Ken Borland

It is certainly part of Proteas coach Mark Boucher’s mandate to ensure a steady flow of youngsters come through and perform at international level, but his No.1 priority is for South Africa to have a winning cricket team, hence his decision to stick with veteran former captain Faf du Plessis, a move which was thoroughly justified in the first Test against Sri Lanka.

The 36-year-old Du Plessis scored a magnificent, career-best 199, an innings which began under pressure with South Africa slipping from 200 for two when he came to the crease, to 220 for four. Thanks to the class and skill of Du Plessis, and the help of the lower-middle order, the Proteas were able to post 621, setting up an innings win that seemed most unlikely when Sri Lanka scored 396 batting first. It was the third highest first innings total South Africa have conceded in a Test they have gone on to win.

There is no doubt a rebuilding Proteas team thoroughly enjoy having the cool, calm wisdom of Du Plessis still around. Not least of all the new captain, Quinton de Kock.

“It’s important to have senior guys with experience. People always talk about youngsters coming through but you need a balance. Faf really showed his experience, you need that under pressure, he showed his leadership and how to handle the pressure because he’s been through those situations many times before,” De Kock said after the first Test.

“It helps me too to have good leaders in the team and although I’ve never captained a team before in first-class cricket, I have stood next to Faf for most of my Test career so I very much knew what the captaincy was about.”

Boucher, who has taken a lot of flak in the last year for sticking with his former captain, described the presence of Du Plessis as being like “gold dust”.

“I know what Faf is worth, I understand what he has done for South Africa. He’s a great player who went through a bit of a dip in form but his place was never under pressure for me. You need experience and he showed that in this game. He did very good work over the Covid Lockdown period on his technique and he looks very comfortable at the crease now.

“He really wanted to score big runs and he is gold dust to us. It’s nice to have him in such good form and good spirits. We’re going to need him in the big series coming up,” Boucher said after the Centurion triumph.

After the Test series loss to England at the start of 2020, I wrote a column [https://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-columnists/2236293/dont-savage-faf-yet-he-had-a-lot-of-external-issues-to-deal-with/] asking where Du Plessis fitted in in the future red-ball plans of the Proteas. I said the only question I would ask Faf before selecting him for the team would be “Are you still enjoying your cricket?”

The sheer hunger Du Plessis has shown in getting as fit as he has ever been over Lockdown and continuing to work on improving his game are all the proof one needs to know that South Africa’s ninth highest Test run-getter is still loving the sport.

“The Lockdown really helped, mentally it allowed me to freshen up, but I also knew I could control how fit I was. People say I’m at the end of my career but it depends on how good your body is, how fit you are is much more important than your age. So I really pushed myself, I may be 36 but I feel fitter than ever before, I’m moving better now than when I was 23/24. Now the younger guys must stay with me.

“I’ve definitely scored hundreds against better attacks and in hotter conditions and match situations, so this innings was not close to some of those. But from a timing and statement point of view it showed those who doubt my ability that nothing has changed and I am still trying to improve,” Du Plessis said after his 199.

The last part of that sentence – “I am still trying to improve” – is the clincher: the still-hungry Du Plessis should be part of the Test team for the foreseeable future and the often wonky South African batting line-up will definitely reap the benefits of having the man for all situations there.

The attractiveness of top-class sport depends on the quality of the contest and Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur says the International Cricket Council will have to consider allowing substitutes in this time of Covid-19.

Sri Lanka have been decimated by a spate of injuries in the first Test against South Africa at Centurion, and if the ailment which saw Dinesh Chandimal limping off the field after the last ball of the third day and then lying down on the boundary edge proves to be something more serious than cramp then they could be down to just six fit players.

Arthur blamed the unprecedented number of injuries on a lack of time to properly condition the players for the rigours of Test cricket, due to the effects of Lockdown and the pressure it then puts on the schedule as administrators try to fit more into less time.

“With Colombo under curfew, the players were not allowed to leave their homes so they had to do a lot of their conditioning there. This South African tour was then on-off, on-off, but eventually we did get into camp together. But then the Lanka Premier League T20 meant we lost them for another month and only got them back the day we left for South Africa.

“So you can throw all of that into the melting pot, it probably all played a role. I hope Dinesh only has cramp or we only have six players to finish the Test, I’m afraid I have a feeling its something more serious but we will see how he pulls up in the morning. But it’s not good for anybody, for our team or the TV audience and I will be chatting about it with the ICC Cricket Committee that I am on,” Arthur said on Monday evening.

“We knew some of our players would be in danger with the short preparation time which is why we brought 21 players over here. It’s difficult with trying to fit in franchise competitions and 2021 is going to be very busy for national teams. Getting the balance right is very important and conditioning and having enough time for preparation is crucial. We didn’t get enough time, but if we had had ample time for preparation and getting the players’ conditioning loaded up, then we wouldn’t be in this dire situation we are in now.

