Ken Borland

For all the joy of the wonderful Test series triumph over India, the Proteas now need to turn their attention to ODI cricket, where there has been an underlying uncertainty in their play over the last year, often due to the difficulties in selection when it comes to balancing the side.

Since whitewashing Australia 3-0 in February/March 2020, South Africa have won just three of their eight completed ODIs. Little wonder then that they are languishing in ninth place in the ICC Super League for World Cup qualification.

South Africa’s problems centre around having just five bowlers, unless they choose a batsman who can bowl. The venue for the first two ODIs against India is Boland Park in Paarl and the five-bowler recipe worked a charm the last time they were there, beating Australia by 74 runs in that 2020 series.

But it is a risk, especially against a strong batting side like India.

As ever when it comes to selection debates these days, Aiden Markram is seemingly at the centre of it all. He provides the ideal batsman/sixth bowler combination, and he did score 96 just three innings ago in ODI cricket, in Sri Lanka.

But he was opening the batting in that series in the absence of Quinton de Kock, who is back and no doubt raring to go following his break over the Test series.

Fitting Markram in elsewhere in the order is also problematic.

Janneman Malan has cemented himself as De Kock’s opening partner with 661 runs in his first 10 ODI innings, earning him a nomination for the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year title.

Temba Bavuma is captain, Rassie van der Dussen averaged 57 at a strike-rate of 95 last year, and Kyle Verreynne scored 95 against the Netherlands in the last ODI the Proteas played. David Miller has been one of the best finishers in global cricket over the last year.

Paarl can sometimes provide a sluggish, tricky surface to bat on, however, and South Africa may want to gamble with just five bowlers in order to strengthen their batting. But Markram showed in the T20 World Cup last October that he can be explosive in white-ball cricket; he knocked his 162 tournament runs off just 111 deliveries (SR 145.94) and that will count in his favour too.

But it would be extremely tough on Verreynne to be left out and the selectors will ponder long and hard over South Africa’s batting line-up.

The bowling attack is more settled with spinners Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj both set to play, while Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi should lead the pace brigade, with Andile Phehlukwayo likely to be their back-up, especially since he blazed 48 off just 22 balls against the Dutch.

The last time South Africa won a Test at Newlands was in January 2019 when they beat Pakistan by nine wickets. It’s not that long ago, but there is nevertheless a feeling of nostalgia for a side that included such great names as Steyn, Philander, Amla, Du Plessis and De Kock.

The Proteas need 111 runs with eight wickets in hand on Friday morning to beat India and win the series against the world’s No.1 ranked side, so the current team certainly must have something going for them as well.

A much-criticised batting line-up will have earned themselves massive respect if they chase down targets of more than 200 in the fourth innings two weeks in a row; the new-look Proteas bowling attack has already shown that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Lungi Ngidi has played a key role in that attack in this series and he was at the forefront at Newlands on Thursday as he spearheaded a fightback after lunch that saw South Africa reduce India from 152/4 to 198 all out. Ngidi took 3/12 in a seven-over spell, including the key wicket of Virat Kohli, splendidly caught in the slips by a leaping Aiden Markram, for 29 to set the collapse in motion.

“From the first Test, the team has been using the sort of language that there are going to be moments when someone has to put up their hand,” Ngidi said. “We don’t have superstars but we have good players and cricketing brains.

“This time it was my session and for me the important thing was to make sure I cashed in. I did decently in the West Indies as well, but against this calibre of players this is definitely one of my best series ever.

“I’m also very proud of Marco Jansen [19.3-6-36-4], he just wants to do well for the team. He has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water and he has a very bright future,” Ngidi said.

South Africa’s batting line-up have had many disappointing performances of late, but they are still in position to complete a remarkable series victory on the fourth day. Much will depend on rookie Keegan Petersen, who is on the brink of his third half-century in four innings as he went to stumps on 48 not out.

India’s stellar attack are going to push them all the way though and the pitch is going to offer enough assistance to still make it a fraught run-chase.

“The ball has been doing something this entire Test series and there are patches on this pitch that if the ball hits them, it does something more,” Ngidi said.

“It’s going to require patience, but we’ve seen from Rishabh Pant that you can score a hundred and there have also been a couple of seventies. So with the right application you can score runs.

“But if the bowlers hit the right areas then they can also take wickets. So it’s a good pitch – everyone is in the game and bat and ball are well-matched.

