Ken Borland

For Rassie van der Dussen, every innings is a new instalment of his career, a new situation to adapt to, and he did it to perfection at Boland Park in Paarl on Wednesday as his unbeaten century led South Africa to an impressive 31-run win over India in the first ODI.

Van der Dussen came to the crease in the 18^th over when the Proteas were struggling on 68/3. Together with his captain Temba Bavuma, who was busy getting himself in and would go big in scoring a brilliant century of his own, they added a magnificent 204 off just 190 deliveries, the best ever fourth-wicket stand for South Africa against India.

Van der Dussen’s commanding 129 not out off just 96 balls means he has now scored 1178 runs in his 30 ODIs at an extraordinary average of 73.62. What marked this innings out was how fluently he played right from the start of his innings, on a slow and tricky pitch that made scoring difficult.

“The pitch was taking a bit of turn and I knew I would have to go to my sweeps and reverse-sweeps fairly early,” Van der Dussen said after his career-best ODI score. “If I let the spinners settle on a slow pitch then it would not be easy to go down the ground.

“I tried to put the pressure back on them, and Temba and I were constantly reminding each other to keep the intensity high. Always as a batsman, especially in the middle-order, I try and read the situation.

“I’m trying to make a good score that will win the match, I have no other reference. I appreciate it may look like something else for those outside. Today I knew that if I allowed the spinners to settle then they would get into a good rhythm and it would be very difficult to win.

“So I tried to reverse the pressure with low-risk boundary options. You have to be able to go to those skills whether it’s your first ball or 100^th ball,” Van der Dussen said.

South African teams have historically struggled against the turning ball and both Indian spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, have prospered against them in the past. But the way Van der Dussen and Bavuma played them on Wednesday suggests all is okay now on that front.

“Conditions in Paarl generally suit the spinners because there’s not a lot of pace,” Van der Dussen added. “But the way we’ve upskilled ourselves has allowed us to use these game-plans against spin.

“It started in the West Indies last year and then in Sri Lanka, while we knew spin would play a big role at the T20 World Cup. So it’s been a process that has been going on for more than a year.

“In the past we came short against spin, but we identified it as a weakness and credit to Mark Boucher and Justin Sammons [batting consultant] for giving us the skills to apply out there and execute in the middle,” Van der Dussen said.

Temba Bavuma said on Tuesday that putting aside the emotion and focusing on the situation in the present helped him cope with the heavy pressures of leading the Proteas at the T20 World Cup.

The relatively new South African white-ball captain has drawn widespread praise for his handling of the usual off-field issues that plagued the team as well as his deft hand on the field as the Proteas exceeded expectations by just missing out on the semifinals on nett run-rate, despite winning four of their five group games.

“There’s always some type of pressure around me and I’ve learnt ways to deal with it. I put aside the emotion and deal with the issue at hand,” Bavuma said.

“The Quinton de Kock situation all happened quite quickly and there wasn’t really any time to consult anyone. I had to weigh up both sides and express an opinion.

“Sometimes it’s best when you don’t have too much time to think about things, you just speak to the merits of the matter at hand and that means you’ll be more authentic.

“It was always going to be a big responsibility to be captain and the pressure and expectation at a World Cup comes from all angles. But I have seen a shift in the energy and I sense that the backing and support for me is now there,” Bavuma said.

The skipper acknowledged that all the off-field noise surrounding the Proteas does eat the players up inside, but in a classic case of make-or-break, he said it strengthened the bond between the players, which was expressed in their never-say-die performances on the field.

“Matters off the field have put us under pressure, they have been challenging times but we have been able to get through them as a team. There were moments that could have broken us or pulled us together, and it turned out being more of the latter.

“I was put in a situation that was very hard to prepare for and I’m grateful that I got out of there. I now have a lot more confidence with the team in terms of trust and backing.

“I do believe we are in a better space as a team. We found a way to get together as a team and really fought for each other. That gave us the ability to play in those pressure moments, we did exceptionally well in those.

