Ken Borland

“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.

Playing cricket is extremely dear to pace bowler Lizaad Williams but the 27-year-old admitted on Thursday that he was probably only going to play for another couple of years when he began last season by moving from the Cape Cobras to the Titans.

And now, with the Titans Player of the Year and three other major awards to his name, he is preparing for his first tour with the Proteas as they head off to the West Indies next week. The way Williams has gone from journeyman professional to international cricketer was one of the best stories of the troubled 2020/21 summer.

“I didn’t expect anything when I moved to the Titans, I just wanted the opportunity to play more and I knew a new environment would push me to be better. I’m very thankful to the game and I appreciate it, I’m grateful just to play any game of cricket, even club cricket. But when I came to Centurion, I was in the mental space that I would probably play for just two more years.

“But I did not lose my passion and I wanted to see if I could fulfil my potential, so I gave it my all and things happened way quicker than I imagined, which just shows God is in control and he knows when the right time is. Playing for the Proteas fulfils my lifelong dream, although it was emotional because I wanted my mother to be there on my debut but she passed away in 2019,” Williams told The Citizen on Thursday.

Having left his younger brother in Vredenburg he has quickly become an integral part of a band of brothers at the Titans, winning the Players’ Player of the Year award on Wednesday night as well. And now his travels will take him far across the seas to the Caribbean, where he will be a member of both the Test and T20 squads.

“I know the pitches over there are usually slow and low, but coming from the coast, growing up around Paarl, I’m used to similar conditions. I know on the Highveld you get more reward for fast bowling with nicks to the slips, but it’s almost easier for me on the coast. Your dismissals there are more lbws, caught in the covers or midwicket, it’s hard graft.

“But the beauty of the game is you never know what you’re going to get and South Africa probably has the most differing conditions between all the venues you’ll find anywhere in the world. If you’re playing for the Proteas, if you want to compete with the best, then you have to be able to adapt to any conditions. I train with that mindset – using the new ball, an old ball, a ball that reverses. You can’t just rely on bounce always,” Williams said.

Coach Jake White said he wants to use the Bulls’ traditional strengths but play in a different way after his tenure in Pretoria began in superb fashion with a 49-28 win over the Sharks in their SuperFan Saturday match at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.

The first half display was particularly impressive as the Bulls raced into a 35-0 lead in the first half-hour, blowing away the shellshocked Sharks with five tries. Only the first was from a driving maul and the Bulls backline dazzled as the likes of Kurt-Lee Arendse, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks and Gio Aplon were able to use turnover ball with ruthless efficiency.

While the backline steppers and speedsters stole the show, it was up front, however, where the Bulls’ dominance began. Their scrum was a solid platform and their lineout provided good ball, while the brutal physical power of the pack repeatedly stopped the Sharks from gaining any momentum. The visitors’ ball was also slow from phase play thanks to the effective efforts of the Bulls at the breakdown.

“The scrum was fantastic and the driving maul was strong, the physical dominance was what we wanted. Those things are a massive part of the Bulls’ DNA and we wanted to go back to the things that we know – like Real Madrid or Barcelona, they play the same type of football from academy level. I can wax lyrical, but it was just a wonderful start as a team.

“So obviously I’m very happy with those things that are part of the DNA, but there were a lot of reasons to be happy. We started really physically and accurately, which is what we wanted. We’re trying to play in a different way and we showed good tempo and finished nicely. From a defensive point of view we didn’t allow the Sharks into our 22 for long periods,” White said after his winning start.

The highlight of the game was wing Arendse racing away to score from 80 metres out after the Sharks, hard on attack, had knocked-on in a rolling maul, and White, who had warned of their danger ahead of the match, was full of praise for the Sevens speedsters who tore the Sharks apart.

“It’s the first time that backline has played together and we saw what they can do with Kurt-Lee’s fantastic try. For a first hit-out I was very impressed there were so few mistakes and we kept the ball well. Coming from coaching in Japan, the whole game is about tempo and I was surprised how quickly the guys picked that up. Practically the whole backline comes from Sevens and even Duane Vermeulen [eighthman] played it in Nelspruit.

“It’s the first time I’ve worked with Cornal Hendricks and the fact that the ball went wide so often shows moving him to inside centre worked. He’s not just a basher, he made a couple of line-breaks and was excellent in defence too. It looked like he’s played there for years. I think all the Blitzbokke have such good basics and their coach Neil Powell has done an outstanding job with them,” White said.

Kagiso Rabada, the Proteas’ top strike bowler, admitted on Monday that the previous season was a disappointment, backing up the statistics which show that it was the 25-year-old’s poorest since he began playing Test cricket for South Africa.

The former No.1 bowler in the world played six Tests in the 2019/20 season and took 21 wickets at an average of 32.85, the first time since making his debut in 2015/16 that his average has dipped into the ‘mediocre’ thirties. His previously least successful season was 2017 in England when he took 16 wickets in three Tests at 28.43. His career figures of 197 wickets in 43 Tests at an average of just 22.95 are a truer reflection of the immense talent he possesses.

To make matters worse, Rabada missed the crucial fourth Test against England at the Wanderers, when the Proteas had a chance of levelling the series, having been suspended for once again provocatively celebrating in the dismissed batsman’s face. The Wanderers has been a happy hunting ground for the Central Gauteng Lions star, with 24 wickets in five Tests there, at an average of just 20.54.

Rabada did not play in an ODI over the summer, but his performance in the World Cup last year was a let-down as he took just 11 wickets in nine matches, at an average of 36.09 and an economy rate of 5.08.

“This Covid-19 has affected people from multiple points of view and there are a lot of economic challenges. But I’ve been glad to get the rest, just not in the way it came, because the last five years have gone really quickly and there’s been a huge volume of cricket. So I’ve really, really enjoyed the break, it’s allowed me to think about what I really want, which makes it easier to set goals.

“The past season was disappointing, my stats were okay but I felt really rusty and a bit out of place. But it’s never supposed to be easy at international level and next season I will just take it day-by-day and try and achieve a new set of goals. Whatever I can contribute to the team winning would be great. That means you enjoy your cricket more and I am 150% committed to South African cricket,” Rabada said on Monday.

Rabada seemed less concerned with his overexuberant celebrations that have landed him in trouble with match referees and have certainly distracted from the focus of the Proteas at key times.

“It’s just passion. I’ve identified the things I need to work on and I will address those with the people closest to me and those people who I feel should help me. People are always going to criticise you in some way and it’s important not to take that to heart. You will always have critics no matter what you do and what others say should not affect you.

“It’s up to you what you want to reflect on and it’s got nothing to do with anyone else,” Rabada, who has been helping out the World Health Organisation with his Viral Wellness initiative along with Cameron Scott and Kingdom Kome, said.