Ken Borland

South African cricket is under enormous pressure at the moment, with the Proteas battling to keep their heads above water in Australia at the height of summer in a Test series that enjoys considerable profile due to it being between the two sides at number one and two in the World Test Championship.

The second Test at the MCG from Boxing Day, one of the great occasions in the game, is do-or-die for the Proteas in terms of staying alive in the series; but it also offers them the chance to go into 2023 on a much-needed positive note.

There can be no doubt that the South African cricket team have underperformed in 2022. The Test format has actually been their strongest, which is why they are still in contention to play in next year’s World Test Championship final, despite having one of the weakest batting line-ups.

They began 2022 by sealing a memorable series win over India, where the batsmen showed true guts and the bowlers were superb in home conditions. Their inconsistency then came to the fore in New Zealand with an abysmal performance in the first Test, but then a brilliant effort in the second to draw the series on the home turf of the reigning WTC champions.

Bangladesh were efficiently dispatched by a Proteas team missing their IPL stars, but spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer came to the fore, and a thumping innings win over England at Lord’s followed to really raise expectations.

But then the batting was exposed and heavy defeats followed at Old Trafford and the Oval. The Gabba massacre was a continuation of that trend.

The same batting woes often inflicted the T20 side. There were times when the Proteas looked genuine T20 World Cup contenders, like when they beat India away twice in a row in June or won the series in England. Even at the World Cup in Australia, winning a crunch game against India in Perth gave renewed hope; but they then lost to Pakistan and, most humiliatingly, to the Netherlands when just one more win would have seen them through to the semi-finals.

South Africa’s ODI form has been mediocre. The highlight of the last year was the 3-0 series win over India in the Cape, but unfortunately that did not qualify for World Cup qualification points. Their record for the rest of the year in ODIs was three wins and five losses, including a shock home series defeat to Bangladesh.

The Proteas are now struggling to automatically qualify for next year’s 50-over World Cup, especially since they are forfeiting their series in Australia, which was meant to follow the Tests, to concentrate on the SA20 competition, a desperate bid to rescue Cricket South Africa’s finances.

Those same dismal finances are the reason the Proteas are going to be desperately under-exposed at Test level over the next few years, so how can we honestly expect them (especially the batsmen) to get better in that arena? The Australia tour is the last three-Test series South Africa will play until September 2026!

The lack of attention CSA is giving to red-ball cricket is an immense frustration. There are many coaches who believe having a foundation in the skills of long-format cricket actually makes better limited-overs players, so we should not be surprised that the malaise spreads to the ODI and T20 performances.

And it’s not just the Proteas who aren’t getting enough red-ball cricket. Our domestic stars, the internationals of the future, play just seven four-day games the whole season. With the inevitable weather interventions and innings wins, some batsmen will only get 10 visits to the crease all summer.

And then there is the quality of that cricket. It is really annoying that the Proteas play such scant regard to ‘paying it back’ to the system that grew them and play so infrequently, even right before a major series like the current one in Australia.

I have no doubt our batsmen’s woes can be directly attributed to the fact their games are not sufficiently honed at domestic level. They are seldom really challenged from both ends during a game, whereas at international level they will face two fast bowlers roaring in at 140km/h or a top-quality spinner almost the whole time.

Unless these basic building blocks are fixed, we can stand by for another very frustrating year.

As South Africa’s T20 series against India heads to a conclusion, the Proteas are going to have to come up with an adroit response to how the conditions have become more and more typical of the subcontinent.

South Africa raced into a 2-0 lead in the five-match series with victories on a batting paradise in Delhi and on a pitch that assisted the seamers in Cuttack. But they were hammered by 48 runs by India in the third T20 earlier this week in Visakhapatnam, where the pitch was helpful to the spinners and much slower than the surfaces used in the first two games.

Fast bowler Anrich Nortje was one of the Proteas who struggled to adjust, bowling two overs for 23 runs, and he admitted on Thursday that the tourists were desperate to wrap up the series win in Friday’s fourth T20 in Rajkot. Nortje does at least have the excuse that he is still making his way back from a long-term hip/back injury that kept him out of just about the whole of last summer.

“The nets here have been a bit two-paced and up-and-down, they’re on the slower side. Our understanding is that it’s going to be a bit low and slow on Friday,” Nortje said.

