Ken Borland

Hashim Amla confirmed he was surprised by how quickly the West Indies folded and Dale Steyn described his bowling as “nothing special”, but there was no way South Africa were merely given a free pass on their way to their crushing innings and 220-run victory at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.

It took fast bowling of the highest quality from Steyn, the sort of intense, destructive spell that he and so few other fast bowlers are capable of at Test level.

Steyn’s quick mopping up of the West Indies second innings has ensured some extra, much-needed rest for a South African side that was beleaguered by injury during their first Test in four months.

“We’re glad to have an extra one-and-a-half days rest because this felt like a long Test, being the first one we have played in a long time. I was surprised by how quickly the match finished, I didn’t expect to get seven wickets in the session, but the pitch was getting quite difficult to bat on and it was exceptional bowling from Dale. Any team in the world would have found him very difficult to handle today,” Amla said after winning his first Test at home as captain in the most convincing fashion.

“We were standing behind the stumps, AB de Villiers and I, and we could feel that things were going to happen after he hit the left-hander [Leon Johnson] early on. The pitch had quickened up and when Dale gets a sniff he runs through teams, we’ve seen it many, many times before. We’re just glad he’s on our side … “ Amla added.

Steyn had gone wicket-less in the first innings and, although he denied he was particularly striving to make up for it, there seemed a determination and an extra intensity about his performance on Saturday morning.

“I’m never upset as long as we bowl the opposition out and then I’m happy. I thought Vernon [Philander] and Morne [Morkel] bowled beautifully yesterday and even Dean Elgar got a wicket, which made me a bit bummed!

“There was nothing special about today, maybe I was a bit more consistent with my line and length and I got rewarded. Some days you find the edge, other days you go past it, that’s cricket. I deserved it today, but yesterday I didn’t.

“The ball came out nicely and today I got the first edge and then you tend to make the batsman play more and get on a roll,” Steyn said.

The world’s number one fast bowler also gave credit to the fantastic catching behind the wicket, with Alviro Petersen a stand-out at second slip.

For their part, West Indies captain Denesh Ramdin said his team are going to have to show more application if they are going to keep the series alive in Port Elizabeth from Boxing Day.

“We need more application, it was disappointing the way the batsmen got out once they had got starts. It’s very important for us to bat longer sessions, we have to be smart, leave the ball alone, sway away, myself included. We’re up against a very good bowling attack, number one in the world, and they hit very good areas. They don’t give many opportunities and it’s very difficult to get starts on these pitches,” Ramdin said.

In terms of application and skill, the West Indies can do no better than to try and emulate Amla (208) and De Villiers (152), whose record partnership set up South Africa’s impressive victory.

Branden Grace described it as “something special” as he became the first golfer to win the Alfred Dunhill Championship wire-to-wire when he cruised to a seven-stroke victory at Leopard Creek on Sunday.

The 26-year-old is a tremendous front-runner, all four of his previous European Tour wins coming after he led going into the final round, and Sunday was no exception as he produced an exceptionally solid 68, with just two bogeys, to finish on 20-under-par.

Fellow South African and close friend Louis Oosthuizen was the runner-up, shooting 69 on Sunday to finish on 13-under, while Grace’s nearest challengers, Lucas Bjerregaard and Danny Willett, endured horrible final rounds that saw them plummet down the leaderboard.

“It’s something special going wire-to-wire because this is one of the tournaments every South African golfer wants to win, especially because of what Mr and Mrs Rupert do for golf,” Grace said.

The Fancourt-based golfer made it look easy as he was superb off the tee, accurate with his irons and solid with the putter, collecting six birdies, four of them on the par-fives.

“The par-fives were the big turnaround today, I played them in one-over yesterday [Saturday], but today I was four-under. The other big thing was that I was great off the tee, on a course where you really need to be. I felt so comfortable with my driver,” Grace said.

It was a day of immense trauma for Bjerregaard, the Dane starting the day with high hopes, just one shot behind Grace. He was level-par after birdieing the sixth hole, but then the wheels fell off after a triple-bogey six at the seventh.

His drive was far left into long grass but his chip seemed to be a good one; unfortunately it just kept rolling on the hard and fast green, past the hole and into the water.

Bjerregaard bogeyed eight and was out in 39, but then the horror show really began: double-bogey at 10, quadruple-bogey at 11 and another dropped shot at 12. He came in with a double-bogey at 15 and four other bogeys – an astonishing 50 for the back nine and a round of 89 that dropped him to two-over-par and a tie for 49th.

Willett looked to be gearing himself up for a charge with back-to-back birdies around the turn and on 13 and 14, but a rare mis-hit iron shot on 16 found the water and led to a double-bogey. That was followed by a bogey at 17 and a demoralised Willett then bombed out with a triple-bogey eight on the last, to finish in a tie for fourth with Trevor Fisher Jnr, who carded a fine 69 on Sunday.

Andrew Johnston shot a one-over-par 73, but it was good enough for the Englishman to hang on to third place on 11-under.

It was a top-class display, however, by Grace. Having wowed the tartan brigade at St Andrew’s with his wire-to-wire win in the Alfred Dunhill Links in 2012, he now reminded the Lowvelders clad in shades of khaki of his pedigree.

He has spoken all week of feeling near to his best again – 2012 when he claimed all four of his European Tour triumphs – and that makes him one of South Africa’s best golfers.

“It’s a great start to the new season after a hard year. My game was spot-on today, there weren’t a lot of misses, maybe two bad shots all day. To win so convincingly is really nice,” Grace said.

It’s been the saddest of weeks for the cricketing world with the tragic passing of Phil Hughes in what can only be described as the freakiest of accidents dominating all discussions.

