Ken Borland

The chance of rain scuppering the Proteas’ chances is apparently just 2% and South Africa will be obvious favourites when they take on the Netherlands in Adelaide in the early hours of Sunday morning with a semifinal place on the line.

It’s the simplest of equations for the Proteas – beat the qualifiers and they are in the semi-finals. A defeat or a washed-out match would mean the winners of the game between Pakistan and Bangladesh would go through. Zimbabwe will also still have a chance of progressing if they beat India, but for that to happen and the Dutch to triumph over the Proteas would be two of the biggest upsets in T20 World Cup history on the same day.

Although captain Temba Bavuma said he was not concerned by the performance of the team in their loss to Pakistan in their previous match, the sloppiness of their display is clearly something they cannot afford to repeat. Especially not when they are on the verge of reaching the knockout rounds.

What was frustrating about their showing was that they did everything right for the first 10 overs, knocking over the Pakistan top-order. But their failure to bowl the right lengths in the closing overs was once again the burr in their saddle, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan lashing quickfire half-centuries as 106 runs were thrashed in the last eight overs.

It was a cold, wet night in Sydney but that did not excuse a messy fielding display, with catches being dropped and straightforward outfielding being duffed.

In terms of the batting, Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw both failed, but Bavuma and Aiden Markram did well enough to have the Proteas on track after the powerplay. But both of them losing their wickets in the same over, shortly before the rain delay, meant the revised DLS target was too stiff for Heinrich Klaasen and Tristan Stubbs.

The Proteas will be hoping the talismanic David Miller has recovered from his back spasm, and they know that winning their next three games will make this event their most memorable world cup campaign ever.

“You can’t afford to give teams momentum and I’m not going to look for excuses for our fielding display,” Bavuma said after the Pakistan loss. “We have been very good up to that game and we have fielded in the wet before.

“But mistakes were made and that was not the type of display you want at this level, especially in this part of the tournament. Maybe the intensity was down a bit, but it was definitely not the standard we pride ourselves on.

“Hopefully we play our best cricket in the next three games, the next one is a must-win and then we have the playoffs,” Bavuma said.

New Springbok Elrigh Louw was apparently as excited as a young kid on his birthday to be back playing with the Bulls, who also welcome back Johan Goosen, making a long-awaited return from injury, for their United Rugby Championship match against Edinburgh at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.

Goosen’s return to play from a long-term injury will be watched keenly by a Springbok management who have something of a flyhalf crisis, but the 30-year-old will be playing fullback on Saturday, while Louw slots in at eighthman for the Bulls.

“Elrigh got hold of me two minutes after he had been told he was being released from the Springbok camp and said he really needs to play this weekend for the Bulls,” coach Jake White said at Loftus Versfeld on Friday.

“He’s young and just loves to play and he’s really looking forward to playing for the Bulls again, after a great hit-out last weekend against Argentina. I’m looking forward to that loose forward combination with him, Marcell Coetzee and Ruan Vermaak.

“We are easing Johan back into play, playing him at fullback gives him the chance to get into the game without having to control everything from Minute One. We’re being conservative.

“We’ll find the right time for him to slot back at flyhalf, but he won’t last 80 minutes. We want to keep him out of the firing line a bit, but I’m sure he’ll try push his way into 10 at times,” White explained.

Both teams are coming off good starts to the URC season, with the Bulls having beaten the Lions 31-15 at Ellis Park and Edinburgh thumping the Dragons 44-6. But White believes his team are going to have to raise the bar against Edinburgh, who he feels are more equipped to fully punish the moments of looseness they showed last weekend. The Lions made some rookie mistakes on attack.

“We can’t be inaccurate against Edinburgh, give them the same opportunities we gave the Lions, because they will be better organised and more difficult to keep out. They are a good side.

“We will have to play well, they’re one of the sides we didn’t beat last season, so we know we have got to be up for it. We weren’t great last week, but we got the job done.

“But Edinburgh have a lot of experience, they are well-coached and they move the ball around, they try to go around you. They have some internationals who have played World Cups, Six Nations every year, so that gives them confidence.

“They are a group that has played together a lot and we cannot underestimate them. They also have four South African props, who I’m sure will be important,” White said.

Bulls team:Johan Goosen, Cornal Hendricks, Lionel Mapoe, David Kriel, Stravino Jacobs, Chris Smith, Zak Burger; Elrigh Louw, Ruan Vermaak, Marcell Coetzee (CAPT), Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. IMPACT -Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Simphiwe Matanzima, Francois Klopper, Janko Swanepoel, Marco van Staden; Embrose Papier, Morne Steyn, Stedman Gans.

