Ken Borland

Proteas captain Dean Elgar acknowledges that England are currently playing “brave and bold” Test cricket, but he is eager to see whether they can maintain that against the pace and bounce, and two quality spinners, of the South African attack when their Test series gets underway next month.

In a delirious month of four Test matches against New Zealand (3) and India (1), England’s powerful batting line-up has chased down four successive targets of more than 250 in the fourth innings with tremendous gung-ho and aggression, scoring at run-rates of 4.93 chasing 378 against the powerful India attack, and 3.53, 5.98 and 5.44 against the Black Caps.

“England have certainly been quite brave and bold, it’s been exciting and brought extra energy to Test cricket,” Elgar told Saturday Citizen. “I’m sure world cricket has been hit by surprise, especially in the way they chase.

“But it’s been on relatively batting-friendly pitches and conditions have been in their favour. There hasn’t been too much sideways movement and they’ve been allowed to play that game.

“Our seamers will also bring a lot more pace and bounce against them and we have quite a few options to exploit any pitches that do go up-and-down.

“It will be interesting to see the pitches they prepare, knowing the fast bowling arsenal we have, backed up by two quality spinners if need be. I know I would not like to face our attack,” Elgar said.

The left-handed opening batsman has brought a hard edge to the Proteas during his captaincy tenure; the more pressure Elgar is under, the more dogged he becomes. That character is reflected in his team: The current Proteas are hard-working, stubborn and they refuse to let anyone dominate them.

It is typical of Elgar’s personality that he is loving the prospect of England going all-out-attack on them and he is backing the Proteas to be able to handle the onslaught.

“It’s going to be exciting and luckily we have quite a few pace bowlers,” Elgar says. “The basics are still fundamental to Test cricket and patience is one of our strengths. We really enjoy taking it to the last day and strangling teams.

“We have done a lot of graft on our game-plan because there could be a false sense of needing to be drawn into the way England want to play. That would be a massive error and would take our strengths out of the equation. We’ve had a lot of brilliant fast bowlers going to the UK and dominating, so I’m excited about that.

“When one talks about an aggressive or positive style of play, one needs to define exactly what you mean by that. You can still be aggressive but savvy in the way you go about things. There will be times when we need to counter and times we need to absorb, that’s just the nature of Test cricket.

“Whether the way England are playing now has any longevity, I’m not sure. It has paid off for now. It’s certainly going to be a very exciting series,” Elgar said.

When a South African leader talks about finding an extra 5% it’s normally the Minister of Finance trying to balance the books in a time of constrained fiscus, but Proteas captain Temba Bavuma admitted on Friday that this is what his team will need to do to beat England in Sharjah and maintain their hopes of qualifying for the T20 World Cup semi-finals.

Depending on Australia’s margin of victory or defeat against the West Indies in Saturday’s earlier game in Abu Dhabi, South Africa could advance to the semi-finals even if they lose narrowly to England or could still be knocked out even if they beat the favourites.

Bavuma said the Proteas’ focus was simply on winning, and to do that they needed to be at their best on Saturday.

“We need to play our best cricket tomorrow and our first port of call is the win. Although our cricket has been good so far, we need to find a way to add an extra 5% in all departments,” Bavuma said.

“England have had the better of us lately, so we have to be at our best against them. We can’t leave it to individuals, we can’t rely on individual brilliance, it’s all about us as a team.

“We want to show the same character we have done and fight to the end. Every game we have tailored our strategy according to the opposition and England are obviously a very good team.

“So we will come up with plans that speak to England’s strengths and weaknesses, but mentally our approach should not be any different. The players and management have been through a lot and we have grown as a team,” Bavuma said.

Bavuma may be a playful character out of the spotlight, but he is clearly taking the responsibility of leading the national team at a World Cup most seriously. He is also extremely diligent about fulfilling his batting role, over which there has been much chatter recently. His strike-rate of 108.33 has been a particular focus, as was his run-a-ball innings of 46 against Sri Lanka the last time they played in Sharjah.

“If you look at conditions, they have not been freeflowing and you can’t just come in and hit the first ball out of the middle of the bat. We’ve really had to graft as a batting unit.

“I feel I can do a role up front or in the middle to hold the game and allow the big-hitters to get into the game. We’ve seen that’s worked in this World Cup, we feel it’s what’s best and we back it.

“We really do know now after the Sri Lanka game that the pitch in Sharjah will be on the low side. In terms of our batting, we took the game quite deep and what we have learnt is that we should have pulled the trigger a bit earlier,” Bavuma said.

DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal  – Brazilian Adilson da Silva has been dogged lately by an inconsistent putter and a struggle to maintain focus on the course, but he put it all together in fine style on Thursday as he claimed a share of the lead after the first round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event at Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estate.

