Ken Borland

Stand-in Proteas captain Keshav Maharaj is a cool, laidback customer and so he is not going to agonize over South Africa’s poor record in ODIs in England as they left for a three-match series starting on July 19.

The Proteas have played England in 26 ODIs on their home soil and have won just eight of them, losing 16 and two matches being washed out. In the last decade, South Africa have won just three of the last 10 matches against the reigning world champions.

“I’ve only personally played two ODIs in England, so it’s difficult for me to give deep insights,” Maharaj said on the eve of their departure on Thursday. “Maybe we have been a bit slow to adapt.

“That series I played in we lost 2-1 and we only really found our rhythm in the last game. England have done really well lately with their new coaches’ fresh philosophies.

“But it’s important for us to just play according to our game-plan, to focus on what we want to do and do the basics well. It’s going to be a good test and we always want to try and beat the best.

“I can’t really isolate facets of our game that haven’t worked, we just need to trust our process and execute much better. I’m sure the lots of hard work we have put in will bear fruit,” Maharaj calmly stated.

With the next 50-over World Cup now just 15 months away, Maharaj is hoping the desire to be in the squad for that showpiece tournament in India will provide the ignition for his side to make Jos Buttler’s first series in charge of England a torrid one.

“Obviously in our ODI performances over the last year or two we have not shown the execution we’ve wanted,” Maharaj said. “But we’ve picked a squad to suit various needs and combinations.

“I’m sure the game-plan will now come to fruition with the different combinations we have tried. World Cup time obviously causes selection problems because all the players want to put their hands up.

“As captain, you want to create space for everyone to thrive, but they also need to align with the game-plan. You want to give individuals the platform to shine within the team game-plan.

“It might be good to start the tours with the ODIs, we are so used to playing the Tests first and then filtering into the white-ball games. But now the guys are fresh and hungry to showcase their talent,” Maharaj, standing in for the injured Temba Bavuma, said.

Following their historic one-off Test against England, the Proteas Women now begin their preparations for the ODI and T20 series that will be played over the next two weeks, and will be looking to marry the batting basics they showed in the longer format with the more dashing strokeplay required against the white ball.

Star batter Laura Wolvaardt is probably not alone in being quite pleased to return to what she is more used to facing.

“The red ball was very tough to face, it was quite a challenge up front,” Wolvaardt said. “And there were some very tough conditions to deal with too, plus the Duke ball does a lot more than we’re used to.

“So I had to concentrate on leaving a lot of balls, which I’m not used to, especially since so much of my game is about cover-drives and going after wide balls. So it was quite a mental challenge as well.

“Test batting is all about technique and getting in strong positions, and the basics stay the same, so it’s good I’ve done that work ahead of the white-ball games and hopefully my timing will be there.

“It also helps having faced their bowlers in tough situations, and hopefully the white ball doesn’t do as much. But the ODIs are a format we enjoy and we’re very good at it,” Wolvaardt said.

The South African bowlers have also borne a heavy burden, but the chance to avenge their semi-final loss to England in the World Cup at the end of March is no doubt going to motivate and energise the squad.

“It was a big effort from our bowlers. Marizanne Kapp scored an incredible 150 and then bowled 16 overs the next day, and Nadine de Klerk bowled 23 overs in one day.

“But we are all very excited for the white-ball series. We’ve had a mixed bag of results against England recently: we won the first game against them at the World Cup but then we were very disappointed to lose the semi-final.

“Hopefully we can get a bit of payback for the semi-final. It feels like a long time ago, but it was still this year that it happened,” Wolvaardt said.

The first ODI in the three-match series will be played next Monday in Northampton.

The 150th Open next month at St Andrew’s and the Masters and the U.S. Open next year are all now on the diary of South Africa’s 17-year-old sensation Aldrich Potgieter after he won amateur golf’s biggest prize – the 127th Amateur Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes – over the weekend.

