Ken Borland

The Northerns Titans and the Central Gauteng Lions clash at SuperSport Park from Friday in what could be the decisive fixture in deciding this season’s winners of the 4-Day Domestic Series, with both teams looking to field players who have just returned from the Proteas tour of New Zealand.

The Lions, runaway leaders of the four-day competition for most of the season, go into the final round under severe pressure from not just the Titans but also the Eastern Province Warriors.

There is just a 0.48-point gap between the Lions at the top of the log and the Warriors, who travel to Bloemfontein to play the Free State Knights. Northerns are in third place just 6.30 points behind the Lions, so if they beat their Gauteng neighbours and the Warriors are held to a draw by the Knights, then the Titans could claim the four-day crown.

Pivotal to Northerns’ hopes is whether ace off-spinner Simon Harmer, who was in the Proteas squad in New Zealand but did not play, is able to get on the field on Friday. The competition’s leading wicket-taker, with 35 in six matches, is apparently keen to play despite only landing back in South Africa on Thursday afternoon.

With pacemen Dayaan Galiem, Junior Dala and Okuhle Cele all out injured, Harmer would provide some much-needed bite to the attack. In fact, with Tabraiz Shamsi technically available and always keen to show he is not just a white-ball bowler, could the Titans try and surprise the Lions with a spinners’ pitch?

The Lions have lost the most players to the Proteas and have been trying to get permission from CSA to field the likes of Ryan Rickelton and Duanne Olivier, their most successful batsman and bowler respectively. Without them, they have slim pickings to choose from.

Rumours that the Warriors have signed leg-spinner Imran Tahir for the last round of matches are apparently incorrect, but EP coach Robin Peterson will be keeping an anxious eye on the weather. Sources in Bloemfontein say the outlook is for lots of rain, but Peterson said “your guess is as good as mine” when asked about it.

Scenarios

(courtesy official CSA statistician Andrew Samson)

If Lions beat Titans and Warriors don’t win, Lions will finish 1st.

If Titans beat Lions and Warriors don’t win, Titans will finish 1st.

If Lions beat Titans and Warriors win, the team between them with most bonus points will finish 1st.

If Titans beat Lions and Warriors win, the team between them with most bonus points will finish 1st.

If the Lions v Titans match is drawn and Warriors win then Warriors will finish 1st.

Bonus points needed

Assuming that all teams have the same bowling bonus points and results are as above, then in the first 100

overs of their first innings:

Warriors will need to make 25 more runs than Lions to finish above them.

Titans will need to make 292 more runs than Warriors to finish above them.

Titans will need to make 316 more runs than Lions to finish above them.

For every 1 point difference in bowling points between any of these side the run requirements will be adjusted by 50, e.g.

The Proteas are going to take a lot of confidence from their form in the last eight months, having won Test series against the West Indies and the No.1-ranked Indians, drawn with the reigning world Test champions in New Zealand, won 13 out of 16 T20 internationals and also hammered India 3-0 in an ODI series.

So there are definite signs of regrowth in a team that seems to have turned the corner under Mark Boucher and Dean Elgar.

In a month’s time they will be playing another Test series as they host Bangladesh in Durban and Gqeberha, and coach Boucher is keen to keep climbing the World Test Championship table, having already taken crucial points off the two finalists of the previous edition. The 12 points gained this week in Christchurch move South Africa into fourth place.

“It’s been a tough couple of months without a lot of time at home with our families and then there’s Bangladesh, which will be another tough series,” Boucher said.

“We are still very much in the World Test Championship and we will take confidence from this series in New Zealand and learn from our mistakes in the first Test. But it’s clear we are heading down the right road.”

Given the enormous resilience the team has shown in coming back from 1-0 down against both India and New Zealand, it was only fitting that Boucher should pay tribute to his captain Elgar for his leadership.

“Dean talks a lot but he follows it up with action,” Boucher said. “We knew we would be under pressure in the second game and we chatted about walking towards the challenge, not running away.

“We understood what was required in the second Test and there were a couple of brave calls like Dean winning the toss and batting first, and then batting the way he did. It’s not as if he was batting No.5.

