Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada finally enjoyed his day in the sun as he spearheaded South Africa’s efforts to wrap up the first Test against the West Indies on the third day at St Lucia on Saturday, taking five for 34 as the Proteas won by an innings and 63 runs.

Rabada bowled superbly without much luck in the first innings, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje taking the honours as the West Indies were bundled out for just 97, their lowest ever score against South Africa. But in the second innings the 26-year-old gained reward for his skill, fire and accuracy, as he claimed his first five-wicket haul since taking 11 wickets in the epic win over Australia in Port Elizabeth in March 2018.

Rabada began what became the final day with figures of two for 18 in 10 overs, with the West Indies on 82 for four and still 143 behind. And he made the first breakthrough with a clever piece of cricket as a surprise full ball saw Jermain Blackwood driving straight to a well-placed short extra cover, Rassie van der Dusen taking a good low catch. That ended a partnership of 46 with Roston Chase.

He then returned shortly before the scheduled lunch break to dismiss Rahkeem Cornwall, also caught on the drive, for a duck and then, with the break delayed due to eight wickets being down, he bowled the stubborn Joshua de Silva (9), who shouldered arms to an inswinger and lost his off stump.

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj, who bowled just four overs in the first innings, chipped in with two wickets, bowling both Jason Holder (4) and Chase for a determined 62.

The hosts sit with a massive problem when it comes to their batting because Chase was their only batsman to sore more than 20 in the match. Holder top-scored in the dismal first-innings with 20.

Nortje claimed three wickets, including the last to fall –  Jayden Seales caught by the safe hands of Wiaan Mulder in the slips – to finish with seven in the match and he was very much the enforcer in a South African attack that looked most accomplished and not out of place with some of the best bowling line-ups in the world.

This is only the second time South Africa have beaten the West Indies by an innings in the Caribbean, the previous occasion coming in 2005 when they beat them by an innings and 86 runs in Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados. The Proteas have beaten the West Indies by an innings on three occasions at home.

Tabraiz Shamsi has been in the shadow of Imran Tahir in white-ball cricket for most of his international career and is finally back in the Test squad after appearing in the longest format of the game just twice, in 2016 and 2018, and says he is eager to win games in all formats for the Proteas in the West Indies.

Shamsi has established himself as South Africa’s No.1 limited-overs spinner, winning the T20 Player of the Year award on Monday night and featuring in seven of their nine ODIs since the start of 2020. But it is his Test prospects which are perhaps most interesting.

The left-arm wrist-spinner took a wicket in each innings on Test debut against Australia in Adelaide in November 2016 and his second Test was against Sri Lanka in Galle in July 2018. Shamsi was threatening in the first innings, taking three wickets, and then added a single wicket in the second innings.

But that was his last Test appearance, although coach Mark Boucher did want to play him in a three-pronged spin attack in the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi in January, but Shamsi pulled out shortly before the toss with a back spasm.

“As far as the Test team goes, I feel like I have unfinished business, but I have to wait my turn and give it my all when the chance comes, I only think about winning games for my country. The role of a spinner is very important in the West Indies because their batsmen play calypso cricket, high-octane cricket, just playing shots. So a leg-spinner or a wrist-spinner can definitely turn the game there.

“It hasn’t been easy being behind Imran Tahir for so many years, just playing one or two games here and there, usually when we’ve already won the series. But you only really learn when you play regularly: If you make a mistake on Wednesday then you can try and rectify it on Friday and Sunday. Consistency of playing leads to better performances,” Shamsi said.

Confidence and consistent performances are certainly also products of having the same team together for a while and Shamsi is looking forward to the T20 squad playing some regular cricket now ahead of their World Cup in October/November. South Africa will play five T20s against the West Indies and three versus Ireland, as well as having series against Sri Lanka and India lined up.

“It will be nice to go into the World Cup with some confidence, but it is five months away. So I just want to keep improving and hopefully I’ll be in even better form then after quite a good last season. The World Cup will be in the subcontinent so this is a nice opportunity to fine-tune and come up with and perfect game-plans where the pitches are normally slow.

“We may get the same conditions at the World Cup so we want tough games now. The team maybe does not have a lot of caps, but we have all played a lot of domestic cricket. We know the skills in the squad and that gives us confidence, we know the firepower we have is really exciting. It’s not bad to be flying under the radar and I think we will surprise a few people,” Shamsi said.

