Ken Borland

For Duanne Olivier, Monday’s first day of the second Test against India felt like “a new debut” and he gave credit to his fellow pacemen for their efforts in helping to turn a slow start into ultimately a successful opening day for the Proteas as they bowled the tourists out for just 202.

Olivier missed the first Test as he built himself back to peak conditioning following a bout of Covid, but on Monday he was back sharing the new ball with Kagiso Rabada, playing Test cricket for the first time since February 2019, when he took a Kolpak contract in England.

But things did not go well in the first hour for either Olivier, whose first four erratic overs went for 18 runs, or South Africa, as India reached 36/0.

But the drinks break helped the Proteas focus their effort and thereafter they squeezed India and claimed 10 wickets in 49 overs. Olivier and Rabada took three wickets each and young Marco Jansen claimed the other four; Lungi Ngidi bowled as well as any of them but ended with 0/26 in 11 overs.

“It felt like a new debut for me and I was very nervous,” Olivier admitted. “But we just wanted to try and have good energies and put pressure on the batsmen. Lungi and Marco did a superb job to create that pressure.

“And then the whole unit did it. It was a good day for the bowling unit as a whole. We would have taken 202 all out any day. The message from the coach was to stick to the basics and our processes and then reap the rewards.

“Lungi bowled exceptionally well but did not get the rewards, it was just one of those days for him. I am still trying to bowl fuller at good pace, but a couple of balls were too floaty. I will try to do better in the second innings,” Olivier said.

The Proteas batsmen then reached 35/1 at stumps and Olivier is optimistic they can cash in on the second day.

“If we want to be hyper-critical then we probably gave India 20-30 too many runs. The pitch is a bit different to how it is in domestic cricket, there’s not as much grass. It is harder and it will speed up.

“It was very hot today and it will start deteriorating in the second innings and then it might spin. We are 1-0 down, that is the reality, and of course we want to win the series.

“But as a team we can’t look too far ahead, otherwise our focus is not where it needs to be and you can get distracted. Tomorrow is a new day and we will break our processes down into smaller bits,” Olivier said.

Keshav Maharaj has been one of the consistently brilliant performers for the Proteas this year and also took to the stand-in captaincy with aplomb, but he admitted that he and his fellow leaders in the squad will be restless sleepers when it comes to automatic qualification for the next ODI World Cup following their series loss in Sri Lanka.

South Africa were beaten by 78 runs in the third and decisive ODI on Tuesday night, meaning they took just 10 points out of a possible 30 from the series. That leaves them languishing in ninth place in the standings, with the top eight qualifying automatically for the World Cup in India in 2023. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have leapfrogged the Proteas into fifth place, eight points ahead of them.

“It is a bit concerning, we have to start winning series and taking care of those points. The first two games were very good in terms of how the batting approached playing spin-bowling, we scored a lot of runs. But tonight was disappointing and we need to reassess how we bat when the ball is turning a bit more. There was more turn and bounce today, but Sri Lanka bowled really well though.

“Maybe we need to change our mental strategy and approach, but I’m sure it’s not a lack of skills because the batsmen have worked very hard on that. But also maybe we focused a bit too much on spin tonight and were caught a bit unawares by their pace bowler [Dushmantha Chameera]. Not many teams lose four wickets in the powerplay and still win, even though I thought 203 was a fair score to chase,” Maharaj said after the Proteas were bundled out in only 30 overs for just 125.

Coach Mark Boucher admitted to struggling to get the right team balance on the night, with the two seam-bowling all-rounders, Wiaan Mulder and Andile Phehlukwayo, bowling just two overs between them and scoring a combined tally of only 19 runs. But a fair arbitrator would surely also point to the difficulties caused by quotas when it comes to balancing a team, especially with two Black African stars not available in Temba Bavuma and Lungi Ngidi.

And the first question Boucher was asked in the post-match press conference was whether he was happy with the balance of the side from a transformation perspective. To which he simply answered “Yes”.

“We needed to play an extra spinner and that threw us a bit. But with the rain, Anrich Nortje would have been a handful on that pitch as well. We wanted three seamers too and the batting is full of guys who have been in good form too. In hindsight, an extra batsman today would have been nice, but losing four wickets in the first 10 overs means we were always going to be under pressure no matter how deep our batting,” Boucher later explained.

