Ken Borland

Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma described it as one of the toughest days he has had as a captain as the mental preparation of his team for the crucial T20 World Cup match against the West Indies in Dubai was rocked by the CSA Board’s directive that all players must take the knee in support of BLM and the subsequent withdrawal from the side of key batsman Quinton de Kock because he chose not to do so.

It took South Africa a good 10 overs to get their mental focus back on track, in which time Evin Lewis had given the West Indies a blazing start, but the Proteas deserve enormous credit for the clinical display they produced thereafter in winning by eight wickets with 10 balls to spare.

“It was one of the toughest days I’ve had as the captain, but I’m just ecstatic that we were able to get into the right frame of mind and play the way we did against a powerhouse West Indies team,” Bavuma said after the impressive victory.

“We should not take this win lightly and I’m just very glad that we’ve now got our campaign started. We knew our batting in particular needed to improve and the way we were so clinical with the bat was a big step in the right direction.

“The bowlers have been fantastic the last while and they again showed their skill and class, it was a good day in the field in the end. What happened with the directive and Quinny pulling out was not ideal, but they were the cards we were dealt as a team and it was good that the guys were able to represent the country as well as they did today,” Bavuma said.

While losing De Kock is a major blow – and it could well be for the rest of the tournament – Bavuma expressed the hope that the team, brought closer together by hardship, will grow more and more as a unit in their remaining group matches against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England.

“It’s going to be a tough couple of days for the group as we try and find out a bit better about the decisions that have been made, but we have to respect those whether we agree or not.

“Unfortunately the team still has to get the job done and it’s important to find a way to get into the right mental space. And the tournament is obviously only going to get tougher.

“So it’s important that we stay even more together as a team. Hopefully we can now create some momentum. But we need to focus on matters on the field.

“We will only lose energy as a team if we focus on things on the outside, and I would hope we are judged by how well we hit or bowl the ball and not by what causes we support or how we do it.

“We need to have our eyes on the ball,” Bavuma said.

There are no doubt several areas for the Proteas to improve on following their defeat by seven wickets in the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi on Friday, but captain Quinton de Kock chose to focus on the first-innings batting collapse as the root cause of their loss.

Having been able to bat first after winning the toss, South Africa could only post 220 all out as they collapsed from 108 for two. The bowlers fought back admirably to reduce Pakistan to 33 for four at the end of the first day, but excellent batting led by centurion Fawad Alam saw the home side reach 308 for eight at stumps on the second day, with the Proteas dropping a couple of crucial catches in a generally poor fielding display.

A woeful bowling performance on the third morning saw Pakistan’s tail add 70 runs off 74 balls and the Proteas had a deficit of 158 on first innings. Gutsy half-centuries by Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen brought them back into the match, but South Africa lost three wickets in the last five overs of the day. That collapse continued on Friday as they were bowled out for 245, losing their last nine wickets for 70 runs.

Pakistan knocked off their target of 88 with few alarms.

“The first-innings batting was the big cause of our loss, there were some very soft dismissals, just being soft mentally. We adjusted in the second innings and we learnt a lot through Rassie and Aiden to take forward. The bowlers did really well, they showed great aggression and accuracy, but Pakistan just batted very well against us. But only getting 220 in the first innings was where we let ourselves down the most.

“On that pitch it definitely wasn’t good enough, especially when batting first. We’ve spoken about the collapses, but if we knew how to fix it we wouldn’t do it in the first place. We seem to get bogged down and then you try and find a way to score. But Pakistan showed us that you needed to stick in there and dig deep with the way the pitch played. Like Rassie and Aiden did in our second innings,” De Kock said after the chastening defeat.

While Pakistan were boosted by top-class leg-spinner Yasir Shah having a fine game with seven wickets, South Africa’s plan to power up their spin attack with the selection of a left-arm wrist-spinner in Tabraiz Shamsi was scuppered when he pulled out shortly before the toss with a back spasm.

While Pakistan’s left-arm spinner Nauman Ali took seven for 73 in 42.3 overs on debut, Keshav Maharaj had to settle for four for 102 in 34.1 overs, while George Linde only played a bit part with 16 wicketless overs.

De Kock refused to say the spin bowling results made the difference.

“Tabraiz is busy getting fully fit again and we have the players to cover for any injuries. It wasn’t really the bowlers’ fault we loss, the batting made the difference, the way we played their spin in the first innings and the latter stages of the second innings. Pakistan were able to soak up pressure while we gave them our wickets in the first innings.

“We’ll just have to come back mentally stronger in the second Test, our batsmen must play the way Rassie and Aiden did – they took their time, kept the ball on the ground and soaked up pressure,” De Kock said.

Kagiso Rabada chose the day when South Africa’s pace bowling reserves were brought into question at the World Cup to announce himself as the potential successor to Dale Steyn with a magnificent nine-wicket haul to bowl the bizhub Highveld Lions to a crunching win over the Dolphins in their Sunfoil Series match at the Wanderers on Sunday.

Rabada took nine for 33 in 16.2 overs – the sixth-best innings figures in the history of domestic A Section cricket in South Africa – to give him a brilliant match analysis of 14 for 105.

This is the best return in the history of franchise cricket, improving on the 14 for 110 Steyn himself took for the Titans against the Eagles in Bloemfontein in 2007/8.

Rabada’s extraordinary performance – three of his victims were caught behind the wicket, three were bowled and one was trapped lbw – skittled the Dolphins for 134 in their second innings.

This meant that the Lions had a nominal target of 16 to win the game, which openers Stephen Cook and Rassie van der Dussen quickly knocked off for a 10-wicket win that increases their lead at the top of the log to just over 17 points.

And it wasn’t the case that Rabada took advantage of a Wanderers greentop either: there was some steep bounce, but apart from that the enormously-talented 19-year-old showed his ability to get swing, hit good areas and bowled with impressive pace on a flattish pitch.

Rabada made an early start to his amazing demolition job when he removed Daniel Sincuba (4), edging a lovely away-swinger to wicketkeeper Dominic Hendricks, with his second ball of the day.

An over from Rabada went by without incident, but he then picked up another scalp in his third over of the day, Cody Chetty (5) edging an easy catch to first slip.

An exceptional catch by Van der Dussen at backward point gave Rabada his fourth wicket, Morne van Wyk dismissed for seven, and the St Stithians product marked the occasion of his maiden 10-wicket match haul by shattering the stumps of Keshav Maharaj (5), who was way too late on his shot.

Graham Hume was trapped on the crease and lbw for nought, while opener Divan van Wyk, who held on for 204 minutes in scoring 56, eventually played on.

History was then made on the famous Wanderers turf when Tshepo Moreki was bowled for 2 and last man Daryn Dupavillon (0) spliced a simple return catch to Rabada, who is the youngest South African to take 13 wickets in a first-class match.

He joins an elite group of just 25 other bowlers who have taken 14 wickets or more and there can be no doubt Rabada is on his way to even greater things.