Ken Borland

South Africa kept their structure and pushed India all the way in the first half of their FIH Hockey Pro League match in Potchefstroom on Sunday, but really lost focus in the second half and ended up being hammered 10-2.

India had been beaten 5-2 by France the previous evening, so they were certainly keen to rebound and they scored some cracking goals, as well as being ruthless at short-corner time, Harmanpreet Singh scoring four goals.

But South Africa had taken the early lead through Dan Bell’s low penalty corner flick in the 12^th minute, although Surender Kumar equalised three minutes later with a real rocket into the top of the net.

South Africa defended really well in the first half and it took another excellent strike, a fierce lofted hit by Shilaland Lakra, for India to score three minutes from halftime.

But the home side were hard on attack at the end of the half and they should have equalised, but the ball was given away and India’s rapid counter-attack saw a 2-on-1 with the goalkeeper, Mandeep Singh putting them 3-1 up.

The second half saw South Africa pay a heavy price for once again giving possession away too often and failing to capitalise on their own chances. India were brilliant on the counter-attack, going 5-1 up at the end of the third quarter and then scoring five more goals in the last 15 minutes as the home side really fell apart.

In terms of their finishing, South Africa had 53% of possession and more short corners than India, but only converted two of their 17 shots at goal. That included a penalty stroke, which would have closed the gap to 2-3, being wasted.

South Africa did grab a second goal when Connor Beauchamp’s excellent penalty corner flick gave him his first international goal in the 53^rd minute.

The match was almost a repeat though of South Africa’s 6-2 loss to the Netherlands the previous night when they were 2-1 down but a penalty stroke was again not converted, the Dutch scoring soon after to go 3-1 up at the halftime break. They did not look back.

Marco Jansen announced himself in the IPL back in April, but over the next couple of months the six-foot-eight 21-year-old could really burst on to the international scene as he is tipped to make his Test debut against India, either on Boxing Day or in the New Year.

And the good news is that Jansen is in fine form, having shone during the SA A series against India A that ended last week. In six first-class matches this summer for Eastern Province Warriors and SA A, he has taken 17 wickets at an average of 20.29. On a flat Bloemfontein pitch, Jansen troubled the India A batsmen more than his returns suggested.

“I was very pleased with how that series went because Bloemfontein is not easy for seam bowlers,” Jansen told The Citizen on Monday. “I just tried to be as consistent as possible.

“Fortunately I played a bit of four-day cricket before the series and it’s all about consistency otherwise you won’t get that rhythm or be on a good run. I’m bowling well at the moment because I’m consistent and hopefully I get to play one or two games for the Proteas.”

Growing up in Potchefstroom and starting his professional career in Bloemfontein, Jansen has certainly honed his skills on the sort of good batting pitches you get at Test level.

“When I look at a pitch and realise that it’s flat, I try and take responsibility and be as consistent as possible in terms of where I land the ball and how much energy I put in.

“Growing up in Potch, it was easy to get deflated and not give 100% all the time. But the players in Bloem helped me and I developed a new mindset – not to shy away, to go harder when it’s flat, be even more consistent and bowl with more energy,” Jansen said.

Having played for Mumbai Indians this year and now taken on India A, Jansen has plenty of intel in the memory bank for when the Test team arrives.

“It helps to know how they think and I know most of them. If I do get a chance to play against them, then you want to play better than them. You look forward to it especially because you know them.

“Someone like Hanuma Vihari, man he faced a lot of balls in the SA A/India A series! When I hear his name, I just see balls and balls. We actually chatted a lot and he batted really well in those conditions.

“We spent a lot of time joking around too and I told him that there will be a bit more bounce in Pretoria and Johannesburg, there’s no other pitch like Bloem in the country. I told him he better get his plans together!”

Likewise, Proteas fans can bank on Jansen, if he does make his debut, having both a plan and great form to rely upon.

It wasn’t really the weather for playing golf or even flying kites at Sun City on Saturday as the third round of the South African Open was unable to be completed, heavy thundershowers cutting short Justin Harding’s high-flying ascent to the top of the leaderboard.

Harding had just teed off on the 14^th hole, having gone to 11-under-par and a one-stroke lead over Danie van Tonder and Oliver Bekker, when the siren signifying play had been suspended due to the threat of lightning went off at 1.05pm.

It bucketed down for the next two hours, more than 30mm falling, and a typical Pilanesberg maelstrom was accompanied by heavy winds that had the trees waving around like flags at times.

