Ken Borland

Seeing how a couple of personnel options go and getting the players into peak form ahead of the T20 World Cup are the focus points for Proteas coach Mark Boucher as he leads the team to India for a T20 and ODI series that starts next Wednesday and ends on October 11.

It will be Boucher’s penultimate mission with the national team, after he decided to end his stint with the Proteas after the T20 World Cup that follows the India tour. Boucher will be becoming the Mumbai Indians head coach, but he did not want to talk about that, rather disingenuously saying contractual obligations to both CSA and his new IPL franchise prevented him from speaking about his move.

“It’s a massive tour for us, the tour before the big event, which is the World Cup. It will be very easy to keep the focus on that massive prize and I know the players are very focused too,” Boucher said.

“My personal decisions won’t hamper the players, I’m in this job for them and I will give 100% to them. I want to look at combinations, keep them in touch in terms of form and try get the confidence going.

“We hope to see a couple of options and give opportunities to players, albeit in Indian conditions. We know we will have to play a different brand in Australia, but I know we’ve got the players to push for a great outcome.

“We also don’t want to give away too many of our cards because India are in our World Cup pool as well. So don’t expect us to go at them with our full-frontal team,” Boucher said.

While the 45-year-old often comes across as a stern older brother type rather than a kind, gentle uncle, there is no doubt he backs his players. Whether that be “backing Temba Bavuma 100%” after his shock omission from the SA20 or pumping the tyres of a T20 squad that many see as dark horses for the World Cup title.

“We’ve been the most successful T20 side over the last 25-30 games and we have a lot of special players. I have full confidence that we have lots of ammunition, now it’s about getting the guys to go out and play and be world-beaters.

“We’ll try and get everyone involved and ready in India, there are three T20s and three ODIs to get the guys in form and fit. It’s a massive blow not having Rassie van der Dussen and his whole aura around the team.

“But we are fortunate to have lots of guys pushing for selection, the competition for places is massive. And we can compete in any conditions.

“The nice thing about being together for a long time is that we have continuity, but also some exciting new talent that doesn’t have the scars of the past,” Boucher said.

PORT EDWARD, KwaZulu-Natal – Jacques Blaauw was in inspired form on the opening day of the SunBet Challenge hosted by the Wild Coast Sun at the Wild Coast Country Club on Wednesday, his eight-under-par 62 putting him in a two-stroke lead.

Two eagles and eight birdies, meaning successive bogeys on the ninth and 10^th holes barely mattered, saw Blaauw go to the 18^th tee with the legendary 59 in his sights. But after a good drive, he misjudged the wind and his second shot was on-target but way short.

So Blaauw ended with a double-bogey six, but he was still two ahead of four golfers who shot excellent 64s – Jordan Duminy, Neil Schietekat, Keenan Davidse and Madalitso Muthiya.

“On the last hole, I knew walking up the fairway that a birdie would give me a 59. But I didn’t feel under any pressure and I hit a good second shot  but it was just way short,” Blaauw said.

“I played for nine metres past the hole but I was about 20 yards short, so we must have misjudged the wind. But it was good fun and I obviously played some unbelievable golf.

“It all started with me holing out for eagle on the second hole from 46 yards, and then a nice birdie at three meant I went on a roll, I just didn’t miss a shot.

“I played some unbelievable irons into the greens, birdieing three of the par-threes, and my tee-shot on the eighth was my shot of the day – the flag was on the left by the water and I hit an eight-iron 174 yards to three feet,” Blaauw said.

The 36-year-old, who has won four times on the Sunshine Tour, missed his last two cuts, so Wednesday’s phenomenal round marked a spectacular return to form.

“It’s very weird, I actually felt before my round that my luck was going to turn. I feel I’ve been playing good golf, but I just couldn’t get it all together in a round,” Blaauw said.

“With my coach Eugene Schwartz, we’ve been working on getting my body moving better. It’s also about getting sharp around the greens, you need those up-and-downs and I did not miss many today.”

Schietekat was in the same three-ball as Blaauw and was also on fire on Wednesday and was seven-under through 15 holes, but then he double-bogeyed the par-five 16^th. He did well to bounce back from that shock, his first dropped shots of the day, and birdied the par-three 17^th to ensure he joined the four-way tie for second.

And there are another nine golfers tied for sixth after shooting five-under-par 65s, including veteran Jaco van Zyl, who won two weeks ago up the coast at Selborne.

DULLSTROOM, Mpumalanga – When Tandi McCallum tore through the front nine at Highland Gate Golf and Trout Estate on her way to a seven-point victory in the Sunshine Ladies Tour section of the Vodacom Origins of Golf ProAm, one could not help but cast one’s mind back to the evening before the first round and her comments as she spoke about how sports performance coach and mental wellness therapist Joanne Mountford has helped her regain peak form.

