Ken Borland

“We did not bat according to plan but we threw everything into it in the field,” Proteas captain Temba Bavuma said after South Africa began their T20 World Cup campaign in disappointing fashion with a five-wicket loss to Australia in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

The comment about the batting is an understatement after the Proteas could only muster together 118 for nine in their 20 overs. As bad as their batting was, they certainly gave it their all with the ball and in the field as they made Australia sweat, the target only being chased down with two balls to spare.

Going into the last four overs, it even looked possible for South Africa to snatch victory at the death as Australia, having just lost two wickets in four balls, had two new batsmen at the crease, needing 36 runs off 24 balls to win.

But those batsmen were Marcus Stoinis (24* off 15) and Matthew Wade (15* off 10) and they fought hard to deny the Proteas with their unbroken stand of 40 off 29 balls.

“It was quite tough in the second half of the game knowing we only posted 118,” Bavuma said. “So I just asked the bowlers to stick with the plan and execute as well as they can, and for the fielders to throw everything into it.

“We wanted to try and build some pressure and I felt we did that. We spoke about being resilient and it was a great effort for the majority of the Australia innings.

“We did not bat according to plan and there’s a lot us batsmen need to improve. The bowlers did quite well, although at the end it was a bit frantic and maybe that’s something we can talk about.

“The fielding was good, barring one or two incidents. But we will obviously be looking to improve by a couple of percentage points in all departments,” Bavuma said.

If there has been one area of the game where South Africa have disappointed in recent times, it would be the batting, and they are relying on better starts from Quinton de Kock and Bavuma so the middle-order are able to come in and dominate.

The Proteas are now in a group with both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who although they had to qualify, are now in groove and playing in conditions that suit them. South Africa play the West Indies next in Dubai on Tuesday and they are going to need their batsmen to stand up quickly, because another defeat would probably mean the end of their challenge.

“Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are two subcontinent teams playing in their own conditions, so that makes the group a lot tougher. We know now that every game we are going to have to bring our best cricket,” Bavuma admitted.

JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng (22 October) – “This is a very demanding golf course and you have to know where to miss,” comeback golfer Anton Haig said on Friday after he seized a share of the lead midway through the Blair Atholl Championship delivered by The Courier Guy.

This knowledge came in very handy for the 35-year-old golfer who is enjoying his second career on the Sunshine Tour, as he fired a three-under-par 69 to catch joint first-round leader Rupert Kaminski on seven-under-par.

Haig burst on to the scene in the mid-2000s and even won the lucrative Johnnie Walker Classic on the European Tour in 2007. But by 2011 he was taking a break from the game due to persistent back problems. But he returned to the Sunshine Tour in 2018 and the Johannesburg-based golfer has played the lengthy Blair Atholl Golf and Equestrian Estate course many times and he said this experience has proven invaluable.

“It’s a very demanding course, the fairways look quite wide but they’re not and the course is so long. You need to miss in the right spots and fortunately I’ve played a lot here so I know which side not to miss on. I know the back ledges and slopes better than most, which definitely helped,” Haig said after his impressive round.

Haig said his play from tee-to-green on Friday was excellent, but his putter, which was hot in the first round, went cold in the second round. He will try to get both aspects of his game working well on the weekend as he chases his first win on the Sunshine Tour since his comeback.

“The greens were really receptive after the rain came in in the morning – fortunately for just three or four holes – and I was hitting the ball really well. But I had 32 putts today after just 26 yesterday. So my ball-striking was really good today but my putting was a bit off.

“I’m definitely looking to score on the par-fives, but you have to really knuckle two shots to get on to some of them, four of the par-fives are more than 600 yards. So my length is a good advantage,” Haig said.

Kaminski, off in the afternoon in a fresh wind, shot a one-under-par 71 on Friday to go to seven-under for the tournament, while Riekus Nortje, who shared the lead with him after the first round, dropped two shots coming in to finish with a level-par 72.

