Ken Borland

The last time AB de Villiers led South Africa was in December 2017 as the stand-in captain for the only day/night Test this country has hosted – an innovation that turned into a freak show as Zimbabwe were beaten by an innings-and-120-runs in less than two days at St George’s Park.

The experiment has never been repeated by the Proteas. But De Villiers will be back at the helm of another national team when he skippers the South Africa squad in another innovative cricket event – the World Championship of Legends to be held in England from July 18 to August 2.

This enterprising T20 tournament has already enjoyed a successful first season, with 325 million viewers watching the televised matches last year, and more than 100 000 spectators coming to the stadiums used for the inaugural event – Edgbaston in Birmingham and the Northampton County Ground.

This year, the venues being used have doubled to include Grace Road in Leicester and Headingley in Leeds. The tournament is open to any cricketer who is 33 or older and is not signed up by their national board.

The South African team that missed out on the semifinals last year on nett run-rate included several players of the world-beating side of around 15 years ago – JP Duminy, Jacques Kallis, Neil McKenzie, Charl Langeveldt, Vernon Philander, Ryan McLaren, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Herschelle Gibbs, Makhaya Ntini and Ashwell Prince.

But they lost their first three games against much younger teams, but then beat India and Pakistan, the two sides that contested the final, which India won.  The turnaround came largely due to the introduction of two current players in Sarel Erwee and Jacques Snyman. The lesson has been learned, though, and De Villiers will lead a squad that features many more players of the previous decade and not the one before that.

The likes of Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen, Wayne Parnell, Duanne Olivier, Jon-Jon Smuts and Erwee all played domestic franchise cricket last summer. Viljoen, Parnell, Smuts and Erwee have been part of the SA20 competition.

The firepower that still-fast bowlers like Viljoen, Parnell and Olivier can bring suggests South Africa are going back to the traditional strength of pace bowling.

The presence of De Villiers, still the hero of millions, is a massive coup for the World Championship of Legends, along with the recently-retired Chris Morris, Albie Morkel and Hashim Amla.

De Villiers said he made the decision to return to playing cricket thanks to the backyard games he is involved in with his two boys, aged nine and seven. He will be hoping to continue in the same vein as the tremendous 101 not out he scored off just 28 balls for the Titans Legends against the Bulls Legends at SuperSport Park on March 9.

“The kids keep me busy playing cricket in the garden, I’ve become a bowler thanks to them,” the 41-year-old De Villiers said at the launch of the South Africa Champions team at the Wanderers. “I’ve really enjoyed playing with them and now I want to go out and enjoy every second on the cricket field again. I’ll be with familiar faces and I will just go out and compete and hopefully we can sneak in a few wins.

“To be honest, the bowling wasn’t too hard against the Bulls and I started two weeks before with net sessions. But I’ve always had a lot of respect for my opponents, sometimes they have won our contests. So I just want to enjoy some more special moments with my team-mates, I haven’t been in a changeroom for many years,” De Villiers said.

Amla has travelled to Qatar and India in recent years to play in Masters tournaments and will also be looking to continue some good recent form as he scored 76 and 82* in the recent International Masters League earlier this year.

“I was really worried when I went to India in February having had just one net beforehand, worried if I could still see the ball,” Amla said with a chuckle. “But it went well, although it takes time to get back into it.

“The competitiveness is actually very high, there are top cricketers playing like Chris Gayle, the Universe Boss. And we will be wearing South Africa on our chest, so we are representing the country,” Amla said.

South Africa squad: Aaron Phangiso, Hardus Viljoen, Wayne Parnell, Chris Morris, AB de Villiers, Duanne Olivier, Jon-Jon Smuts, Sarel Erwee, Imran Tahir, Morne van Wyk, Dane Vilas, Albie Morkel, Richard Levi, Hashim Amla.

The last time the Proteas played against Bangladesh in white-ball cricket was earlier this year when Bangladesh shocked them by winning the ODI series in South Africa, so there is a pace attack that is highly-motivated to do some damage when the two teams meet in the T20 World Cup in Sydney on Thursday.

The Proteas and Bangladesh were meant to play a warm-up game before the tournament, but that was washed out, and the rain then also forced South Africa’s opening match against Zimbabwe to be abandoned without a result. Given their experience in last year’s T20 World Cup, where they lost just their opening game but missed out on the semi-finals on nett run-rate, the Proteas know they have to win all four of their remaining matches to make sure they progress.

“Last year we learnt that every game is so important and we’ve wrapped our heads around having to win everything from here on in to give us the best chance of qualifying for the semis,” paceman Lungi Ngidi said on Wednesday.

“We’re definitely hungry to win, but every team is under pressure. The last time we played against Bangladesh, their batsmen came out pretty aggressively against us. So we will definitely target their top-order.

“They have Shakib al-Hasan to control the middle, but if we cut off the head of the snake up front, then hopefully we can restrict them to as low a total as possible.

“We will play towards our strengths and we have seen that pace has been most successful so far in the tournament. So we would like to attack them with our strength and we will see how they handle that tomorrow [Thursday],” Ngidi said.

