Ken Borland

Birdwatchers will tell you that a minor claim to fame of Gqeberha is that all four species of South African Bunting can be found in the area, and they stick around all year long too.

But while South Africa’s top-order batsmen were bunting the ball around St George’s Park on Friday, none of them were able to stay at the crease long enough to get past 70, which was the score made by captain and opening batsman Dean Elgar.

Keegan Petersen (64) and Temba Bavuma (67) both batted with impressive class as well, and Ryan Rickelton made his way to 42 before falling to a reverse-sweep.

It all amounted to a total of 278 for five after the Proteas had won the toss and elected to bat under heavily overcast skies on a greenish pitch.

And Petersen said he still feels South Africa are ahead after the first day of the second Test against Bangladesh.

“I think it’s a decent score, although losing those two late wickets has levelled things out a bit. But I think we are still a bit ahead of the game.

“It would have been nice to just be three down because then we would really have been in the driving seat.

“We did well, it was a tricky pitch with a bit in it for the seamers, but we dealt with it well. But hundreds are just eluding us, but it’s not for the want of trying.

“Hundreds would put us in even better positions, while making fifties and getting out kind of balances things out. With hundreds you really get ahead in the game,” Petersen said.

One aspect of the South African batting that is working well is the new opening partnership between Elgar and Sarel Erwee, who may have only scored 24 on Friday, but that ensured a solid start with his 52-run stand with his skipper.

Elgar is enjoying a tremendous series with half-centuries in every innings, and that has lifted him into second place on South Africa’s all-time run-scoring list against Bangladesh. The left-hander has 606 runs in eight innings at an average of 86.57, and has overtaken Hashim Amla (602 @ 66.88), with just Graeme Smith (743 @ 82.55) ahead of him.

Arguably more impressively, Elgar is now the leading run-scorer in all Tests at the historic St George’s Park ground, going to 641 in 14 innings at 49.30, overtaking Jacques Kallis (617 @ 36.29) and AB de Villiers (591 @ 49.25).

“Dean obviously leads from the front and has been extremely consistent,” Petersen said. “He’s leading properly with this young team.

“He’s a hard leader and he expects us to be at our best all the time. We just try and follow him.”

Debutant Ryan Rickelton admitted that getting off the mark in Test cricket with a reverse-sweep for four was not the lowest-risk shot he could have played, but he felt quite comfortable doing it on the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh at Kingsmead in Durban on Thursday.

Rickelton scored a bright 21, which included four fours, the other highlight being a tremendous off-drive to the boundary off Taskin Ahmed. The 25-year-old fell though half-an-hour after tea as he top-edged a hook to mid-on off fast bowler Ebadot Hossain.

Temba Bavuma (53*) and Kyle Verreynne (27*) then took South Africa through to stumps on 233/4.

“I was a bit nervous before coming out to bat but once I was out there I was more excited about finally getting an opportunity to show what I can offer,” Rickelton said.

“I brought out the reverse-sweep a bit early, but I was a bit tense, just planting my front foot to the off-spinner [Mehidy Hasan Miraz] and patting the ball back.

“If I had still been on nought after 10 or 15 balls then things probably wouldn’t have gone in my favour, so I took a bit of a risk. But it’s not my riskiest option and I felt quite comfortable playing the shot.

“I was just sad not to make it to the end of the day, but Temba has played a great innings and set us up for hopefully a big one tomorrow,” Rickelton said.

The Central Gauteng Lions star admitted that the Proteas had greeted Bangladesh’s decision to bowl first with some interest.

“We were quite surprised because you usually bat first in Durban because the pitch starts to turn as it wears,” Rickelton said. “We were going to bat if we won the toss.

“But all our talk about not having seen a pitch of this nature at Kingsmead before maybe pushed them into it. It’s an interesting wicket.

“When the bowlers hit the deck and aimed at the top of off-stump then it did a bit. There was a bit of seam movement and there are some divots there now.

“There’s also a lot of grass on the pitch, but if the sun keeps shining then it should break up a bit,” Rickelton said.

