Ken Borland

South Africa’s bowling attack were on fire on a tricky Malahide pitch as they restricted Ireland to just 132 for nine to claim a comprehensive 33-run victory in the first T20 International in Dublin on Monday evening.

Having been sent in to bat, the Proteas put 165 for seven up on the board, which seemed a par score but nothing more.

Ireland started confidently with Paul Stirling heaving the first ball of the innings, from slow left-armer George Linde, on to the grass banks. But Linde responded with a fuller delivery that also drew a sweep shot, bowling Stirling around his legs second ball.

Kagiso Rabada came on at the other end and immediately caught-and-bowled opener Kevin O’Brien for a first-ball duck.

Lungi Ngidi then had Ireland on their knees as he had George Dockrell (2) and Andy Balbirnie (22) caught behind in successive overs that saw the hosts slump to 34 for four inside the first powerplay.

Tabraiz Shamsi, the runaway leader in the ICC T20 bowling rankings, hadn’t even come on to bowl yet. But when he did, the left-arm wrist-spinner was typically inspired, ripping through the rest of the Ireland batting with four for 27 in his four overs.

Linde was also excellent with two for 26 in his four-over stint.

South Africa had made a blazing start to their innings with Quinton de Kock (20) and Temba Bavuma (13) slamming 31 off the first 15 balls. But the Malahide pitch then showed her teeth. Slower balls and cutters were particularly effective, and the pitch took turn, batsmen struggling to find any rhythm.

Aiden Markram (39 off 30), Rassie van der Dussen (25 off 18) and David Miller (28 off 21) all worked hard to get South Africa to a respectable total.

The total was given a precious boost in the final over as Rabada hurled the bat at Mark Adair and hit the first four balls of the 20^th over for boundaries, on his way to 19 not out off nine deliveries.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher has acknowledged that the strains of bubble life and the worries of seeing civil unrest back at home have been consumers of energy for his team, but he implored them to make one last push for the final three days of cricket they have in Ireland, starting with the first T20 in Dublin on Monday.

It has generally been a very successful tour of the West Indies and Ireland, with all the series won except for the ODIs against Ireland, which South Africa were forced to share after the first match was rained out and their shock defeat in the second game.

But that historic 43-run loss came at the height of the riots back in South Africa and Boucher said his team had struggled for focus on that day.

“We just weren’t there the other day, the awareness and intensity were way down. But we can’t afford to make excuses, we need to be up for every game. What’s happening back at home is affecting us, and every South African. A lot of adrenaline and energy has gone into chats about it, and that equated to low energy on the field. Plus we’ve been one-and-a-half months on tour.

“We’ve talked a lot to get the emotions out and some of the players have families that have been personally affected, so they feel quite emotionally drained. But we have three days of cricket left and we showed in the last ODI what we can do when we play with good energy. But Ireland will certainly be no walkovers and we found out in the second ODI what happens if we don’t rock up for the T20s,” Boucher said.

With the IPL carnival set to scupper South Africa’s hopes of playing a T20 series against India, the Proteas have these three T20s in the coming week and three more in Sri Lanka to prepare for when the global T20 pageant is held in the United Arab Emirates from October. Assistant coach Enoch Nkwe stressed on Sunday that they now need stable plans.

“We’re not yet where we are supposed to be at, but we will be making sure we give ourselves the best chance of mastering the processes we have in place. We would like to see different personnel in different roles to see how they respond, so those opportunities will be created. We need to look outside the frontline players to see if they can do the job.

“The players need to trust the formula we are working on, no matter the conditions. We only have six games left before the World Cup but we believe we’re on track. We need confidence in our death bowling, where we have clear plans that the bowlers just need to commit to 100%, and we need to get our top-order as stable as possible as soon as possible,” Nkwe said.

The Proteas came right when they needed to, centuries by openers Janneman Malan and Quinton de Kock leading them to a comfortable 70-run win over Ireland at Malahide in Dublin on Friday, but it meant they had to settle for the mediocre outcome of sharing the series with the 12^th-ranked team.