“There have been massive positives from this World Cup, even though we are now sitting at home watching on our screens, and we need to make sure we grow from strength-to-strength,” Bavuma said.

The Springboks have two things they can lean on for confidence as they go into the third and decisive Test against the British and Irish Lions in Cape Town on Saturday: the momentum from a top-class performance in the second half of the second Test and the knowledge that the last time they were put into a high-pressured ‘final’ situation, they came through with flying colours.

Captain Siya Kolisi acknowledged on Friday that a performance as good as last weekend, when they won the second half 21-0, does not deserve to be wasted and become a mere footnote in history, all but forgotten should the Springboks lose the third Test and the series.

And it was just four Tests ago, albeit in November 2019, that South Africa shocked England in the World Cup final in Japan, thumping them 32-12 after leading 12-6 at the break.

“There’s definitely a similar feeling but this opportunity to win the Lions series won’t come again for a lot of us. We get one shot on Saturday, that’s the mentality and the message to the team. It’s definitely a final for us, that’s the talk. We have worked so hard to get in this position. You play to get somewhere and after last weekend now we are here.

“This is the one that counts though, what happened before does not count. We have been seeing how we can get even better this week. Last week does give us confidence but we want to remember this last game more than anything else. It’s always a huge honour to play in a series like this and hopefully it’s going to be a good, proper game. It’s going to be special,” Kolisi said.

Apart from the absences of flank Pieter-Steph du Toit and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk through injury, the Springboks are happy as Larry approaching the decider. Their issues with the officiating seem to have been resolved by the fine job done by Ben O’Keeffe and his assistants in the second Test, and Kolisi said they have the luxury of sticking with the same game-plan because they know it works.

Indefatigable lock Franco Mostert will move to blindside flank to replace Du Toit, as he did last weekend, while the experienced and in-form Cobus Reinach starts in the number nine jersey in place of De Klerk.

“There’s not much we can do about injuries, but Franco really stood up last weekend, his work-rate is second-to-none. He knows his role, he did it last week, so nothing changes for me and Jasper Wiese,” Kolisi said on the loose trio.

“Cobus has been with us for years, he was at the World Cup and he has experience of playing against these guys in the Northern Hemisphere, so he has had a big impact in the squad. Our backline is really balanced, we have the experienced guys and then the speed of Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe. We’re not going to read too much into their side and all the changes they’ve made, we know they will still be excellent and physical,” backline coach Mzwandile Stick said.

The Lions almost seem to be suffering from a surfeit of personnel and playing options. Coach Warren Gatland has made six more changes to his team for the decider and their failure to truly commit to one game-plan has many neutral observers wary of their chances of winning the series.

Even the team for Saturday’s third Test could fall between the two stools of playing a physical, kicking game or a more expansive, fast-paced style to stretch the incredible Springboks defences.

Teams

Springboks: 15–Willie le Roux, 14–Cheslin Kolbe, 13–Lukhanyo Am, 12–Damian de Allende, 11–Makazole Mapimpi, 10–Handré Pollard, 9–Cobus Reinach, 8–Jasper Wiese, 7–Franco Mostert, 6–Siya Kolisi, 5–Lood de Jager, 4–Eben Etzebeth, 3–Frans Malherbe, 2–Bongi Mbonambi, 1–Steven Kitshoff. Replacements – 16–Malcolm Marx, 17–Trevor Nyakane, 18–Vincent Koch, 19–Marco van Staden, 20–Kwagga Smith, 21–Herschel Jantjies, 22–Morné Steyn, 23–Damian Willemse.