Anyone who still buys into the narrative that India are poor away from home has clearly not been keeping up to date because Virat Kohli’s men have won their last four series overseas.

That includes back-to-back triumphs in Australia and victory in England. But South Africa remains the one country where India have not managed to win a series. And the fact that Sri Lanka were the first subcontinent team to achieve that feat – in 2018/19 – does not sit well with the global superpowers.

Opener Lokesh Rahul is developing into one of India’s key batsmen and on Friday he admitted winning a series in South Africa for the first time is “extra motivation” for the team, although he is well aware of the challenges they will face in Centurion, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

“This is a huge series for us, we always take away tours as a challenge,” Rahul said. “A lot was said about India not being able to win overseas, but we worked really hard on it and we won in England and Australia.

“But we have not won a series here and that is extra motivation. We will try to be better this time and learn from our previous mistakes here.

“The pace and bounce here is very different to any other country, which is why it was important to get here earlier and we’ve had a great week of preparation, with a lot of intensity.

“Australia is fast and bouncy, but here the pitches start a bit slow, then quicken up and then slow down again, and you have to adjust. It’s an exciting place to play and the new ball plays a big part,” Rahul said.

Kohli was the only Indian batsman to average more than 35 on their previous tour here in early 2018 and the tourists will be relying on him again, along with his fellow 33-year-olds Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara to contribute much more.

They are hardly antiques, but their form in recent seasons suggests they will be looking over their shoulders at the younger generation.

Rahul himself had a miserable time in South Africa in 2018, scoring just 30 runs in four innings. But he believes he has the game-plan to put that right.

“I have to play close to the body, the same as an opener wherever you play. I need to try see off the new ball and that means leaving a lot of deliveries. We don’t want to be giving away wickets in the first 25-30 overs.

“I need to play tight, I did it in England as well. You need to be a lot more focused and disciplined here, you have to be patient to get your runs.

“It’s important that we start well with the bat and be prepared to leave the ball multiple times,” Rahul said.

This week’s South African Open at Sun City may be missing the vast majority of the overseas contingent, but claiming the title of the second-oldest national open in golf is still not going to be easy with four golfers ranked inside the world’s top-100 leading the field at the Gary Player Country Club from Thursday.

Defending champion Christiaan Bezuidenhout is the highest ranked of those at No.48, but Garrick Higgo will be breathing down his neck, as he is on the rankings in 57^th place, as the duo battle for the unofficial crown of being South Africa’s hottest young golfer.

Current form will probably count for more than the rankings though and the other two top-100 players in the field – Dean Burmester and Shaun Norris – are both in fine form and should pose a serious challenge.

Norris, who finished tied for third in last weekend’s Joburg Open, has been wonderfully consistent over the last few months. In 11 events on the Japanese Tour, he won the Japan Open, had three other top-10 finishes and five in the top-20. Norris has enjoyed considerable success in Asia through the years, but will want to show just how good he is on home turf in the SA Open.

Burmester finished in the top-10 at both the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, finishing in a career-best 18^th place on the European tour’s order of merit. He is another who is a better golfer than many may think.

Another contender to look out for is world number 111 Dylan Frittelli, who plays alongside Bezuidenhout and Higgo on the U.S. PGA Tour and will be angry with his second and final round in the Joburg Open, when he shot one-over-par and dropped out of contention after his first-round 67 in the event that was reduced to 36 holes by the weather and Covid travel restrictions.

Those travel bans from South Africa have decimated the field in terms of overseas competitors, but there are still a few who will be teeing it up at Sun City.

Welshman Rhys Enoch is a regular Sunshine Tour competitor and he won the Cape Town Open in 2018 and the KitKat Group Pro-Am in March this year.

Scotsman David Drysdale and Brazil’s Adilson da Silva are also seasoned Sunshine Tour campaigners, Johannes Veerman is an American who won the Czech Masters on the European Tour this year and played in both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.

There are even still a couple of Englishmen in the field in Steve Surry and Chris Cannon.