Ken Borland

South Africa Women’s coach Hilton Moreeng says he and his technical staff are having to find innovative ways to prepare the team properly as the Proteas ladies eye their return to action on January 20 when their ODI series against Pakistan starts at Kingsmead in Durban.

The three-match ODI series is followed by three T20s, with all of the matches being played at Kingsmead, as the Proteas Women play their first competitive cricket since their nailbiting ICC World T20 semifinal loss to Australia on March 5 last year.

“Being in a bubble is a challenging environment and we have to follow a new normal which is very strange for everyone, training with masks and everything. But it is an opportunity to play cricket and we are just educating the players, this is a new experience for them. Our last three days of training have been very good and our preparations are on track, I’m very happy with how things are proceeding.

“The most important thing is that the team has had a year out of action with no competitive cricket, so just to get out on the park is a big thing. We have had a lot of camps, which went well, but you can only see so much in those. I’m looking forward to a lot of youngsters now getting the opportunity to actually play. And at the end of the day we’re just playing to win,” Moreeng said on Monday.

There are at least two spots available in the batting line-up due to the absence through back injuries of captain Dane van Niekerk and the hard-hitting Chloe Tryon, even if those players coming in are just leasing their spots from two world-class performers who will be missed.

“It’s a big loss but mostly for the individual players because we don’t know when their next opportunity to play will come. But their absence does give an opportunity to others to play and that only makes the team stronger. A couple of youngsters have put their hands up in our camps. Of course competitive cricket will always be another level and rustiness will be there.

“We wanted to take our momentum from the T20 World Cup and keep improving while we build for the next World Cup [the 50-over edition in New Zealand next year], so not playing for a year has been a blow for everyone, but we can only control what we can and that’s the attitude we want the players to have. At the end of the day, safety must come first and we are just thankful for the opportunity to play,” Moreeng said.

“This just reaffirms what I’ve been saying about having a team together for a long time and being able to prepare properly – then you have a chance to win,” was coach Jake White’s response to his makeshift Bulls side being hammered 44-14 by the Pumas in their Currie Cup match in Nelspruit at the weekend.

Given the thoroughly unusual week they had, it was always going to be an uphill task for the youthful Bulls outfit to beat a fired-up Pumas side. Having emerged from their Covid outbreak, the Bulls had to play the Lions in a crucial clash in midweek with a weakened team. But they managed to sneak a win over their Gauteng neighbours, thereby ensuring they would finish top of the log.

They then had to wait 48 hours before they could do Covid testing again, leaving precious little time before Sunday’s match with the Pumas. White was always going to wrap his first-choice players in cotton-wool before their semi-final against the Lions on January 23, but he would have liked more time to prepare the largely U21 side he threw into action at the Mbombela Stadium.

“It was always going to be tough having just one training session together with this team, a guy like replacement flank Divan Venter only trained with us for 20 minutes because Nizaam Carr pulled out on the Friday. We’ve brought much better teams to Nelspruit and struggled, and this was a very new squad. But it’s never nice losing and I did hope for a better performance.

“I was pleased with the 7-10 score in the second half, but it was not ideal to go 31-0 down after the first 25 minutes. But all credit to the Pumas, we wanted to get those early points but they did it to us instead. They’ve been in Lockdown for a long time and made huge sacrifices, so it’s nice for them to get some reward. They should have won against some much better teams than what we brought here this time,” White admitted.

White said the best thing to come out of the game was that here were no injuries and now his team have the better part of two weeks to prepare for the knockout stages. The halfback pairing of Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl were probably the only two players who started against the Pumas and are likely to feature in the semi-final, and they were pulled off the field at halftime.

“The most important thing is that we didn’t get any injuries, which is quite nice. I was worried that we would lose one or two players, which is why Elrigh Louw and Johan Grobbelaar didn’t get on and Lizo Gqoboka only had limited time. I wanted to give Morne Steyn some game time and confidence, but two weeks out from a semi-final, you just don’t want the guys to get injured.

“I didn’t want to risk anyone and fortunately there were no injuries. I had still hoped we would be more competitive, like we were in the second half, but you’ve got to pay your school fees and a guy like Jan-Hendrik Wessels maybe lost just one game in his whole Grey College school career. But now we need to win our last two games, we’ve worked hard for a home semi-final and we have not lost at home yet,” White said.

With the focus firmly on the Currie Cup semifinal next weekend, Bulls coach Jake White has returned the first-choice halfback pairing of Morne Steyn and Ivan van Zyl to starting action against the Pumas on Sunday, but no-one else travelling to Nelspruit is guaranteed to be involved in the team to play the Lions at Loftus Versfeld.

