Ken Borland

An ill wind blew for South Africa on the second day of the first Test against Australia in Durban on Saturday. Ken Borland explains the day, with help from Wiaan Mulder and the heroic Matt Renshaw.

The Ball in Play

With a north-easterly wind blowing over Kingsmead, the Proteas’ prospects went south on the second day of the first Test against Australia in Durban on Saturday.

Having been reduced to 124 for six midway through the second session of the opening day, Australia managed to stabilise their innings and reach 187 for six at stumps.

On Saturday, with a 9.30am start and the pitch having provided assistance to the bowlers through the first day, as well as the second new ball being due in 14.4 overs, South Africa would have been confident of wrapping up the Australia innings for the addition of maybe 70 runs maximum.

But those who know Durban and Kingsmead know that the wind direction here is crucial to how the pitch behaves. Never mind the mythical effect of the tide coming in or out, with the Indian Ocean just a kilometre away. When the south-westerly blows, it is the cool wind bringing moisture, clouds and rain. The grass on the pitch stands up and the ball swings and seams.

The north-easterly, however, is the warm wind, bringing clear blue skies and hot weather from the Mozambique Channel. The increased temperature sees the grass on the pitch wither and what used to be a snakepit affectionately known as the Green Mamba (a highly venomous snake found along the KwaZulu-Natal coast) becomes a batting paradise.

And so South Africa’s bowlers toiled on the second day. In their way stood Matt Renshaw, a gritty Yorkshire-born Queenslander who played with immense control and determination to score a career-best 190 in 468 minutes, off 397 balls. The epic effort lifted Australia to 390 all out, a highly-impressive comeback from 124 for six and an above-par total that means the Proteas will have to bat very well in their first innings as the pitch is expected to take more turn as the match progresses.

The lower-order stood their ground in support of Renshaw with great application.

Captain Pat Cummins scored 43 as he survived the important first nine overs of the day, extending the seventh-wicket partnership to 86.

Wiaan Mulder had Cummins caught at second slip and then bowled Mitchell Starc for nine with a beauty that pitched middle-and-leg and hit middle-and-off as the left-hander tried to flick the ball through midwicket.

It was 230 for eight, the new ball had just been taken and the Proteas once again seemed on track to have 250-odd to reply to.

Nathan Lyon averages 12.53 with the bat in Africa, but he did score 47 and share a 66-run ninth wicket partnership with Tim Paine in the infamous Newlands Test of 2018. He has caused South Africa frustration with the bat a couple of times, but on Saturday he took it to new levels and, together with Renshaw, broke a Donald Bradman record.

Renshaw made a plan to protect Lyon from strike as much as he could and executed it brilliantly. The off-spinner scored just seven of the first 50 runs they added.

When the partnership reached a hundred, the first time Australia’s ninth wicket has ever done that against South Africa, Lyon had made 17. The previous record was the 78 the great Bradman and Bill O’Reilly put on in Adelaide in 1932.

Eventually, with the tea break 15 minutes away, Marco Jansen fired a yorker into Lyon’s pads to trap him lbw for 27. The partnership had been worth 134 and had taken Australia to 364.

Mulder, who finished with a four-wicket haul for the third time in his Test career, praised Renshaw’s innings, while also musing that the home side had perhaps not always deployed their fielders in the best places when the left-hander was dominating the strike.

“Renshaw played beautifully, he left really well. He was able to keep the strike, which was really important, and played the situation as well as anyone can. You have to credit him for playing the conditions as well as anyone.

“I don’t think things went wrong for us, it’s just that they played well. We executed most of our plans, maybe we could have bowled a touch fuller, but it was just a good innings to be honest. He left extremely well, with the spongy, steep bounce, sometimes he let it go over the stumps.

“He seemed to get off strike so easily. He had a very different approach to the first four balls of an over and maybe we could have been smarter with the field, that’s something we’ll have to look at. Maybe we could have made it a bit harder for him, but we bowled well and put the ball in the right areas,” Mulder said.

Renshaw, whose innings eclipsed the late Phil Hughes’s 160 as the highest score for Australia against South Africa at Kingsmead, said the aim had been to keep the home side in the field, on a hot day, for as long as possible. Hence there was little need to over-attack and Australia stretched their innings out to 137.2 overs, Renshaw eventually being caught at slip off Simon Harmer, two balls after the tea break that had been delayed for half-an-hour.

“The benefit was keeping them out in the field for as long as possible and their quicks were bowling around 30 overs. I had to play the 4+2 game and sometimes I had to think hard about how to get off strike at the end of the overs, I played some of the weirdest shots I ever have. There was a lot of thinking about how many balls I needed to face and it was tough when the field was spread, I had to try and hit twos,” Renshaw said.

