Ken Borland

As a human being, Mark Boucher seems to lack the gene for a fear of failure which made him one of the most tenacious cricketers around, but now as a coach he has admitted to frustration that that is exactly the weakness his Proteas team showed as they crashed to a series loss to Bangladesh in humiliating fashion in the third and final ODI at Centurion on Wednesday evening.

Choosing to bat first, South Africa’s batsmen folded meekly to 154 all out in 37 overs. Bangladesh them showed them how to bat on the SuperSport Park pitch as they raced to victory in just 26-and-a-half overs with just one wicket down.

“We lacked intent, we went to sleep after a good start to our innings,” Boucher said after the loss. “We wanted to take the game forward, you do need to take some risks, but there was almost a fear of getting out.

“It was as if we were not batting to set a total, which Bangladesh showed should have been more than 300, but batting to not get out, and then we spiralled into a total collapse.

“We need to have belief in how we play, we’ve played spin very well in places like Sri Lanka but then we come back here and go back to old ways. We have to have faith to play the way we want to play.

“We wanted to be proactive, we have worked hard on shot-selection and the guys know they have the armoury. But it’s like a mental block. We need to put the fear of failure out of our minds, the fear of getting out,” Boucher said.

What is baffling, however, is that much the same team beat India 3-0 in January and they should have had the confidence of a billionaire on the front cover of Forbes magazine. Boucher said the vagaries of form had also played a role in the shock series defeat.

“Against India we had guys in great form and there were big partnerships. In this series we lost an aggressive player like Aiden Markram whose form is worrying, so new guys come into the team.

“In the back of their heads they probably want to get runs to prove that they belong here, and that brings in a bit of fear. Maybe they are too scared to play the way they should.

“So it comes down to a lack of form and belief,” Boucher said.

Heinrich Klaasen continued to display the form of old that first made him a Protea back in 2018 as he led the Northerns Titans to a comfortable 33-run win over the North-West Dragons in their CSA T20 Challenge match at St George’s Park on Tuesday.

Having been sent in to bat, Northerns were given a fine start by Quinton de Kock (34 off 17) and Theunis de Bruyn (25 off 19), but they still needed a good finish as they slipped to 78/4 inside the 10^th over.

Klaasen responded with a hard-hit 54 not out off 41 balls, his second half-century of the tournament, taking him to the fourth-most runs [226] at an average of 75.33.

With Donovan Ferreira scoring 37 not out off 35 balls, Northerns posted a highly-competitive 167/4.

Left-arm spinner Senuran Muthusamy was outstanding with the ball for North-West with 2/14 in his four overs, while Dwaine Pretorius took 1/26.

Veteran left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso then bowled the Titans to victory as his 2/13 in four overs played the major role in North-West limping to 134/7.

All the Northerns bowlers were tight, though, with Aya Gqamane and Dewald Brevis also both picking up a brace of wickets.

In the afternoon game, the Boland Rocks were left hiding their heads in shame as they failed to chase down a target of 165 against the Free State Knights, despite only losing two wickets.

Free State won a thriller by three runs thanks to an outstanding final over of yorkers by Alfred Mothoa (4-0-33-0), who had 11 runs to defend.

Boland always looked in control with Janneman Malan scoring 33 off 25, Pieter Malan batting through for 60* off 51, Clyde Fortuin dashing to 46 off 31 and Christiaan Jonker adding 17* off 13, but in the end it was an ill-judged chase.

Spinner Gregory Mahlokoana (4-0-24-1) and Nealan van Heerden (4-0-30-0) also bowled tightly to leave the Rocks with too big of a mountain to climb in the end.

Free State posted 164/6 thanks to a solid batting display led by Chris Klijnhans (52 off 47) and Raynard van Tonder (38 off 33), while seamer Ziyaad Abrahams took 5/34, the best figures in the tournament so far.

Western Province will top the log if they beat the KZN Dolphins, who are also still in contention to join Northerns and Boland in the semi-finals, in Wednesday’s last day of round-robin matches. If KZN lose, then the winners of the Eastern Province Warriors versus North-West game will be the final qualifiers.

Springbok scrumhalf Cobus Reinach says his move to playing in the French Top 14 has made him more alive to opportunities that present themselves on the field, which means his partnership with incisive flyhalf Handre Pollard against Georgia on Friday could be an exciting one.

Reinach left the Sharks in 2017 and played three seasons with Northampton before joining Montpellier last year. Pollard’s serious knee injury means they have not played together much as a halfback combination, but they have been training together.

“Playing overseas opens your eyes a bit, it takes you completely out of your comfort zone, which makes you grow as a player. The Top 14 is a bit different to the English Premiership, which is more structured, you’re playing to shapes and maps.

“But in the Top 14 you need to be more instinctive and therefore you are more alert, so you are able to deal with what happens in front of you. Cheslin Kolbe is such a good example of that with Toulouse. He can do anything, he’s able to create magic out of nothing,” Reinach said on Tuesday.

Since the now 31-year-old Reinach graduated from Grey College, he has been dealt an interesting deck of cards in his rugby career. After one year in Free State’s youth structures, he joined the Sharks Academy in 2009 and made his debut in the Vodacom Cup in 2011. He was in the Currie Cup squad before the end of that year, helping the Sharks win that trophy in 2013. From 2014 to 2017 he was pretty much the Sharks’ first-choice scrumhalf.

Injuries to Fourie du Preez and Ruan Pienaar saw Reinach make his Springbok debut in September 2014. He was involved in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup but then was a surprise omission from the final squad, the uncapped Rudy Paige being preferred.

From then until the 2019 World Cup, Reinach was in the international wilderness. But then he enjoyed the elation of not only winning the biggest cup of them all in Japan, but he also broke a World Cup record with a hat-trick in 11 minutes against Canada.

And now he is in line to play against the British and Irish Lions.

“It’s an unbelievable story that I can tell my kids for the rest of my life, but it’s not time now to think about that, there’s rugby to be played and I’m just trying to improve as a player. It’s great that so many of us from the World Cup squad are still together so it’s not hard to make sure we’re all on the same page. Now we just have to go out and show what we’ve learnt,” Reinach said.