Having beaten the Lions in midweek in Pretoria, the result against the Pumas cannot change the fact that the Bulls will finish top of the log. With three games in 10 days, White on Saturday announced 11 changes to the team that won the Gauteng derby.

Due to the Covid infection that swept through the squad, the in-form Steyn and Van Zyl have not started a match in a month, and White is obviously looking for them to provide the guidance needed to a very inexperienced backline against the hassling strategies of the Pumas, who always look to put the opposition off their game-plan.

White has also increased the pressure on them by choosing a new-look tight five in which lock Jan Uys is the only player to retain his place.

Uys impressed against the Lions and another strong performance against the Pumas could see him force himself into the reckoning for the semi-final, depending on the fitness of Walt Steenkamp and Sintu Manjezi.

Loose forward Arno Botha, who will captain the team in Nelspruit, could also bring his physical presence to the semi-final, while wing Stravino Jacobs certainly improved his chances of playing with his solid showing in midweek.

The Bulls will at least have a more experienced replacement front row on the bench, with hooker Johan Grobbelaar and props Lizo Gqoboka and Marcel van der Merwe trying to ensure they stay in the squad for the semi-final.

Bulls: Clinton Swart, Jade Stighling, Marnus Potgieter, Dawid Kellerman, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Tim Agaba, Arno Botha (capt), WJ Steenkamp, Janko Swanepoel, Jan Uys, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Joe van Zyl, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Johan Grobbelaar, Lizo Gqoboka, Marcel van der Merwe, Divan Venter, Elrigh Louw, Keagan Johannes, Kabelo Mokoena, Jay-Cee Nel.

While an injury-depleted Sri Lankan side beaten 2-0 on the Highveld is not going to provide the best measure of the Proteas’ progress as a Test side, South Africa have nevertheless ticked some boxes in the recent series. These are the positives coach Mark Boucher can carry forward to the tour of Pakistan and then the home series against Australia.

• The Proteas have a pair of veteran batsmen in Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessis that the rest of the batting line-up can bat around.

The gritty, tenacious qualities of Elgar at the top of the order have always been apparent, but the 33-year-old is now also leading from the front with a more positive, aggressive mindset. Good starts are crucial for a batting line-up to consistently produce the goods and Elgar’s reliability is undimmed.

Du Plessis has brushed aside any suggestions his Test days may be numbered through his sheer hunger to still be playing, to still improve and still be scoring big runs. To have him in the crucial No.4 position, looking as good as he ever has, is a massive boon for the Proteas.

• Lutho Sipamla’s successful introduction to Test cricket has increased South Africa’s pool of quality fast bowlers.

Sipamla suffered a nervy first day in Test cricket when he bowled his first 12 overs for 66 runs, going maiden and wicket-less. But he ended the series with highly creditable stats of 10 wickets for 167 runs; in other words, after his tough start, he bowled 27.5 overs and took 10 for 101. Although obviously still raw, the 22-year-old showed he certainly has something. The spells where he was able to find a consistent line and length were especially probing.

With Kagiso Rabada making his way back from injury, Beuran Hendricks also in the picture and much excitement over the potential of Glenton Stuurman, the Proteas have half-a-dozen quicks to choose from.

• Wiaan Mulder has the potential to do a similar all-round job to Jacques Kallis.

Mulder is ostensibly a batting all-rounder, but we only saw glimpses of his talent with the bat during his useful innings of 36 in the first Test. But his bowling was a revelation as he finished the series with nine wickets at an average of just 20.55. The 22-year-old has wonderful skill with the ball and is clearly a thinking bowler. His control was also very good and, as Boucher said, he is not just a holding bowler but he also has a reputation for having a golden arm so he makes timely breakthroughs, as he did in both Tests. Which makes him an ideal fourth seamer, much like Kallis was. They are both bustling, strong bowlers and while Mulder will surely never touch the same heights of batting greatness as Kallis, he certainly has the ability to be an important run-scorer in the top six even.

• Rassie van der Dussen has made an encouraging start to life at No.3

Replacing the great Hashim Amla was always going to be massive boots to fill, but Van der Dussen has performed creditably at one-down in the batting order, averaging 45 there in four innings, with two half-centuries. His slow start at the Wanderers drew an unnecessary amount of criticism and the fact that his approach was perfect for the match situation was borne out by the collapse of nine wickets for 84 runs that happened after his matchwinning partnership of 184 with Elgar.