Ken Borland

Pakistan ended the second day of the first Test against South Africa three wickets down in their second innings and still two runs behind, a poor position that does not reflect the pressure they put the Proteas under at SuperSport Park on Friday.

Babar Azam (16*) and Saud Shakeel (8*) were at the crease when bad light stopped play at 5pm with Pakistan on 88 for three. The visitors were no doubt quite happy to retire to the safety of their changeroom as it had been a disappointing previous hour for them as they failed to capitalise on an opening stand of 49 between Saim Ayub (27) and Shan Masood (28).

South Africa were most relieved to have gained a first-innings lead of 90, thanks to dream-debutant Corbin Bosch and the help of the tail, because they bowled poorly for the first 10 overs of Pakistan’s second innings.

Kagiso Rabada eventually broke the opening stand with a tremendous delivery: angled in from around the wicket to the left-handed Saim, it then seamed and bounced past his outside edge and hit the top of off-stump.

Marco Jansen was off-colour in the first innings, but he then produced an excellent spell of two for 17 in four overs late in the day. Shan was smartly taken in the slips by Tristan Stubbs, who had a rough time in the cordon on the first day, and Kamran Ghulam fell for four in similar fashion.

But Ghulam, Pakistan’s top-scorer in the first innings with 54, looked the victim of bad luck as Ryan Rickelton did superbly to scoop up an edge diving forward in the gully. TV replays suggested the ball had bounced just before he got his fingers around it, but third umpire Kumar Dharmasena gave him out.

That the Proteas had a lead as significant as 90 runs was thanks to Bosch, who scored a tenacious 81 not out off 93 deliveries, with 15 fours. He came to the crease after some poor batting by South Africa had seen them slide from 178 for four to 191 for seven, with Naseem Shah taking three wickets.

He joined Aiden Markram at the crease, with the opening batsman casting aside some near misses recently as he stroked a brilliant 89 off 144 balls. It was a defiant innings as he stuck around for four-and-a-half hours on a sporty pitch, but it was also filled with some gorgeous strokeplay as he collected 15 fours.

But when Markram finally fell, caught behind gloving a hook at Khurram Shehzad, the Proteas were 213 for eight, leading by just two runs.

But Bosch, playing positively but sensibly, took control as he continued his outstanding first-class form with the bat. He added 41 for the ninth wicket with Kagiso Rabada (13) and a delightful 47 for the last wicket with Dane Paterson (12), taking his first-class average this season to 96!

Bosch is the first player to take four wickets in an innings and score a half-century on his Test debut for South Africa, although Queenstown-born Tony Greig scored 62 and 57 and took four for 53 on debut for England, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1972. Eleven other debutants have achieved the feat in all Test cricket.

“Corbin’s innings made a huge difference. At one stage it looked like we would only have a lead of 15 to 20 runs. But now Pakistan are effectively none for three and we’ve managed to get a bit ahead in the game, even though we didn’t land the ball as we wanted this afternoon,” Markram said after the close of play.

“Corbin is having a special debut, it looks easy this Test cricket thing for him! It was a hugely valuable knock, probably worth more than a hundred. He’s really talented and he’s grafted really hard to get here. He still has a lot more to offer the Proteas.”

Markram’s impressive innings comes as a relief to himself and his many fans; since his century against India on an even more treacherous pitch at Newlands in January, he had made just one half-century in 10 innings midway through the second Test against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park at the start of this month. But through all that period, he had looked so good at the crease, almost imperious.

He made 55 in the second innings in Gqeberha and backed it up with even more on Friday.

“It was really frustrating because I felt I was moving well and seeing the ball well, but I was finding interesting ways to get out. It would have been different if I was scratching around and felt out of touch. But it still plays on you because you want to contribute to the team winning. Hopefully this can turn things around now,” Markram said after his 13^th Test half-century.

“Today there was an ebb and flow to my innings. At times I got into a rhythm when I was moving well, but at other times it feels like you’re fighting with yourself. I was just trying to leave well but also balance that with the desire to score. There were certain lengths that if the bowler hit them then you’re just trying to get through it somehow. But then you need to have the intensity to score around those lengths.

“You don’t want to make it too complicated, but you get good value for your shots on the Highveld, so I like to be positive up here. If the bowlers don’t land the ball in the right areas then the pitch is nice to bat on, but if they zone in on the right spots then it becomes tough to bat. You need to spend time out there, get a feel for it, but the ball keeps nibbling around,” Markram said.

Vice-captain Temba Bavuma has said it was poor batting that saw the Proteas sell themselves short after plenty of hard work in preparation for the Test series against Australia.

After the horrors of the two-day Test in Brisbane, South Africa could only manage to score 189 and 204 on a good batting pitch in Melbourne to lose the second Test, and with it the series, by a massive innings and 182 runs.

“This is not what we prepared for, we haven’t done justice to all the work put in, which is quite disappointing, and it’s obviously disappointing the way we have got out in the two Tests,” Bavuma said after the conclusion of the second Test.

“To be brutally honest, the batting group has just not been good enough and our inexperience has really been shown up. We needed big partnerships and it’s not a matter of blaming the conditions.

“There have been a lot of conversations about all our disciplines, and the skill and execution we have shown has simply not been good enough. We now need action to get to where we need to be.

“The same questions will be asked in the third Test and we have to find answers to those questions that are continually being asked,” Bavuma said.

As impressive as the Australian attack were, South Africa did help them out in the second innings with two runouts. Bavuma was at the crease for both of them, but while he did not accept blame for the dismissals of Khaya Zondo and Keshav Maharaj, he was willing to point the finger at himself for not going on further than the 65 he did score.