The clouds were just starting to roll in when South Africa, no doubt physically and mentally fatigued from their ordeal, began their reply. The dismissal of Ryan Rickelton, driving loosely at his third ball, and edging the waft to third slip off Josh Hazlewood, looked suspiciously like the after-effects of all that frustrating time in the field.

Aiden Markram (15*) and David Bedingham (12*) found the boundary five times between them with handsome drives as they took South Africa to 27 for one before the umpires mercifully ruled bad light had ended their long day.

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The DP World Lions men’s team dismissed World Sports Betting Western Province for 191 on the final day to seal an outstanding 125-run victory over their old rivals in their CSA 4-Day Series match in Johannesburg on Sunday.

Western Province had been set a target of 317 for victory and resumed on the fourth morning on 88 for three. Fast bowlers Tshepo Moreki and Codi Yusuf each took a wicket in their first overs of the day as the visitors suddenly found themselves 92 for five.

The DP World Lions had to work their way through some lower-order resistance from Western Province as George Linde and Mihlali Mpongwana (25) added 47 for the sixth wicket and Linde and Onke Nyaku (33) then put on 49 for the seventh wicket.

At 188 for six 40 minutes after lunch, #ThePrideOfJozi would have started to feel some concern with 129 needed for victory, but Moreki made the key breakthrough when he produced a snorter of a delivery to have Linde (29) fending a catch to gully.

Lutho Sipamla, who had earlier dismissed Mpongwana caught in the slips, then wrapped up the innings with three wickets in an over. The Proteas seamer jagged a delivery back into Nyaku to send his leg-stump tumbling, Mthiwekhaya Nabe (0) was then caught behind by wicketkeeper Connor Esterhuizen, and Jody Lawrence (0) fell to a magnificent, diving one-handed catch at gully by Josh Richards.

That left Sipamla with impressive figures of four for 51 in 15 overs, while the admirable Moreki finished with four for 44 in 19 overs.

The comprehensive victory by #ThePrideOfJozi, their second in a row at the DP World Wanderers Stadium, came despite being bowled out for a low score in their second innings.

The DP World Lions top-order was blown away on the third morning as they staggered to 45 for eight at lunch. That they eventually reached 121 all out was thanks to Delano Potgieter, whose 54 mirrored his matchwinning efforts against Western Province in last season’s CSA 4-Day Series final, and someone in the lower-order once again digging in to provide crucial support.

On this occasion it was Moreki, who batted for more than two hours in scoring 23 and adding 77 for the ninth wicket.

The DP World Lions were still able to set a daunting second-innings target thanks to the considerable lead of 195 they had on first innings.

Yusuf rent the Western Province middle and lower-order asunder as his fabulous five for 71 in 18.5 overs saw them bowled out for just 208 in their first innings. Moreki and Sipamla chipped in with a couple of wickets each.

The DP World Lions had batted impressively in their first innings, having won the toss and elected to bat first.

It was a grind on the first morning as captain Dominic Hendricks and Mo Manack reached 60 for one in 27 overs at lunch, but there was a change of gears after the break, with Manack (64) and Zubayr Hamza (77) both stroking fluent half-centuries.

The DP Wold Lions were in a powerful position on 268 for three at the end of the first day, and the ever-present Hendricks soldiered on to an epic, magnificent 161 not out. The left-hander batted for over nine hours and faced 370 deliveries in a defiant innings that laid the platform for the Pride’s victory. While he largely stayed in his bubble, Hendricks pounced on the loose ball and he also struck 21 fours and was particularly good on the cut and driving down the ground.

Bjorn Fortuin struck a quickfire 38 not out before the DP World Lons declared at the lunch break on the second day.

The commanding victory, and a haul of 23.46 bonus points, means #ThePrideOfJozi are the new log-leaders and they will be looking to build on their lead in their next game, which is also back at the DP World Wanderers Stadium, against the Dafabet Warriors from Eastern Province from Thursday.

KATHU, Northern Cape (22 September 2024) – Yurav Premlall was never certain he would win on the Sunshine Tour, but said he was “over the moon” following his maiden triumph at the Vodacom Origins of Golf Sishen event on Sunday.

Premlall has been in tremendous form this season, finishing second twice, racking up two third-place finishes and three other top-15 placings, but the Glendower golfer said he did not feel like a breakthrough win was definitely just around the corner.

When Premlall stood on the first tee in the final round on Sunday, he was four strokes behind leader Deon Germishuys. And that rapidly became five behind as he bogeyed the par-four first hole.

