Ken Borland

Two bad days in a row for South Africa at Kingsmead has left them needing a miracle to save the first Test against Australia.

The Ball in Play

Oct 12, 2026

The current Proteas team’s capacity to bounce back from poor performances has been impressive, but after two bad days in a row at Kingsmead, it is going to take something miraculous for them to escape from the first Test against Australia with a draw.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

South Africa go into Tuesday’s final day on 102 for four, chasing 421 for the most unlikely of wins, but more realistically they are going to have to not lose six wickets in at least 75 overs of stern examination from the brilliant Australian attack.

Aiden Markram is holding firm on 45 not out after nearly three hours and 115 balls at the crease. He has Wiaan Mulder for company, with Ryan Rickelton (2), David Bedingham (46), Temba Bavuma (1) and Tristan Stubbs (1) all dismissed and out of the equation.

Keshav Maharaj, who put some of those batsmen to shame in the first innings with his gutsy 34, was the unfortunate player who had to front the media. His bowling has not been much to talk about in this Test – overall figures of 29-0-131-2 – so it was batting that he spoke about, with some honesty.

“We’ve lost a couple of soft wickets again if we’re honest. The application that Aiden has shown is what we’re looking for, but a lot of our dismissals have been self-inflicted rather than due to good bowling. Maybe it’s because of the transition from white-ball cricket and you want to feel bat on ball, which has led to our demise.

“We need to zone in and be strong-minded in terms of shot-selection and match awareness plays a big hand too. Whatever happens, we need to dust ourselves off because there’s still a series at stake. What stands out about this team in the last while has been our ability to find a way in difficult situations. We’re focused on our first task, which is to take care of the first hour tomorrow,” Maharaj said.

What is highly likely is that South Africa will once again be tested by an outstanding attack. The famed Australian quartet is relentless, consistent and highly-skilled. And on Monday Matt Renshaw, fresh from scoring 82 to take his match tally to 272, joined Hazlewood, Cummins, Starc and Lyon in being an absolute handful with his part-time off-spinners.

It was if Renshaw was bowling grenades as he took one for 16 in seven overs, Bavuma being his victim. That was the one South African wicket to fall on Monday for which one could safely give all credit to the bowler.

Renshaw landed his off-break on exactly the right length to have the diminutive Bavuma stretching as far forward as he could, but the delivery turned more than expected, and there was good bounce, an inside-edge going on to the pad and then being snaffled by Nic Maddinson, lunging to his left at short-leg.

As Maharaj correctly pointed out, the other dismissals were down to batsman error.

Rickelton edged behind an attempted hook at a brilliantly-directed Hazlewood bouncer in the fourth over of an innings that was meant to be a rearguard battle for survival and not about flashy strokeplay.

Josh Hazlewood gave Bedingham as strenuous an examination as a proctologist, testing him over and over outside off-stump. Bedingham, despite getting on to off-stump, so he must have known where it was, often sparred well away from his body. Hazlewood kept dragging him across his stumps before the inevitable full in-ducker came and he was trapped plumb lbw for a promising, but ultimately unfulfilling 46.

Stubbs was the last wicket to fall, shortly after Bavuma, and he left the field shouting at himself and little wonder. He reached for a full and wide delivery from Pat Cummins, but was he trying to drive or was he defending? It was the sort of indeterminate shot that is often fatal and he too edged behind.

How Australia, starting the day on 33 without loss and already leading by 139, went about their batting on Monday was similarly clinical.

Nic Maddinson has recently survived cancer, so his controversial selection and then making a 33-ball duck in the first innings were brushed off as he played with tremendous freedom in scoring 48 off 38 balls. He hooked his first ball, a Marco Jansen bouncer the previous afternoon, for four and collected five more fours and two sixes on Monday.

Marnus Labuschagne (37) and Steve Smith (27) added 53 for the third wicket. The former Australian captain was on two when he was belted on the helmet by a fired up Anrich Nortje and, while he lashed the fast bowler through the off-side for three fours soon after, he was being tested for concussion while South Africa batted. He had passed all the tests at the ground, but the Australian medical team will apparently continue the testing until satisfied that he has no symptoms.

Renshaw fell when Smith holed out to off-spinner Simon Harmer, and once again went about his business with clarity and composure. He was understandably more aggressive, however, and once again playing spin superbly, with numerous reverse-sweeps, was how he needed just 99 deliveries for his breezy 82.

Alex Carey (24) and Beau Webster (39 not out) both chipped in, and Cummins’ 32 not out off just 12 balls, hitting Harmer for four sixes in five balls was exactly how to emphasise your sheer dominance over a team that has not been nearly sharp enough.



The Proteas Women’s team began their tour of England five weeks ago and their brave draw in the one-off Test seemingly gave them a toe-hold in the multi-format series. But since then it has been a mass of bad fortune and a litany of defeats, which does not augur well for their chances in the Commonwealth Games starting this weekend in Birmingham.

South Africa arrived in England with talk of competing on all fronts, having beaten their hosts in the T20 World Cup earlier in the year before the tables were turned on them in the semifinals. Sadly, there is little doubt that the Proteas have regressed since then, while England have powered on to new heights with a rejuvenated team introducing exciting new blood.

