Ken Borland

Bulls coach Jake White on Thursday welcomed Springbok legends Duane Vermeulen and Morne Steyn back into his starting line-up and then couldn’t help but list the terrible loss of players afflicting the Stormers ahead of their Rainbow Cup clash in Cape Town on Saturday.

White said he expects the Stormers to be without Ruhan Nel, Seabelo Senatla, Willie Engelbrecht, Kade Wolhuter, JD Schickerling, Nama Xaba and Salmaan Moeraat on Saturday. That just adds to the unavailability of Siya Kolisi, Juarno Augustus, Tim Swiel, Chris van Zyl, Jaco Coetzee and Angelo Davids from the Western Province team that played in the Currie Cup semi-finals in January.

“It’s a massive boost to have Duane back, he’s an unbelievable leader who will bring calm. Obviously things are going well with his knee and hopefully he can make an impact although I don’t expect him to be at his best physically. He’s trying to make his way back for the Lions tour, but I’m sure he will show leadership and get the team to gel. I know what he means to the team.

“Morne has been brought into the alignment camps with the Springboks, so obviously he’s an important cog too. If it had been a one-off game we could probably have pushed Trevor Nyakane to play as well, but the bigger picture of the Springboks comes to the fore there, he’s helluva important for them. Plus Mornay Smith was really good at tighthead last weekend.

“But the Stormers will have a completely different pack of forwards to what we’re used to and a very different backline. We don’t know their players as well as we used to. But we saw against the Lions, who did not have a lot of their big names, that we will still be up against a real challenge and we’re mindful of that. It is a North/South derby after all,” White said.

The Bulls were also able to advise their supporters of the signing of former Lions centre Harold Vorster on Thursday.

“At the age of 27 he has been around the block a bit. We have some real young talent here, but we probably have too many youngsters. We need that age-group that’s the middle tier, guys like Harold, Jacques du Plessis, Johan Goosen and Marcell Coetzee. Harold comes from Panasonic Wild Knights, who are an incredible club, always in the playoffs in Japan.

“So he’ll have experience of knockout rugby and having been coached by Robbie Deans, I’m full of confidence that he would have developed as a player. I know how good he was at the Lions and I’m sure he would have added more strings to his bow since then,” White said.

Bulls team: David Kriel, Madosh Tambwe, Marco Jansen van Vuren, Cornal Hendricks, Stravino Jacobs, Morné Steyn, Embrose Papier, Duane Vermeulen (Captain), Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden, Ruan Nortje, Walt Steenkamp, Mornay Smith, Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp. Bench – Schalk Erasmus, Lizo Gqoboka, Jacques van Rooyen, Janko Swanepoel, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Chris Smith, James Verity-Amm.

Each and every Proteas supporter will have their own view on how the team is performing and where it is heading, and many are not shy to share that on social media, but national coach Mark Boucher said after the T20 series loss to Pakistan that public opinion is not something he listens to.

“I would have probably hanged myself long ago if I was worried about public opinion. We will stick to our guns, the players themselves came up with the way we want to play. But I take a massive amount of responsibility for our defeats, I won’t shy away from that. If you can’t handle the pressure then you should get out of the kitchen, but I am looking forward to getting the first-choice squad back.

“I am extremely hurt by this series loss but I am not going to panic because I understand there have been trying circumstances. The injuries to Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen were big losses on top of the five players going to the IPL. But we were dealt those cards and I have to try and win with those. It’s been very frustrating to not win more series and I understand how the public feels,” Boucher said after South Africa lost the last T20 off the penultimate ball to lose the series 3-1.

While the series reflected positively on the abilities of Aiden Markram, Janneman Malan, Lizaad Williams and George Linde to step up, there is still the nagging doubt that South Africa’s fringe players have the necessary skills for the Proteas to return to being powerhouses of international cricket. Boucher said the next couple of months will be spent on up-skilling players.

“I’ll have a week or so break and then I’ll get back into it. This break is not really going to be an off-season, it’s an opportunity to up-skill ourselves and build up the fitness levels so we have the intensity and energy required to match the best in the world. There will be a lot of skill work in this short period of time and hopefully our efforts will start showing in the West Indies in June.

“My wish is that we get back to winning again and I do believe we will do that when we get our full-strength squad back. Quite a few of these players can hold their heads high, but we can see the next group of players is quite rough around the edges – they are good in patches, but in international cricket you can’t afford that, you need to be polished all round,” Boucher said.

+ Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller are settled in the middle-order: The two experienced campaigners fulfilled their roles to perfection in the two matches they played. Van der Dussen had scores of 123 not out and 60 and they were contrasting innings to suit the situation. His century was a backs-to-the-wall effort after the Proteas had slipped to 55 for four and his second knock – off just 37 balls – provided crucial acceleration just when it was needed.

Miller performed his finishing role superbly; in the first ODI he stabilised the innings with Van der Dussen and then provided some impetus with his 50 off 56 balls, and in the second ODI he took advantage of the platform laid by Temba Bavuma and Van der Dussen to lash 50 not out off just 27 deliveries.

+ Welcome Verreynne & Malan to the Proteas family, now keep them there: Janneman Malan has now scored 222 runs in his four ODI innings, at a strike-rate of 89.87, and has now surely done enough to keep his place ahead of Aiden Markram, who has looked so good, but continues to get out when well set. The whole Markram package is so enticing, but at the moment it is Malan producing the numbers.

Kyle Verreynne has 163 runs at a strike-rate of 94.21 in his four innings and has shown tremendous composure and fight in his two half-centuries. He can play as a specialist batsman, as he did in the last ODI, and must have moved ahead of Heinrich Klaasen now in the queue.

+ Maharaj is as good in Green & Gold as he is in the Whites: Spinner Keshav Maharaj carried his brilliant domestic limited-overs form into the third ODI and was simply outstanding. Left-arm orthodox might not be as sexy as wrist-spin in white-ball cricket, but Maharaj’s teasing accuracy and flight showed how effective it can be. He’s a useful hitter too that will deepen the batting order and Tabraiz Shamsi must know he has a battle on his hands for the first-choice spinner role.

– The way Pakistan tore into the death bowling, Proteas bowlers have no idea what to do when the batsman tees off: In the second and third ODIs, Pakistan scored 51 and 65 runs respectively in the last five overs of their innings. When Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali or Babar Azam were teeing off, the Proteas did not seem to have good plans at their disposal; , or was it just their execution that was so poor? Either way, as bowling coach Charl Langeveldt acknowledged, they ain’t winning no world cups at the moment with that sort of death bowling.

– Rabada & Nortje having to pick up the tab for a lack of fast bowling depth: While Rabada was classy as ever, an economy-rate of just 4.70 speaking to his accuracy, and Nortje was superb with his controlled aggression, the rest of the pacemen were disappointing. Lutho Sipamla was wayward, Lungi Ngidi failed to take wickets or keep the run-rate down, Andile Phehlukwayo bowled some excellent overs but some extremely poor ones too, and Daryn Dupavillon and Beuran Hendricks had little impact.

Being very poor in short periods of play and not being desperate enough in the field were the two main concerns Proteas coach Mark Boucher has after the ODI series loss to Pakistan, but he is also worried about injuries to captain Temba Bavuma and key batsman Rassie van der Dussen heading into the T20 series.

South Africa lost the decisive 50-over match at Centurion on Wednesday evening by 28 runs but were competitive for almost the entire contest despite missing six first-choice players. They were not only deprived of their five IPL stars, but Van der Dussen had to pull out due to a quad strain.

“We want to start winning series, especially at home, so it is very disappointing to lose this one. We knew a while ago that the IPL guys would be leaving, so the players coming in were prepared. It was unfortunate to lose Rassie to injury, that was another blow, and although a couple of the guys coming in did really well, it’s not about individuals but about the team, and we lost.

“The problem is when we’re not good in certain pockets of the game we are really bad. For example the last two overs today going for 43 runs … if we had kept that down to 25 then we would have had a much better chance of winning. I would also like to see higher intensity and more desperation in the field; we maybe would have won the first ODI if we had been better in the field,” Boucher said after Wednesday’s match.

The coach said Van der Dussen and Bavuma, who injured his hamstring while batting, are both doubtful for the T20 series that starts on Saturday at the Wanderers.

“Rassie has between a Grade I and Grade II quad strain so he’s probably out for 10 days. We hope for a quick turnaround but it would be stupid to try and push him, so he’s not likely to get on the park. Temba is a tough guy but he’s hobbling in the changeroom and in quite a bit of pain, so I’m afraid it’s quite bad. But those are the cards we’ve been dealt and we have to find a way.

“The senior players need to stand up in those tough, pressurised moments. Even when we’ve played at only 50%, we’ve still had a chance to win if it were not for disappointing little things. But it was good to see we have some depth, we’ve got backup players who can stamp their mark on international cricket. Kyle Verreynne, Janneman Malan and Keshav Maharaj all did really well,” Boucher said.