Ken Borland

For Rassie van der Dussen, every innings is a new instalment of his career, a new situation to adapt to, and he did it to perfection at Boland Park in Paarl on Wednesday as his unbeaten century led South Africa to an impressive 31-run win over India in the first ODI.

Van der Dussen came to the crease in the 18^th over when the Proteas were struggling on 68/3. Together with his captain Temba Bavuma, who was busy getting himself in and would go big in scoring a brilliant century of his own, they added a magnificent 204 off just 190 deliveries, the best ever fourth-wicket stand for South Africa against India.

Van der Dussen’s commanding 129 not out off just 96 balls means he has now scored 1178 runs in his 30 ODIs at an extraordinary average of 73.62. What marked this innings out was how fluently he played right from the start of his innings, on a slow and tricky pitch that made scoring difficult.

“The pitch was taking a bit of turn and I knew I would have to go to my sweeps and reverse-sweeps fairly early,” Van der Dussen said after his career-best ODI score. “If I let the spinners settle on a slow pitch then it would not be easy to go down the ground.

“I tried to put the pressure back on them, and Temba and I were constantly reminding each other to keep the intensity high. Always as a batsman, especially in the middle-order, I try and read the situation.

“I’m trying to make a good score that will win the match, I have no other reference. I appreciate it may look like something else for those outside. Today I knew that if I allowed the spinners to settle then they would get into a good rhythm and it would be very difficult to win.

“So I tried to reverse the pressure with low-risk boundary options. You have to be able to go to those skills whether it’s your first ball or 100^th ball,” Van der Dussen said.

South African teams have historically struggled against the turning ball and both Indian spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, have prospered against them in the past. But the way Van der Dussen and Bavuma played them on Wednesday suggests all is okay now on that front.

“Conditions in Paarl generally suit the spinners because there’s not a lot of pace,” Van der Dussen added. “But the way we’ve upskilled ourselves has allowed us to use these game-plans against spin.

“It started in the West Indies last year and then in Sri Lanka, while we knew spin would play a big role at the T20 World Cup. So it’s been a process that has been going on for more than a year.

“In the past we came short against spin, but we identified it as a weakness and credit to Mark Boucher and Justin Sammons [batting consultant] for giving us the skills to apply out there and execute in the middle,” Van der Dussen said.

Opening batsman Lokesh Rahul was the dominant figure on the opening day of the first Test between South Africa and India at Centurion on Sunday, whether it was in partnership with Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli or Ajinkya Rahane, his unbeaten century steering the tourists to 272/3 at stumps.

Rahul went to stumps on 122 not out, showing great patience at the start as he took 21 deliveries to get off the mark, before gradually asserting himself and establishing his command over the bowling.

It was the sort of statement innings captain Kohli would have desired on the opening day of the series. Having won the toss, India made the right decision to bat first, even though it felt like a bowler’s morning: cool temperatures and a greenish tinge to the pitch.

But an underdone Proteas attack was either too full or too straight and Rahul and Agarwal batted brilliantly to put on 117 for the first wicket.

Lungi Ngidi, whose readiness for this Test was in doubt given he had only bowled seven competitive overs since July as well as having had a bout of Covid, made an understandably uncertain start with the new ball. But after lunch he had the masterstroke of using off-cutters on a dampish pitch and removed Agarwal (60) and Cheteshwar Pujara (0) with successive balls.

Agarwal was struck above the roll and the lbw appeal was turned down, but South Africa reviewed and DRS showed the delivery to be hitting the top of leg stump. Agarwal clearly did not agree, and many others were in agreement with umpire Marais Erasmus’s on-field decision of not out.

That disappointment turned to shock for India as Pujara inside-edged his first ball on to his thigh-pad, Keegan Petersen moving sharply from backward short-leg to take the catch.

But Kohli helped restore the equilibrium as he and Rahul added 82 for the third wicket. Kohli looked in fine touch as he went to 35, before Ngidi once again came up with a cunning plan to unseat the Indian captain. It was a speculative full and wide away-swinger, but Kohli went for the drive and edged it to first slip.

With the new ball less than a dozen overs away, Rahane came to the crease. The 33-year-old’s place in the middle-order has been in serious doubt, but he played with no sense of hesitancy or feeling pressure as he strode to 40 not out by the close, adding 73 for the fourth wicket with Rahul.