“I was involved with both run outs, I was the common denominator, but I don’t want to assign fault to anyone,” Bavuma said. “But it does show a lack of clarity in the decision-making, when there had been a bit of pressure and it was a key period.

“I then probably had a brainfart when I got out today, if I had been with another proper batsman I probably wouldn’t have played that shot. Sixties are good for the moment, but they won’t change the outcome of the game.

“I’m obviously guilty of that in my career and I’m trying to change that. To carry on batting through tough periods and sessions is probably my biggest challenge, to just keep batting and see how far I can go,” Bavuma admitted.

The poor old national selectors are not being helped by the players at the moment as they look to pick up the pieces following the Proteas’ humiliating T20 World Cup exit at the hands of the Netherlands, their next foes being arguably the meanest of the lot – Australia in Australia.

Even without the T20 turmoil and the nagging feeling that Test cricket – where South Africa are in strong contention to make the World Championship final – is being neglected more and more by the powers-that-be in this country, taking on the Aussies in their backyard over Christmas has always been the benchmark for the Proteas. Their victories there have been amongst the most memorable and impressive of their achievements.

I still believe the greatness of a cricketing nation is measured by their Test results, and seeing how the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri prioritised making India the No.1 Test side in the world, or the hype around the Ashes, I am sure there are millions who agree with me.
For such a high-intensity series, selection is always going to be under the microscope by the fans, and the selection panel are certainly being given a hard time by the ‘cognoscenti’ for the composition of the 16-man squad that will leave on December 1.

Cricket being such a statistics-based game, there will always be runs and wickets with which to put forward one’s case, but it is very difficult to argue with miraculous acts. Ryan Rickelton, ruled out of the tour by the CSA medical committee due to an ankle condition they believe will need surgery some time soon, scored his second successive century for the Central Gauteng Lions on Friday, and then kept wicket, seemingly untroubled by an injury that has been described as “very serious”.
By not being willing to risk Rickelton, who would be back-up wicketkeeper to Kyle Verreynne, due to the time and distance required to replace him if his ankle does suddenly implode, the selectors have opened the door for Heinrich Klaasen to return to the squad. He celebrated by smashing an extraordinary 292 off just 240 balls against the Free State Knights.

But it his Titans team-mate Theunis de Bruyn whose return to the Test squad has raised even more eyebrows. His last Test was three years ago in India and his domestic form hasn’t exactly screamed ‘RECALL!’ since then – he has made just three centuries and one fifty in the last three seasons.

Perhaps De Bruyn owes his selection to two things: He is a specialist No.3 and the Proteas need someone to fill the gap left by the injured Keegan Petersen, and new interim coach Malibongwe Maketa has seen the 30-year-old at his best for the SA A team he has been coaching – De Bruyn averages 69.70 in 14 innings for the national second-stringers.

What Maketa won’t be seeing before they arrive in Australia though is Temba Bavuma, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje preparing for such an important tour for South Africa’s hopes of appearing in next year’s World Test Championship final.

Bavuma and Rabada have both declined to play for the Lions. Given that they were two of the most under-performing players in the T20 World Cup, one would think they could do with getting some confidence back by bossing matters at domestic level, especially Bavuma, whose morale is low and will be targeted by the Australian media.

Meanwhile Nortje is playing T10 cricket in Abu Dhabi, would you believe. There were other Proteas players who reluctantly donned their whites this week ahead of the vital Australia series.

It really is time that Cricket South Africa started to lay down the law with the Proteas who complain about not having enough red-ball cricket to hone their longer-form skills, but then would rather not play for their provinces when the opportunity presents itself.

They will now have one warm-up match in Australia to prepare themselves and will then no doubt be surprised when they begin the Test series in rusty fashion.

Bulls coach Jake White was on the offensive after his team’s poor display in their 31-17 defeat at the hands of Munster, with a couple of Cape-based journalists feeling his ire in prickly exchanges.

The questions they raised were largely self-evident, but White took exception to his team being described as “outmuscled” and when asked about senior players not standing up, he asked for a list.

There is no doubt that the Bulls were second-best at the gain-line, as shown by Munster scoring three of their four tries from pick-and-goes, while they bashed away at the home team’s line for the last 10 minutes without getting through.

The only Bulls players who emerged with credit from the game were youngsters David Kriel, a second-half substitute, and fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse, who was still full of attacking threat in the wind and rain.

“I don’t think we were outmuscled at all,” White said afterwards. “We leaked a couple of tries from close quarters, but I’m proud of the way we fought back, it was a good learning curve.

“Munster have a lot of internationals and will definitely be near the top at the end of the competition. It was raining, they contested well in the lineouts, where we had a young hooker.

“We are still a long way from where we want to be, but our spine, numbers two, eight, nine and 15 are all youngsters, while theirs are internationals. I’m not happy with the result, but I am a realist.

“We will keep staying positive. If I listened to you guys in the media, I would go stand on top of a building and jump! We have a very young group and last season they exceeded expectations,” White said.

What possession they had, the Bulls often wasted with poorly-directed kicks, but White made it sound like you needed to be the Dean of Science at the University of Limerick on the other side of the River Shannon to understand the wind.

“Conditions did not help us and we kicked inaccurately. But the wind made it very difficult – you were constantly worried that if you kicked short then the ball would come straight back to you, or if you gave it more it would go too long.

“The conditions were in the forwards’ favour and Munster bravely defended their line at the end. Being at home, they obviously played the conditions well and the worst thing was that we gave them a 17-3 start in the first half.

“We have what we have in terms of players and they have got to grow. If we started Bismarck du Plessis, what would Jan-Hendrik Wessels learn?

“It’s not the end of the world, touring is very difficult, we saw that with Ulster almost losing to the Lions. I can’t hide these players, I’ve got to put them in pressure situations and I know they will get better over time,” White said.