Ken Borland

You know you have made an impression on the cricket field when AB de Villiers tweets about how excited he is to watch you bat, Ravi Shastri says you remind him of his childhood hero and Ian Chappell wonders why you weren’t playing Test cricket earlier.

Keegan Petersen was so impressive in South Africa’s Test triumph over India, taking the Man of the Series award for his 276 runs at an average of 46, scoring 41 more runs than anyone else, that the world has taken notice of the new number three’s performance against the top-ranked side.

De Villiers said “Keegan Petersen CAN play! I’m very excited with the composure, skill and technique I’ve seen against one of the best attacks in the world.”

Shastri, India’s former captain and the coach who made them a dominant force before he stepped down last year, called Petersen “a great world player in the making. My childhood hero Gundappa Viswanath comes to mind.”

Viswanath played 91 Tests for India and scored 6080 runs at an average of 41.93 between 1969 and 1983. He was a wristy stylist who was at his best when the conditions were at their toughest.

Former Australian captain Chappell, in his column for CricInfo, wondrered where Petersen has been all this time. “He has all the requirements of a Test No. 3, including a wide range of shots that he is prepared to play, plus a solid defence. So why is he only playing now?” he asked.

Out of the public eye, Petersen’s new-found fame has led to him being swamped with well-wishers, especially in his home town of Paarl, where he went with his family after the Test series.

“I don’t think my phone has ever been as busy as it has been for the last few days,” Petersen told The Citizen. “To have such legends talking about you, anything they say is really nice.

“It’s been a bit of a star-struck few days. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. My whole family and friends came to see me in Paarl, but I’m not complaining.

“It is their honour too. I am a product of my community and I owe a lot to them,” Petersen said.

Educated at New Orleans Secondary School, Petersen popped into his old school last week as the guest of honour to welcome the new pupils. It’s a close-knit school, well-known for its family values as much as the many sports stars they have produced.

And, in terms of his life outside of cricket, Petersen makes it clear that family is his priority.

“All my time outside of cricket goes to my family, my wife and three kids – two boys and a girl – because I’m away enough with cricket,” Petersen said.

“We enjoy watching movies, Netflix, having a braai or potjiekos. I’m not very outgoing but we enjoy going to the beach.”

Speaking of family, Petersen credits his father, Dirkie, as having been the major influence on his cricketing career. Currently a teacher at New Orleans SS, Petersen senior was a talented all-round sportsman playing fullback for the SA Tertiary Institutes rugby team and cricket for Paarl, alongside Adrian Kuiper and Marais Erasmus.

“He’s always been there through my career and probably knows my game better than I do,” Petersen junior said. “I don’t think he can throw anymore because he’s thrown me so many balls.

“I’m so grateful to him. He was a wicketkeeper/batsman, a decent player, but I only watched him at the back end of his career in club cricket.”

The 28-year-old Petersen said there were plenty of nerves to get over during the Test series against India. But he’s the sort of character who is comfortable pushing himself and rising to challenges.

He was a prolific scorer for Boland after making his debut for them in 2011/12, but struggled to gain a regular starting place in a powerful Cape Cobras batting line-up. So he moved to Bloemfontein for greater opportunity and flourished for the Knights. Last season he moved to the Dolphins – “to upskill myself in a new challenge on turning pitches” – and helped them to the four-day title.

Those butterflies were flying in perfect formation by the end of the Test series as any questions over Petersen’s place in the Proteas team were firmly erased.

Keegan Petersen had the ball whizzing past his ears and edges of his bat enough times on Tuesday to know just how tough it is going to be for the South African batsmen to take on the Indian attack in the second innings of the second Test at the Wanderers, which means a quick end to the tourists’ innings on Wednesday will be crucial.

Petersen top-scored for the Proteas with a determined but positive 62 in their innings of 229 which gave them just a 27-run lead. India had reached 85/2 at stumps to go into the third day 58 runs ahead.

“It’s a tough pitch and batting is definitely not going to get easier. And we’re up against a top-quality attack that keeps you on your toes,” Petersen said after his maiden Test half-century in his sixth innings.

