Ken Borland

To be frank, it was a demolition as South Africa slammed a mighty 333/5 batting first in the opening ODI against England at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, Rassie van der Dussen leading the way with a fabulous century.

Having lost the toss in sweltering, heatwave conditions in Durham, north-east England, the home side were ill-equipped to handle the clinically efficient Proteas batting line-up, a flat pitch and the soaring temperatures which reached in excess of 35°C, necessitating extra drinks breaks.

Quinton de Kock (19) and Janneman Malan produced a solid start, putting on 35 in the first six-and-a-half overs before De Kock misjudged the lower bounce of a Sam Curran cutter and was bowled trying to pull.

That brought Van der Dussen to the crease and he immediately set about his business building an innings of considerable substance. Without ever seemingly being in a rush, he drove beautifully through the covers and used the reverse-sweep to good effect as he brought up his half-century off just 45 balls.

Malan had gone to a composed half-century himself, but began to lose steam in his innings and fell for 57 off 77 balls in the 26^th over, holing out at cow-corner off Moeen Ali.

The real destruction came when Aiden Markram joined Van der Dussen and the pair blasted 151 runs for the third wicket off just 123 balls.

Markram took a little while to find the right tempo to his innings, perhaps going a little too hard at the ball at first, but once he let his class take over, he was near unstoppable as he slammed 77 off 61 balls.

Markram fell in the 46^th over as South Africa looked to ram home their advantage, holing out to spinner Liam Livingstone, and Van der Dussen fell two balls later to the same bowler, bowled by another delivery that skidded through low.

But by then Van der Dussen had plundered 133 off 117 balls, his ODI stats reaching for the heavens as he has now scored 1498 runs in 30 innings at an average of 74.90 and a strike-rate of 90.56.

David Miller scored a rather scratchy 24 not out off 14 balls and there was some reward for the persevering Brydon Carse, who comes from South Africa, as he dismissed Heinrich Klaasen (12).

The South African women’s team’s first try at Test cricket in eight years ended in a stalemate in England this week and one could only praise the Proteas batters for sticking at it and their attack for being competitive against mighty opposition.

At the midway point on the second day, England were struggling on 125/5 in reply to South Africa’s creditable 284, showing just how competitive the Proteas were, even with first-choice players Shabnim Ismail, Chloe Tryon, Ayabonga Khaka and Dane van Niekerk all unavailable.

It took a phenomenal partnership between one of England’s most storied all-rounders in Nat Sciver (169) and Alice Davidson-Richards (107) to eventually lift the home side to a first-innings lead of 133, at which point they declared on the third afternoon.

South Africa had a day-and-a-half to survive to bat themselves to the draw and, although the weather gave a helping hand, one could only admire their determination. Especially Marizanne Kapp, who backed up her magnificent 150 in the first innings with 43 not out on the final day, and Tumi Sekhukhune, who was sheer defiance at the crease, having come in the previous evening as nightwatcher.

Batting for longer than she ever has in a match, the 23-year-old pace bowler stayed at her post for three hours, keeping 134 deliveries at bay for 33 not out. In her 48 white-ball games for South Africa, Sekhukhune had only previously faced 81 balls in international cricket.

“We had a three-day warm-up match but nothing could really prepare us for what we experienced in this Test,” captain Sune Luus said. “Nat and Alice played amazing innings, but I thought our young bowling attack did well.

“They kept running in with 100% effort all the time and if Tumi’s innings doesn’t persuade people of our character and fight then I just don’t know.

“Marizanne is a star, she actually said she wanted to bat lower down in the match because she doesn’t have a game-plan in Test cricket! I don’t know where that 150 and the second-innings runs came from then!

“But I’m very proud of the team, nine debutantes and two players with one Test each against players who have been part of Test cricket for 10 matches. It was exciting and we’ve had lots of positive feedback,” Luus said.

While the cost of staging women’s Test cricket means it is unlikely to become an everyday thing anytime soon, Luus was clear that the South Africans would like to play more of the format.

“I haven’t watched a lot of Test cricket but I will have to start soon,” Luus joked. “It’s a definite learning curve for us, but the team obviously enjoyed it a lot.

“We learnt plenty and we will take a lot of experience from this. We were put in tough situations but we still had a lot of laughs. Hopefully we will get more Test matches in the near future.

