Ken Borland

After five months on the road, travelling from the Caribbean to Ireland, the subcontinent and then to Arabia, the Proteas can finally look forward to playing some cricket at home for the next couple of months.

They might not have won the T20 World Cup or even made the semi-finals, but it has been quite a while since there has been so much positivity around the performance of the team.

As ever in sport, patience has been rewarded and, as consistency in selection has led to a settled squad, so the performances have been getting better and better.

Few would argue that rebuilding the Proteas into a force on the international stage was an onerous task given how low fortunes had sunk a couple of years ago, partly caused by a great generation of players retiring and partly by all the turmoil in the Cricket South Africa boardroom.

But there is an old saying that “teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success” and perhaps the most important thing to come out of the T20 World Cup had little to do with game-plans or individual performances: To see a South African team playing with that old never-say-die spirit, to see the passion they displayed on the field and the unity of purpose they showed as a squad, makes one believe that the glory days could be back soon.

The resilience and togetherness of this team was illustrated by the way they pulled together in the wake of the Quinton de Kock saga; the star player’s ill-judged actions could well have ripped the team apart, but instead it brought them closer together. De Kock was never hung out to dry on his own either.

It was disappointing to see the new board display the same sort of reactive, uninspiring leadership as their awful predecessors, but it is probably their first mis-step and they did move quickly to tidy up their mess.

In the midst of that upheaval, Temba Bavuma stood tall and showed that he is prime leadership material to help take the Proteas forward over the next five years.

The Black Lives Matter movement and the importance of the Proteas making a unified gesture of support continues to provide grist to the mill of the media and the woke, and Bavuma’s comments on the matter when they returned home were pure quality.

“It’s about how it translates into everyday life. We can all raise our fist or go down on our knee, but deep down in the heart, if we are not for the cause and we don’t show it in our everyday living, then you have to question the authenticity.

“The South African team was put under immense pressure, more than any other team, which I think was unfair. Not enough acknowledgement has been given to this team because people don’t get to hear the conversations we have had behind closed doors.

“The decision about Black Lives Matter has to be a collective one. We should avoid things being dictated to the team. Our country has big, big problems and that’s where our energy should be focused,” Bavuma said.

Although the Proteas captain was too polite to mention it, I’m sure he also rages about the unfair criticism of the Proteas batting strike-rate. Yes, T20 is generally a game where batsmen are meant to go berserk, but it is frustrating that critics don’t realise that conditions in the UAE were not conducive to rampant batting.

New Zealand have roared into Sunday’s final, but their key batsmen have had strike-rates not too dissimilar to those of the Proteas: Daryl Mitchell 140.71 v Aiden Markram 145.94; Martin Guptill 131.38 v David Miller 133.33; Kane Williamson 94.24 v Bavuma 108.33; Devon Conway 108.40 v Rassie van der Dussen 116.44.

With a massive series coming up against India, for the blinkered it’s time to stop being angry with the Proteas and instead roar out our support, especially since crowds will be allowed back into the stadiums.

“We did not bat according to plan but we threw everything into it in the field,” Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said after South Africa began their T20 World Cup campaign in disappointing fashion with a five-wicket loss to Australia in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

The comment about the batting is an understatement after the Proteas could only muster together 118 for nine in their 20 overs. As bad as their batting was, they certainly gave it their all with the ball and in the field as they made Australia sweat, the target only being chased down with two balls to spare.

Going into the last four overs, it even looked possible for South Africa to snatch victory at the death as Australia, having just lost two wickets in four balls, had two new batsmen at the crease, needing 36 runs off 24 balls to win.

But those batsmen were Marcus Stoinis (24* off 15) and Matthew Wade (15* off 10) and they fought hard to deny the Proteas with their unbroken stand of 40 off 29 balls.

“It was quite tough in the second half of the game knowing we only posted 118,” Bavuma said. “So I just asked the bowlers to stick with the plan and execute as well as they can, and for the fielders to throw everything into it.

“We wanted to try and build some pressure and I felt we did that. We spoke about being resilient and it was a great effort for the majority of the Australia innings.

“We did not bat according to plan and there’s a lot us batsmen need to improve. The bowlers did quite well, although at the end it was a bit frantic and maybe that’s something we can talk about.

“The fielding was good, barring one or two incidents. But we will obviously be looking to improve by a couple of percentage points in all departments,” Bavuma said.

If there has been one area of the game where South Africa have disappointed in recent times, it would be the batting, and they are relying on better starts from Quinton de Kock and Bavuma so the middle-order are able to come in and dominate.

