Ken Borland

The Sharks team look to flyhalf Curwin Bosch for direction and on Friday night against the Free State Cheetahs at Kings Park they also received a matchwinning performance from the Springbok, according to coach Sean Everitt.

The Sharks bumbled their way to a 19-13 win in a Super Rugby Unlocked match that was strewn with errors from both sides, and it was Bosch who hauled the home team over the line by slotting all five of his kicks at goal, bombarding the Cheetahs with towering up-and-unders and also providing the pinpoint crosskick for the decisive try by replacement wing Madosh Tambwe.

“When you have a flyhalf like Curwin then the team look to him for direction and he did an excellent job. His kicking was pinpoint and the chasers did very well too. Curwin is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment and if we get the contestable kicking right then we are a very difficult team to play against.

“We like to play what’s in front of us and Curwin is vital for that. The Cheetahs had good line-speed and they put him under pressure, but he won that battle and with his kicking game he’s able to counteract that rush defence,” Everitt said after the hard-fought win.

While the television broadcaster’s staff gave the impression that conditions in Durban were ideal, Everitt confirmed that it was in fact a typically humid summer’s evening on the sub-tropical east coast, which partly explained the multitude of basic errors made by both teams.

“They were difficult conditions and it was a very physical contest. In order to combat the humidity, we went for contestable kicks and they were extremely difficult to handle. The conditions were very similar to the early rounds of Super Rugby at the start of the year and it was very difficult to hold on to the ball,” Everitt explained.

Proteas spearhead Kagiso Rabada has expressed his delight at playing in his first Indian Premier League final for the Delhi Capitals on Tuesday and is in prime position to finish the most prestigious T20 tournament with the Purple Cap for leading wicket-taker.

Rabada has been in wonderful form throughout the competition and the four for 29 he took against the Hyderabad Sunrisers in the second qualifying final in Abu Dhabi at the weekend took him to 29 wickets in 16 matches. The Delhi Capitals will come up against the Mumbai Indians in the final, the defending champions being inspired by impressive fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who is the second highest wicket-taker behind Rabada, with 27 scalps. It would be a massive feather in Rabada’s cap if he hangs on to the Purple Cap, especially since his World Cup performance last year in England when he was very much in the shadow of pacemen such as Bumrah, Trent Boult, Jofra Archer and Pat Cummins.

“It’s going to be surreal to be in the final but hopefully we can go all the way, it’s just one more big push. We have a very young team with a good captain [Shreyas Iyer] and since I came here in 2016, it’s been the same faces and we have been building up a good team. We play for the fans because it’s thanks to their constant support that we are here.

“We’ve all played some good cricket and individuals have put up their hands when needed. We’ve had a never-say-die attitude, we’ve planned and played well and no-one can say a place in the final was given to us, we’ve earned it and we should give each other a pat on the back. Delhi have not been in the final before, so it feels great to help them there and I’m just glad to be part of it,” Rabada told the Capitals’ website.

Rabada’s fellow South African paceman Anrich Nortje has also been an integral part of Delhi’s success, taking 20 wickets, while Quinton de Kock has been the joint leading run-scorer for the Mumbai Indians with Ishan Kishan, scoring 483 at an average of 37.15 and a strike-rate of 139.59.

Rabada versus De Kock is going to be an important battle within the final since they are good mates but fiercely competitive towards each other.

Bangalore Royal Challengers and the Chennai Super Kings have been amongst the also-rans in the tournament, but one could certainly pardon their South African stars for their failings.

AB de Villiers scored 454 runs at an average of 45.40 and a strike-rate of 158.74 for Bangalore, for whom Chris Morris was the best seamer with 11 wickets in nine matches.

Faf du Plessis was the leading run-scorer for the Chennai Super Kings with 449 at 40.81 and a strike-rate of 140.75, while Lungi Ngidi took nine wickets in four matches for the three-time champions.

Young fast bowler Lutho Sipamla was signed amidst much fanfare by the Imperial Lions in mid-year and coach Wandile Gwavu is hopeful that they will now be able to get him on the park after an injury niggle and give their attack greater penetration in their second 4-Day Domestic Series match, against the Cape Cobras at the Wanderers from Monday.