“He’s the opening batsman and he fronted up and walked straight into the pressure. He’s been fantastic and I know the team really look up to him and back him in a very strong way.

“The way we lost the first Test was very disappointing. The guys showed a lot of character though and there was no panic, just the realisation that we just did not rock up for the first game,” Boucher said.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar is not the type to get too carried away but South Africa’s remarkable victory over New Zealand in the second Test in Christchurch, following his stupendous decision to bat first, did draw a “brilliant” from the nuggety opening batsman.

Having been thrashed in humiliating fashion by an innings and 276 runs in the first Test, the Proteas bounced back in the second with an amazing all-round display that saw them win by 198 runs, keeping their unbeaten series record against New Zealand intact.

“To get a 1-1 result coming to New Zealand, at the start of the tour I would have taken it,” Elgar said. “We certainly didn’t start well, we didn’t really pitch up, but we took so many learnings from that.

“To see us really rock up in the second Test, to bounce back and show a lot of character and maturity was brilliant. Because of the first Test, it would have been easy to take the soft option and bowl first.

“But visually the pitch looked a little different, there was a lot less green grass and it looked a bit like a bat-first wicket. Taking the easy way out does not sit well with me, that’s not my character.

“Credit to the team for responding so well because the bowlers still posed quite a challenge on that pitch up front. It’s about playing a positive brand of cricket, playing from the front foot,” Elgar said.

Deprived of two key bowlers in Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi, it was pleasing to see two young bowlers from the Vaal, Wiaan Mulder and Lutho Sipamla, step up and admirably fill their places in the attack.

Other ‘foals’ to find their feet in the Test were Kyle Verreynne and Sarel Erwee, 32 years old but playing in just his second Test. Both of them scored superb centuries, Erwee on the first day and Verreynne under huge pressure in the second innings.

“It was good to see the young guys step up,” Elgar said. “Losing Lungi with a back issue was a big loss for the bowling unit, but it was a good squad effort with some older guys putting their hands up too.

“There were a lot of different influences on this game. Sarel really showed his character, his story goes a lot deeper than just playing cricket. He understands working hard for what you believe in.

“Kyle has not played a lot of Tests, he had to fill big shoes and he’s been under a lot of scrutiny, but the way he came out and played his natural style in the second innings was brilliant.

South Africa cricket tour of New Zealand“Keshav Maharaj is always a banker of mine and I know what I will get from him in terms of playing and competitiveness. And KG Rabada has been phenomenal,” Elgar said.

From dealing with a 10-day quarantine that almost turned their hotel rooms into prison cells, to getting over a humiliating defeat in the first Test, the Proteas showed immense resilience in bouncing back to beat New Zealand by 198 runs in the second Test in Christchurch on Tuesday, allowing them to level the series and ensure the Black Caps have still never won a rubber against South Africa.

Man of the Match Kagiso Rabada, who led the way with the ball with 8/106 in the match and played a vital innings with the bat, said after the impressive triumph that resilience seems to come naturally to the Proteas team.

“It just seems to be our natural character, resilience has always been the word that just seems to fit us best,” Rabada said. “It’s never easy to beat us and we proved it again in this series.

“And to see young guys stepping up like Lutho Sipamla and Kyle Verreynne, and Sarel Erwee in his first series, there are lots of good signs for the future.

“It was no use harping on about how badly we played in the first Test, we recognised that we totally did not rock up and New Zealand were too good for us, but we had to put game-plans in place and react under pressure.

“Mentally we had to come back. We had to wake up, rock up and execute. We were under pressure, so it means a lot not to lose the Test series. We would have liked to have won, but credit to us for bouncing back,” Rabada said.

Although the 26-year-old still occasionally has moments of breast-beating emotion that pour out on the field, he is now a much more calculating, composed bowler. While there can be no doubting his passion, Rabada has developed a cool, ruthless streak.

“As a fast bowler you very seldom feel at your very best, so I just go out and try and implement the basics as well as possible and try to adapt to the conditions as best you can,” Rabada said.

“You’re always overcoming challenges and you just try and create your own luck through hard work, sticking to your process and refining it where necessary. And then you just have to allow it to happen.”