South Africa have not been helped by the absence of Anrich Nortje nor the recent bout of Covid suffered by Duanne Olivier. According to sources close to the team, team management were not convinced Olivier’s bowling loads since then have been enough to get him through a five-day Test.

Young Marco Jansen came in for his debut and endured a tough day with figures of 17-4-61-0.

But the Proteas will be thrilled with Ngidi’s contribution on Sunday, as he ended with three for 45 in 17 overs. He should only get better in this series.

The wonderfully aggressive batting of the Free State Knights, led by Rilee Rossouw’s fiery century and the undimmed class of Farhaan Behardien, took them into the semi-finals of the CSA Provincial T20 Knockout as they beat Western Province by just four runs in Kimberley on Tuesday.

Rossouw added 52 off 32 balls with Jacques Snyman (32) for the second wicket, but when Behardien (57 off 29) came to the crease, the Knights really cut loose as 130 runs were plundered off just 66 balls.

Prodigal son Rossouw reached his fabulous century and then hit the last two balls of the innings off fast bowler Nandre Burger for six to finish with 112 not out off just 55 deliveries, allowing Free State to post a massive 223 for three.

Western Province looked well out of the running as they stumbled to 90 for four at the halfway stage, but captain Wayne Parnell was in belligerent mood and kept them in the battle with the innings of his life.

The left-hander battered 80 not out off just 29 balls and took Migael Pretorius for 24 off the last over as Western Province astonishingly finished just one big blow short.

In the other quarterfinal, Division II SWD would like to allege they are not far off the standard of the first division, but their fielding was appalling and four batsmen were run out as they lost to Northerns Titans.

Donovan Ferreira, an uncontracted 23-year-old, was the mainstay of the Northerns total of 192 for five, finishing with a feisty 55 not out off 29 balls, suggesting he might be the long-awaited replacement for Behardien.

Theunis de Bruyn showed his class at the top of the order with 48 off 33 deliveries, and Sibonelo Makhanya (26 off 18) and Aya Gqamane (21* off 10) supported Ferreira well.

SWD looked in the game while Leus du Plooy was blasting 55 off 33 balls, he and Hanno Kotze putting on 82 off 53 balls for the first wicket.

But three wickets fell in the ninth over of the innings, bowled by cunning left-arm spinner and skipper Aaron Phangiso, including Du Plooy being run out by a fine piece of fielding by Simon Harmer.

The rest of the SWD batting imploded, 10 wickets falling for just 56 runs in 11.4 overs, as the Northerns spinners held sway.

Proteas opener Janneman Malan said his success in scoring a brilliant century against Sri Lanka at the weekend was thanks to a little help from his friends.

Malan’s brilliantly composed 121 off 135 balls led South Africa to a series-levelling 67-run win in Colombo, with the visitors posting a commanding 283 for six as their top-order dovetailed superbly, supporting him in successive partnerships of 43, 96, 38 and 86. Heinrich Klaasen then provided the explosive finish with his impressive 43 off 27 balls.

“The batting unit did really well, the coaches have set us realistic goals and expectations and we know that if we hit those then we have a good chance of winning. Reeza Hendricks’ 51 was very valuable, he scored at a run-a-ball, and Heinrich deserves credit as well. And just watching Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen with the way they go about things, our batting is in a good space.

“Particularly against spin, we’ve seen the sweep is very effective, you can trust the bounce here and the straight bat tends to get beaten by the turn. And we also bowled really well. The bowlers didn’t do too badly in the first game, but maybe we underestimated how full we can go and the Sri Lankan batsmen like to go square,” Malan said after his man of the match performance.

The arrival of the 25-year-od in the ODI team has been nothing short of incredible. Malan has now scored three hundreds and two fifties n his eight ODI innings. He has scored a world-record 627 runs in his first eight innings, and that includes a first-ball duck on debut!

It is obvious that Malan’s uncomplicated style and unfazed approach has stood him in good stead.

“You never know how many chances you’re going to get and these are new conditions and you have to try and adapt and trust your skills. I try not to think about my batting too hard, I just break it down and take it game by game. I don’t really know what to make of my start, I’m just trying to score runs. I feel fortunate to have made such a good start to my career,” Malan said.

The third and decisive ODI will be played at the same Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.