“We don’t know when a Test will come our way again, so we just decided to live in the moment and take it all in. There’s not enough money in the world to buy that experience,” Luus said.

The Sharks ensured their unbeaten record in the Currie Cup was not broken on Friday night but it required a mighty effort from last year’s finalists as a physical, combative Pumas side pushed them for the whole 82 minutes in Nelspruit.

The Sharks eventually prevailed 24-10 for their fourth successive win and their triumph, on the scoreboard at least, was entirely thanks to flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain, who succeeded with all eight of his penalty kicks at goal.

Although the Sharks shaded the territory battle and their scrum started to give the Pumas a really hard time in the second half, the visitors’ attack was disconnected and just lacking in the polish required to break down a manful Pumas defence.

The Pumas in fact scored the only try and a brilliant try it was, worthy of being try of the match even if half-a-dozen had been scored. It began deep inside their own 22 and was sparked by inside centre Eddie Fouche’s chip and regather. The end-to-end try saw 10 Pumas players handle, but scrumhalf Lucky Dlepu was prominent, before flank Anele Lungisa, who was a prominent figure with his huge work-rate throughout the match, went over for the try.

In a tough encounter in which any soft characters would have had to leave the field crying for mom, the Sharks were more clinical in terms of hanging on to the ball, although their failure to convert pressure into tries will be distressing for coach Etienne Fynn.

They kept their composure though and did not get blown off course by a Pumas side that was typically ferocious on their home turf.

Apart from Chamberlain, the likes of scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba, wing Yaw Penxe and flank Thembelani Bholi all advanced their cause in terms of getting into the Sharks’ URC side.

So the mighty Indian team will indeed be gracing our fields for five weeks of what should not only be intense cricket for the Proteas but a timely financial boost that will help the constrained Cricket South Africa administrators keep the candle wicks burning.

While one hopes the Proteas are able to make it a hotly contested series, there is no doubt that in terms of global boardroom politics, CSA are in a much weaker position than the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Of course South African cricket are eternally grateful for India agreeing to honour their commitment to tour when it looked likely that the Omicron variant of Covid would snuff out the tour.

But hopefully that gratitude does not express itself in timidity which allows the BCCI to bully or ride roughshod over South African cricket.

India have been calling the tune in world cricket for a while now, deservedly so when one considers they bring the most money into the game, but there will come a time when CSA have to stand up for their rights.

India are so used to everyone just kowtowing to them that there are occasions when they take a chance and push the boundaries of fair play.

One such occasion occurred this week in Bloemfontein, where their A team, to whom we are also extremely grateful for completing their series against SA A, displayed some incredibly frustrating time-wasting techniques and skullduggery.

As soon as the SA A team, trailing by just eight runs on first innings, made a solid start to their second innings, reaching 89/1 at tea on the third day, India began to ensure much time was taken out of the game.

In the two-and-a-half hour session after tea, they bowled just 26 overs as their bowlers crawled through their deliveries. Field settings were regularly tampered with and then returned to what they were, and every couple of overs, one of the Indian players would go to ground roaring and writhing in agony. The physiotherapist spent so much time on the field he should have been in the starting line-up.

The responsibility in those circumstances lies with the umpires and match referee to ensure the game is played in the right spirit, and there are laws, penalty runs and fines at their disposal to help them do it.

But this is India, who are doing South African cricket a massive favour remember, so there was a decided reluctance to ruffle any feathers.

The Test series against India is likely to have South African umpires due to the problems of travelling in these times of Covid, and one hopes the International Cricket Council devolve enough power to those officials so that they are seen to be representing the ICC and not CSA.

Otherwise they may not feel empowered enough to make tough calls against India should the need arise.

Hopefully we will be spared any controversy though, and will just be able to enjoy the fine cricket we know both teams are capable of producing. Given the aggressive fast bowlers South Africa have at their disposal, and India’s ability to fight fire with fire, there will certainly be some feisty action.

Which is fine, as long as that mysterious, difficult to quantify, line between competitiveness and unsporting behaviour is not crossed.

But anyone who watches this intriguing series will also be expecting two very passionate teams to sometimes get very close to that line.

I say bring it on!