Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada and Aiden Markram were team-mates when South Africa won the U19 World Cup in 2014 and the fast bowler’s career took off immediately as he made his international debut for the Proteas nine months later in a T20 in Australia and has maintained a stratospheric altitude ever since. Markram has looked like a jet fighter pilot at home, but in Asia he has scratched around like the person who cleans the rubbish bins at the airport.

But there was joy for them both in Karachi on Thursday on the third day of the first Test against Pakistan as Rabada claimed his 200^th Test wicket and Markram made his first half-century on the subcontinent.

Rabada (27-7-70-3) was the shining light in a bowling attack that travelled far and wide on the third morning as Pakistan’s tail thrashed 70 runs in 12.2 overs to stretch their lead to a commanding 158. He is the eighth South African to reach the landmark, and in terms of balls bowled (8154) he is the third fastest overall, behind only Pakistani Waqar Younis (7730) and compatriot Dale Steyn (7848).

Markram then showed great composure and shot-selection as he scored a five-hour 74; with Rassie van der Dussen (64) they erased the deficit with a courageous second-wicket stand of 129. But the day ended as badly for South Africa as it had begun, with Pakistan claiming three wickets for 12 runs to reduce them to 187 for four at stumps, a lead of just 29 with both set batsmen out.

“We definitely believe the match is still winnable. If anything the pitch is going to deteriorate more and the variable bounce will play more of a role. Wickets can fall in clusters on the subcontinent, but we will be tested first in our batting tomorrow [Friday], but we are up for the challenge,” Rabada said.

“Personally, it’s a massive feat to be included in a list of such names as Waqar and Dale, when you start playing you never think of such stats, you just try to be the best you can. There’s no magic answer as to why I’ve been so consistent, it’s just hard work and spending a lot of time on my craft. It’s not easy, you’re trying for perfection and it takes constant repetition and hours of work, just trying to be relentless in seeing how much better you can get.”

While Rabada’s wicket-taking graph has just climbed steadily upwards, Markram’s career has been interspersed with troughs. His 74 on Thursday was his eighth half-century in 23 Tests, while he has also scored four centuries, for a tidy average of 39.51. But in Asia he had scored just 97 runs in nine innings before Thursday’s defiant effort.

“Aiden played an extremely important innings and his partnership with Rassie got us back in the game. He’s a magnificent player and he really applied himself well. He’s been working hard on his game and he really wants to be here. We have been through some of the same challenges and I’m glad he got runs today, he gave us a real chance,” Rabada said of his former U19 captain.

It is certainly part of Proteas coach Mark Boucher’s mandate to ensure a steady flow of youngsters come through and perform at international level, but his No.1 priority is for South Africa to have a winning cricket team, hence his decision to stick with veteran former captain Faf du Plessis, a move which was thoroughly justified in the first Test against Sri Lanka.

The 36-year-old Du Plessis scored a magnificent, career-best 199, an innings which began under pressure with South Africa slipping from 200 for two when he came to the crease, to 220 for four. Thanks to the class and skill of Du Plessis, and the help of the lower-middle order, the Proteas were able to post 621, setting up an innings win that seemed most unlikely when Sri Lanka scored 396 batting first. It was the third highest first innings total South Africa have conceded in a Test they have gone on to win.

There is no doubt a rebuilding Proteas team thoroughly enjoy having the cool, calm wisdom of Du Plessis still around. Not least of all the new captain, Quinton de Kock.

“It’s important to have senior guys with experience. People always talk about youngsters coming through but you need a balance. Faf really showed his experience, you need that under pressure, he showed his leadership and how to handle the pressure because he’s been through those situations many times before,” De Kock said after the first Test.

“It helps me too to have good leaders in the team and although I’ve never captained a team before in first-class cricket, I have stood next to Faf for most of my Test career so I very much knew what the captaincy was about.”

Boucher, who has taken a lot of flak in the last year for sticking with his former captain, described the presence of Du Plessis as being like “gold dust”.

