Ken Borland

DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal – Louis Albertse handled the pressure of chasing down his first Sunshine Tour title like a mentsch on Saturday as he won the third leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estate.

The 25-year-old began the final round with a share of the lead, and produced an impressive four-under-par 66 to finish on nine-under-par for the tournament and clinch victory by one stroke over CJ du Plessis (65).

But as well as Albertse played, a bogey on the par-four 16^th left him needing pars on the tricky last two holes of The Woods course, and negotiated the elevation changes and water bordering the 18^th green with aplomb.

“There are so many emotions, but it feels really good to have my first Sunshine Tour title. It’s never easy to win and the last nine holes when you’re going for your first win is particularly tough, but I tried hard to stay in the moment. The bogey on 16 was a bit unsettling, but I knew I was still 100% in it. I had been playing nicely the whole day and all I could do was give it my best.

“I’ve been in Category 9 since I started on tour and I’ve worked really hard to get out of it, I always felt I was good enough to win. Now there are lots of things to look forward to, getting into big events now without any worries. I saw a couple of scoreboards on the way in and I knew CJ was playing well, which was a good thing in a sense because I knew I had to keep pushing and not play defensively,” Albertse said after his wire-to-wire win, having shared the lead with veteran Brazilian Adilson da Silva after the first two rounds.

Albertse, who hails from Dundee in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, went out in two-under-par 33 and then made an ideal start to the back nine with a lengthy birdie putt on the 339-yard par-four 10^th hole.

“I made a few good par-saves at the beginning but unfortunately took a six on the second par-five. But I’ve been putting really well and the birdie on 10 was a massive bonus, that just makes sure you get into the right gear going into the downwind holes. I also made a really good save on 13 and then birdies on 14 and 15 [another long putt] kept the momentum going,” Albertse said.

Du Plessis’ five-under-par 65 started inauspiciously with a bogey at the first hole, but thereafter he did not drop a shot, collecting five birdies including four in five holes from the sixth. It is the Irene Country Club golfer’s fourth runners-up finish and he is yet to win a professional tournament.

Da Silva was one shot off the lead when he made the turn, but returned to the clubhouse in level-par to finish on six-under-par, two behind Du Plessis and in the tie for third with Riekus Nortje and Deon Germishuys.

Scores – https://sunshinetour.com/tournament-information/?tourn=VOWC&season=221S&report=tmentry~season=221S~alphaorder~#/profile

Cricket South Africa’s Social Justice and Nation-Building hearings are set to resume on Monday and now those implicated in the first three-and-a-half weeks of testimony will get the chance to sell their side of the story to the ombudsman, Advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza.

So far the SJN hearings have been anything but boring as nearly 50 respondents have come before Ntsebeza and his fellow advocates and testified with great zeal about how they have been hurt or discriminated against by the game of cricket in this country.

Unfortunately, numerous critics and commentators have been a bit slow to realise that we have only heard one side of the story thus far. None of this evidence has been tested or cross-examined, but that hasn’t stopped sensational headlines and vicious social media attacks being made.

While many of the stories of hurt were eloquently and movingly presented, sadly some people abused the process to continue the campaign against CSA director of cricket Graeme Smith and Proteas coach Mark Boucher, making them the focus of their presentations. As if Smith and Boucher are personally responsible for all the awful things that happened in the 1990s and 2000s. And, judging by some of the hysterical reaction, they would already be locked away in a cell before being allowed to give evidence according to certain people’s idea of how justice works.

Discrimination based on race is what the SJN is looking for, but several of the complaints around selection ignore the fact that Linda Zondi was national convenor of selectors at the time, or Russell Domingo was the Proteas head coach. So is it Black people being discriminatory or are we going to deny both these great cricket servants their agency and say they were merely stooges for the few White people involved in the running of cricket at the time?

Omphile Ramela, the former president of the players’ association, has been one of the most vocal voices claiming rampant discrimination in cricket. His personal complaints centred around him no longer being contracted by the Highveld Lions as a batsman and for CSA turning down his application to succeed Zondi as the convenor of selectors. Enoch Nkwe was the Lions coach who decided not to renew his contract and Victor Mpitsang was rightfully given the job of selection convenor, given his broad knowledge of the players in the system through both his coaching and commentary work.

There are many witnesses who have every right, however, to be angry about how they were treated, especially in the earlier days of unity. Selection frustrations are always a part of cricket though and a player not being selected cannot automatically be ascribed to racism. While Khaya Zondo was no doubt embittered by what happened to him in India in 2015, it is probably true that the only South African cricketer who was definitely dropped from the Proteas XI due to the colour of his skin was Kyle Abbott in the World Cup debacle earlier that year.

Watching our gloriously transformed and brilliant Springboks in action and listening to the painful SJN Hearings around the same time, I cannot help but feel it is the strict quotas in cricket that have caused much of the anger, strife and bitterness.

