Ken Borland

The ODI series between South Africa and England is set to be cancelled later today after the first ODI in Paarl was called off shortly before the toss due to the two positive Covid tests returned by the English touring party.

The first ODI was originally meant to be played on Friday, but it was postponed at short notice after a Proteas player (believed to be Heinrich Klaasen, who missed the third T20 because he was “sick”) tested positive.

Sunday’s match looked good to go when the rest of the Proteas squad all returned negative tests on Saturday, but then two members of The Vineyard hotel staff tested positive that evening. The England squad, already perturbed over the positive test in the Proteas camp, all went for testing that night as well, and on Sunday it was confirmed two of them were positive for the virus.

The future of the series, which comprises two more matches at Newlands on Monday and Wednesday, now depends on those two positive results in the England touring party being ratified by independent medical experts. The chances of the original results being wrong would appear to be slim and with the England players not wanting any form of forced isolation to jeopardise their departure date from South Africa on Thursday, it is likely they will call off the series. Some of the players have lucrative Big Bash contracts in Australia to fulfil, while others just want to get home for Christmas.

It would appear there must have been some sort of breach to the bio-secure bubble both squads are in at The Vineyard in Cape Town, leading to plenty of questions as to how this could have happened but pretty much only vacant stares in response.

“At this stage, it is not clear how the staff members became infected as neither have left the bio-secure area since November 16 and they do not work on the same team or in the same area. Our Covid response team is endeavouring to establish all the facts and contact tracing is underway. We have placed all our resources and efforts into investigating and resolving the situation,” Roy Davies, the general manager of The Vineyard, said in a statement.

Cricket South Africa’s chief medical officer, Dr Shuaib Manjra, was equally mystified.

“There has been some kind of breach and we have gone into great detail in our investigations. We have spoken to the player and looked at the footage from security cameras, but come up with nothing yet. Ninety-nine percent of this environment works, but there may be an unknown breach.

“But I can categorically say that no player has been able to leave the bio-bubble, security would not allow it, nobody can leave unless they’re in an official vehicle with an official driver. The command centre is led by the colonel of the Claremont police station and he would not allow anyone to leave. Even the guys going across the road to train at the Oval where a concern for him,” Manjra said.

The first ODI between South Africa and England scheduled to be played at Newlands from 1pm on Friday has been postponed due to a positive Covid-19 test and will now be held at Boland Park’s scenic surrounds on Sunday.

Cricket South Africa confirmed on Friday, only an hour before the match was scheduled to start, that a member of the Proteas team had tested positive for Covid-19 in the final round of testing which was done on Thursday. While that player obviously goes straight into isolation, everyone else who has been in close contact with him now also has to quarantine or be re-tested.

The bottom line is that the entire series, which was meant to end on Wednesday, is now in doubt because South Africa only have a squad of 18 players in the bubble. The potential loss of revenue from the three ODIs being cancelled is something the professional game in this country can ill afford.

According to the CSA statement, England and Wales Cricket Board CEO Tom Harrison has agreed to the first ODI being postponed rather than cancelled. Sunday’s second game in Paarl will now become the opening 50-ovr fixture, with the Newlands match now being played on Monday and Cape Town also hosting the third match on Wednesday.

Sunday’s fixture is a day game while the last two matches are day/nighters.

Both teams have been tenants of the luxury Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town, in a strictly-controlled bio-bubble, but the Proteas had two players – believed to be David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo – test positive for Covid before the T20 series between November 27 and December 1.

Pressure at the highest level of sport often equates to a lack of time and space and Proteas bowling coach Charl Langeveldt is hopeful that his charges will be able to execute their skills better as they move from T20s to ODIs against England.

The first ODI in the three-match series is at Newlands on Friday afternoon and South Africa will be desperate to put their 3-0 hammering in the T20s behind them. Time is on their side, as their 50-over form has generally been better than their T20 efforts in recent times.

“Most of the guys have been playing four-day cricket and got some bowling in there, but we haven’t had a lot of T20 cricket recently and we missed out on two of our warm-up games because of Covid. It’s about match-fitness and T20 is very difficult because it comes down to execution under pressure. You can train as much as you want in the nets, but it’s not the same intensity.

“We’ve got work to do to be able to execute under pressure, but the first two T20s came down to two big moments, just two overs, and we have learnt from it to identify the big moment and embrace it. Fifty-over cricket is still high intensity but it’s longer time. The batsmen take more time to settle in so that means more time for the bowlers to settle into a rhythm and get used to the pitch,” Langeveldt said on Thursday.

There will be at least two changes in South Africa’s batting line-up with the in-form Faf du Plessis being rested for the ODIs and Reeza Hendricks released from the squad. The Proteas will be eager to get the experienced duo of David Miller and Andile Phehlukwayo back into action after they were in Covid quarantine.

The absence of the injured Kagiso Rabada means the Proteas could well bring Junior Dala in, with Langeveldt saying a big part of their ODI strategy is to be in the opposing batsmen’s faces and try to strike in the early overs.

“KG is a massive loss for us because he always strikes with the new ball and we speak a lot about taking wickets in the first 10 overs so we can shift pressure on to the opposition. We see Junior as purely a 50-over bowler because he hits hard lengths and is aggressive, he can use the two bouncers and two new balls you get in ODIs. We’ve worked on upskilling him with slower balls and yorkers.

“Junior gives us that extra pace and aggression and to have Andile back would give us six bowlers which is great for us in 50-over cricket. He has a special one-day record and is also an option bowling at the back end. We need to be clever and be able to have that next level of intensity. We must be aggressive in both our batting and our bowling, you can’t sit back against England,” Langeveldt said.

In-form spin-bowling all-rounder George Linde could be welcomed into the Proteas T20 starting XI for the first time on Friday night as South Africa look to play a sixth bowler against a typically high-scoring England team in the first match of the series at Newlands.

South Africa’s last T20 outing was also in Cape Town back in February when they were thumped by 97 runs by Australia to lose the series 2-1. Australia managed to rack up a sizeable 193 for five batting first, and then skittled the Proteas for just 96, with spinners Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa sharing five of the wickets.

One of South Africa’s chief problems that day was that they only had five bowlers – spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was the pick of the attack, but three of the four seamers went for more than 10-runs-per-over. Linde, whose left-arm orthodox complements Shamsi’s wrist-spin, has been in great form this season with the bat, so he could comfortably slot in at number six in the order. On what is expected to be another slow Newlands pitch, a second spinner is probably going to be more useful than another paceman.

With Dwaine Pretorius ruled out of the matches against England due to a hamstring strain, Andile Phehlukwayo is likely to return to the side as the lead all-rounder.

Given the importance of making a good start to the season against the powerful English side and the eight months of inactivity for the Proteas team, coach Mark Boucher is likely to defy those calling for a new-look team and IPL stars like Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortje and Faf du Plessis will surely feature because they have form and match-fitness on their side.

Lungi Ngidi was outstanding in the T20s South Africa played at the end of last summer and should play on that basis, while Temba Bavuma was also excellent as De Kock’s opening partner and should get the nod, having missed the previous Newlands game because of injury. He would replace Pite van Biljon, while David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen are probably fighting it out for one place in the middle-order.

Probable Proteas XI – Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller/Heinrich Klaasen, George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.