The skilful 26-year-old also did not want to sell the Proteas bowling line-up short, saying they embraced talk about them possibly being the best pace attack in the world.

“For people to say we have the best attack in the world is an honour and privilege for us, it gives us lots of confidence as well,” Ngidi said. “It means we can walk with our heads held high.

“It also means we really want to showcase what we have. We have three or four seamers and everyone is better at something than someone else

“It makes the job a lot easier because it becomes pretty difficult with two seamers having to do everything.

“That gives the bowlers the sense of calm and confidence that’s needed in a tournament like this,” Ngidi said.

Unfortunately, there is a high probability of a lunchtime thundershower in Sydney putting a dampener on the Proteas’ efforts once again.

Play starts at 5am.

The last time South Africa won a Test at Newlands was in January 2019 when they beat Pakistan by nine wickets. It’s not that long ago, but there is nevertheless a feeling of nostalgia for a side that included such great names as Steyn, Philander, Amla, Du Plessis and De Kock.

The Proteas need 111 runs with eight wickets in hand on Friday morning to beat India and win the series against the world’s No.1 ranked side, so the current team certainly must have something going for them as well.

A much-criticised batting line-up will have earned themselves massive respect if they chase down targets of more than 200 in the fourth innings two weeks in a row; the new-look Proteas bowling attack has already shown that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Lungi Ngidi has played a key role in that attack in this series and he was at the forefront at Newlands on Thursday as he spearheaded a fightback after lunch that saw South Africa reduce India from 152/4 to 198 all out. Ngidi took 3/12 in a seven-over spell, including the key wicket of Virat Kohli, splendidly caught in the slips by a leaping Aiden Markram, for 29 to set the collapse in motion.

“From the first Test, the team has been using the sort of language that there are going to be moments when someone has to put up their hand,” Ngidi said. “We don’t have superstars but we have good players and cricketing brains.

“This time it was my session and for me the important thing was to make sure I cashed in. I did decently in the West Indies as well, but against this calibre of players this is definitely one of my best series ever.

“I’m also very proud of Marco Jansen [19.3-6-36-4], he just wants to do well for the team. He has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water and he has a very bright future,” Ngidi said.

South Africa’s batting line-up have had many disappointing performances of late, but they are still in position to complete a remarkable series victory on the fourth day. Much will depend on rookie Keegan Petersen, who is on the brink of his third half-century in four innings as he went to stumps on 48 not out.

India’s stellar attack are going to push them all the way though and the pitch is going to offer enough assistance to still make it a fraught run-chase.

“The ball has been doing something this entire Test series and there are patches on this pitch that if the ball hits them, it does something more,” Ngidi said.

“It’s going to require patience, but we’ve seen from Rishabh Pant that you can score a hundred and there have also been a couple of seventies. So with the right application you can score runs.

“But if the bowlers hit the right areas then they can also take wickets. So it’s a good pitch – everyone is in the game and bat and ball are well-matched.

“If we can have a sixty-run partnership early tomorrow [Friday] then that will put us in position, but if they get early wickets then they are back in the game. It is very well poised,” Ngidi said.

The squads

The Proteas won the series 2-1 the last time India toured South Africa in early 2018, in a hotly-contested series.

But they have lost much of their brawn from that series with the bulk of their attack – Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel – having retired and their powerful middle-order of Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis also no longer playing.

From that 2018 series, only six players are still in the Proteas squad – Elgar, Markram, Maharaj, Rabada, De Kock and Ngidi. And there are fitness doubts over Lungi Ngidi, who has only bowled seven competitive overs since July.

India are missing, due to injury, the combative all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma, one of their leading batsmen in recent years. Rohit is their highest-ranked Test batsman at No.5, but India still have plenty of batting muscle with four others from the top-20: Virat Kohli (6^th), Mayank Agarwal (12^th), Rishabh Pant (14^th) and Cheteshwar Pujara (17^th).

Jasprit Bumrah (11^th) and Mohammad Shami (18^th) will be the pace enforcers with the ball for India, but off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, number two on the rankings, is likely to be a major threat in the third and final Test at Newlands.

The venues

The same three grounds used in 2018 will be hosting the Tests again, but this time in a different order: SuperSport Park hosts the opener from Boxing Day, followed by the New Years Test at the Wanderers and then the series ends in Cape Town from January 11.

Batsmen found it hard to dominate in 2018 with Kohli and Dean Elgar the only batsmen to average over 40.

Hopefully the pitches in use this summer will provide a more even battle between bat and ball. Pitches with more even bounce would also be good because in 2018, the team that won the toss and batted first won all three matches, with terribly inconsistent bounce blighting the fourth innings.

Tactical approaches

South Africa could field a fiery trio of out-and-out fast bowlers in Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier, making liberal use of the sort of short-pitched bowling Indian batsmen are generally not as used to facing and which has proven successful at both Centurion and the Wanderers. Lanky left-armer Marco Jansen also has plenty to offer in terms of pace and bounce.

Not that India’s pacemen are going to be at all generous to a South African batting line-up that has struggled to inspire in the last couple of years. If there is any assistance from the conditions, they will find it with the new ball and they are also very effective practitioners of reverse-swing.