As South Africans enjoyed Women’s Day on Tuesday, the country’s golfing fraternity were still celebrating Ashleigh Buhai’s phenomenal Major triumph in the AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield. The Buhais are apparently one of the more well-liked families on the LPGA Tour and the victory, on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff, was a most popular one.

Ashleigh did it the hard way, too. Having dominated the middle section of the tournament with rounds of 65 and 64 on the second and third days, the 33-year-old Buhai had to rebound from giving away a five-shot lead with a triple-bogey on the 15^th hole.

A brilliant bunker shot eventually won her the playoff over tenacious three-time Major champion Chun Ingee, Buhai joining Gary Player and Ernie Els as South Africans who have won Majors at Muirfield. Both were famous for their determination and bunker play, and Buhai is fit to join them as one of the country’s golfing elite.

Sally Little is the only other South African to win a women’s Major (1980, 1988) and Buhai’s triumph is the first at that level since Els claimed the Open crown at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 2012.

When she was still Ashleigh Simon, before she married husband David Buhai, who became a celebrity in his own right at Muirfield, dashing across the 18^th green to embrace his wife, the Johannesburg-born golfer was considered a prodigy when she won the SA Amateur aged 14, the youngest to do so. She then won the SA Open three times in a row, which had not been done in more than a century, before winning her third event on the Ladies European Tour, the Catalonia Masters in 2007.

But it has been tough going for her since she crossed over to the LPGA Tour in 2014. The AIG Women’s Open was her first win on that tour in her 221^st start.

From almost looking like she was destined to become a forgotten talent, like one of those antiques that was so admired but now gathers dust on the mantelpiece, Buhai says she is now playing the best golf of her career.

Hopefully winning the Major title many people predicted for her, will free her up to now go from strength-to-strength and be a major force in the women’s game. At 33, she can certainly look forward to peak years ahead of her.

Marco van Staden may be on his way to Leicester Tigers in July and is apparently not currently on the Springboks’ radar, but Bulls coach Jake White on Friday backed the loose forward’s credentials for the series against the British and Irish Lions.

And he is expecting the 25-year-old to push his case even more on Saturday as an all-Springbok Bulls loose trio takes on the in-form Sharks back row that includes Springbok skipper Siya Kolisi.

White on Friday restored the experienced Arno Botha, the scorer of two tries in the Currie Cup final against the Sharks, to his starting line-up and Van Staden, Botha and Duane Vermeulen versus Kolisi, Henco Venter and Sikhumbuzo Notshe will be a fascinating match-up.

“I’m not in the inner sanctum of the Springboks so I don’t know what they think and I know from being there before that they will have their own plan and players in mind for that. But it would seem highly unlikely that Marco is in their plans because he hasn’t been in the alignment camps. But he’s certainly not negative and he has been great for us.

“Marco is playing really good rugby and even though he’s leaving in July, we’re trying to get as much out of him as we can. He said he didn’t want to leave early, he wanted to finish his contract properly and so all three of our back row on Saturday are Springboks and it’s a great chance against Kolisi and Notshe for them to put their hands up,” White said on Friday.

Van Staden was particularly impressive last weekend against the Stormers, making 22 tackles and being his usual nuisance at the breakdowns.

The selection of Botha means Elrigh Louw, one of the brightest young playing talents at Loftus Versfeld, will be playing off the bench against the Sharks, alongside the likes of Springboks Lizo Gqoboka and Trevor Nyakane. The Bulls will undoubtedly be wanting to take the intensity up a notch in the final quarter.

While White is a big fan of the attributes of the 21-year-old Louw, and is merely giving him “a breather” after putting in two back-to-back 80-minute shifts, the coach also revealed that another player he has the highest hopes for, the 20-year-old front-ranker Jan-Hendrik Wessels, will be hooker this weekend for the Pretoria Rugby Club side, in a change of position for the former Grey College star who has played both loosehead and tighthead prop for the Bulls senior side.

“He’s a good rugby player who can do it all, he played lock for Grey in Standard 9 and then moved to prop in matric. He’s like John Smit, who I always knew would make it, but you want it to happen quicker because he could play 100 Tests. My patience is not running out with him, but he needs to be part of our team in the next six months and I’m trying to find a spot for him,” White said.