 16 and two matches being washed out. In the last decade, South Africa have won just three of the last 10 matches against the reigning world champions.

“I’ve only personally played two ODIs in England, so it’s difficult for me to give deep insights,” Maharaj said on the eve of their departure on Thursday. “Maybe we have been a bit slow to adapt.

“That series I played in we lost 2-1 and we only really found our rhythm in the last game. England have done really well lately with their new coaches’ fresh philosophies.

“But it’s important for us to just play according to our game-plan, to focus on what we want to do and do the basics well. It’s going to be a good test and we always want to try and beat the best.

“I can’t really isolate facets of our game that haven’t worked, we just need to trust our process and execute much better. I’m sure the lots of hard work we have put in will bear fruit,” Maharaj calmly stated.

With the next 50-over World Cup now just 15 months away, Maharaj is hoping the desire to be in the squad for that showpiece tournament in India will provide the ignition for his side to make Jos Buttler’s first series in charge of England a torrid one.

“Obviously in our ODI performances over the last year or two we have not shown the execution we’ve wanted,” Maharaj said. “But we’ve picked a squad to suit various needs and combinations.

“I’m sure the game-plan will now come to fruition with the different combinations we have tried. World Cup time obviously causes selection problems because all the players want to put their hands up.

“As captain, you want to create space for everyone to thrive, but they also need to align with the game-plan. You want to give individuals the platform to shine within the team game-plan.

“It might be good to start the tours with the ODIs, we are so used to playing the Tests first and then filtering into the white-ball games. But now the guys are fresh and hungry to showcase their talent,” Maharaj, standing in for the injured Temba Bavuma, said.

South Africa scraped through to the knockout round of the Women’s Hockey World Cup by a single goal on Wednesday night as pool-toppers Australia only managed to beat them 2-1 in Terrassa.

The phenomenal defensive effort by South Africa meant they finished with a goal-difference of minus-four, compared to Japan’s minus-five after they had earlier lost 3-0 to Belgium.

Although South Africa conceded a seventh-minute penalty corner goal, they were relieved to finish the first quarter on level terms at 1-1 thanks to some fine saves by goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande and a superb short-corner drag-flick goal by Lilian du Plessis.

The African champions had few opportunities in the second quarter and conceded another penalty corner goal to go 2-1 down at halftime.

Australia started the second half well but fired wide at a penalty stroke, a massive moment that seemed to disconnect the world’s number three ranked side, despite their dominance of possession and being awarded several penalty corners.

This scrappiness was advantageous for South Africa and they created a couple of chances early in the final quarter. Knowing that as things stood they were in the crossover playoffs, they showed excellent game-management to close out the match with a pleasing result, considering the last time they played Australia they lost 7-1.

South Africa will now take on Germany on Saturday at 5pm in Amsterdam for a place in the quarterfinals for the first time since finishing seventh in 1998 in Utrecht, Netherlands.

As pool winners, Australia and the Netherlands have both qualified directly for the quarterfinals. Fellow Pool D qualifiers Belgium will face Chile in the knockout round.

Pool B is wide open with New Zealand, China and India all able to finish first and go straight into the final eight, while Argentina will seal top spot in Pool C if they beat winless Canada.

The last month in England has produced never-seen-before scenes in Test cricket as the team representing the home of the stiff upper lip and historically often dominated by dour Yorkshiremen and Lancastrians, have pulled off four successive fourth-innings run-chases with all the dash and aggression of a limited-overs game.

England have chased down four targets in excess of 250, the first team in the history of Test cricket to do so in a calendar year, and they have done so extraordinarily quickly. Traditional Test logic is that scoring anything more than 250 in the fourth innings is never easy, but England have won by seven wickets twice and by five wickets twice in beating New Zealand 3-0 and now levelling their postponed series against India 2-2.

Their run-rates in those innings have been 4.93 chasing 378 against the powerful India attack, and 3.53, 5.98 and 5.44 against the New Zealand bowling line-up that won the World Test Championship last year.

These extraordinary achievements have come under the refreshing new positive philosophy of coach Brendan McCullum and captain Ben Stokes. It has been called BazBall in honour of the Kiwi-born coach, but it is also a reflection of how captain Stokes, one of the great all-rounders, has always tried to play the game.

Having seen off the two teams that played in the inaugural World Test Championship final, England are now heading into a series against South Africa, currently second in the standings.

Many critics will be tempted to write off the Proteas as having no chance, but let’s not forget they beat India in a series at the start of the year and then drew with the Black Caps in New Zealand. And South Africa have a history of taming teams that have set out to play ultra-aggressively against them, thanks to their perennially strong bowling attacks.

Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje are amongst the fastest bowlers in the world, and left-armer Marco Jansen is an exciting prospect who could surprise the English.

But it could be an unfamiliar strength that the Proteas turn to: In Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer, South Africa have two world-class spinners and, with the pitches in England starting to dry out and take turn in August, their contest with the mighty English batting order should be memorable.

The South African women’s hockey team rebounded from a terrible start to their crunch World Cup match against Japan on Tuesday night, salvaging a remarkable 3-3 draw from 3-0 down with 20 minutes remaining to avoid elimination from quarterfinal contention in Terrassa, Spain.

Having conceded two goals in the first eight minutes, South Africa then went 3-0 down three minutes into the second half. Hesitant on the ball and porous in defence, the African champions’ hopes were faltering.

But they then fought back superbly with Onthatile Zulu giving the Japanese defence a torrid time with her attacking runs down the flank. South Africa were on the board in the 37^th minute through Kristen Paton’s reflex shot after a rebound from Kayla de Waal’s strike.

The team sitting in 16^th spot on the world rankings continued to pile pressure on the 10^th-ranked Japanese in the final quarter, with another fine run by Zulu earning a 54^th-minute penalty corner. Jean-Leigh du Toit’s slap was brilliantly guided in by Tarryn Lombard to cut the deficit to 1-2.

With two minutes remaining, Zulu won another short corner and Lombard steered the ball home again to complete a remarkable comeback.

“We started very slowly and conceding two goals in the first quarter really set us back,” stalwart goalkeeper Phumelela Mbande said afterwards. “We did well to come back, we knew we were never out of it, but it took pure grit and determination.

“We knew what it meant if we lost, now we are still in it, which we wanted so badly. We will fight even harder against Australia,” Mbande said.

South Africa and Japan both have one point in the standings, but the Cherry Blossoms are currently in third place in Pool D, the last qualifying spot, because they have a goal-difference of minus-two compared to South Africa’s minus-three.

South Africa have conceded seven goals and scored four, and if they can somehow prevent making it an octoplet of shots into the back of their net against Australia in the late game on Wednesday night, then they could pip Japan on goal-difference because they play Belgium, who beat Giles Bonnet’s side 4-1 last weekend.