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.

Bangladesh’s batsmen discovered at the Wanderers that there are no vaccinations against the pace and bounce of Kagiso Rabada when he is at his fiery best, and South Africa’s ace fast bowler is hopeful that they won’t have time to figure out how to handle him and his fellow quicks before the ODI series decider at Centurion on Wednesday.

With Rabada leading the way with an outstanding 5/39, Bangladesh were restricted to just 194/9 in the second ODI, South Africa levelling the series when they chased down that target with seven wickets and 76 deliveries to spare. After a slightly flat performance in the first match at SuperSport Park, this time the Proteas pacemen came out firing.

While Rabada said he was still not sure why they struggled for wickets in the first ODI, he did say the extra pace and bounce of the Wanderers pitch made them more lethal.

“It’s a question I’m still asking myself,” Rabada said at the Wanderers after his man-of-the-match display. “I guess this pitch did a bit more with the new ball.

“I thought we bowled very well in the first 10 overs of the previous game too, but were just unfortunate not to get the breakthrough. And on the Highveld, you’re guaranteed to score quicker once you’re in, as the ball gets older it’s better to bat.

“But there was more bounce at the Wanderers, we got the ball in the right areas and it was good to us. You generally want to use the extra bounce and pace at the Wanderers.

“The talk is that the subcontinent teams are not able to deal with the bounce as well as we do because we’ve grown up here. You can’t just rock up and expect to bounce them out, but you try use the conditions to the best of your ability,” Rabada said.

While the Proteas were delighted with their all-round performance at the Wanderers, they are dismayed by their continued tendency to start series poorly, a destructive habit when it comes to a growing side developing consistency.

“It is a concern because we always want to throw the first punch but we keep finding ourselves in this position.

“We don’t do it on purpose and we don’t want to make our job even harder. So we still hve a bit of work to do before we go back to Centurion,” Rabada said.

The Proteas dare not reproduce their performance of the first ODI.

Jasprit Bumrah, bowling with pace and tremendous skill, ensured India gained the first-innings lead with his five-wicket haul bowling South Africa out for just 210 on the second day of the decisive third Test at Newlands on Wednesday.

South Africa’s disappointing batting display meant India started their second innings leading by 13 runs, and the tourists had extended that to 70 with eight wickets in hand as they reached stumps on 57/2.

The Proteas had resumed the second day on 17/1, batting under bright blue skies in warm, sunny conditions. But Bumrah immediately caused waves with his second delivery being a booming in-ducker that knocked over the off-stump of Aiden Markram (8), who had shouldered arms.

Nightwatchman Keshav Maharaj batted with dedication to his task for 72 minutes in scoring 25, but the Proteas had slipped to 45/3 after a troubled opening hour. Keegan Petersen and Rassie van der Dussen (21) batted with determination to add 67 for the fourth wicket, and South Africa looked on track to lead on first innings as Petersen and a confident Bavuma took them to 159/4.

But Mohammed Shami changed the complexion of the game with two wickets in the 56^th over, with his perfect, bolt-upright seam position finding the edge of Bavuma’s back-foot defensive stroke, Virat Kohli taking a fine diving catch, low to his left, at second slip to remove the in-form batsman for 28. Kyle Verreynne, playing with little footwork, was out for a duck two balls later as he was caught behind.

Petersen batted with impressive tenacity as he made 72 in more than four hours at the crease, off 166 balls, his second half-century in successive Tests. His career-best innings included nine fours as the 28-year-old drove the ball with aplomb.

Bumrah eventually removed him nine minutes after the tea break with another excellent delivery in the off-stump channel that just bounced more than Petersen expected and nipped away, the edge going to first slip. Bumrah also claimed the wickets of Marco Jansen (7) and last man Lungi Ngidi (3) to finish with 5/42 in 23.3 overs, his seventh five-wicket haul in 27 Tests and his best figures against South Africa.

The Proteas fought back with the new ball as Kagiso Rabada removed Mayabk Agarwal (7) and Marco Jansen dismissed the other opener, Lokesh Rahul (10), both batsmen being caught in the slips.

India were 24/2 when captain Kohli came to the crease, and a thrilling battle developed between him and Jansen, who finished the day with figures of 5-3-7-1.

But Kohli (14*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (9*) will be there on the third morning to resume India’s second innings.

South Africa’s four-pronged fast bowling attack snuffed out India’s batsmen in two-and-a-half sessions on the first day of the second Test at the Wanderers on Monday, but then the Proteas own top-order weaknesses were put through a strenuous examination by the tourists’ powerful pace trio.

India, having won the toss and batted, were bowled out for 202 as Marco Jansen took 4/31 and Kagiso Rabada and Duanne Olivier claimed the other six wickets.

South Africa then reached 35/1 at stumps, with Aiden Markram failing again as he was trapped lbw by Mohammed Shami for seven. It meant Keegan Petersen (14*) again came to the crease inside the first five overs, but he did well to survive to the close with captain Dean Elgar (11*).

The Proteas again made a slow start with the new ball as India openers Lokesh Rahul and Mayank Agarwal put on 36 in the first hour. It was Lungi Ngidi who created the first feelings of pressure with two maidens in his first four overs and Jansen reaped the benefits as he had Agarwal caught behind for 26 with the first ball after morning drinks.

Olivier produced a fiery second spell that saw him remove Cheteshwar Pujara (3) and Ajinkya Rahane (0) with successive deliveries as India stumbled to lunch on 53/3.

Opener Rahul, captaining India for the first time in the absence of Virat Kohli, who withdrew just before the toss due to back problems, seems to have batted for weeks in this series already, and, following his crucial century in the first Test, he occupied the crease for three-and-a-half hours on Monday, scoring 50 before he was athletically caught by Rabada at the fine leg boundary off Jansen.

Rassie van der Dussen also took a spectacular one-handed catch at short-leg to remove Hanuma Vihari for 20 off Rabada.

A fiery 46 off 50 balls by Ravichandran Ashwin lifted India to respectability, but the rest of the Proteas pacemen were just too hot for the batsmen.

Markram seems to have lost his old technical assurance against the new ball as he planted the front leg and tried to play what was basically a straight ball from Shami far too square on the leg-side.

But Elgar was playing with his usual defiant composure and sensible shot-selection as he withstood 57 deliveries, and Petersen also looked focused for 39 balls, except when he slashed at Jasprit Bumrah when he had 12 and was fortunate to be dropped by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, high to his right.

India suffered a blow when Mohammed Siraj hobbled from the field in the penultimate over, clutching his hamstring.