But the organisers were hopeful of getting play back underway at 4pm, only for another storm to arrive, this time depositing a quick 8mm. A putative restart time of 5pm was then in place, but the storms just kept circulating over the ancient concentric rings of volcanic mountains that surround the Gary Player Country Club.

With the thunder and lightning never really going away, the day’s play was called off at 5pm. The third round, with the leaders having five holes to play, will be completed from 7am on Sunday and tournament director Reinard Kilian said they were hopeful of completing the final round in the afternoon.

“The safety of the players is what determined our decisions, that’s the first thing we think about,” Killian said. “The storms were predicted from 2pm and we changed the draw to try and finish by then.

“Unfortunately the storms got to us quicker than expected and then they just wouldn’t go away. And it was quite an intense, violent storm. Unfortunately every time we saw a window of opportunity to get play underway again, it would close with another storm popping up.

“There’s a chance of moderate rain tomorrow [Sunday] in the early morning and showers through the day. Thunderstorms are possible, but there’s not as high a likelihood as today.

“So we have a good feeling that we can complete the tournament tomorrow [Sunday]. The fairways should still be playable and we’re confident we can sort the bunkers out. The course should be as playable as it was this morning,” Killian said.

Harding became the co-leader with his third birdie on the front nine and, when overnight leader Oliver Bekker bogeyed the par-four ninth it meant he surrendered at least a share of first place for the first time in the tournament.

Bekker then bogeyed the par-three 13^th shortly before play was suspended, meaning Harding’s punishment for a bogey on the 10^th was shortlived.

Van Tonder was also flying on Saturday, also collecting three birdies on the front nine.

What should have been a great summer of cricket, golf and rugby in South Africa is being threatened by the Omicron variant of Covid, which is an annoyance us sports lovers are getting used to, but what really angers me is the superior, hypocritical attitude of many overseas administrators and professionals.

The bio-secure bubbles that South African sporting bodies have put in place have proven to be exceptionally safe, a credit to the outstanding scientists and doctors we have in the medical sphere. But for many of those in the West, we are in Africa and therefore all the old stereotypes of being backward and unadvanced apply. It is an insulting and bigoted attitude.

Plus South African society is probably safer than many in Europe and America, where most people are ignoring preventative measures like masks, hand sanitising and social distancing. In America, there has also been a sizeable section of the population who have refused to get vaccinated.

It was the United Kingdom who began all the trouble by rushing to implement travel bans before they had even received all the scientific information about Omicron. The fact that the boorish Boris Johnson and his ill-informed medical advisors, who have grossly mishandled Britain’s Covid response over the last couple of years, are setting the tone for the global response is infuriating. We have someone who has presided over a country that now has more than 50 000 cases a day declaring South Africa, with 11 500 cases a day, a pariah.

And it’s not just those three major sports that have been affected: The U21 Women’s Junior Hockey World Cup was set to be held in Potchefstroom, the first time the sport would have staged a world cup in Africa, but that has been called off, and the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships, to be held this weekend in Pretoria, have also been deferred indefinitely.

The United Rugby Championship and the Sunshine Tour golf organisation have already seen their December events grossly disrupted by the Omicron panic, while Cricket South Africa will be hoping against hopes that the Indian tour, which is worth $100 million to the financially-strained organisation, will go ahead as scheduled.

The problem for all local sports bodies is that overseas competitors will now start using Covid fears as an excuse not to fulfil their commitments. India’s cricket players, safe in the knowledge that no-one in world cricket dares to ruffle the feathers of the BCCI, will do whatever they want, and we can only hope captain Virat Kohli’s love of Test cricket and desire to win a series in South Africa sways the day.

As we have seen in previous waves of Covid, things will happen quickly as the number of cases rises exponentially. But will overseas sportsmen be safer back home, where this variant almost certainly originated, or in a bio-bubble in South Africa?

Will the travel bans be lifted now that there is compelling evidence that Omicron did not originate in Southern Africa but was merely detected here first? One day the identities of the overseas diplomats who brought it into Botswana at the beginning of November will be revealed. The fact that the Munster rugby team had 14 positive cases by the start of this week, having been in a bubble since their arrival in South Africa, suggests they probably arrived with Covid, possibly catching it on the plane coming over, and have now been spreading it amongst themselves.

Of course it will always be the African countries that are at fault in the eyes of many of our Western visitors.

Cardiff rugby player Matthew Morgan ranted on social media about being dragged to South Africa in the middle of a pandemic and called the whole situation a “shambles”. Instead of being so privileged, perhaps he should be reading more of what leading scientists are saying.