Da Silva opened the third leg of this season’s Vodacom Origins of Golf Series with a polished four-under-par 66, sharing the lead with Dundee Golf Club’s Louis Albertse.

The 49-year-old Da Silva started at the 10^th on Mount Edgecombe’s The Woods course and moved to two-under with back-to-back birdies on the par-three 12^th and par-four 13^th.

There was a bit of a wobble though when he bogeyed the 18^th and second holes, sandwiching a birdie on the par-four first, but Da Silva said his efforts to stay mentally focused have started paying off as he picked up three more birdies, returning to the clubhouse in 32 strokes.

Playing in the wet, it was easy to get frustrated and allow a promising round to fritter away, but the experienced Da Silva regrouped brilliantly.

“With all the breaks between tournaments due to Covid, I was really struggling to concentrate on the course, but playing events now every couple of weeks has helped a lot. I’ve pushed myself to focus my mind on the target and not worry so much about my swing. Otherwise it’s a strange feeling of not really being there. So I’m trying to visualise, put more emphasis on the shot, keep my mind focused on the present.

“I missed a couple of putts and then made silly bogeys on 18 and two, you’re getting wet and it’s easy to get frustrated. But I just told myself to hang in there, I hit most of the fairways and greens after that and made some key putts.

“My putting has been on and off lately, which is so frustrating when you’re hitting the ball well but you feel like you’re not playing well because you can’t make a score. But today was better – 28 putts and I can feel something building,” Da Silva said.

The 13-time Sunshine Tour winner also shared the lead after the first round of his previous event, the Sunshine Tour Invitational at Centurion Country Club two weeks ago, before finishing in a tie for 12^th after closing with a pair of 71s. This time, with his putter playing along, Da Silva is hoping to maintain his first-round momentum. But he warns “You can’t just run after it here, this is a course that gives you nothing.”

Chasing Da Silva and Albertse, who coincidentally also finished in a tie for 12^th at Centurion, are Siyanda Mwandla and Riekus Nortje, who shot 67s on Thursday.

Eleven golfers are two shots back on two-under-par, including Alex Haindl, winner of the second leg of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series at Sishen at the end of last month, Ockie Strydom, Lyle Rowe, Trevor Fisher Jnr and Anton Haig.

The Sharks went into their match against the Lions needing a bonus point win to maintain their hopes of making the Rainbow Cup final and coach Sean Everitt is an apostle of attacking, positive rugby. But there were times when the helter-skelter Sharks seemed destined to get four tries but lose the game and so land on 12 log points, ensuring the Bulls cannot be caught in the last round next weekend.

In the end, the Sharks did eventually repel a gutsy Lions side in the last 10 minutes to register a 33-21 win and they can still win the competition if they beat the Bulls with a bonus point next weekend and don’t allow their visitors any log points.

The Sharks scored three tries in the first half but were still only 19-14 ahead at the break. Their first two tries came through lineout drives and were scored by hooker Kerron van Vuuren.

But their third would have thrilled their coach and was made by outstanding wing Makazole Mapimpi, the World Cup star who rather lorded it over everyone else on the field with a majestic display.

The Lions won a turnover but Sharks fullback Anthony Volmink fielded their kick downfield and had a dart, before passing to Mapimpi, who exploded through a tiny gap, and found scrumhalf Jaden Hendrikse, who miraculously held off several Lions defenders in mid-air, seemingly levitating as he popped the pass to eighthman Phepsi Buthelezi, another chief among the stars on the field, to score.

It was typical of the Lions, however, that they stayed in the game with a try by loose forward Len Massyn in the sixth minute of extra time.

Mapimpi scored himself eight minutes into the second half and this was just a stunning individual effort. The pass out wide had gone to ground so the Lions defence was set, but Mapimpi stepped and then burst, taking five defenders out of the game as he scored an exceptional try to stretch the lead to 24-14. Last October, the 30-year-old’s incredible off-field story was highlighted by the Chasing the Sun documentary, but in his current form he looks like beiing a sensation on the field in the British and Irish Lions series.

The Lions came back again with a rolling maul try by hooker PJ Botha, but the knockout blow by the Sharks came when replacement flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain regathered his own lovely little dink over the top and passed into space for Volmink to score.

Scorers

Lions – Tries: Andre Warner, Len Massyn, PJ Botha. Conversions: Jordan Hendrikse (3).

Sharks – Tries: Kerron van Vuuren (2), Phepsi Buthelezi, Makazole Mapimpi, Anthony Volmink. Conversions: Manie Libbok (3), Boeta Chamberlain.