Mountford, who has been working with the South African women’s hockey team for their World Cup and Commonwealth Games campaigns, is also the Sunshine Ladies Tour’s coach and therapist for the player wellness programme sponsored by BetWay. Because Vodacom firmly believe that Health is Wealth, Mountford was invited as the keynote speaker for the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series ProAm at Highland Gate.

McCallum was on hand to back up Mountford’s methods, and her ProAm victory in the Dullstroom mountains was her third in a row, testament to the success of the player wellness programme.

“It’s crucial to understand what makes you tick, and Jo’s programme makes it very apparent what functions best in your game. If you’re always working on what you’re not good at, then you kind of end up chasing your tail,” McCallum said.

“It’s about consistency and how I manage myself and what I’m good at. It’s about keeping on track and staying in the flow with myself. She has given me techniques I can tap into that lead to better results.

“It had been a while since I had won and I felt like a bridesmaid for three years, getting into contention several times but then just not pushing through. You always find that there are one or two shots down the stretch that make the difference.

“As golfers, we know the value of each and every shot, but you also don’t want to put yourself under pressure. So when your thoughts start running away with you, that’s when I use Jo’s breathing techniques,” McCallum said.

As all golfers know, it can be the most frustrating of hobbies for those who play it socially, but imagine the pressures when it is your livelihood.

“It’s actually very difficult to just play one shot at a time, you can’t help but think about how winning might change your life, extend your playing privileges, get you into certain tournaments etc,” McCallum said.

“So it’s about staying in control of your thoughts and emotions for 18 holes. When I won again, I was leading by three and I was thinking ‘it’s great to be here’, but I was very nervous.

“You need reassurance that what you are doing is working and something as simple as controlling your breathing can get you over the line,” McCallum said before putting it all into practice and sweeping to another victory.

“I try and give the golfers actionable goals so they can stay focused in the moment,” Mountford explained. “I try and help them get rid of anything that hinders, like even perfectionism, which can be great, especially in a golf swing, but there can be a point where you need to let go, otherwise the mind can be very destructive.

“Pressure leads to anxiety, which feeds your sympathetic nervous system which activates fight or flight. So I work with their breathing so they activate their parasympathetic nervous system, which brings their heart and breathing rates down,” Mountford said.

England rediscovered the form that made them the darlings of limited-overs cricket as they skittled South Africa for just 83 to win the second ODI by 118 runs and level the series at Old Trafford on Friday.

After rain had delayed the start for three hours and 45 minutes, the match was reduced to 29 overs a side and England’s batting line-up also had problems against some excellent Proteas bowling.

Having been sent in to bat, England had slumped to 101 for six after Dwaine Pretorius destroyed the top-order with his canny seamers, taking three wickets.

But the highly-rated Liam Livingstone (38 off 26) and the exciting talent that is Sam Curran (35 off 18) lifted England to 201 all out.

Swing bowling has often been the weakness of South African batting line-ups and left-arm pacemen Reece Topley (4-0-17-2) and David Willey (4-1-9-1) were superb with the new ball, with Janneman Malan and Rassie van der Dussen both making ducks.

When Aiden Markram idiotically ran himself out without facing a ball, trying to steal a leg-bye to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who scored a slick direct hit, the Proteas had slumped to 6 for four, their worst ever start in an ODI, in terms of their total when the fourth wicket fell.

England’s other left-arm seamer, Curran, then sent a cutter crashing low into the off-stump of David Miller (12) to leave South Africa on 27 for five.

Despite the efforts of Heinrich Klaasen (33) and Dwaine Pretorius (17), the Proteas were never going to recover from such a parlous start and, with the rain returning, England turned to their spinners, Adil Rashid (6-1-29-3) and Moeen Ali (4.4-1-22-2) in order to get to 20 overs and ensure a result as quickly as possible.

South Africa had produced some grand bowling through the clever seamers of Pretorius, who bagged a career-best four for 36 in his six overs, and the guile of spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi.

Pretorius removed Phil Salt (17), brilliantly caught by Miller, and Joe Root (1), who both targeted the leg-side to the inswinger but were deceived by the length and pace of the ball, and then bowled a superb inducker to castle the dangerous Bairstow (28 off 27), and England were 62 for four in the nin^th over.

Maharaj (6-0-29-1) and Shamsi (6-0-39-2) then bowled superbly to further reduce England to 101 for six in the 18^th over. Shamsi’s set-up of captain Jos Buttler (19) was a beauty to behold as the left-arm wrist-spinner dismissed him for the second match in succession.

But then Curran and Livingstone ensured the momentum began to lean England’s way. Curran hit three brilliant straight sixes off the spinners, which sparked Livingstone, who delighted in the extra pace provided by Nortje to hit him for 6-6-6-4 in the 21^st over.

When the ball then began swinging at the start of their innings, the Proteas batsmen reacted like scared children.