Ken Borland

Pink Day, the charity event raising funds for cancer research, has been hosted by the fast-paced city of Johannesburg at the Wanderers for the last 9 years and Sunday’s second ODI between South Africa and Pakistan may not have any spectators allowed, but the Proteas need to bring their usual intensity and action-packed approach in order to stay alive in the series.

The first ODI was lost on the back of a second-wicket partnership of 177 between Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq; Pakistan scraped to victory off the last ball of the match because the Proteas then fought back and claimed six wickets for 85 runs. They did that using aggressive fast bowling led by Anrich Nortje.

The Wanderers is traditionally a haven for pace and bounce and Autumn on the Highveld adds more moisture and swing into the equation as well. South Africa’s pacemen need to be smarter about exploiting the conditions more, they perhaps relied too heavily on slower balls and cutters at Centurion when an approach more in line with how they would bowl in a Test match was called for.

“The plan was to bowl more Test lengths and we started brilliantly, but as the pitch became harder and flatter it was really difficult to defend and the batsmen were able to score quite freely. But a lot of credit should go to the bowlers, I’ve been in a lot of situations like this on the Highveld and the team chasing gets home with five or six overs to spare,” centurion Rassie van der Dussen said after the first ODI on Friday night.

It was a valuable toss for Pakistan to win in the first game and it was tough going for the Proteas batsmen in the first hour. But some of the strokes offered were not well-executed as South Africa slumped to 55 for four before Van der Dussen came to their rescue.

The star batsman said the shot-selection could be excused, it was just the execution that let the batsmen down, and a similarly positive approach is likely to be brought to the Wanderers.

“Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram gave us a good start and thought that they could then take on the powerplay. In hindsight they couldn’t because the pitch was a bit more difficult to bat on than they thought. You have to assess conditions and sometimes you make mistakes. But a guy like Quinny has played like that his whole career and we’re not too worried about the batting.

“England have probably been the best ODI team over the last two years and that formula works for them, so we want to give the batsmen the freedom to express themselves, especially up front in the powerplay. Quinny is usually brilliant there but it’s the nature of cricket that you won’t have success every time. Losing three wickets in a cluster is what we don’t want to do though,” Van der Dussen said.

Players who drop potentially crucial catches in the penultimate over of a tense ODI normally wish to remain anonymous, but Rassie van der Dussen did not have that luxury because it was his brilliant century, his first hundred for the national team, that had kept the Proteas in contention in the opening match of the series against Pakistan at Centurion on Friday.

Van der Dussen’s superb 123 not out off 134 balls lifted South Africa to 273 for six after they had slumped to 55 for four. The 32-year-old was himself dropped before he had scored, Asif Ali diving full length at second slip but failing to hold on to a very tough chance off Shaheen Shah Afridi, but no-one was talking about that catch after the game.

Instead, the talking point was the even more difficult, steepling catch Shadab Khan offered to Van der Dussen at deep midwicket off Lungi Ngidi with Pakistan needing 13 off nine balls to win. It was during that awkward period after the sun has set and floodlights are yet to take full effect, and the fielder had to race in from the boundary to try and take the catch. Shadab survived, getting two runs and Pakistan went on to win off the last ball of the match.

“It was a half-chance and if I was able to get under it earlier then things could have gone our way. But it was twilight and the floodlights hadn’t really taken effect yet and I barely got fingertips to it. But that’s just sport, it’s a game of fine margins and as a professional sportsman you have to be ready for that decisive moment. The bowlers fought brilliantly but it just didn’t go our way,” Van der Dussen explained.

Far more attention should be played to his determined effort with the bat though. A strike-rate of 91.79 may be considered relatively sedate in this day and age, but with South Africa sent in to bat at 10am on a tacky pitch and a trio of excellent Pakistani pacemen bowling with great discipline, it was no leisure cruise for Van der Dussen.

“You want to perform under pressure and we were early on, but I managed to get us to a competitive total. You have to assess conditions and the pitch was a bit difficult with the toss playing a big role. On the Highveld it’s always difficult in that first hour, hour-and-a-half, because the pitch retains moisture which allows the ball to sit up, it’s a bit two-paced and it’s difficult to hit through the line.

“It’s challenging batting first and you just try and give the team a base that they can capitalise on towards the end. But we lost wickets so our backs were against the wall early on. To get to that score was really positive, but the pitch got a lot better, getting flatter and it becomes really difficult to defend, the batsmen can score quite freely. I give a lot of credit to the bowlers because normally teams in that situation get home with five or six overs to spare,” Van der Dussen said.

Temba Bavuma is the right man to lead the Proteas because he took the Imperial Lions from being kittens to the roaring, dominant beasts they are now, according to his vice-captain at the franchise, Nicky van den Bergh.