That left Nortje tied for third with three other golfers – Heinrich Bruiners (71), Neil Schietekat, whose 68 included a double-bogey at the tough par-four 15^th, and Luke Brown (69).

Jayden Schaper produced the round of the day, a tremendous 65 which included an eagle three on the 606-yard fifth hole, to climb to five-under-par, sharing seventh with Kyle Barker (71).

Tabraiz Shamsi said he is feeling much better as South Africa enjoyed a rest day on Thursday after their impressive chase to beat Pakistan in their last warm-up match for the T20 World Cup, allowing them to go into their opening game against Australia on Saturday in confident mood.

While Rassie van der Dussen’s brilliant unbeaten 101 off 51 balls led a morale-boosting batting display on Wednesday night, the bowling attack struggled after Shamsi pulled out of the game after bowling just four balls, struggling with what was revealed to be a “tight groin” by Proteas management.

The world’s No.1 T20 bowler did not return to the field, raising alarm bells for Saturday’s World Cup opener, but the word from the camp on Thursday was that the ace spinner was making good progress.

One of the few bowlers to do well against Pakistan was Lungi Ngidi, who last played a competitive match for the Proteas in July in Ireland. But upon his return to the team he says he can feel the mood in the camp is just getting better and better.

The 25-year-old paceman missed the tour to Sri Lanka and has been involved in the IPL since then.

“The team has been successful since the West Indies tour and there’s been a momentum shift in a positive direction. And you can tell it’s still moving in the right direction.

“It’s great to be back with the guys, the language is all positive and there’s a good mindset. We think that we’ve ticked all the boxes we need to heading into the World Cup,” Ngidi said on Thursday.

Van der Dussen’s perfectly-paced innings was further proof that hope never dies for the 32-year-old as he and David Miller scored 22 runs off the last over to win off the final ball.

“We were chasing quite a big score [187], but we knew the pitch was good and we just had to give ourselves a chance,” Van der Dussen said. “We were a bit behind in the powerplay, but we knew we had boundary options at the end.

“We also knew it would be important to have an in-batsman in the last five overs to put them under pressure. The guys played around me very well, we managed the chase well.

“I just tried to stay in fifth gear, the score dictated we had to. We maybe left ourselves with a bit too much to get in the last three overs, 47 runs, but fortunately we managed to get some boundaries.

“I just tried to play the situation of the game as the run-rate dictates, and just stay calm even if it gets to 15 an over, that’s the learning,” Van der Dussen said.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt said his team needs to learn quickly how to avoid giving away a raft of penalties following their chastening 42-17 defeat at the hands of Munster in their opening United Rugby Championship match at Thomond Park at the weekend.

Not for the first time this year, the Sharks’ ill-discipline prevented them from getting any sort of foothold in the match as they conceded a whopping 17 penalties. Munster were thereby gifted territory and, with their dominance in the set-pieces, they were able to merely grind the visitors out of the match.

“I was disappointed with the discipline, we gave away 17 penalties and almost all of them had massive consequences. So the guys have to learn quickly, although I felt we were a bit unlucky at the breakdown and could have been rewarded more there.

“The first 20 minutes was how we want to play, the territory and possession stats were both with us. But in the second quarter we gave away too many penalties and that’s all Munster needed to get control of the game. But I was very proud of the fight and energy the team showed for the full 80 minutes. There are three games left on this tour though, and the players have got to learn quickly,” Everitt said.

The Sharks were dogged in the Currie Cup by poor discipline at the defensive breakdown, making the same silly errors that were evident on Saturday night in Limerick. It is clear that this is going to be a massive issue for the Currie Cup runners-up going forward because their lack of focus is giving their opposition a grip on the game.

It is individual errors that are putting the whole team under pressure, forcing them to defend for long periods, which inevitably leads to more penalties. Everitt might need to now show more bite because his bark clearly is not working.