The Proteas are now in a group with both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who although they had to qualify, are now in groove and playing in conditions that suit them. South Africa play the West Indies next in Dubai on Tuesday and they are going to need their batsmen to stand up quickly, because another defeat would probably mean the end of their challenge.

“Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are two subcontinent teams playing in their own conditions, so that makes the group a lot tougher. We know now that every game we are going to have to bring our best cricket,” Bavuma admitted.

The Proteas have been swearing blind that they will give their all in the T20 World Cup and they certainly did in the field after their batting failed, but it was still not enough to deny Australia victory in the opening match in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Having posted just 118 for nine with the bat, South Africa made Australia sweat as they reached their target with five wickets down and only two balls remaining.

Anrich Nortje, save for a short penultimate delivery that Marcus Stoinis swatted away for a crucial boundary in the 19^th over, was outstanding as he took two for 21 in his four overs.

The four other South African bowlers all backed him superbly, but Marcus Stoinis (24* off 16) and Matthew Wade (15* off 10) added 40 off 29 deliveries to see Australia home and fend off a wobble when they lost two wickets for one run in the 15^th and 16^th overs.

Steven Smith top-scored for Australia with 35 off 34 balls before he fell to a wonderful running boundary catch by Aiden Markram off Nortje.

South Africa were sent in to bat and Temba Bavuma made a great start by driving Mitchell Starc through the covers for two boundaries in the first over.

But Bavuma then hung back in his crease to off-spinner Glenn Maxwell in the second over and was bowled for 12 and Josh Hazlewood (4-1-19-2) then struck two major blows by having Rassie van der Dussen caught behind with his first ball and then bowling Quinton de Kock in his next over.

De Kock made just seven and tried to paddle the paceman fine, but edged the ball on to his thigh pad and then it bounced on to his stumps, with the batsman unaware where it was and unable to knock it away.

From 23 for three, the Proteas were indebted to Markram for his 40 off 36 balls, putting away boundary chances with ease, that gave them an almost defendable total.

Heinrich Klaasen (13) and David Miller (16) hung around for a bit, and Kagiso Rabada landed a couple of good blows at the death in his 19 not out.

But with Pat Cummins (4-0-17-1) and leg-spinner Adam Zampa (4-0-21-2) both excelling, there was no let-up in the pressure on the Proteas.

JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng (23 October) – Louis Albertse notched his first Sunshine Tour title five weeks ago at Mount Edgecombe and is in prime position to add a second on Sunday after a top-class round of six-under-par 66 gave him a one-stroke lead after three days of the Blair Atholl Championship on Saturday.

Albertse’s remarkable round on a blustery day on one of the longest courses on tour included a double-bogey on the par-three 17^th, when he found the large greenside bunker, but that was the sandwich in a pair of birdies on 16 and 18.

An eagle on the par-five fifth gave the winner of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event at Mount Edgecombe some momentum and a pair of birdies took him to the turn on four-under for the day.

The 25-year-old from Dundee then birdied the next two holes as well, soaring up the leaderboard when the second-round frontrunners could not make much headway on a testing day.

“This is a long course, the wind was tricky and I didn’t always get it right, but tough conditions get me going and to shoot six-under was very pleasing,” Albertse said. “There are more scoring opportunities on the front, but the back nine is harder, there are a few really long par-fours and the wind got up. But I still played really nicely.

“It’s hard to get close when you’re hitting five or six irons in, so it helps when your putter gets hot and to have just 24 putts today was very nice.”

Anton Haig had three successive bogeys from the 15^th hole to shoot a level-par 72 and stay two shots back on seven-under, Rupert Kaminski also remaining on his second-round score.

Jayden Schaper was putting together a great round, six-under-par through 10 holes to take the lead, but the highly-rated youngster then suffered a meltdown, dropping five shots in the last four holes as he came home in 42, finishing the third round on five-under for the tournament.

Albertse is being pursued though by two hugely experienced golfers in Ulrich van den Berg and Trevor Fisher Junior, who are both just one stroke behind after shooting 68s on Saturday.

Van den Bergh is an eight-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, although it is more than seven years since he last took the honours, at Euphoria Golf Club, also in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series.

Fisher Junior is in a good run of form with four consecutive top-20 finishes and is a nine-time winner on tour.

A dozen golfers are within four shots of the lead and the Blair Atholl Championship is set for a thrilling conclusion on Sunday.

But Albertse is already in the top-10 of the order of merit in a breakthrough season for the third-year pro, he is high on confidence and good in the wind.

“Winning before changes your frame of mind a bit, you know you can do it, you did it once so you can do it again. It frees up your game a bit and you give yourself more chances,” Albertse said.