“The game will be like a final for us. In the last match we didn’t get anywhere close towards what we are capable of playing, so for us this is a second chance and we need to seal the series as soon as possible.

“I’m still working on my bowling, I’m trying to find one or two things and my body is not 100% yet. It’s about slowly building up and I’m still trying to get back to where I was before last year’s T20 World Cup.

“It’s been a long time, but it’s about small, minor adjustments. Generally I try to keep things simple and stick to the basics, so there are small margins for me. But I think I’m on the right track,” Nortje said.

India have been able to clamber back into contention in the series thanks to their spinners coming more into play, but they have also been helped by Quinton de Kock’s injury and Aiden Markram’s illness, which have robbed South Africa of much-needed explosiveness up front, especially on pitches that get lower and slower.

The good news is that De Kock’s injured wrist has apparently made a “marked improvement” and he is practising again. Both he and Markram were in superb form in the recent IPL, but with the latter heading home after his Covid quarantine, the Proteas are eager for their regular wicketkeeper to return to the top of the order.

Having a left-hander in the top three would also make life more difficult for the Indian bowlers, who began to come into their own in the third T20.

Play starts at 3.30pm on Friday.

Marizanne Kapp has proven her ability to keep her wits about her when everyone else is losing their heads at the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, but South Africa’s star all-rounder is confident some of the other batters will step up this week and offer more support to banker Laura Wolvaardt.

Kapp’s heroics at the death mean South Africa go into the third week of the World Cup unbeaten. But it is a massive week for the Proteas with matches against Australia (Tuesday), the West Indies (Thursday) and India (Sunday) to come. One more win will confirm their place in the semi-finals.

Wolvaardt has led the way for the South African batting with three half-centuries in four innings, but Kapp and captain Sune Luus are the only other Proteas to have scored more than 100 runs in their four matches.

“We have been a bit lucky, we’ve got away with a few games where experience pulled us through,” Kapp admitted on Sunday. “We are aware that we have not played our best cricket yet.

“But I am sure we will come back stronger this week. The bowling has been decent, because it’s not easy bowling on these pitches which are a lot slower than we are used to.

“But if our batting can really come to the party then that will help a lot. Wolvie has been brilliant, you’re still calm as long as she’s in the middle. She’s amazing to have, a banker for us.

“Sune has supported her in a couple of brilliant partnerships, but we need a few more batters to put up their hands and that will get us to 280-300 and the perfect game,” Kapp said.

Affectionately known as Kappie, the 32-year-old has certainly punctuated this World Cup with some superb matchwinning efforts. She puts it down to backing her preparation and skills.

“A lot of times in the past I did doubt myself, but preparation is really big for me, I need to know I’ve done the work ahead of a game. So I back the way I prepare,” Kapp said.

“But all the T20 leagues I play in around the world really help too, they give me confidence, playing with the best players in the world and on the biggest stages. It means I back my skills as well.

“And it helps as an all-rounder to be able to make up with the other skill if the one doesn’t go so well,” Kapp said.

The Sharks, having been humbled in the Currie Cup final by the Bulls, will now head to Europe with a clean slate and looking forward to butting heads against some different opposition, coach Sean Everitt said after their 44-10 defeat at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend.
The Sharks and the Bulls have consistently been the best sides in South Africa over the last two years, but the Sharks have not managed to claim any silverware, losing two Currie Cup finals at Loftus Versfeld in nine months and finishing second in the Rainbow Cup.
“We’re looking forward to Europe now, there will be a new energy and fresh competition, plus the Sharks are a team that normally travels well. But we will be looking for a massive improvement on this performance.
“We have quite a few youngsters in our team so every game is a learning experience, an opportunity for them to get better. Our first game is against Munster and we will stay in Ireland in quarantine for a minimum of 10 days, but we will be able to train in that time so it’s no problem,” Everitt said.
While Bulls coach Jake White praised his team for an “almost perfect” display in the final, Everitt tended towards the opposite side of the spectrum.
“In all areas of our game we were not up to scratch. It was down to individual errors, our fundamentals let us down. We had opportunities in the first half but we just couldn’t nail them down, while the Bulls had four shots at us and scored three tries thanks to poor defence.
“I always thought that the team that won the first 30 minutes would have the best chance of winning the trophy, that was an important part of the game. But conceding soft tries, all three of them from lineouts, was really disappointing and not the start we wanted. The decision-making on defence was just wrong,” Everitt said.