Putting their shock midweek defeat behind them, South Africa won the toss and this time elected to bat first, wanting to land the first punch and dominate from the outset. They certainly did that as Malan and De Kock shared an outstanding opening partnership of 225 in 36 overs.

De Kock was in majestic form, unfazed by anything the Irish could throw at him, and his superb 120 off 91 balls was the sort of quality innings where the left-hander looked in complete control throughout, striking 11 fours and five sixes.

De Kock eventually fell to the off-spin of Simi Singh when he just failed to clear the midwicket boundary, Mark Adair taking the catch with his heels lifted to avoid touching the line.

But Malan powered on to a magnificent 177 not out off 169 deliveries, hammering 16 fours and six sixes. Who De Kock’s opening partner should be in ODIs would now appear to be settled as Malan has collected 483 runs in his six ODI innings at a phenomenal average of 120.75.  He has two centuries and his strike-rate is 94.33. That should be sufficient for the 25-year-old to have cemented his place in the team.

Malan’s unbeaten 177 was the fourth highest individual score for the Proteas in ODI cricket and, with Rassie van der Dussen adding 30 off 28 balls, they were able to post a pleasing 346 for four.

In the field, South Africa snuck in left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj at the start of the innings and he had both openers, Paul Stirling (11) and Andy Balbirnie (7), well-taken at slip by Malan.

Lizaad Williams then had the delight of having Andy McBrine caught behind for 9 with his first ball in ODI cricket as Ireland slumped to 27 for three inside the first eight overs.

The run-rate only really arose from its slumber when former SA U19 all-rounder Curtis Campher, with a run-a-ball 54, and Singh slapped the ball around in a seventh-wicket stand of 104.

South Africa once again finished the innings poorly with both ball and in the field, and Singh took the opportunity to notch a maiden century, finishing with a dazzling 100 not out off 91 balls.

Tabraiz Shamsi continued to have spin aficionados purring with delight as he took three for 46 in his 10 overs, while there was some pleasing success for all-rounder Andile Phehlukwayo, whose surprise packet of deliveries brought him three for 56 in 10 as Ireland were eventually all out for 276.

The ants of Ireland pulled off a giant-killing act as they beat a sloppy South African side who suffered far too many eek-worthy moments in the field, by 43 runs in the second ODI at Malahide in Dublin on Tuesday.

The Proteas had again won the toss and sent Ireland in to bat but the pacemen bowled poorly up front and at the death as Ireland posted a formidable 290 for five.

This time Ireland were both able to prosper up front in the powerplay and keep wickets intact. Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie took them to 49 without loss in the first 10 overs and their opening stand was eventually worth  64 off 82 balls.

But in a powerful top-order performance, Balbirnie then added another 60 for the second wicket with Andy McBrine (30) and the Ireland captain went on to a superb 102 off 117 balls, really leading from the front and providing the foundation for the win.

Harry Tector (79 off 68) and George Dockrell (45 off 23) then provided a scintillating end to the innings as they hammered wayward death bowling for 88 runs in the last seven overs.

Spinners Tabraiz Shamsi (10-1-42-1) and Keshav Maharaj (10-0-50-1) were the best of the South African bowlers, doing a fine job in the middle overs.

Apart from the woes of the seamers, the Proteas fielding was also extremely creaky, with four catches going down that should have been caught and messy ground-fielding also being the order of the day.

Janneman Malan was the top-scorer for South Africa as they were bowled out for 247 in the penultimate over.

The rookie opener struck a powerful 84 off 96 balls, with four sixes, making up for the early loss of Aiden Markram (5) and Temba Bavuma (10).

He was well-supported by Rassie van der Dussen (49 off 70) in a third-wicket stand of 108 in 22 overs, but South Africa then fell away badly, once again exposing the lower middle-order and the finishing ability of the team as a problem.

Malan will wryly consider that he could yet found himself out the team for the third and final match on Friday as Quinton de Kock obviously needs to return.

He will also be kicking himself for getting out when he did though, caught sweeping spinner George Dockrell to cow-corner, and when Van der Dussen was trapped lbw by McBrine in the next over, it was the hammer blow from which the Proteas could never recover.