Ken Borland

Dean Elgar has a reputation amongst opposition teams for being a bit gabby, but the Proteas captain is not afraid to talk about his own shortcomings and on Sunday he revealed the hard work he has been doing to get his batting back on track ahead of the Test series in Australia.

Opener Elgar is one of the senior statesmen in the South African batting line-up, usually setting a solid tone up front, but he was disappointed with his output on the England tour, scoring just 107 runs in five innings.

The left-hander revealed that he has done a technical overhaul, that seems to be working judging by his form for the Northerns Titans in domestic four-day cricket. Elgar scored 55 and 25 not out to help steer the Titans to a 10-wicket win over the Central Gauteng Lions at the Wanderers on Sunday. With his 137 against the Free State Knights, he is averaging 72.33 this season.

“It feels good to get runs under the belt, obviously to influence the team and to get my game in order with something big coming up [the Australia Tests]. I’ve had a nice three weeks prep.

“I’ve been able to get my confidence back up high and sort out some technical stuff. Knowing where your off-stump is is important, one of the basic fundamentals, but there are a lot of other basics I’ve worked on too.

“I was doing stuff in England which I never used to do, so I broke down my technique and tried to make what I thought were weaknesses less so.

“Having experience really helps because I know when something is wrong, although it is easier said than done to fix it. But it’s nice to be able to do it at domestic level where there is less pressure,” Elgar said.

Visiting captains always feel the heat in Australia, so Elgar has been well-advised to make sure his own game is shipshape. The straight-talking skipper did not hide his disappointment that his vice-captain, Temba Bavuma, and senior fast bowler Kagiso Rabada, who are both sure to feel the warmth Down Under too after underwhelming T20 World Cup campaigns there, have not played any four-day cricket before the tour.

“KG is maybe one exception because his workload is quite high and I can maybe understand him having the time off with fast bowling being extremely demanding,” Elgar said.

“But batsmen should ideally be trying to utilise time in the middle, although I have no control over the medical rules. But playing domestically is the best place to get form and confidence.

“Getting runs here can really change your thought patterns. So it has been nice to see a lot of the squad playing and working on technical flaws. A guy like Kyle Verreynne has obviously worked hard and scored a lot of runs.

“I’m a bit concerned with our seam bowling though. There has been a lot of emphasis on T20 cricket and the bowlers are not conditioned enough for long spells or bowling all day,” Elgar warned.

Bulls coach Jake White seemed afraid before their match against Leinster that his team and their fans might not realise how daunting their game against the dominant side in the Pro14 competition was going to be, and the reality of what awaits South Africa’s champions was rammed home as they were hammered 31-3 at the Aviva Stadium.

On a miserable day for South African rugby on which the Springboks, Stormers, Bulls and Sharks all lost, the quality, tempo and precision of the European game was on full display, even though those sides are just starting their season. And Leinster look set to be Europe’s flagbearers once again, judging by their polished performance against the Bulls.

“I’m not that disappointed in our performance to be honest. Leinster are the benchmark in European rugby and I’m a realist. That’s the kind of pressure we’re going to have to get used to week in, week out. To give some perspective, Jamison Gibson-Park comes off the bench at scrumhalf and he’s an international. We need to get to that level of skill and depth.

“We need to be realistic where we are and where Leinster are currently. We can’t be down, it was a great learning opportunity even though it wasn’t pleasant. Leinster have Test players who have been together for a long time, guys with 30 Test caps against players with 30 Currie Cup caps. The bottom line is that they exposed us and they have done it to some of the best sides in Europe,” White said.

The Bulls started the match in terrible fashion, trailing 17-0 after just 13 minutes, but they had opportunities to close the gap in the first half, which they failed to take.

“We kicked direct into touch at the start, we gave away a penalty at the scrum, a lineout and then we’re 10-0 down in the first seven minutes. We were under pressure the whole time and it could easily have become 50 points as they ran away with it. But if we could have gone to 10-17 then we would have been a bit more confident.

“I’m proud of how we stuck into it, we showed our resilience and we looked like we held our own in certain passages. That’s the positive – for long periods we stayed competitive. But the challenge is not to get down on ourselves, we have to back ourselves even though things worked easily in the Currie Cup, but we weren’t playing against international opposition,” White said.

Isaiah 12:2 – “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation.”

It would be naive to think that storm clouds will not gather in life, darkening our lives. And it would be foolish to try to ignore them, in the futile hope that they will just disappear. It is far better to prepare in trust for the impending storm by standing firm in your living faith in the Almighty God.

That means God has to be at the centre of your life.I am always reminded of those old 45″ records that had the large hole in the middle … You had to carefully place the record over the spindle to ensure that it was centred … if the spindle was not in the middle of the hole then the record would spin unevenly and the sound that came out would be all wonky and distorted.

It’s the same with our lives. If God is not at the centre of our lives, then what we produce will be wonky, distorted and not very pleasant.

So if God is truly at the centre of your life then, even though the storm might not be dispersed, you can trust that God is still carrying out his holy design for your life!

“However threatening the circumstances may be, it is imperative that you do not allow anything to usurp God’s central role in your life.

With him as the centre you will maintain your balance.

“When your entire being is saturated by reverence and love for God, fear no longer rules your mind. Uncertainty is replaced by trust. Faith in God enables you to meet the future with joyful confidence. The ominous clouds might still be present, but you will be assured that your loving Father is working everything together for your good.” – A Shelter From The Storm, Solly Ozrovech