Potgieter held off a strong comeback from Englishman Sam Bairstow to seal a 3 & 2 victory in the thrilling 36-hole final at the Lancashire links course. He became just the third South African to lift the prestigious title after Bobby Cole (Carnoustie, 1966) and Jovan Rebula (Royal Aberdeen, 2018), and the second-youngest winner of The Amateur since Matteo Manassero triumphed in 2009 at the age of 16.

“It’s really amazing,” Potgieter said. “I can’t really find the words; there’s no feeling like it and I haven’t felt this good before.

“It will take some time to sink in, because right now the words can’t even come out of my mind to describe how I feel,” the Mossel Bay golfer said.

And for now, all he can think about is teeing it up at one of the most famous venues in sport as the 150^th celebration of the Open goes to the home of golf, St Andrews, where massive crowds are expected from July 14-17.

“I’m really excited. I played the Old Course recently during the St Andrews Links Trophy and it was really amazing. I’m really looking forward to the experience and The Open has always been my favourite Major because of all the history it holds.

“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I’d be playing The Open at this age. It’s a dream come true and it’s going to be a tough few weeks, waiting out the return trip back to St Andrews,.” Potgieter said.

The staff at Pinnacle Point, where Potgieter plays his golf, were quick to celebrate his achievement on social media and it has been a meteoric rise for the big-hitter.

Potgieter and his family had been living in Australia for nine years before they returned to South Africa in December last year. Having been 6 000th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking in 2019, by the time he returned home, he had risen to 2 800th and was West Australia’s No.1 junior and ranked sixth in Australia.

He announced himself in spectacular fashion on the GolfRSA circuit, winning the Nomads SA Boys U19 Strokeplay Championship and backing up that tournament record 20-shot victory at Royal Cape with an 8 & 7 win to lift the SA Boys Matchplay title — becoming only the fifth junior since 1963 to complete that rare double after Richard Sterne (1999), Dylan Frittelli (2008), Zander Gous (2013) and Jayden Schaper (2015).

Ranked 140^th in the world before the dream week at Royal Lytham, Potgieter has cemented his spot alongside fellow GolfRSA National Squad members Casey Jarvis and Yurav Premlall in the International Team for the 2022 Junior Presidents Cup in North Carolina in September.

The Bulls are likely to attack the next two weekends of Currie Cup action as hard as player-management allows, but they will be hoping the Lions and Sharks follow suit as they can do the Loftus Versfeld team a massive favour over the next fortnight by beating back the charge of the Free State Cheetahs.

The Bulls are sitting at the top of the Currie Cup log at the moment, but they are just one point ahead of Free State, who have a game in hand.

While the Bulls are hosting Griquas at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, the Cheetahs will be visiting the Lions at Ellis Park on Friday night. The Lions are bottom of the log and, given that they cannot make the URC playoffs anymore, they could well decide to focus on ensuring a better final position in the Currie Cup.

The Sharks then play Free State on May 14 and the Bulls would love them to take a strong team to Bloemfontein. But the Bulls host the Lions on the same weekend, before flying to the UK on the Monday, so that could be a pivotal game in their bid to top the Currie Cup log.

“We don’t know exactly what the other franchises are planning,” Bulls assistant coach Pine Pienaar said on Tuesday. “The Lions did really well in the URC at home, so maybe they want to end that competition on a high.

“They will show their hand with their selection against the Cheetahs this week, and then they could play the same side against us the following weekend. I would guess quite a few URC players would feature.

“I think there will also be URC players here and there in our team, although obviously some guys will be resting and there are a few players at the Springbok training group.

“We still see the Currie Cup as being very important, but all loading of the players has to be managed carefully. In some positions we don’t have as much depth, so we have to manage carefully when those guys rest,” Pienaar said.

Big calls will have to be made by head coaches Jake White and Gert Smal, and it is only going to get more complicated for the Bulls.

If the Bulls do win their URC quarterfinal on June 4 then they will advance to the semi-finals on June 11. That is the same day they are scheduled to play the Free State Cheetahs in Bloemfontein in the final round of Currie Cup action, in a match that could well decide who hosts the final.

The Currie Cup semi-finals then clash with the URC final on June 18, with the local final being played on June 25.