“I see India lost one of their bowlers today in their Test against Australia and I suspect there will be more injuries. The workloads are just too much with players having to deal with Covid and quarantines as well. If the world was normal right now then we would not be in this situation and guys would be conditioned. But I’m certain allowing runners and substitutes will need to be looked at at ICC level,” Arthur added.

Sri Lanka will go into the penultimate day of the Test still 160 runs short of making South Africa bat again with only four or five wickets remaining, but the popular former Proteas, Australia and Pakistan coach was able to quip about his team’s desperate situation.

“It’s lucky we have 21 players here otherwise Grant Flower [batting coach] would be batting at three in the second Test at the Wanderers and I’d be at four! But we will get 400 tomorrow and then [part-time medium-pacer] Dimuth Karunaratne is going to take six wickets and win us the game!”

Bulls coach Jake White certainly seems to have located his best starting XV and there is little doubt it is the side that will run out on to Kings Park on Saturday evening to play the Sharks in a Currie Cup thriller.

Barring Marnus Potgieter making his Currie Cup starting debut on the right wing that is. The 21-year-old is promoted from the bench because Travis Ismaiel is unable to fill the vacancy created by David Kriel moving back to fullback because he has just had a shoulder operation. Potgieter is 1.87 metres tall, weighs 94kg and played twice for the Blue Bulls in the 2018 SuperSport Rugby Challenge.

“Marnus has been a great junior player, he was at Affies and a member of the 4×100 metre relay team and has come through the ranks here at Loftus. He has lots of pace and he’s big and strong,” White said.

Apart from Ismaiel, all the familiar faces are back as White also moved Kurt-Lee Arendse back to left wing, Ivan van Zyl returns at scrumhalf, Ruan Nortje will start again in the second row and Trevor Nyakane and Jacques van Rooyen are the starting props.

Springbok Marcel van der Merwe, the tighthead who was replaced after 34 minutes against the Free State Cheetahs last weekend, is nowhere to be found on the bench though. White said he still has faith though in the 30-year-old even though 22-year-old Mornay Smith will be the replacement tighthead against the Sharks.

“We still back Marcel and we will help him through it, he had a long-term injury and has not played much rugby. I’m not going to discard him, we will help him back on the horse. Maybe the Free State loosehead prop was able to get away with a bit, there’s been lots of debate about that,” White said.

The former Springbok coach did however praise the influence of Nyakane both on and off the field.

“Marcel will come right and Trevor almost did the same things as Marcel and we got rewarded, so I’m just thankful that referee Jaco Peyper is good enough and experienced enough to see the whole picture. There’s a misconception that we took off our tighthead because he was struggling, but it was because we wanted the loosehead to try and do the same things to Trevor.

“It’s not as if Trevor came on and waved a wand, but he showed stability and the players around him obviously get confidence from that. I haven’t worked with Trevor before but he’s been really good both on and off the field – right now he’s having one-on-ones with young Jan-Hendrik Wessels on loosehead versus tighthead,” White said.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Marnus Potgieter, Stedman Gans, Cornal Hendricks, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Morné Steyn, Ivan van Zyl, Duane Vermeulen (capt), Arno Botha, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Trevor Nyakane, Johan Grobbelaar, Jacques van Rooyen. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Gerhard Steenekamp, Mornay Smith, Sintu Manjezi, Nizaam Carr, Embrose Papier, Chris Smith, Marco Jansen van Vuren.

According to coach Jake White, the Bulls team expected a “bollocking” from him at halftime in their Currie Cup match against the Free State Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, but a return to the basics saw them romp to a 40-13 victory in the second half.

The Bulls started the match well, racing into a 13-3 lead in the first quarter, but they then allowed the Cheetahs to dictate affairs and the visitors had pulled level at 13-13 at the break.

“Just before the game I think I gave them a bit of a scare when I told them a thunderstorm could stop the match so we needed to be in front at halftime. We were up 13-3 but then we started defending and waiting for halftime. I think the guys were a bit scared of the weather, they were a bit naïve and psychologically it’s part of the learning process.

“I think they expected a bollocking at halftime but I just said that we had had no ball but when we did have possession we created pressure in their half. I just told them to go back to what they had practised, to believe in it. And in the second half everything worked, we definitely got it right. It was very pleasing, very good rugby and the bench impact was very good too,” White said after the win.

White said his team continues to learn how to come out on top in different match situations.

“Last week we had to show massive character to win with 14 men against Western Province and this week we had to work really hard in the second half and go hard to the end to get the bonus point. Overcoming these sort of challenges are all building blocks, it goes in the memory bank and it’s another box ticked. There’s that understanding how to get it done and the direction.

“Trevor Nyakane is a World Cup winner, he comes on and all of a sudden we get a scrum penalty and that changes the whole game because the scrums are very important. Duane Vermeulen played well and spoke well to the team, he brings massive composure. Nizaam Carr also brought composure and Morne Steyn was good too, it’s very good to have him back in the system,” White said.