Ken Borland

The Joburg Super Kings were playing in conditions as close to the Wanderers as you can get, but in the end the two-time defending champions, Sunrisers Eastern Cape, were too great an adversary as they won their SA20 Eliminator by a convincing 32 runs at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Wednesday night.

Having won the toss and followed their usual template by sending the opposition in to bat first, Super Kings had reduced Sunrisers to 75 for four after nine overs and all was well. But the Eastern Cape skipper, Aiden Markram, was still there and his experience and skill in pacing the rest of the innings were vital.

Markram and Tristan Stubbs added 56 off 43 balls for the fifth wicket, before Stubbs was dismissed by veteran leg-spinner Imran Tahir (4-0-21-2) at the start of the 17^th over for 26 off 21 deliveries. But Marco Jansen came in and proved that he too can be a deadly force at the death.

Sunrisers Eastern Cape lashed 48 runs from the last three overs to take them to a competitive 184 for six. Markram played the key innings of 62 not out off 40 balls, while Jansen belted 23 off 12.

Poor old Lutho Sipamla has hit the heights in this year’s SA20 and has been rightly praised far and wide. But on Wednesday he travelled all over SuperSport Park, conceding 72 runs in his four overs.

Openers David Bedingham (27 off 14) and Tony de Zorzi (14 off 9) laid into him with the new ball, his two overs going for 33 runs as Sunrisers lashed 42 runs off the first three overs. Sipamla then had the misfortune to bowl the penultimate over and was massacred for 29 runs as he went for three sixes and two fours.

Markram has been full of praise for his bowlers for keeping them alive in this year’s competition and they once again came to the fore to defend a total that the captain admitted he “was a little worried about”.

Devon Conway opened the batting for Super Kings and gave them a brisk start with his 30 off 20 balls. But the other batsmen battled to obtain the same momentum as the Sunrisers bowlers tightened up and gave little away.

Joburg had battled through to 91 for three after 12 overs on the hour mark, when Craig Overton struck a devastating double-blow. The Englishman had Wihan Lubbe (13 off 18) caught behind and then ended a maiden over by dismissing the dangerous Moeen Ali for a duck, Liam Dawson taking a sharp catch at backward point.

The Super Kings, without the injured Donovan Ferreira and a host of bowlers who are also crocked, just weren’t as agile as their opponents in adapting to tough situations. Jonny Bairstow hit left-arm spinner Dawson for two fours and a six in the 15^th over to move quickly to 37 off 16 balls, but he then took up a reverse-sweep position too soon and the bowler fired in the yorker to bowl Joburg’s last hope.

Markram called his bowlers “incredible”, while appreciating that the troublesome batting is moving in the right direction.

“We probably could have got a few more runs with the bat and I would have been happy with 195+ or more than 200 if we really pulled away. So I was a little worried when we went out on to the field to defend 185, but luckily our bowlers are incredible and they bring a lot of calm.

“The bowlers have been really good the whole tournament and there are so many different types of experience in the attack, especially with the seamers. They bounce ideas off each other, they almost run the show with very good plans and I’m happy with that. Liam Dawson has also been massively under the radar because he really helps us get ahead of the game.

“The batting just hasn’t clicked so we keep having to play catch-up, but there were good signs tonight. That opening partnership was massive, it allows you, if you lose a flurry of wickets, a bit of time, which is important, especially at a venue like this. The other guys were able to spend some time at the wicket, which was positive,” Markram said.

The Sunrisers Eastern Cape now take on Paarl Royals at Centurion on Thursday evening, the winner going through to the final against MI Cape Town at the Wanderers on Saturday.

Joburg Super Kings coach Stephen Fleming, ever pragmatic, intimated that it felt like his team had been put out of their agony.

“If we unravel the season a bit, then we’ve probably just been hanging on. We’ve been missing a lot of glue because of injuries and we’ve had holes in each game, so we just haven’t been accurate enough. Sunrisers played very well, they got themselves out of a difficult situation, but I thought 185 was about par.

“But we were sloppy with the bat, we gave wickets away too often and we needed one guy to get 75 or so. I hate looking for excuses but our player turnover has been high and we were just not able to settle. I take responsibility because in trying to take the team forward, I chopped and changed a bit and things got a bit confused. We were a bit frantic with the bat tonight when we needed calm,” Fleming said.

The Welsh may not have felt the Springboks’ selection for the second Test in Bloemfontein was prim and proper for the occasion, but in the end they needed a 78^th-minute try and a brilliant touchline conversion by Gareth Anscombe to win 13-12 and celebrate their first victory in South Africa.

Here are four Talking Points from the game:

Did Jacques Nienaber’s selection gamble pay off?

No. And it’s not as if several players took the chance to make a big statement either. Of the 19 new players chosen, eighthman Evan Roos was probably the standout with a busy first half featuring several strong carries, while wing Kurt-Lee Arendse looked threatening on attack.

Nienaber will at least have more clarity in terms of selection now, and will know that the vast majority of the team that played in the first Test in Pretoria will be his first-choice players going forward.

The decider in Cape Town next weekend will surely see the Springboks field their proper team.

Many a slip between the cup and the lip

There were periods when the Springboks cooked up all the ingredients to turn their territorial dominance into points, but several times it was like the fork nearing the mouth but the food falling off.

South Africa just could not convert some bright attacking moments into a single try, all 12 of their points coming from four Handre Pollard penalties, but the captain also missed two penalties which proved crucial in the long run.