British & Irish Lions: 15-Liam Williams, 14-Josh Adams, 13-Robbie Henshaw, 12-Bundee Aki, 11-Duhan van der Merwe, 10-Dan Biggar, 9-Ali Price, 8-Jack Conan, 7-Tom Curry, 6-Courtney Lawes, 5-Alun-Wyn Jones, 4-Maro Itoje, 3-Tadhg Furlong, 2-Ken Owens, 1-Wyn Jones. Replacements – 16-Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17-Mako Vunipola, 18-Kyle Sinckler, 19-Adam Beard, 20-Sam Simmonds, 21-Conor Murray, 22-Finn Russell, 23-Elliot Daly.

WorldRugby may have this week opened a window for the Rugby Championship to take place in New Zealand between November 7 and December 12, but the situation is still far from ideal for South African participation. But commercial imperatives dictate that the Springboks simply have to find a way to get over there and play, otherwise SA Rugby will suffer devastating financial losses.

It is the Sanzaar competitions that bring in the bulk of South African rugby’s revenues and with SuperRugby having been scrapped after just half-a-dozen rounds, it is the Rugby Championship that needs to save the broadcast deals through providing some live content.

As SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said recently, the Rugby Championship is a very expensive competition to run, but the broadcast revenues are significant enough that the commercial value compels Sanzaar to continue the event. The difference between revenues and expenses is the reason SA Rugby can use the Rugby Championship to cross-subsidise several other competitions.

One of those competitions is the Currie Cup, which used to be an event of industrial proportions in South African rugby, the envy of the world. Sadly SA Rugby has over the years allowed the jewel in their crown, their most valuable property after the Springboks, to fade into relative insignificance.

But the imminent demise of SuperRugby is likely to bring a resurgence in domestic competition and a Currie Cup style tournament this year is going to play a crucial role in the Springboks returning to action; hopefully that local action will continue to be a focus in 2021 and beyond.

Even though playing in Europe seems to be the big prize at the moment, and private equity investors in our franchises are already saying this is essential for them to get a return on their money, hopefully SA Rugby will still put energy and resources into having a strong purely local competition.

In the meantime, the top eight teams in South Africa are going to play a tournament later this year to at least get rugby back on the go locally. Apart from providing some content for SuperSport, who pour millions into the game, those eight teams are also going to play a vital role in getting the Springboks ready for action.

With New Zealand and Australia already back playing rugby for half-a-dozen weeks and South African players realistically only returning to action in mid-September, there have been understandable concerns expressed that the Springboks are going to be on a hiding to nothing if the Rugby Championship is played this year, being so far behind in terms of preparation. There have been angry mutters about their World Cup win being tarnished.

But the reality of the situation is that even if the Springboks are going to disappoint in terms of on-field results, they simply have to return to action and our television screens, it is a financial imperative. And they have played for financial reasons before, most recently when they lost to Wales in Washington in June 2018.

New Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has said a squad of 45 players are going to have to travel to New Zealand and quarantine before entering their bio-bubble, and there have even been complaints from local coaches that that will decimate their provincial squads. As is often the case in South African rugby, the unions are going to need a reminder that they are there to serve the national cause, any local competition this year is mostly about getting the Springboks ready for action.

Sanzaar CEO Andy Marinos certainly knows the value of the Springbok brand and last weekend he was stressing the importance of them returning to international action before the end of the year. And as we saw at last year’s World Cup, in which they were certainly underdogs, the ability to rise above the obstacles in their path is a great property of the Springboks.

“By no means will the playing field be level, but the Springbok side have a deep, steely resolve, and I know Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber will optimise whatever time they have to be as competitive as possible,” Marinos said.

Nienaber says the players in the Springbok squad need at least six games beforehand in order to be able to play in the Rugby Championship. They are unlikely to get much more than six matches unless rugby somehow resumes later this month, but at least they will be going to New Zealand feeling fresh.

And there is a large gap between the Rugby Championship kicking off and the end of SuperRugby Aotearoa and SuperRugby Australia. The New Zealand competition ends on August 16, with no final, while the Australian final will be held on September 19. Whoever handles the double-edged sword of rust versus fatigue best will have a large advantage, and I wouldn’t write off the Springboks just yet.