Ken Borland

As usual, it was the home team who adjusted best to tricky conditions at the Wanderers as the Central Gauteng Lions ended the first day of their CSA Four-Day Domestic Series match against the North-West Dragons in a commanding position.

Having bowled North-West out for just 159, they had reached 127 for two at stumps.

On a pitch that offered late movement, the Lions won a good toss and sent North-West in to bat under overcast skies.

Former Lions franchise player Wesley Marshall put them under early pressure though, blazing his way to 52 off just 36 balls, including three fours and two sixes off Lutho Sipamla’s third over.

But the Lions pacemen adapted to the onslaught and quickly found the right length to bowl.

Duanne Olivier probed intelligently and marked his return to domestic cricket with four for 50, while Sipamla rebounded to take three for 68. Sisanda Magala also kept the batsmen thinking with two for 24.

Nicky van den Bergh, a real stalwart of the former Lions franchise, was the only other North-West batsman to prosper, scoring 41.

The North-West bowlers were too inconsistent to apply the same amount of pressure and the Lions top-order played with composure and good judgement.

Josh Richards was going through the gears before he was trapped lbw by Lwandiswa Zuma for 56, sharing an opening stand of 73 with skipper Dominic Hendricks (26).

Ryan Rickelton (33*) will be the batsman to lead the charge on Saturday morning.

At Centurion, the Eastern Province Warriors are in charge against the Northerns Titans, with a first-innings lead of 62 already with six wickets in hand.

Sent in to bat first, Northerns were bundled out for a paltry 134, new-ball bowlers Glenton Stuurman (13-4-34-5) and Marco Jansen (11.2-2-31-3) taking command.

Jordan Hermann, playing his first senior game for the Titans, was their top-scorer with a brave 50 not out.

Eastern Province were in early trouble as Corbin Bosch reduced them to 25 for three, but opener Ed Moore batted through to stumps with a defiant 85 not out, while Diego Rosier scored an aggressive 85 off just 104 balls as the Warriors took control at 196 for four.

Cape Town’s weather was still moulting from winter to summer on Friday morning, the start of play being delayed in the match between KZN Dolphins and Western Province.

Eventually 72 overs were able to be bowled, with KZN reaching 186 for four. Bryce Parsons (45), Keegan Petersen (56) and Jason Smith (44*) all looked at ease after the visitors were sent in to bat.

No play at all was possible in the match between the Free State Knights and the Boland Rocks in Bloemfontein.

The British and Irish Lions will have to tie down that most dangerous of beasts – a written-off Springbok team – in the first Test in Cape Town on Saturday with South Africa’s hooker, Bongi Mbonambi, saying all the talk about the home team being underdone is merely fuelling their fire.

There was more than a hint of colonial patronisation on Tuesday in some of the questions to Mbonambi from the British media, which were along the lines of “you haven’t played proper rugby for so long, while the Lions have been involved in the wonderful Six Nations, how are you going to cope, you poor dears?”

Let’s not forget that the Springboks were also roundly written off before the World Cup final and most of the team that will play in the first Test beat the tourists in the guise of the SA A team last week. Mbonambi’s parting words, to a question from a South African journalist, were defiant.

“There’s been a lot of talk about us being underdone, and that’s just throwing more fuel on the fire,” Mbonambi growled. “The whole team is really looking forward to Saturday and we know we have to step up and show we are here mentally and physically, there is an intensity we have to match. We have the whole week to get ready for that and we will make sure we pitch up on Saturday.

“We are at a bit of a disadvantage, that’s the reality of Covid, but we plan to make a good start, to start with great intent and get ourselves on the front foot. But it’s an 80-minute game and we need to be on that front foot for the whole 80 minutes. We know where our strengths lie and at training the coaches have been really lifting the intensity,” Mbonambi said.

Even if the Springboks are a bit underdone, it is still not going to be a spa day for the Lions. The Boks showed that by overwhelming England’s much-vaunted pack in the World Cup final and the SA A team exposed cracks in the Lions camp for the first time last week when their unrelenting defensive pressure brought mistakes.

“We’ve been trying to make training harder than the game will be because we know there is a certain intensity we have to match. We know we are representing the whole nation and there is a massive step up to be made. We’ve worked hard on the training pitch and the work has been done on analysis as well,” Mbonambi said.

The 30-year-old Mbonambi was one of the players who tested positive for Covid, but he will start on Saturday with the knowledge that he can go all out and empty his tank because there is quality front row cover on the bench in the form of Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe.

“Because of the quality of front rows we have available to us, we see the props as pairings. Is it more important to be there at the start and sing the anthems or to be on the field for the final whistle? Who knows, but if you are starting there are certain things you have to do and there’s a specific role for those coming off the bench. The players have bought into this,” coach Jacques Nienaber said.

Temba Bavuma can complain with righteous indignation over the misfortune that saw him miss the entire Test series against the West Indies, but he can have no complaints over the quality of preparation his T20 side will be getting against a home team packed with giants of the shortened version of the game.

The five-match T20 series starts at St George’s in Grenada on Saturday and the West Indies have T20 legends Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Dwayne Bravo in their squad. It will be a daunting challenge for Bavuma, who will actually lead his team out on to the field for the first time in a T20, having missed the series against Pakistan due to injury.

That bad luck with injuries followed him to the Caribbean, where he was on the sidelines of the memorable Test triumph due to first a hip problem and then a dislocated finger while training for the second Test. So Bavuma will certainly be eager for the contest.

“As a team we’ve had various discussions on the type of cricket we want to play and now we have a chance to test that against a very strong outfit, the West Indies obviously being one of the favourites for the World Cup later this year. We get the chance to test our skills against their’s and that should give us a clearer picture of what needs to be done.

“It’s going to be a good measure, it will show us where our standard is in our game. We don’t have confirmation yet of where the World Cup will be played, so we are just looking at the challenge against the West Indies now. We want to play our best cricket in these conditions and they might just happen to be similar to what is found on the subcontinent,” Bavuma said on Friday.

Half-a-dozen of the players who no doubt quaffed some celebratory drinks following their leading roles in the Test series triumph are likely to play in the first T20, while Bavuma and spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and George Linde were also part of the Test squad. So there is plenty of feel-good continuity in the Proteas camp.

“The Tests went exceptionally well and the outcome of that was momentum and confidence. Although this is a different format, quite a few of the players were involved in the Tests. It’s only natural that we want to continue as is, carrying the same language through, with most of the guys being the same. The discussions Dean Elgar and I have had about how to take the team forward obviously bore fruit.

“We’ll only finalise our plans after practice today because it has been raining and the weather is a bit of a concern. We haven’t had an opportunity yet to look at the pitch, but it’s fantastic we’ve got options when it comes down to spin, all-rounders or bolstering the batting,” Bavuma said.