Ken Borland

South African cricket is under enormous pressure at the moment, with the Proteas battling to keep their heads above water in Australia at the height of summer in a Test series that enjoys considerable profile due to it being between the two sides at number one and two in the World Test Championship.

The second Test at the MCG from Boxing Day, one of the great occasions in the game, is do-or-die for the Proteas in terms of staying alive in the series; but it also offers them the chance to go into 2023 on a much-needed positive note.

There can be no doubt that the South African cricket team have underperformed in 2022. The Test format has actually been their strongest, which is why they are still in contention to play in next year’s World Test Championship final, despite having one of the weakest batting line-ups.

They began 2022 by sealing a memorable series win over India, where the batsmen showed true guts and the bowlers were superb in home conditions. Their inconsistency then came to the fore in New Zealand with an abysmal performance in the first Test, but then a brilliant effort in the second to draw the series on the home turf of the reigning WTC champions.

Bangladesh were efficiently dispatched by a Proteas team missing their IPL stars, but spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer came to the fore, and a thumping innings win over England at Lord’s followed to really raise expectations.

But then the batting was exposed and heavy defeats followed at Old Trafford and the Oval. The Gabba massacre was a continuation of that trend.

The same batting woes often inflicted the T20 side. There were times when the Proteas looked genuine T20 World Cup contenders, like when they beat India away twice in a row in June or won the series in England. Even at the World Cup in Australia, winning a crunch game against India in Perth gave renewed hope; but they then lost to Pakistan and, most humiliatingly, to the Netherlands when just one more win would have seen them through to the semi-finals.

South Africa’s ODI form has been mediocre. The highlight of the last year was the 3-0 series win over India in the Cape, but unfortunately that did not qualify for World Cup qualification points. Their record for the rest of the year in ODIs was three wins and five losses, including a shock home series defeat to Bangladesh.

The Proteas are now struggling to automatically qualify for next year’s 50-over World Cup, especially since they are forfeiting their series in Australia, which was meant to follow the Tests, to concentrate on the SA20 competition, a desperate bid to rescue Cricket South Africa’s finances.

Those same dismal finances are the reason the Proteas are going to be desperately under-exposed at Test level over the next few years, so how can we honestly expect them (especially the batsmen) to get better in that arena? The Australia tour is the last three-Test series South Africa will play until September 2026!

The lack of attention CSA is giving to red-ball cricket is an immense frustration. There are many coaches who believe having a foundation in the skills of long-format cricket actually makes better limited-overs players, so we should not be surprised that the malaise spreads to the ODI and T20 performances.

And it’s not just the Proteas who aren’t getting enough red-ball cricket. Our domestic stars, the internationals of the future, play just seven four-day games the whole season. With the inevitable weather interventions and innings wins, some batsmen will only get 10 visits to the crease all summer.

And then there is the quality of that cricket. It is really annoying that the Proteas play such scant regard to ‘paying it back’ to the system that grew them and play so infrequently, even right before a major series like the current one in Australia.

I have no doubt our batsmen’s woes can be directly attributed to the fact their games are not sufficiently honed at domestic level. They are seldom really challenged from both ends during a game, whereas at international level they will face two fast bowlers roaring in at 140km/h or a top-quality spinner almost the whole time.

Unless these basic building blocks are fixed, we can stand by for another very frustrating year.

October has not been a great month for Proteas captain Temba Bavuma as he has scored just 11 runs in three innings and has been battling with illness. But he has to now lead by example and not only score brisk runs up front but also steer his team through a massive last week of the month in which they play Zimbabwe on Monday, followed by Bangladesh (Thursday) and India (Sunday).

Bavuma has been knocked over in the first powerplay in five of his seven T20 Internationals this year, so there will be plenty on his mind as he opens the batting in what could well be seamer-friendly conditions in Hobart on Monday. He admitted that there are a few “conversations in his head”, but one thing we do know about Bavuma is that he is a tremendously tenacious character and he will be fighting hard at the Bellerive Oval.

“I feel good, I’ve gotten over that sickness in India and I’ve had a couple of net sessions,” Bavuma said on Sunday. “The pressure is not unique to me, all international players have to deal with it.

“Yes, as captain, it is a lot more blown up, all eyes are on you and there’s a lot more critique of your performance and how you lead. It comes with the responsibility, and I won’t shy away from it.

“I will face up to it as honourably and with as much gratitude as I can. I’m aware of the conversations in my head regarding my game and how I’m going to lead.

“But I’m not aware of any outside conversations, those are not discussed within the team. Our focus is on knowing what we want to do and how to do it, anything else is for other ears.” The only selection issues then, with the dominating Reeza Hendricks out in the cold, will be whether South Africa play two spinners or one, and whether their all-rounder will be Wayne Parnell or Marco Jansen.

The Proteas, ranked fourth in T20s to Zimbabwe’s 11^th and Bangladesh’s ninth, will go into their first two World Cup matches as favourites. They learned from last year’s event, in which they lost just one match but were edged out of the semi-finals on nett run-rate, that once they get the upperhand, there can be no hesitation in ruthlessly going for the jugular.