“I know what Faf is worth, I understand what he has done for South Africa. He’s a great player who went through a bit of a dip in form but his place was never under pressure for me. You need experience and he showed that in this game. He did very good work over the Covid Lockdown period on his technique and he looks very comfortable at the crease now.

“He really wanted to score big runs and he is gold dust to us. It’s nice to have him in such good form and good spirits. We’re going to need him in the big series coming up,” Boucher said after the Centurion triumph.

After the Test series loss to England at the start of 2020, I wrote a column [https://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-columnists/2236293/dont-savage-faf-yet-he-had-a-lot-of-external-issues-to-deal-with/] asking where Du Plessis fitted in in the future red-ball plans of the Proteas. I said the only question I would ask Faf before selecting him for the team would be “Are you still enjoying your cricket?”

The sheer hunger Du Plessis has shown in getting as fit as he has ever been over Lockdown and continuing to work on improving his game are all the proof one needs to know that South Africa’s ninth highest Test run-getter is still loving the sport.

“The Lockdown really helped, mentally it allowed me to freshen up, but I also knew I could control how fit I was. People say I’m at the end of my career but it depends on how good your body is, how fit you are is much more important than your age. So I really pushed myself, I may be 36 but I feel fitter than ever before, I’m moving better now than when I was 23/24. Now the younger guys must stay with me.

“I’ve definitely scored hundreds against better attacks and in hotter conditions and match situations, so this innings was not close to some of those. But from a timing and statement point of view it showed those who doubt my ability that nothing has changed and I am still trying to improve,” Du Plessis said after his 199.

The last part of that sentence – “I am still trying to improve” – is the clincher: the still-hungry Du Plessis should be part of the Test team for the foreseeable future and the often wonky South African batting line-up will definitely reap the benefits of having the man for all situations there.

Victor Matfield, South Africa’s most-capped international ever with 127 appearances, has supported SA Rugby’s decision to withdraw the Springboks from the Rugby Championship, explaining why it would amount to gross negligence to throw the players into battle in Australia with so little game-time under their belts.

The maximum amount of game-time any locally-based Springbok has enjoyed for the last six months is 240 minutes, way off the 400-500 minutes the medical specialists have said is safe before playing Test rugby. And the lack of match fitness is exacerbated by the fact that the players are coming off a six-month hard Lockdown, which for much of the time meant being restricted to being at home.

“It’s a difficult one because we all would have loved to see the defending champions take part, but it’s all about player welfare and there are so many unanswered questions about that and what will happen when they get to Australia. Plus it’s not as if they’re just going over there for one game. Our guys have never been in the situation before where they’re out of action for six months.

“It’s normal for players to get injured and maybe miss a few games, and even at the end of the season you probably only have one month out and then you go into pre-season. But six months without playing rugby is massive, especially when a team like New Zealand has been playing for practically the whole time. It would be really unfair on our players to throw them into that,” Matfield told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

While there has been speculation over whether SA Rugby will be able to organise some Test action for the Springboks before the British and Irish Lions arrive in June 2021, Matfield said playing in Europe and having plenty of time for training camps will let new national coach Jacques Nienaber prepare the team properly.

“It’s going to be interesting to see if they do organise some warm-up Tests, but if our local players are all involved in a proper Pro16 then they should be ready. The Springbok team for the Lions tour will be mostly made up of the World Cup squad – probably 80% of that. So they all know how they want to play and what Jacques wants them to do.

“I’m sure Jacques will also hold a few warm-up camps, so I’m sure the Springboks will be ready. They’ll have lots of rugby under their belts and they understand what the coach wants,” Matfield said.

A Bulls team comprising 11 Springboks was pushed all the way by a Griquas side without a single international in their Super Rugby Unlocked game at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria at the weekend, with the home team eventually coming back from deficits of 10-0 in the first half and 18-10 early in the second to win 30-23.

As Griquas coach Scott Mathie pointed out afterwards, even when you take the Springboks out of the equation, the Bulls have about R30 million rand more to spend on players than the minnows from Kimberley, and yet it was the visitors who handed out many lessons on Saturday night.