History will be made at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday morning when Bavuma becomes the first Black African to captain the South African cricket team, and for wicketkeeper/batsman Van den Bergh he was the obvious choice as skipper.

“There was obviously a lot of speculation over who the best captain would be, but the Proteas white-ball teams need to win trophies and Temba has managed to do that, really stepping up for the Lions in two or three finals. He has been the most successful franchise captain over the last three years, he has a proven record that no-one can dispute. It’s about time that the Proteas have taken that punt and I think he will do well.

“Sure, he inherited a strong squad at the Lions but we hadn’t won anything. Under him we won five out of eight possible trophies which you can’t argue with. The best captains get a team effort going, there’s no secret, no aces up his sleeve, he just gets the best out of the big players and ensures they step up in the big games. Temba is very confident, he has that presence, that aura, that means he can get the best out of his players,” Van den Bergh told The Citizen on Thursday.

Both Van den Bergh and former Lions coach Geoff Toyana, who first gave the captaincy to Bavuma, spoke on Thursday of his people skills and ability to get the best out of players.

“Temba is a pretty intense character and he leads like that as well. But I feel he got the best out of me and the other players, and now he’s obviously got an even greater calibre of players and more backing. He expects the best out of you as a player and he’s never satisfied with just doing well, he expects you to do better and better. But he lets the guys play, you can see that by how attacking we are.

“That’s the kind of thing that makes the top players stand up and he does it as well, Temba’s not one to back down under pressure. He created a winning culture very quickly at the Lions and the gus now expect to win, we don’t buckle. So for me it was a move the Proteas had to make because of the success he has had at franchise level,” Van den Bergh said.

“Temba is a great leader and a people’s person who leads from the front. He gives his team confidence and backs the players, that’s the main thing that makes sure they do well,” Toyana said.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher on Thursday singled out the services of the recalled Aiden Markram as being potentially vital for their 2023 ODI World Cup campaign, suggesting the 26-year-old is going to be in the starting XI for the series that starts against Pakistan at Centurion on Friday.

Markram has an astonishing record in franchise 50-over cricket, averaging 63.04 with seven centuries in 22 innings; in his last three campaigns his strike-rate has been 109.95. Based on that and his current phenomenal form, his ODI record – averaging just 27.95 with a strike-rate of 85 – seems an anomaly.

Boucher, his coach at the Titans when the franchise won two Momentum One-Day Cup titles, certainly thinks so.

“We understand how good a player Aiden is, he’s that good that we believe now is the time for him to resurrect his ODI career. He had a funny start to his ODI career, being made captain after a couple of games; I don’t know if it was the right call. But he now has a clear direction of the way we want him to bat – like he has in franchise cricket, we want to get him into that same mindset.

“When he’s in form like he is now then he really stands out and we see him as a potential matchwinner in 2023, so we need to get him in the side. In red-ball cricket he can just go out and bat, but being a humble character, sometimes in white-ball cricket if he’s not striking at 140 he feels he’s holding up the team, he feels pressurised. But if he or Quinton de Kock get to a hundred then not many batsmen will outscore them.

“If Aiden’s batting in the 40^th over, he’ll probably have a hundred at close to a run-a-ball and we have seen what he can do at the back end of an innings. We hope he clicks and gets really big runs, we’ve worked on a couple of different shot options for him and we feel he is just one or two knocks away,” Boucher said on Thursday.

Other players who I would like to see involved in the series:

Wiaan Mulder

It’s been a long time since the 23-year-old played the last of his 10 ODIs, against Sri Lanka at Centurion in March 2019, but the Proteas need more consistent output from their all-rounder than Andile Phehlukwayo has been delivering lately. Mulder is an accurate bowler who is developing more variety and is capable of hitting the ball far, as his List A strike-rate of 87.67 shows.

Heinrich Klaasen

Since he was the Player of the Series in the whitewash of Australia a year ago, Klaasen’s international career has stalled largely due to illness and injury. But the Proteas need to start thinking about a viable replacement as a finisher for the great David Miller and Klaasen has shown he can fit the bill. One of the better players of spin in the country, he is also a composed fellow ideally suited to the madness of the death overs.

Sisanda Magala

Deeply admired by his fellow domestic professionals and highly-rated by no less of a legend than Dale Steyn [https://citizen.co.za/sport/south-african-sport/cricket/proteas/2465546/dale-steyns-appreciation-for-sisanda-magala-he-has-fight-in-him/],the time has come to see if Magala can transfer his impressive franchise displays to the international stage. The burly 30-year-old bowls with deceptive pace and his greatest strength comes in the death overs with his potent yorkers. Batting at eight, he would also provide a powerful hitter down the order.