The defending champions lost by nine wickets to the Dolphins in Durban in the opening round and they took just four wickets in the match, so they certainly need a sharper edge to their attack. Sipamla, a rising star for the Proteas, should certainly provide the pace that is usually a necessity at the Wanderers, but Gwavu said a change in personnel alone will not turn around their fortunes.

“We created chances in the Dolphins game, but then we basically made it a 30-wicket game by missing seven of those chances. If we had taken those then we wouldn’t have to complain about the umpires or anything else. We were outplayed in foreign conditions and we have to give credit to the Dolphins where it is due. There’s a quick turnaround and now we play another good side in the Cobras.

“We have to show patience, we must not go searching for things too quickly, especially with the ball. It’s vitally important that we look within ourselves and it will require a mindset change more than anything else. It’s very important that we improve our batting under pressure, we need to build an innings, and we need more consistent bowling,” Gwavu told The Citizen.

All-rounder Wiaan Mulder is also now fully fit and available for selection.

The Titans will have another coastal pitch to contend with as they now travel to Port Elizabeth to take on the Warriors, but coach Mandla Mashimbyi says their close shave against the Cape Cobras at Newlands has given them a clearer idea of the processes that work for them.

A fantastic century by Theunis de Bruyn, and valuable innings by Aiden Mrkram, Dean Elgar and Junior Dala, saw them chase down a target of more than 300 with just two wickets in hand. But Mashimbyi said they felt in control of the game for much of the time, but a catastrophic collapse in one session put them behind on the scoreboard.

“We’ve identified the processes that work for us and we believe a bit more in those processes now. In the end we had to show a lot of fight and I commend the character shown, but we put ourselves under pressure with one hour of madness when we just did not pitch up with the bat. But that was an opportunity to learn and grow, which we showed in the second innings.

“Sometimes you can want to do well too badly and you end up just not bringing your best. But our engine room came right, they made sure that Dean [who scored a century out of a total of just 150 – a South African record] had someone to bat with in the second innings and we’ll make sure that first innings does not happen again. Our bowlers did exceptionally well, they had things under control and I commend them because they made it possible for us to have a target of just over 300,” Mashimbyi said.

The other teams gunning for top spot on the log clash in Bloemfontein as the Knights host the Dolphins.

The Bulls really came to the party after halftime in their Super Rugby Unlocked match at Ellis Park against what Jake White described as a ‘spoiling’ Lions side, the coach saying their 30-25 win was a fantastic result for the log-leaders.

While the Bulls started well, the Lions dominated the second quarter and led 15-10 at the break, dominating the scrums and just generally showing more urgency. But the Bulls, no doubt after a tongue-lashing from White, raised the intensity in the third quarter and opened up a 23-15 lead going into the last 20 minutes. From there the Bulls kept their cool and held off a Lions side that could be proud of their tremendous effort.

“It’s always tough to win away from home and that was a fantastic away win. I was really proud of the second-half performance – after a lot of disruptions having to change our hooker on Thursday and then losing both props, plus a flank in the first five minutes – for the other guys to produce 40 minutes like that when they haven’t had much time together as a unit was phenomenal.

“It was a tough game, but sometimes you have to win ugly. After halftime we were a different team, I demanded a response during the break and they delivered. I hope it’s not like this every week though because you want the team to show a bit of drive from inside as well. We were poor in the first half but we played really well in the second half. And we’ve won every second half this season which is nice conditioning-wise,” White said after the game.

White is one of the most meticulous planners in South African rugby and he was delighted that his team managed to subdue the ferocious challenge the Lions threw at them, at the breakdowns in particular.

“I’m very happy with the breakdowns based on the back row the Lions chose, because they clearly wanted to spoil and make the game scrappy. They were probably a bit fortunate to not have the lawbook used against them more, at one stage there were five ruck infringements in a row. Their goal was to break our rhythm and they did that quite well, plus we had no real go-forward in the set-pieces.

“Our maul was quite good but we are still a work in progress. But it was nice to play both games, using both the pack and the backs, and it looked like we got the balance right in the end. If the backs can play like that when we don’t have forward dominance, then they’ll have gained a lot of confidence for the games ahead. The Lions tried to make the whole game slow and scrappy and we just couldn’t get our rhythm until the second half,” White said.