Tabraiz Shamsi is the sort of cheerful fellow who is usually lighting up a room and the champion spinner has been a particularly bright ray of sunshine since rejoining the Proteas squad for their flight to Sri Lanka, where they are now preparing for their ODI series that starts on Thursday.

Shamsi was not with the team when they held a training camp in Potchefstroom earlier this week, because he was playing in The Hundred in England. That was an enjoyable experience for him and he has also received the great news that he will be playing in the remainder of this year’s IPL, when it resumes next month in the United Arab Emirates, for the Rajasthan Royals. It is no less than the world’s No.1-ranked T20 bowler deserves and it is inexplicable that his only previous IPL contract was in 2016 with Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Apart from all those happy developments though, Shamsi says he is always just delighted to get back into the Proteas environment, whatever some people have said about its culture at present.

“The Hundred was good, it’s like a much faster version of T20 and I’ve picked up how to save time in T20 just by showing more urgency in the field. And I enjoy bowling a lot, I don’t like long breaks, so it was good to be playing. And now to be signed by the Royals is special, I’m very excited because I’ve never played in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. It will be nice to get some inside info on those pitches before the T20 World Cup.

“But the excitement of playing for South Africa again is something different, just the thought of it made me smile even in between all the turbulence on the flight that had me sweating and holding on to my chair!  These are my people, I have my boys, the guys I grew up playing with and against, and that’s what makes it special playing for the Proteas,” Shamsi said on Friday.

While Shamsi’s outstanding bowling in the West Indies and Ireland has stolen the limelight for himself, the 31-year-old is adamant that he has a very good Proteas attack around him.

“Our confidence levels are obviously high and I honestly believe we have one of the best bowling attacks in the world. The talent is there, we’re just a little inexperienced at international level. But the skill is there, have no doubt. The more we play together the better we will get.

“Personally, with the year I’ve had, it’s like living your dream. But I’m never completely happy with the way I’m bowling, even after the West Indies and Ireland tours. I’m constantly working behind the scenes and I’m also hoping to contribute something with the bat. I spent a month on the sidelines during the Test series in the West Indies and I spent it in the nets … so much so that I got a batting niggle!” Shamsi said.

Utility forward Rynhardt Elstadt says he is greatly honoured to be part of the Springbok ‘Bomb Squad’ and when he comes off the bench in the first Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town on Saturday he and his fellow replacements will be chasing even greater intensity and physicality.

South Africa used their eight substitutes – generally choosing an extra forward reserve and just two backs – to great effect in winning the World Cup in 2019. But with several backline players having question marks over their fitness, coach Jacques Nienaber has gone with a standard five-three split on this occasion. Their instructions will be the same though, according to Elstadt, who narrowly missed out on the squad that triumphed in Japan two years ago.

“It’s an honour for me, it’s called the ‘Bomb Squad’ for a reason and us guys coming off the bench have an important role. We need to raise the intensity of whoever we are replacing left it off and we need to bring more physicality. I hope I live up to the standard and do even more, and I just don’t want to drop my team-mates.

“I like the physicality side of the game, and it’s not just myself in the team who likes that. My role when I come on is to climb in. I’m not a particularly big ball-carrier, but my job is to do the donkey work to make sure we get good ball and also to stop the opposition’s momentum,” Elstadt said.

The 31-year-old Elstadt, who will earn his third cap on Saturday, has the responsibility of covering both loose forward and lock, especially with specialist lock replacement Lood de Jager having not played any rugby since April and having tested positive for Covid at the start of the month.

Other rookies in the Springbok squad who have key roles are Ox Nche and Kwagga Smith.

Nche, who has also just played in two Tests previously, will start at loosehead prop against Tadhg Furlong, the Irishman who many rate as the best tighthead prop in the world. While Nche’s greatest assets are probably in open play, and mobility is also going to be very important against this Lions team, his first job is to ensure a steady scrum for the Springboks.

Smith replaces the injured Duane Vermeulen at eighthman and, as much as Nienaber said the mobile 25-year-old could do the same job in terms of getting and stopping momentum as the World Cup final man of the match, there is little doubt the former Springbok Sevens star has been picked to use his pace and ball-hunting skills to counter the Lions in the wide channels.