The Proteas have lost both the ODI and T20 series 3-0 since then, but there have been mitigating factors.

Regular captain Dane van Niekerk has still not returned to play since November last year, and key players like fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and all-rounder Chloe Tryon have also struggled with injuries. The shock retirement of Lizelle Lee, on the eve of the ODI series, must have been a damaging mental blow for the team and it is doubtful that it does not speak to some sort of cultural issues within the squad.

And now Marizanne Kapp, who has been turning in massive performances game-after-game, is back home, ruled out of the Commonwealth Games, due to a family emergency in which her brother-in-law suffered serious burns.

While it would be unwise to make a meal of the recent results given these setbacks, questions need to be asked about whether the pipeline is delivering the quality that is needed for South Africa to remain one of the top sides.

It has not helped that senior players like stand-in captain Sune Luus, stalwart batter Mignon du Preez and 33-year-old bowling spearhead Ismail have not enjoyed good tours.

It is turning into a very long tour for the Proteas Women and they need to pull things together with haste to ensure the wheels don’t come off properly in the Commonwealth Games. Coach Hilton Moreeng will need all his powers of inspiration to put this squad back together again.

The life of a professional cricketer on tour seems rather nice – practise for two or three hours, go for a massage, and then you have the rest of the day off apart from maybe an evening meeting. But in these days of Covid bubbles, the monotony of that treadmill and the lack of meaningful human contact can lead to boredom, frustration and bad mental spaces.

Proteas all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius is a husband and father of a little boy and he spoke on Sunday of some of the difficulties of being in quarantine in Sri Lanka ahead of their limited-overs series which starts next week.

“We have to train in smaller groups because of Covid quarantine, so you lose a bit of that connection. And we also have separate eating areas so you miss that team environment. But we are strong enough to get past that, it will only be for three or four more sessions. I think it’s actually more challenging for the coaches because instead of only being out there for two or three hours, it has now become five or six hours.

“The most challenging and disappointing part of it is not being able to see the country. I’ve always wanted to see Sri Lanka, which I’ve heard is a beautiful country, so that’s the toughest part. You sit in your room a lot trying to figure out how to stay busy, but also to relax because you can’t stay switched on all the time.

“You spend so much time alone that you have to make sure you’re not just thinking about cricket because you want to be mentally fresh. And it’s even more difficult not having our families with us. Luckily I have a wonderful wife and my boytjie is a legend. I chat to him on Google Duo that has effects like spaceships and funny faces.

“We keep each other busy, although he misses me too much to actually see me so I chat to him through a little rhino he was given at the World Cup by the hotel we stayed in. He puts it in my bag and I chat to him through that rhino called ‘Westin’, and he has also put a soft toy in my bag that I will be chatting through with him,” Pretorius said.

In terms of the actual cricket, Pretorius says the pitches at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, where all three ODIs and three T20s will be played, will be lowish scoring and the outfields are not particularly quick either.

“The pitches will be slow and it looks like the outfields will be too. I think spin and changes of pace will play a massive role and there won’t be much swing. In terms of batting, it’s about playing good cricket shots, hitting hard and hitting the spaces,” Pretorius said.

There was bad news on Tuesday for those critics who are for some reason disappointed in the spectacle provided by the series between South Africa and the British and Irish Lions because Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber said their next opponents – Argentina – are a side that is very adept at closing down the game as well.

The magnitude of the occasion typically led to three arm-wrestles, beautifully intense and gripping in their own way, between the Springboks and the Lions, who both favoured fairly conservative game-plans. Nienaber warned that playing against Argentina is going to be far from a free-for-all with the shackles released.

“Argentina are a tough team to play against, they have the ability to disrupt your flow as a team, they are really good at that. They have good plans that can really upset you. They are tactically astute and smart, they have a phenomenal defence and a great kicking game. They can also attack and score from turnovers, they have very quick wings and can create some magic.

“They are physical, defensively well-organised and willing to put their heads in dark places. They are well-balanced across the board, quality players playing for each other. Since the Rugby World Cup they have played seven Tests, six of them against big countries like New Zealand, Wales and Australia, and their only loss was to the All Blacks. Their world ranking [7^th] does not reflect how good they are,” Nienaber said on Tuesday.

While those who are bitter over the Springboks’ success have decried the quality of rugby played in the Lions series, Nienaber, enjoying the sweet taste of victory, said rugby had been the winner.

“It was tight! We’re very grateful for the series victory, the tour is such a special thing, happening only once over 12 years, and it could have gone both ways. It was a grind, but it’s the second biggest event in rugby after the World Cup. It was a humdinger of a series, which is what you want. In my opinion, rugby was the winner and there was only three points separating the teams at the end.

“The beauty of rugby is that there are different styles of playing, it would be unbelievably boring if we all played the same way. That means there are different tactics, like we had to employ at the World Cup going from Japan to Wales to England as opponents in the knockouts. The style teams play is determined by the athletic attributes of their players, you create a game-plan to amplify those characteristics,” Nienaber pointed out.