Credit must be given to the steely Welsh defence, but the Springboks need to polish up those finishing touches.

Mixed fortunes for new caps

While starting debutants Roos and Arendse did well, the four new caps coming off the bench did not have much impact. Loosehead prop Ntuthuko Mchunu earned a penalty from his first scrum with a mighty shove, but then conceded a penalty for scrumming in that gave Wales the territory to launch their matchwinning try.

Ruan Nortje and Deon Fourie could not turn the shifting momentum in the final quarter and reserve scrumhalf Grant Williams came on when Pollard left the field with a leg injury. The Springboks will be hoping it was just cramp, otherwise there will be fresh problems at flyhalf after Elton Jantjies’ off-colour display in the first Test.

Credit to Wales

The tourists defended with tremendous zeal and dominated the aerial battle, which was enough for them to win a tightly-contested battle. Initially it seemed like Wales were going to struggle in the scrums and lineouts, but Wayne Pivac’s side fought back to level the playing field in those crucial set-pieces. They were also tenacious at the breakdown and flank Tommy Reffell was named man of the match in his second Test.

France gave them a tough time, but in the end the Springboks started their 2017 campaign with a highly satisfactory 37-14 win at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night.

There were enough positive signs to suggest coach Allister Coetzee and his team have the Springboks back on the right track after hitting rock bottom in 2016.

The Springboks were put on the front foot by a superb effort from their pack, which was clearly dominant. Enjoying the lion’s share of possession, the home team were not always direct enough on attack, sometimes becoming too lateral, so the scoreboard did not always reflect how in charge they seemed to be.

The French were able to create space out wide too easily at times and some moments of defensive frailty from the Springboks meant the visitors were very much in the game until the final quarter.

With the clock on the hour mark, the match was on an even keel with the Springboks leading 16-14 when the turning point came.

The quick-thinking of scrumhalf Ross Cronje and the clever boot of flyhalf Elton Jantjies saw the ball bouncing over the French line with Courtnall Skosan in hot pursuit down the left wing. He had the pace to get there first but, as he was reaching up for the ball, he was played by French fullback Brice Dulin and the ball went astray.

The Springboks called for the early tackle and the TMO, Englishman Rowan Kitt, and referee Glen Jackson made the ruling that the contact had been a split-second too early. It was a marginal call either way and it was desperately tough on the French to concede a penalty try and for Dulin to be yellow-carded.

The Springboks scored two more tries in the 10 minutes he was off the field and the contest was over with the lead 37-14 with 12 minutes to play.

The first try came from the training ground with a slick lineout move. Captain and eighthman Warren Whiteley shifted backwards to take a deep lineout throw and then, having barely held on to the ball, immediately passed it into the gap for Cronje to come roaring through and score a memorable try on debut.

Seven minutes later, turnover ball allowed replacement scrumhalf Francois Hougaard to go on a sniping run, before fullback Andries Coetzee hit the afterburners and stormed into the open spaces before sending centre Jan Serfontein on a diagonal road to the tryline.

The road to victory was bumpy at first for the Springboks as the French driving maul earned them an early penalty, but flyhalf Jules Plisson missed.

With half-an-hour gone, South Africa only had two Jantjies penalties to their name. The first came after a lovely interchange of passes between hooker Malcolm Marx and wing Raymond Rhule led to the French being offsides. The visitors were up quickly in defence and combative in the tackle, but it was an area referee Jackson did police well.

The other Jantjies penalty came from a rolling maul, an area of the game in which the Springboks also showed pleasing work.

Marx produced a phenomenal first-half display, charging around the field like some intergalactic giant beast, and he provided the scoring pass for outside centre Jesse Kriel to go racing over for the first try in the 31st minute, after Coetzee, the other star up till then, had fought hard in the tackle and then burst clear.

The Springboks were 13-0 up with Jantjies’ conversion, but then the French began pulling back on the scoreboard.

The ease with which they were able to create space out wide is one of the aspects of play the Springboks will have to improve and, in the 36th minute, right wing Yoann Huget had acres of space and then chipped ahead, Coetzee totally missing the bouncing ball on the goal-line, allowing centre Henry Chavancy to dot down.

Jantjies, who did everything that could have been asked of him at flyhalf in a busy, courageous performance, scored the final points of the first half with a penalty to make it 16-7. The kicking of the Lions pivot was an obvious high point of his game as he succeeded with all six of his shots at goal.

The French scored the first points of the second half to keep the minds of the Springboks focused as Chavancy ran straight over Kriel in midfield, the Bulls player having to leave the field with concussion, and, from the next ruck, replacement scrumhalf Baptiste Serin dummied and went over the line.

Plisson’s second conversion narrowed the lead of the South Africans to just two points (16-14), but the final quarter belonged to the home side.

The physical effort of the Springboks never flagged, thanks to the impact off the bench of players like Jean-Luc du Preez, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Coenie Oosthuizen and Bongi Mbonambi, and the outstanding scrum was the other highlight of the performance.

It was just the sort of encouraging performance the Springboks needed to start their year.

Points scorers

South Africa: Try – Jesse Kriel, penalty try (7pts), Ross Cronje, Jan Serfontein. Conversion – Elton Jantjies (3). Penalties – Jantjies (3).

France: Tries – Henry Chavancy, Baptiste Serin. Conversions – Jules Plisson (2).