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.

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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.

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The big question in the world of rugby this weekend is how quickly the All Blacks can bounce back? I have no doubt they will still be a force in next year’s World Cup, but can they beat the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday?

Coach Ian Foster and captain Sam Cane will be putting their positions on the line on Saturday, desperate for the team as a whole to stand up and play like the All Blacks normally do. As bravely as they have tried to put a positive spin on the situation this week, the pressure and the strain on them has been clear.

Top of their wish-list for Ellis Park will be finding a way to handle the quick-rushing Springboks defence and their blitz-like kick-chase. Fans of the All Blacks from back in the day will be dismayed by how ragged the backline was under pressure last weekend in Nelspruit.

While South Africa’s rush defence was superb, it is not a new tactic and previous New Zealand teams have had the skill to counter it – remember wonderful players like Conrad Smith, Sonny Bill Williams, Dan Carter and Christian Cullen?

Foster said after the Mbombela hiding that it was his team’s best performance of the year, and even on Thursday he said “we have certainly seen the team grow”. Springbok fans will be reminded of a similar state of denial when Allister Coetzee said there were positives to be taken out of their 57-0 thrashing at the hands of the All Blacks in Albany in 2017.

But this is a New Zealand team that seems desperately low on confidence, even their haka at Mbombela was subdued.

Their attack, in the face of outstanding offensive-defence from the Springboks, has been more jalopy than Porsche. But be warned, the All Blacks team that runs out on Saturday will still have a cutting edge if players like Richie Mounga, Caleb Clarke, Rieko Ioane and Aaron Smith find their mojo, along with Beauden Barrett coming off the bench.

It is not too much of a leap to say New Zealand rugby is suffering from a lack of exposure to South African teams following their departure from Super Rugby.

That competition between the Kiwi, Australian and Pacific islands teams is now even more about attacking, free-flowing rugby. Structured defences bringing massive physicality and constantly being in the face of the ball-carriers is not something regularly seen, and I believe the New Zealand backline has been shocked by the lack of time and space they have been given by both Ireland and the Springboks.

They also seem to be struggling to come to terms with the fact that they are no longer world champions, they are ranked only No.5 in the world and are no longer the referees’ pets. They seem astonished that they are not getting more protection from South Africa’s nasty kicking game.

Having been allowed to briefly watch All Blacks training this week, the number of passes going to ground and the number of dropped kicks I saw was startling.

But no-one outside of the camp can really know what is going on in the interior of the team. Are the Crusaders players, so dominant in Super Rugby, really busting a gut for their coach and captain?

Perhaps the minimalist, grimy décor of Ellis Park and surrounds will bring out the warrior spirit of what remains, on paper, a top-class team. Backs to the wall, will it be a case of fight rather than flight? If ever there was a time to throw out the form book, to be so desperate that confidence doesn’t matter, then it is Saturday.

Last weekend was a bizarre armchair ride for the Springboks, on Saturday it could be a whole different ball game.

One of the triumphs of this current Proteas team has been the way they have been able to bounce back from disastrous performances relatively quickly and they will need to do that again on Sunday as they play the English side that tore their batting apart to level the series in Manchester, in the decisive third ODI at Headingley.

South Africa, having impressed with the ball to bowl England out for 201 inside their 29 overs at Old Trafford, were bundled out for just 83 in reply. Having made their highest ever score [333/5] in England in the first ODI, the Proteas then slumped to their joint-worst total against the hosts. Their 83 all out in Nottingham in 2008 and Manchester on Friday night are their second-lowest totals in all ODIs, behind their 69 against Australia in Sydney in 1993.

But South Africa’s two highest run-scorers, Heinrich Klaasen (33) and Dwaine Pretorius (17), were both exuding positive vibes after wasting a good chance to win the series.

“We don’t need to change anything, our blueprints are good and we bowled extremely well. With the bat, if our risks come off on Sunday then it will be a different ball-game,” Klaasen said.

“We are playing good cricket, they just bowled extremely well up front, put us on the back foot and we never recovered. We still believe in our plan.”

Pretorius, who led an outstanding bowling display with career-best figures of four for 36, echoed Klaasen’s view.

“All our options to take a risk with the bat just did not come off, but I’m sure we’ll bounce back. It was our first innings here under lights and that definitely had an impact.

“The next game is a day game and it will be interesting to see if that swing England found is still there. The batting unit has really been on fire and it was just one of those days.

“They mustn’t let it go to their heads, they must stay confident. England put the performance in in this match, and we did in the previous game. So it’s going to be a great game on Sunday.

“What happened is not a massive issue, teams are allowed to play well against you and England did, they outskilled us. But the rub of the green did not go our way and cricket does not always work out perfectly,” Pretorius said.

Alarmingly, both Pretorius and Klaasen said the Proteas had practised hard at the swinging ball, which was their undoing as they crashed to 6 for four, their worst ever start in an ODI, in terms of their total when the fourth wicket fell.

“We have been preparing exactly for that swing, we’ve done a lot of work against the swinging ball,” Pretorius said.

“We trained hard for the left-armers and the ball coming in,” Klaasen assured. “But credit to them, they bowled extremely well, kept their lengths and swung the ball nicely.”

The third ODI starts at 12pm SA time.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar acknowledges that England are currently playing “brave and bold” Test cricket, but he is eager to see whether they can maintain that against the pace and bounce, and two quality spinners, of the South African attack when their Test series gets underway next month.

In a delirious month of four Test matches against New Zealand (3) and India (1), England’s powerful batting line-up has chased down four successive targets of more than 250 in the fourth innings with tremendous gung-ho and aggression, scoring at run-rates of 4.93 chasing 378 against the powerful India attack, and 3.53, 5.98 and 5.44 against the Black Caps.

“England have certainly been quite brave and bold, it’s been exciting and brought extra energy to Test cricket,” Elgar told Saturday Citizen. “I’m sure world cricket has been hit by surprise, especially in the way they chase.

“But it’s been on relatively batting-friendly pitches and conditions have been in their favour. There hasn’t been too much sideways movement and they’ve been allowed to play that game.

“Our seamers will also bring a lot more pace and bounce against them and we have quite a few options to exploit any pitches that do go up-and-down.

“It will be interesting to see the pitches they prepare, knowing the fast bowling arsenal we have, backed up by two quality spinners if need be. I know I would not like to face our attack,” Elgar said.

The left-handed opening batsman has brought a hard edge to the Proteas during his captaincy tenure; the more pressure Elgar is under, the more dogged he becomes. That character is reflected in his team: The current Proteas are hard-working, stubborn and they refuse to let anyone dominate them.

It is typical of Elgar’s personality that he is loving the prospect of England going all-out-attack on them and he is backing the Proteas to be able to handle the onslaught.

“It’s going to be exciting and luckily we have quite a few pace bowlers,” Elgar says. “The basics are still fundamental to Test cricket and patience is one of our strengths. We really enjoy taking it to the last day and strangling teams.

“We have done a lot of graft on our game-plan because there could be a false sense of needing to be drawn into the way England want to play. That would be a massive error and would take our strengths out of the equation. We’ve had a lot of brilliant fast bowlers going to the UK and dominating, so I’m excited about that.

“When one talks about an aggressive or positive style of play, one needs to define exactly what you mean by that. You can still be aggressive but savvy in the way you go about things. There will be times when we need to counter and times we need to absorb, that’s just the nature of Test cricket.

“Whether the way England are playing now has any longevity, I’m not sure. It has paid off for now. It’s certainly going to be a very exciting series,” Elgar said.