“Our biggest takeway from the previous World Cup was that every game matters, you have to perform as well as you can in every match, and make sure you keep the pulse of the run-rate,” Bavuma admitted.

“If you have the opportunity to win really well then you have to make sure you take it. We’ll be looking to execute as well as we can against Zimbabwe. There’s no time to ease into the tournament, it is so important to start well.

“It’s going to be challenging up front against the new ball, with the bowlers targeting off-stump. We have to be circumspect but obviously with the right intensity to put pressure on the bowlers,” Bavuma said.

The Bulls may have scored as early as the second minute, but for more than an hour they then struggled to go around or get through a ferocious Lions defence, eventually battling to a 22-9 win in their Rainbow Cup match at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night.

The Bulls began superbly, retaining possession from the kickoff for two minutes before flyhalf Chris Smith jinked and slipped though some tackles to score the opening try. Thereafter, however, the Bulls found themselves in a tremendous tussle, struggling to cope with the Lions’ line-speed in defence and their aggressive targeting of the breakdowns.

Only once in the whole game was there a short kick over the top of the rapidly advancing Lions defence and it nearly resulted in centre Cornal Hendricks scoring. But the Bulls did not use that tactic or the grubber nearly enough. And for all their possession, the Lions were dominant at the breakdowns so it almost always came to nothing.

Smith added a penalty to the conversion of his try and Lions flyhalf Fred Zeilinga kicked two penalties as the Bulls went into halftime 10-6 ahead. The Lions made a good start to the second half, allowing Zeilinga to close the gap to just one point with another penalty in the  44^th minute.

The final quarter belonged to the Bulls though as they camped in the Lions half. After 10 minutes in the 22 they eventually broke through, helped by EW Viljoen’s yellow card for a deliberate knock-on, when replacement prop Lizo Gqoboka won a turnover to win a penalty, and then produced a mini-break before offloading to substitute scrumhalf Zak Burger to race over under the poles for the matchwinning try.

The never-say-die Lions were better than the final scoreline suggested, conceding a try right at the death as flank Elrigh Louw powered through several tackles to score. Hendricks had fought hard on the gainline in the build-up, before offloading to Burger, who darted well and then found Louw with a neat offload.

But the Bulls will point to having three tries disallowed by the TMO and the soft underfoot conditions as having put paid to their more ambitious plans.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Chris Smith, Zak Burger, Elrigh Louw. Conversions – Smith, Morne Steyn. Penalty – Smith.

Lions: Penalties – Fred Zeilinga (3).

Christiaan Basson is one of the more consistent performers on the Sunshine Tour so his blistering eight-under-par 64 to claim the lead in the first round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek is not a total shock, but the 33-year-old from Cape Town is battling his own mediocre record in co-sanctioned events with the European Tour.

Basson has played in 30 previous European Tour tournaments, making the cut in just 14 of them, with just a single top-10 finish, in the 2013 South African Open at Glendower. He has gone low in the first round a few times in co-sanctioned events, including last year’s Alfred Dunhill Championship when he opened with a pair of 69s before fading on the weekend with rounds of 74 and 75.

“It’s a funny game and you never know when you’re going to get it right, so when you get it going you must capitalise on it. I think I need to stick with the same game plan – I just tried to hit fairways and tried to play for the right areas of the greens – it worked well, so why change it?” Basson said after his brilliant round at the prestigious course alongside the Crocodile River.

Basson is three shots ahead of the chasing pack on five-under-par which includes three-time champion Charl Schwartzel.

Schwartzel could not finish his round due to a thunderstorm that stopped play at 5.26pm on Thursday, but is looking in ominous form as he collected seven birdies through 17 holes, and missed a couple of makeable putts as well.

Mark Williams of Zimbabwe and Englishman Matt Ford, both of whom collected eagles – on the par-four fourth and par-five 13^th holes respectively- are the other golfers tied for second.

Niclas Fasth of Sweden, playing his 500^th European Tour event (the 31^st golfer to reach the mark) and Joost Luiten of the Netherlands are amongst the large group of golfers on four-under-par, while 2008 champion Richard Sterne is on three-under after 17 holes.

Another former champion, Pablo Martin, the winner of back-to-back titles in 2009/10, was rapidly climbing up the leaderboard as he moved to six-under-par through 15 holes. The Spaniard had started on the 10^th, but by the time he walked off the ninth green he was practically weeping as he closed with three successive bogeys to drop down into the group tied for 12^th.

Englishman Jeff Inglis had a similar story, starting with five successive birdies but then dropping two shots at the par-four eighth and picking up further bogeys at the 13^th, 16^th and 17^th holes to also finish on three-under.

Louis Oosthuizen started on the 10^th and birdied the par-four first hole to go to five-under-par and a share of the lead, but was then derailed by a double-bogey seven on the second, eventually finishing on a two-under-par 70, while defending champion Branden Grace was a stroke further back.