“It’s a pitch which you’re never really in on and the session this morning was the toughest. The Indian seamers came out guns blazing and it was a very challenging two hours.

“They were spot-on with both their execution and their strategies, and the pitch is a bit tricky too. We haven’t yet put a number to what we’d like to chase, but anything under 200 I think we can get.

“But it’s a difficult bowling attack to come up against and we’ll have to get stuck in again. I’m not sure what the right way to bat is, the attacking option worked out for a couple of guys,” Petersen said.

The 28-year-old from Paarl has been deposited in the deep end at No.3 in his brief Test career which began in the West Indies last June and he once again came to the crease at the Wanderers inside the first five overs, as he has done in all of his Proteas innings thus far.

While there has been talk of him dropping down the order so a more experienced batsman can come in first drop, Petersen brushed that off on Tuesday by saying he will bat “wherever”.

Clearly a mentally tough individual, he was more upset that he did not go on to a bigger score, having done so much hard work in spending nearly three hours at the crease.

“I’m happy but I wish I had done more,” Petersen said. “I wish I had kicked on and that is the one department we need to improve on as a batting unit.

“You can’t be overly aggressive, but you just try and pounce on the bad ball when it comes. But there weren’t many of those.

“I’m completely confident that I will get to the milestone of a Test century, I thought today was going to be the day. It was not to be, but we will get there,” said the KZN Dolphins batsman whose solid technique and impressive strokeplaying ability was laid down in his childhood years by father Dirkie, his only real coach growing up.

“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.

There will be howls of dismay again over how badly the Proteas bat against spin following their capitulation to 125 all out and defeat by 78 runs to Sri Lanka in the third and decisive ODI in Colombo on Tuesday, but it was seam bowler Dushmantha Chameera who actually had a massive say in the series-clinching win for the home side.

Chameera first of all scored a crucial 29 runs after coming in at 154 for seven to lift Sri Lanka to 203 for nine in their 50 overs, and give them belief that they had a total they could defend on a turning pitch.

Given how South Africa’s spinners had dominated, it was always going to be the Sri Lankan slow bowlers who were going to be the chief risk for the Proteas batsmen.

But it was Chameera who made two massive strikes up front with the new ball to immediately undermine the run-chase. The lithe fast bower bowled Reeza Hendricks (1) through the gate with a cracking delivery and then, in his next over, had key man Rassie van der Dussen (5) superbly caught by a diving Kamindu Mendis at short midwicket.

And then it was easy for the Sri Lankan spinners to keep kicking the Proteas batsmen in the shins as they took full advantage of a pitch that provided sometimes vicious turn.

From 19 for three, Heinrich Klaasen lifted them to 45 without further loss with a positive approach, but then debutant Maheesh Theeksana, a mystery off-spinner in the same mould as Ajantha Mendis, cut the legs off the innings with his carom balls.

He removed opener Janneman Malan (18) and then Klaasen fell for 22 when he got his pads in the way of a delivery that turned like a leg-break.

South Africa were 54 for six and doomed.

They were eventually bowled out in just 30 overs as Theeksana finished with four for 37, Chameera took two for 16 and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga claimed two for 32.

South Africa, who had lost the toss, had actually bowled really well as stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj employed a battalion of spinners.

Sri Lanka struggled throughout with Dhananjaya de Silva (31) and the man of the series Charith Asalanka (47) the only batsmen to prosper for a while.

But Chameera made sure the last three wickets added 49 runs as the Proteas again faltered when it came to closing out an innings in the field.

Kagiso Rabada was out of sorts as he went wicketless in eight overs and conceded 46 runs, while Andile Phehlukwayo and Wiaan Mulder only bowled one over each.

For the rest it was all spin. Slow left-armers Maharaj (10-0-38-3) and George Linde (10-1-32-2) tied up the batsmen superbly, Tabraiz Shamsi nipped out a couple of batsmen and even Aiden Markam got through a full quota of 10 overs, conceding only 41 runs and dismissing Dhananjaya.