“If we can have a sixty-run partnership early tomorrow [Friday] then that will put us in position, but if they get early wickets then they are back in the game. It is very well poised,” Ngidi said.

SuperSport Park, the venue for the first Test between South Africa and India from Boxing Day, is famous for being a result pitch, so does that mean the Proteas need to pack their side with batsmen against a threatening visiting attack?

But given the absence of the injured Anrich Nortje,  the question marks over Lungi Ngidi’s fitness and how well Duanne Olivier, returning after nearly three years, and Marco Jansen, who would make his international debut, will slot into Test cricket, the temptation to pack their attack with four pacemen, including all-rounder Wiaan Mulder, will be big.

There have been 26 Tests played at Centurion and only three of them have ended in a draw. All three draws have been against England, with the last one, in 2009, the most recent Test at SuperSport Park which did not have a result.

The previous Test there saw South Africa beat Sri Lanka by an innings last December, and they fielded an attack featuring three specialist quicks, Mulder and spinner Keshav Maharaj. On a flat pitch on which more than a thousand runs were scored in the first innings, that line-up worked well, with Mulder taking five wickets in the match and having 36 runs on his tab as well.

Ngidi has spent more time off the field than on it this year, however, and has only bowled seven competitive overs since July. Given his previous fitness issues, there have to be worries that he might not be able to last an entire Test match, so the Proteas will need some bowling insurance if he does play.

Left-armer Jansen’s star is on the rise and he was impressive with bat and ball for SA A against India A earlier this month, but to field the 21-year-old rookie alongside Olivier, who last played a Test in February 2019, involves some risks as well.

India have a similar selection debate to deal with. They have fielded five bowlers for most of the year, but with no Ravindra Jadeja on tour, do they have the confidence to bat Ravichandran Ashwin at No.7?

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami will lead India’s attack, but is Mohammad Siraj going to be their third paceman or does Shardul Thakur, who has scored three fifties already in his four Tests, get the nod because he and Ashwin combined give good batting depth?

Of course, India could play all four fast bowlers and leave out Ashwin, but considering his success against South African batsmen, that is unlikely.

Either way, a pitch that has had plenty of rain on it and usually provides pace and bounce, and two quality pace attacks, could have batsmen asking Mama to tuck them in with a cup of cocoa on the eve of the game.

Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma described it as one of the toughest days he has had as a captain as the mental preparation of his team for the crucial T20 World Cup match against the West Indies in Dubai was rocked by the CSA Board’s directive that all players must take the knee in support of BLM and the subsequent withdrawal from the side of key batsman Quinton de Kock because he chose not to do so.

It took South Africa a good 10 overs to get their mental focus back on track, in which time Evin Lewis had given the West Indies a blazing start, but the Proteas deserve enormous credit for the clinical display they produced thereafter in winning by eight wickets with 10 balls to spare.

“It was one of the toughest days I’ve had as the captain, but I’m just ecstatic that we were able to get into the right frame of mind and play the way we did against a powerhouse West Indies team,” Bavuma said after the impressive victory.

“We should not take this win lightly and I’m just very glad that we’ve now got our campaign started. We knew our batting in particular needed to improve and the way we were so clinical with the bat was a big step in the right direction.

“The bowlers have been fantastic the last while and they again showed their skill and class, it was a good day in the field in the end. What happened with the directive and Quinny pulling out was not ideal, but they were the cards we were dealt as a team and it was good that the guys were able to represent the country as well as they did today,” Bavuma said.

While losing De Kock is a major blow – and it could well be for the rest of the tournament – Bavuma expressed the hope that the team, brought closer together by hardship, will grow more and more as a unit in their remaining group matches against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and England.

“It’s going to be a tough couple of days for the group as we try and find out a bit better about the decisions that have been made, but we have to respect those whether we agree or not.

“Unfortunately the team still has to get the job done and it’s important to find a way to get into the right mental space. And the tournament is obviously only going to get tougher.

“So it’s important that we stay even more together as a team. Hopefully we can now create some momentum. But we need to focus on matters on the field.

“We will only lose energy as a team if we focus on things on the outside, and I would hope we are judged by how well we hit or bowl the ball and not by what causes we support or how we do it.

“We need to have our eyes on the ball,” Bavuma said.