So many batsmen are hit on the head these days (I’m of the school of thought that says helmets encourage them to take their eye off the ball), but Hughes had the awful misfortune of being struck on the side of the neck, just below his helmet’s grille, flush on the vertebral artery, which split and caused the fatal brain haemorrhage.

South Africans have also been mourning the 25-year-old Australian, not least of all because he greatly impressed everyone on these shores with his grit and unorthodox talent as he averaged 53 against the Proteas in five Tests, scoring two centuries and two half-centuries.

The national team has, of course, just returned from Australia, where their 4-1 ODI series hammering caused much soul-searching and anguish amongst their fans, before being overshadowed by the real tragedy that unfolded in Sydney.

Whatever AB de Villiers so brashly said upon his return home about being the better side and South Africa’s World Cup plans being on track, serious questions have been raised about the Proteas’ ability to seriously contend at the global showpiece tournament starting in 11 weeks’ time.

Most worryingly, there is no further ODI cricket scheduled for them before they have to announce their final 15-man squad for the World Cup on January 7. So the five-match series against the West Indies will not provide the selectors with the opportunity to find someone who can bale them out of their current problems in terms of balance and form, because it starts on January 16. Neither is there any franchise 50-over cricket before then.

The squad that plays against the West Indies will be the World Cup squad and those 15 players will have dress rehearsals on five days in which they have to regain form and convince their fans that they are the strong contenders they perceive themselves to be.

South Africa’s most pressing need would seem to be to fill the number seven position with someone who can genuinely contribute with bat and ball. Ryan McLaren, with his mediocre bowling and his weakness against the short ball when batting, has done little lately to suggest he could be a match-winner in that vital position. Sadly, the schedule has dictated that the selectors are not going to be able to see what David Wiese can do.

I would back the Titans all-rounder because he brings power-hitting and a proven ability at the death, as well as the sort of bowling skills the South African attack desperately needs to master on what should be good batting pitches in Australasia.

In terms of cover, the 15-man squad will need to include two extra pace bowlers – perhaps one containing and one more attacking – an extra batsman who can bowl a bit and either an extra spinner or a top-order batsman.

This means Kyle Abbott must surely have secured his ticket, while I would choose Lonwabo Tsotsobe, in great form since returning from injury, ahead of Wayne Parnell. This would also reduce the pressure on the selectors in terms of Black African representation; although Aaron Phangiso deserves to go to the World Cup, his ill-timed injury and the need for top-order batting cover could count against him.

The selection of both Rilee Rossouw and Farhaan Behardien would facilitate cover for both the top three and the middle-order, with Behardien able to fulfil the crucial role of a sixth bowler that was vital in JP Duminy’s absence.

The presence of a genuine all-rounder like Wiese at seven would enable the Proteas to avoid the problem of either having to go into games a batsman or a bowler short, but the other issue they need to solve is not one of personnel but one of skills.

The bowling in the death overs was generally poor and the failure to consistently execute yorkers, slower-ball bouncers and changes of pace means the South Africans lack the weapons the other top teams enjoy.

My World Cup squad: Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, David Miller, David Wiese, Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir, Kyle Abbott, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Farhaan Behardien, Rilee Rossouw.

Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter yesterday accurately described his team’s precarious position ahead of their Momentum One-Day Cup match against the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras at SuperSport Park today as being “backs against the wall” but “not yet dead and buried”.

The Titans are propping up the bottom of the log after losing their opening two matches against the Dolphins and Highveld Lions, and then suffering the embarrassment of getting zero points from their game against the Knights in Benoni because of a sub-standard, dangerous pitch. It means they are yet to get on the scoreboard as far as the log goes, and are already 10 points behind the second and third-placed Dolphins and Highveld Lions.

The Cobras are the runaway leaders of the competition at present, having won all four of their matches.

“We’re obviously in a much worse position because of what happened at Willowmoore Park and our backs are against the wall. We probably require six wins in our last seven games to make the semi-final, but that’s not unfamiliar territory for us. We’ll do whatever we can to fight our way back into it, much like we did last season,” Walter told The Citizen yesterday.

“The players certainly don’t believe they’re dead and buried, you can see their hunger and we know that if we play to the best of our ability, then we can beat anyone.”

It would nevertheless be silly not to consider the Titans as underdogs, even on their home turf, against a Cobras side that is rapidly establishing itself as the most dominant franchise across the board in South African cricket.

Walter said the Titans see the Cobras as the team to beat.

“They’re obviously the form side, a high-quality team, and they’re nine points ahead of everyone else for a reason. To get three bonus-point wins out of four games shows they’re playing seriously good cricket,” he said.

But if the Titans can find that elusive performance where both the batting and bowling click in the same game (and the fielding has to improve as well), then it will be possible for them to beat the Cobras.

The key factor for the home side will be whether they can contain the powerhourse Cobras batting line-up: opener Andrew Puttick is the leading run-scorer in the competition with 339 at an average of 113, with a century and three fifties in his four innings; Stiaan van Zyl and Justin Ontong are both averaging over 50 and Sybrand Engelbrecht and Dane Vilas showed their form in the lower middle-order with their stand of 137 off 14 overs in the previous match against the Knights.

The best way to contain will be to take regular wickets, especially up front, and that makes strike bowler Marchant de Lange the key man.

“In this format, early wickets are crucial because if there’s a set batsman in at the end, then they tend to run away with things. And the Cobras bat all the way down, guys like Robin Peterson and Rory Kleinveldt have only faced 13 balls between them in their four matches, so they bat deep.

“But if we can put it all together, batting and bowling in the same game, and if we can learn to win games if you haven’t necessarily bossed from the start, then we can deliver,” Walter said.