Rugby has never had quotas as strictly enforced and their transformation has been more organic. And to try and paint them as ‘targets’ in cricket is totally disingenuous – if they were just targets then why was Ashwell Prince, according to his own testimony, hauled before a CSA disciplinary committee after failing to meet the requirements on one occasion as Cape Cobras coach?

White players, who lose their places in the team due to quotas, are naturally upset and wonder if the player replacing them is there on merit. This unhappiness has now extended to Coloured and Indian cricketers and is not good for changeroom morale.

The other side of the coin is that Black players also wonder if they are in the team on merit (as the majority are), and that type of self-doubt is lethal in a sport like cricket which relies so much on confidence and self-belief.

There always seem to be whispers about Temba Bavuma’s place in the Proteas side for whatever format, but notwithstanding the questions over his role in T20 cricket, coach Mark Boucher gave his captaincy a ringing endorsement after he led them to victory in the West Indies in his first assignment in charge.

Bavuma’s one innings of note in the Caribbean came in the second T20 when he top-scored with 46 off 33 balls batting at number three as South Africa bounced back superbly from a mauling in the first game. But Bavuma ended the series with just 76 runs in five innings at a strike-rate of 108.57, opening the batting in the final match. Which is where he said he envisages himself batting in future.

But for keeping the side together through the ups and downs of a tricky series, with an unsettled team, Bavuma’s leadership deserves high praise.

“I thought Temba’s captaincy was great, if you look at the bowing this series it was fantastic, give or take one or two bad overs here and there. The way he managed his bowlers when it was really tough up front was impressive. There were a couple of gambles that didn’t pay off but that’s always going to happen in T20 cricket. I thought he led beautifully,” Boucher said.

Bavuma himself acknowledged that he is still trying to make his own way in international T20 cricket, having only played eight games before this series, while having the added responsibility of being captain.

“The execution of your plans is always put under pressure in T20 and I just tried to keep the guys calm, that was my biggest responsibility. I take it as a journey, I’ve been given the responsibility early in my T20 career and I’m still trying to grow as a player, while leading and inspiring the other players as well. I’m just trying to get better and better,” Bavuma said.

Bavuma’s stern visage on the field suggests he is not one to pamper his players and, although delighted with a series win at the first go, he is looking for further improvement.

“The win is a step in the right direction, the challenge now is to get better and better. We have to keep an eye on what is ahead and we had to find the balance around wanting to win the series but also seeing guys perform in certain roles ahead of the World Cup. I think we’ve done that and we’ll take a lot of confidence and clarity from winning against a top-quality West Indies outfit,” Bavuma added.

More than just providing the joy and relief of his first T20 series win, coach Mark Boucher said the Proteas’ 3-2 victory over the powerful West Indians offered great insight into what could work and what won’t in the T20 World Cup that will now be held in the United Arab Emirates in October.

South Africa won the fifth and final T20 by 25 runs at St George’s in Grenada at the weekend to finally vanquish a West Indian team that is rated as one of the favourites for the T20 World Cup. The win was built on the outstanding second-wicket partnership of 128 in 14 overs between Quinton de Kock (60 off 42) and Aiden Markram (70 off 48), followed by another magnificent display of wrist-spin from Tabraiz Shamsi (4-0-11-1).

Shamsi, the player of the series, was given great support this time by an impressive return to form by Kagiso Rabada (4-0-24-2) and Lungi Ngidi (4-0-32-3), while all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, included for the first time in the series, did an excellent job with two for 31 in his four overs.

“The biggest thing from the series is that we take a lot of knowledge from it because we will probably have conditions like this in the UAE. The pitches there are also going to be dry after the IPL and we’ve seen you’ve got to be skilful and smart and not just bash away. We saw that with our bowling today, the guys listened and bowled in the right areas.

“We’ve had a couple of guys out of form but we’ve still won the series, so we must be doing something right. We just want to be very smart in difficult conditions, play our brand of cricket and the guys have bought into it. Maybe why we don’t score so many runs at the end of the innings is because the Windies are very skilful there, but we are very skilful in the middle overs and in the end we won the series,” Boucher said.

Nowadays, everyone quotes a batsman’s six-hitting figures or their strike-rate as being the most important factor in T20 cricket, but the West Indies clearly dominated those statistics and yet still ended up on the losing side. Which shows that a one-paced, all-or-nothing, six or dot-ball approach is not the way to go.

“There are a couple of things in our game that we know can be much better and we would like to finish our innings better. But just because someone is out of form in one series, in tough batting conditions, does not suddenly make them a bad player. But if we can find an extra 15-20 runs – get past 180 – then it becomes very difficult to chase that in dry conditions.

“We have a basic idea of our best XI, especially when we are firing on all cylinders, but there are still places that need to be solidified. We will take confidence from beating a very good team though, and that is immense. We’ve learnt that if we really rock up on the day, we can probably beat anyone,” Boucher said.