Ken Borland

Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock will captain South Africa in the second Test against Pakistan which started early Thursday morning and the Proteas management are trying to make things as comfortable as possible for one of their key batsmen by not being constantly in his ear.

De Kock, who was already carrying a heavy burden as an all-format player, the wicketkeeper and often the batsman who had to carry the rest of the batting unit, agreed to the Test captaincy on an interim basis at the start of the summer. He has seemed a little reluctant about the job in recent times, but coach Mark Boucher stressed on Wednesday that it was a situation they are handling carefully.

“Quinny wasn’t forced to take the captaincy, he said he would do it in an interim capacity after we had a conversation about it. It has been tough on him and if you’re not scoring runs then that tends to get highlighted as the captain. But no-one is being harsh on him in this environment, we’re not putting it all on one person and going on about it all the time and there will be no extreme decisions now.

“It is an extra burden for him, but we know he is a quality player and he will get used to it. Fortunately with the Australian tour being cancelled we have a bit of time after this Test before the next Test series and hopefully we can then make a good, solid call on the captaincy based on who has put their hand up. Now is not the time for panic, not in a two-Test series, and it’s not his fault we are 1-0 down,” Boucher said.

While South Africa could tinker with their bowling mix – accurate seamer Wiaan Mulder looked likely to come in on Wednesday afternoon with Lungi Ngidi of Kloof Primary School and Hilton College likely to be missing out – all eyes will be on their unchanged top-six batting line-up for an improved performance in the second Test.

“I don’t think we have a suspect batting line-up, they just need a lot more mental application and two run outs in the top six is never going to be easy to recover from. We need that mental application to counter some pretty accurate bowling and we were a lot better in the second innings in Karachi, we learnt from our mistakes and watched how Pakistan played it.

“I believe we have the batting line-up to put the numbers up, we just need one or two of them to get really stuck in and the others to bat around them. Sometimes you can talk to the players and give them as much information as you can, but experience is about physically going out there and doing it yourself.

“We spoke about patience, that the run-rate would not be like it is in South Africa, that you have to show great intensity in defence. But then they watched Pakistan bat on Day 2 and they saw it happen right in front of them, how to go about batting in the subcontinent. We showed some of that learning in the second innings and in the nets this week there has been a lot more care in how they play, they’re defending with intensity and there have not been as many big shots,” Boucher said.

First-choice Proteas spinner Keshav Maharaj is suffering from a rib cartilage injury and is in doubt for the second Test against Pakistan starting on Thursday in Rawalpindi, and with wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi’s fitness also in question after he withdrew from the first Test due to a back strain, South Africa could go from wanting to field three spinners to just playing one.

George Linde is definitely fit, but although he bowled tidily, he went wicketless in Karachi and is very much the back-up to Maharaj, who took four for 102 in 34.1 overs in the first Test. But it would seem coach Mark Boucher would ideally like to play both orthodox left-armers, as well as another all-rounder in accurate seamer Wiaan Mulder.

“Keshav’s rib area is playing up, he has pain in that area and scans showed something is there – either a slight tear or a bruise of some sort. But he bowled quite a few overs today [Wednesday], 15 or so, and he said it was bearable. But we’ll wait and see how he is tomorrow, only he knows if he can deal with the pain and I’ll have to trust his call on that.

“It was a very big blow not to have Shamo in the first Test and I would have loved to have seen how he bowled on that pitch, seeing how their leg-spinner [Yasir Shah] went and wrist-spinners always turn the ball more. But there were other reasons we lost and he has not bowled a lot of overs lately because of that back injury. He might be effective here, but if he has to bowl a lot he will be sore and then he could wake up the next day and not feel he can push through and then we’re a bowler short. So that’s a big red light for me.

“Wiaan is certainly in our plans and if the cracks in the pitch become more like puzzle pieces then the bounce will be up-and-down and someone who can hit good areas for long periods of time will be a threat. He will also add a different look to our batting, having that extra all-rounder,” Boucher said on Wednesday.

Boucher admitted to an air of bewilderment over what conditions to expect at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

“The history of this ground shows that it is more seamer-friendly and there was quite a bit of grass on the pitch three days ago. But that had all been taken off yesterday [Tuesday] and the surface looks very dry. The locals aren’t sure either how it is going to play, but there has been a lot of talk about drying out the pitch because of the way we played in Karachi and making it spin-friendly.

“But there are also a lot of plates on the pitch, there’s going to be early-morning dew and we won’t get full days’ play because it gets dark early here. And if the Pakistanis themselves aren’t sure how it is going to play, we can’t be certain either so we will try and cover both angles. And we’ll need a lot more mental application in how we play in these conditions,” Boucher said.

