Ken Borland

Having won the first match at Chester-le-Street, South Africa are one win away from clinching their first 50-over series triumph in England since 1998 as they go into the second ODI at Old Trafford on Friday, but being on the verge of claiming a trophy can bring challenges of its own.

In the five-match T20 series in India last month, the Proteas pulled off two impressive wins chasing in Delhi and Cuttack, but then lost the next two matches as conditions became more typically subcontinental. The decider in Bengaluru was washed out.

In their previous ODI series, they lost the deciding match against Bangladesh at Centurion for a shock series defeat.

But before that, their previous bilateral series in both formats saw them whitewash India 3-0 in home ODIs in January and Sri Lanka 3-0 in T20s in Colombo last September.

“In India we said the third game was our final,” fast bowler Anrich Nortje said on Thursday, “but we didn’t get it done. So the next game too was a final and the same thing happened, we didn’t pull it through.

“We’ve definitely taken some learnings from that. We can’t read too much into the past and we need to assess conditions as quickly as possible.

“We must do what we do well and not worry about England’s strategy, even though they have very good batsmen,” Nortje said.

South Africa used the big field at the Riverside Stadium, and a baking pitch that became harder to bat on, to their advantage in the first ODI, and Old Trafford, one of England’s grand old venues, also has a large outfield.

That will mean the Proteas spinners – Keshav Maharaj, Tabraiz Shamsi and Aiden Markram – will again be key players and England will want to shake off the impression that they played them a bit like Geoff Boycott’s grandmother with her proverbial stick of rhubarb.

All-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo has been ruled out of the series due to his concussion and is likely to be replaced by Dwaine Pretorius, but fast men Nortje and Lungi Ngidi gave the spinners great backing earlier this week.

Of the last 10 ODIs at Old Trafford, eight have been won by the team batting first.

“Hopefully we win the toss if that’s the case,” Nortje laughed. “Our spinners have really been crucial for us, they’ve done a great job in the middle overs and Kesh at the start too.

“It’s nothing fancy in terms of our attack, we all just contribute our little bits. We’ve got to adapt, and if there’s a bit in the pitch then you can be boring as a bowler, just try hit the top of off-stump.

“But if it’s flat and the batsmen are attacking, then you’re trying bouncers, yorkers, slower balls. We hear conditions will be better than the last venue, with more bounce and a bit more in it for batting and bowling,” Nortje said.

The game starts at 2pm SA time.

Captain Phepsi Buthelezi suffered a head knock against Griquas and will miss the Sharks’ Currie Cup game against Western Province in Cape Town on Wednesday, but coach Sean Everitt is confident the eighthman will have recovered in time to join the squad in Johannesburg as they go into lockdown ahead of their match against the British and Irish Lions on July 7 at Ellis Park.

The focus of the Sharks is facing a testing time because they have the crucial match against Western Province to concentrate on, but also the excitement of the game against the British and Irish Lions and all the Covid protocol palaver that goes with that fixture.

“I presume Phepsi will be ready for the Lions, he feels 100% but just didn’t pass all his tests. So he’s nearly there and it wasn’t a serious concussion. Hopefully he’ll be able to join us on Friday when we fly to Johannesburg and go into a six-day quarantine. We are allowed to train on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and we’ll have PCR tests on Friday, Monday and Wednesday before the game.

“We’ve had no clarification yet on our kickoff time in Cape Town, but I presume it will be moved from 7pm, but that will have no impact on our preparation. Our message to the players this morning was that we need to be squeaky clean and we would like them to treat it as if they are in self-isolation, just coming to the stadium and going home. Otherwise they could miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime against the Lions,” Everitt said on Monday.

The weather in Cape Town is expected to be poor, so it is excellent news for the Sharks that the booming boot of flyhalf Curwin Bosch is back.

“It’s great to have Curwin back. Everyone goes through disappointments in sport, it’s not the first time he’s had it and he’s over what happened with the Springboks. But he’ll want to make sure he puts in a good performance to show Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber that he can step up if needed. He has a huge boot and that could be a deciding factor.

“It’s beautiful weather in Durban today – 28⁰ – so it’s going to be a bit of a change in Cape Town. I see the Junior Boks were playing in torrential rain on a muddy pitch in Stellenbosch, but we have the game-plan for those conditions and we are able to do the kicking game if needed. But we don’t want to bring a one-dimensional approach either,” Everitt said.

Sharks team: Manie Libbok, Werner Kok, Jeremy Ward (c), Marius Louw, Thaakir Abrahams, Curwin Bosch, Jaden Hendrikse, Mpilo Gumede, Thembelani Bholi, James Venter, Hyron Andrews, Ruben van Heerden, Khutha Mchunu, Fez Mbatha, Khwezi Mona. Bench – Dan Jooste, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Wiehahn Herbst, JJ van der Mescht, Reniel Hugo, Dylan Richardson, Grant Williams, Boeta Chamberlain.