Here are the main things new coach Jake White would have learnt about the Bulls from the tough encounter:

There is enough character and skill in the team when they are under pressure

Having played half-an-hour of poor rugby, wasting several chances, the Bulls did not panic and managed to go into halftime all-square at 10-10. Similarly, after conceding eight points early in the second half, they stuck to the revised game-plan in the second half and closed out a vital win.

“There was good character shown by the team, to be 10-0 down after 35 minutes and to be able to go into the changeroom at 10-10 was a good character test. Credit to Griquas for stopping our momentum, the way they defended and chased everything showed a lot of fight and spirit. I would have preferred we played like we did against the Sharks and got five points, but you see different things under pressure.

“I don’t really know a lot of the players very well and I got time to see the players and how they react under pressure tonight. Fortunately we were able to win the little battles, those championship moments, and we scored 30 points despite not playing well. Everybody wants to see the perfect game and maybe some people expected that tonight, but it’s not always going to happen,” White said.

The Bulls, for all their attacking potential, have to ‘build an innings’, they need to be more direct first before trying to exploit space out wide

The Bulls backline again looked threatening with ball in hand and some ambitious rugby was played in the first half. But they were guilty of going wide too quickly and players were often isolated and turned over, while not using the forwards to punch holes first and get opponents on the floor, meant Griquas were able to flood the breakdown, winning numerous turnovers.

In the second half, the Bulls showed more patience and the likes of Marco van Staden, Jason Jenkins and replacement eighthman Elrigh Louw were able to get in behind the defending side.

“What was important in the second half was that from playing side-to-side in the first half, we were more direct. We were able to get the forwards with the ball under their arm, Jason Jenkins burst through, so did Elrigh Louw and Marco van Staden had a couple of good runs. We realised after the first half that we had to be more direct in our structure.

“So I told them at the break to be more direct, not to play so much touch rugby in the middle of the field. I was very happy with the set-pieces, we got enough ball and our forwards were relatively strong. I’m happy that we found a way to win,” White said.

The Bulls need to work on their breakdown strategy and need to commit more cleaners on their own ball

The Bulls conceded seven turnovers in the first half, mostly because of isolated players simply being rucked off the ball by the willing Griquas pack. Not enough attention was paid to the clean-out by the Bulls, who wanted players on their feet, but perhaps erred too much in that direction and did not focus enough on ensuring they secured the ball at the breakdown first.

“We didn’t have much rhythm and at times Griquas got away with it at the breakdown, but winning 16 penalties to eight conceded shows we could not complain. Because we had such a good shape against the Sharks two weeks ago, we probably thought things would be a lot easier at the breakdown. We probably should have put one or two more players in early on.

“We did not do enough early on to secure our ball and that gave them a sniff. We were probably a bit seduced by the last game and how easily we got quick ball, so tonight we didn’t think we needed to go in there and fetch it. And the side carrying the ball definitely wasn’t rewarded as much tonight, at one stage we had 65% possession and we were still getting penalised. But we showed we can win ugly, sometimes it’s not easy and you have to do that,” White said.

Morne Steyn did not have his greatest outing but he remains one of the best game-managers around

White admitted that Steyn did not have his best game, but the way the Bulls dominated territory in the final quarter was crucial. Possession was fairly equal throughout the game, but Griquas were forced into trying to play too much rugby in their own half, largely thanks to Steyn’s tactical kicking.

“We didn’t manage the game well enough and we need to be better at that,” Mathie admitted. “Our exits from our own half should have been better and we will be working on our decision-making. We sent too much time in our own half and didn’t exit as well as we should have. Just before halftime, we should have controlled the scrum better and then we would have gone into the second half in the lead.

“Those are the small moments that matter and you need clear heads at those times, you need to eliminate risk. We just needed a few better decisions but we’ve taken a point at Loftus and we will take a lot of energy from that and that we were able to win this game, we did enough to win,” Mathie said.