It took the most gruelling of meetings, but after 11 hours of intense wrangling, the Cricket South Africa Members Council on Sunday night finally agreed to the new constitution proposed by the Interim Board, marking the end of the crisis in cricket that would have led to Minister of Sport Nathi Mthethwa withdrawing their recognition at the end of the week.

The Members Council met on Saturday afternoon and then went into a meeting with the Interim Board from 10am on Sunday. The initial attitude of the Members Council seemed to be that CSA should “defend” their autonomy against the Minister’s looming action, especially since Sascoc issued a strong rejection of having a majority independent board in a statement on Saturday.

But with the threat of irreparable harm being done to the game if they were suspended by the minister, agreement was eventually reached on all the outstanding issues that prevented the Members Council from approving the MoI last weekend.

Sascoc, who have warned CSA that they could have their membership of the mother body suspended if they agree to an majority independent board and an independent chair, will obviously still be an obstacle, but it is believed Mthethwa will be handling that side of the conflict.

CSA issued a communique half-an-hour before midnight on Sunday night, the headline of which included the gorgeous words “Joint Statement” indicating agreement had finally been reached and a catastrophe averted. In terms of Section 60 of the Companies Act, an expedited process has now been triggered which will see the MoI being adopted in the next 48 hours.

“By reaching this agreement, cricket in South Africa has adopted a governance mode which is best practice both in South Africa and internationally,” the statement said. Both Members Council president Rihan Richards and Interim Board chair Dr Stavros Nicolaou were then quoted expressing their delight at the cessation of hostilities.

As rugby’s return-to-play has shown, getting teams to gel takes time and the Proteas are just relieved that it has finally been confirmed that they will at least have some domestic action starting on November 2 before they are flung back into the international arena.

South Africa last took the field on March 7 when they completed a 3-0 ODI sweep over Australia in Potchefstroom and it seems likely that they will host England in white-ball internationals in November. The 50-over world champions have enjoyed a full northern summer of action, however, while the only play available to the Proteas has been for those in the IPL.

But Cricket South Africa finally confirmed on Friday that domestic cricket will resume from November 2 with the Four-Day Franchise Series. Due to necessary cutbacks, the format has changed with the six teams split into two pools. Within their own pool, a franchise will play each team home and away, and then play the three sides in the other group once each, either home or away. It means the number of four-day games has been cut from 10 per franchise to seven, although there will be a final at the end of it all.

The Momentum One-Day Cup, which runs from January 8 to February 12, will be played under the same format, while the CSA T20 Challenge which ends the season will be played over a single round of five matches per franchise, followed by a final.

Proteas spinner Tabraiz Shamsi said on Friday that he was just happy to be able to get out on to the field and have some match practice before their international commitments resume.

“At least there will be cricket and we now have the fixtures and we won’t just have to rock up and play England or whoever else they have lined up for us. We’re very happy to now have certainty because you can train as much as you want but you can’t gauge where you’re at in the nets and the stakes are low at practice. At least we now know we’ll have some domestic fixtures before any potential international matches.

“There will still be mistakes when we play for the Proteas, but at least we’ll now have time to see what we’re not doing right. We won’t just be practising. I’m just happy that we now have some games because obviously there has been a lot going on with Covid-19, and we can’t be too picky. Any cricket is good and playing seven matches instead of 10 is better than nothing,” Shamsi told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

The Lions start the defence of their four-day title with a match against the fast-improving Dolphins in Durban from November 2-5, while Shamsi’s Titans side travel to Cape Town to take on the Cobras at the same time.

The bookmakers would probably fancy the Titans, last year’s runners-up, to have the slightly easier pool as they play the Cobras and Warriors home and away in the first four rounds. They then play the Dolphins at home before their crunch game against the Lions is at the Wanderers, from December 20-23. That is the penultimate round of fixtures, with the final round starting on February 18.

“In international cricket, you play the same guys all the time, but it will be funny playing just the Cobras and Warriors in the first four rounds. I guess if I’m bowling well then you wouldn’t want to keep playing against them because they could get used to my bowling. But all the teams are probably pretty balanced and there have been so many changes in personnel before this season.

“I can’t remember so many player movements before, so no-one really knows how strong or weak the various teams are. It’s going to be a bit of a lottery and it’s going to take a while to figure out the different match-ups in domestic cricket,” Shamsi said.