Opening batsman Dean Elgar, who was pinged on the hand by fiery left-arm quick Shaheen Shah Afridi in the first Test, has been pronounced “fit and ready to play”.

Probable Proteas XI: Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Wiaan Mulder, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje.

Arno Botha, the two-try hero of the Bulls’ Currie Cup final triumph, has been in various losing playoffs in his 10-year professional career and last weekend at Loftus Versfeld he simply decided enough is enough and he refused to be on the losing side again.

Botha started playing for the Bulls in 2011, coincidentally just as the franchise’s fortunes started to wane after the glorious previous decade. The loose forward was on the losing side in the 2016 Currie Cup final when the Free State Cheetahs hammered them 36-16 in Bloemfontein. Even a move to Europe in 2018 could not secure the Springbok, whose international career was wrecked by knee injuries, any silverware.

“I can remember the 2007 Super Rugby final exactly – Frans Steyn missing the conversion, Gary Botha kicking the ball out of the ruck and Bryan Habana scoring – and for me it was always about winning trophies for the Bulls. But we missed out in 2016 and then playing in Europe, I lost two semi-finals in one year with Munster. So I must have lost half-a-dozen playoffs from 2011 and in this final I just decided that it cannot happen again.

“Obviously you don’t have control of how things are going to turn out as one player, but I just told myself I must try whatever I can to make a difference, to leave everything out there, like Rassie Erasmus said you have to in a final in that clip from Chasing the Sun. So it was definitely one of the most special moments of my life and the most joyful moment of my career,” Botha told The Citizen.

Botha came on to the field midway through the second half with the Bulls looking a bit ragged in terms of discipline and trailing 19-9. He said his mindset as one of the team’s vice-captains was to just ensure they stuck to basics and played in the right areas of the field.

“I just wanted to give energy to the team, which you need when you’re 10 points down. But it’s not about pulling a rabbit from the hat, it’s about the basics, you still have to kick when you need to, you can’t play in your own half. I just tried to strengthen the players so that they would not think about the score, just play the game for the last 20 minutes. It’s all about composure.

“You’re not thinking about losing when you go into the game, but sometimes you get into that position where you might well lose and it’s about how you manage your game to get out of that. And my tries were definitely not just about one person: you had Duane Vermeulen taking a quick-tap for the first one and then Embrose Papier made a line-break for the other one and did flippen well to stay in play,” the 29-year-old Nylstroom-born Botha said.

The Imperial Lions will be playing in the Momentum One-Day Cup final in Potchefstroom on Thursday against the defending champion Dolphins without the two left-arm spinners who have inspired their impressive title run thus far.

Regular captain Aaron Phangiso, who has been the Lions’ most economical bowler and taken five wickets, has had to leave the Potchefstroom bio-secure environment for personal reasons. Bjorn Fortuin, their leading wicket-taker with seven scalps, is in the Proteas T20 squad in Pakistan.

Losing both of them is a massive blow for the Lions because they have played such an integral role in the middle overs. Dominic Hendricks will captain the team in Phangiso’s absence, which was not announced in Wednesday’s pre-final virtual press conference, but he did talk about how other players will be needed to step into the void created by Fortuin’s unavailability.

“Obviously it’s tough losing someone as good as Bjorn, who adds a lot of value. He can bowl a couple of overs up front with the new ball and in the middle overs, the way he controls the game is fantastic. And he’s good with the bat. So it’s a massive loss but an opportunity for younger guys like Johannes Diseko and even Bryce Parsons to put their hands up.

“Conditions are not the usual ones at Potch where you chase well over 300. Now you have to be more measured, bat well for the first 40 overs and then explode. The teams that set their innings up best have been the most successful. It’s going to be about setting up against the new ball, and then how you play spin from overs 10 to 40. It all depends on those middle overs, how you set up for the last 10 overs – you need wickets in hand,” Hendricks said.

While the Lions had their semi-final against the Knights washed out, progressing to the final because they topped their pool with three convincing wins, the Dolphins can rest in the knowledge that they have been tested under pressure and came through their thrilling knockout match against the Cape Cobras.

But were it not for Senuran Muthusamy or Robbie Frylinck’s half-centuries they would have lost and, in the absence of David Miller, they need Marques Ackerman, Khaya Zondo or Ruan de Swardt to step up and provide more support to Grant Roelofsen up front.

Captain Prenelan Subrayen does not seem the type who is prone to rants though and he put a positive spin on their last performance.

“We took our semi-final as our bad game and yet we were still able to come out on top, we showed a lot of character and depth, and Senuran and Robbie are obviously very key players in both bowling and batting. We’ll be striving for that perfect game and we still have a lot of momentum. The conditions in Potchefstroom suit our game as well, they play into our hands,” Subrayen said.