But then his precision golf kicked in and Premlall did not drop another shot, while collecting birdies on the second, fifth, eighth, ninth, 11^th, 14^th and 15^th holes. His six-under-par 66 saw him finish on 11-under-par, good enough for a one-stroke victory over Martin Vorster (70 for 10-under-par).

“I’m over the moon,” Premlall said afterwards. “The win felt like a long time coming, but you can never be certain that you are going to win in this game. So to get over the line for the first time is very special. It’s taken lots of hard work to get this far. My frame of mind today was no different to how it’s been before this season. But sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t.

“The start wasn’t ideal, but I just stayed very patient. I hit a couple of shots close to the hole, I holed a few good putts but I missed a few as well; I guess 26 putts and the result speak differently though. But my iron play was phenomenal, every time I was in-position, even when I had to get up-and-down, the ball was in the right spots. I was very tidy around the green,” Premlall said.

Premlall has now overtaken Danie van Tonder at the top of the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy, and he says staying at the top of the local circuit will be his main focus for the rest of the year.

“At the start of the year I set myself the goal of really contending in the order of merit and trying to get into the top three by the end of the lucrative Tour Championship. I don’t want to have too many eggs in different baskets and you’ll see me a lot more on our tour for the remainder of the year, that’s my focus,” Premlall said.

Vorster started well, with birdies at the second and third holes putting him in the lead. But one could sense bogeys at the par-four seventh and especially the par-five 11^th holes would prove costly. Even though Vorster birdied the 14^th and 15^th holes, so did Premlall and two bogeys to the winner’s one would prove the difference.

Rookie Simon du Plooy enjoyed his best ever Sunshine Tour performance as he shot a 68 to finish third on nine-under-par. The Krugersdorp golfer put himself right in contention with an eagle on the par-five 15^th, but he then double-bogeyed the par-four 16^th to slip back. He was joined in third place by Lyle Rowe, whose 68 was bogey-free.

Germishuys struggled to a 73 on Sunday that left him on eight-under-par, alongside Matthew Spacey and Heinrich Bruiners, who both posted 69s. Malcolm Mitchell stayed on seven-under-par to finish eighth, while rookie Kyle de Beer shot a 71 to finish tied for ninth on six-under-par with the seasoned trio of Van Tonder (67), MJ Viljoen (68) and Neil Schietekat (71).

DULLSTROOM (Mpumalanga) – Darkness fell over Highland Gate Golf and Trout Estate at a terrible time for the leaders in the first round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf Highland Gate Mpumalanga event, with Louis Albertse, Kyle de Beer and Louis de Jager all being within two shots of each other with three holes left when play was suspended on Friday.

The start of play was delayed on Friday morning due to frost on the greens, and although the weather soon improved into a lovely, warm sunny day, the backlog meant the last dozen three-balls were not able to finish their opening rounds.

But Albertse played some awesome golf in the 15 holes he did get in, storming to nine-under-par with seven birdies and an eagle on the par-five eighth hole. The three-time Sunshine Tour winner, who played some fine golf in winning the pro-am that preceded the R2 million professional event, was taking an awful toll on the back nine before the sun set on his charge. Albertse birdied four of the first five holes after the turn.

De Beer, currently leading the Fortress Rookie of the Year standings, was on eight-under-par. The 26-year-old started his round on the 10^th and made a hat-trick of birdies from the 11^th hole, before bogeying the par-five 14^th. But De Beer bounced back superbly with an eagle on the par-five 18^th and further birdies on the second, fourth, fifth and sixth holes.

The experienced De Jager birdied four of his first five holes, with a bogey on the par-three third, and had just collected his second birdie of the back nine, on the 15^th, to go to seven-under-par when play was called off for the day.

Another seasoned campaigner, Jacques Blaauw, had a marvellous start to his round, going four-under after six holes. He could only collect two more birdies thereafter, but a six-under 66 was still enough for a share of the clubhouse lead and continues his stunning season thus far as he is top of the Order of Merit delivered by The Courier Guy.

Nikhil Rama also shot a splendid 66, while it was also a good day for a quartet of up-and-coming stars in Kyle McClatchie, Englishman Joe Long, Luke Brown and Martin Rohwer, who all completed their rounds on five-under-par.

Three of the nine Sunshine Ladies Tour professionals who are competing in this Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event are in line to make the cut. Young Gabrielle Venter led the way for the women on Friday with a one-under-par 71, while Lora Assad was one-over and Danielle du Toit shot two-over 74.

The completion of the first round and the start of the second round will take place concurrently on Saturday, with the action resuming at 7.10am.