Ken Borland

Rilee Rossouw showed his boundary-hitting prowess in a superb unbeaten century and the bowlers then took regular wickets as South Africa bounced back from successive defeats by beating India by 49 runs in the third T20 in Indore on Tuesday.

Rossouw also fought back, from successive ducks, as he battered 100 not out off just 48 balls, with seven fours and eight sixes, as he and Quinton de Kock (68 off 43) added 90 for the second wicket in eight overs. De Kock was back at his fearsome best as he struck six fours and four sixes, and both left-handers targeted the leg-side and played an array of remarkable strokes.

They set a wonderful foundation, and although Tristan Stubbs (23 off 18) did not really get going, he added another 87 in seven overs with Rossouw. And then David Miller came in and blasted 19 not out off just five balls in the final over to boost South Africa to 227/3.

It was another struggle, however, for Temba Bavuma, who scored just 3 off eight balls before skewing his first really attacking stroke to a wide midwicket, and the clamour for Reeza Hendricks to replace him at the top of the order will only get louder as the Proteas T20 side’s next assignment is the World Cup in Australia.

On a tiny field with a good batting pitch, with even mishits flying for six, 228 was by no means out of reach of the explosive Indian batting line-up.

But South Africa made a great start with the ball as Kagiso Rabada bowled captain Rohit Sharma off the inside edge for a second-ball duck.

Left-arm paceman Wayne Parnell then trapped Shreyas Iyer (1) lbw in the second over with a wonderful delivery that straightened back into the right-hander.

Rishabh Pant (27 off 12) and Dinesh Karthik (46 off 21) began to go through the gears though and Pant greeted Lungi Ngidi’s introduction into the attack with two sixes and two fours. Ngidi had been over-pitching, so he switched to around the wicket to the left-hander, bowled shorter and was cut for six, but the next ball saw Pant for some reason hold back on his cut shot, allowing Stubbs to anticipate brilliantly at point, running and diving to take a crucial catch.

Karthik hit Keshav Maharaj (4-0-34-2) for successive sixes, but the class bowler that he is, the left-arm spinner bounced back by bowling him.

Stubbs took another great catch, sprinting in from deep point and diving forward, to catch the in-form Suryakumar Yadav for just eight off Dwaine Pretorius, who finished with 3/26 in 3.3 overs as India were bowled out for 178 in the 19^th over.

Rabada was outstanding with 1/24 in his four overs.

Temba Bavuma says he wants to park the bitter disappointment of not being bought for the SA20 franchise tournament for now as he looks ahead to the tour of India and then the T20 World Cup in Australia straight afterwards, but there is no doubting the Proteas captain feels like he has been ditched on Lovers’ Lane.

Bavuma, captain of the national T20 side, failed to draw a single bid in this week’s auction, despite being put up for sale three times, and will now not be a part of the most important T20 tournament this country has hosted. The 32-year-old suffered the same fate as fellow Proteas white-ball stalwart Andile Phehlukwayo.

“I would be lying if I said there wasn’t disappointment and obviously I expected to play a role in the SA20. And it’s not just myself but Andi as well, he has played for several years for South Africa in white-ball cricket.

“I feel almost let down. This is not coming from a place of entitlement though and you want to be selected on merit or whatever credentials you have.

“I also need to caution myself not to delve too deeply into it, even though I would like to think about it more. It’s not the right time now, my focus is on the India tour and the World Cup afterwards.

“It is comforting that some people share the same sentiments as me, but the biggest thing for me is to serve the team the best I can, I still have a big responsibility as captain,” Bavuma said on Thursday, sounding like someone who needed to be in hospital.

Setbacks have generally brought out the best of the feisty, determined Bavuma in the past and he’s not one for cussing and moaning in a dark corner. Coach Mark Boucher said the team ensured the captain knew he had their support when the squad had a get-together before their departure for India on Friday – “Temba is our leader, we back him 100% and you could see the energy around him, the guys understand the situation he is going through.”

“There are things I need to deal with on a personal level, but I’m not going to sit here and say I need to prove anything,” Bavuma said. “We had some team-building last night and it was nice to see the guys.

“We have friendships and relationships that go far beyond just being team-mates and knowing that they are there as my team-mates is enough, their presence is enough.

“I don’t expect words of sympathy, let’s rather go out there and create some memories. I’ve been out injured for three months so I’m looking forward to getting out on the park again,” Bavuma said.

KHOLWANE, Eswatini – Eleven successive pars and then two birdies coming in were enough for Jaco Prinsloo to retain his lead after the second round of the FNB Eswatini Nkonyeni Challenge at the Nkonyeni Lodge and Golf Estate on Friday, and the 32-year-old will take a two-shot lead into Saturday’s final round.

Following his brilliant 65 on the opening day, Prinsloo did not find the going as easy on Friday as his ball-striking was not as good and he battled to get the ball close to the hole. He showed wonderful patience, however, and kept grinding away, starting his round on the 10^th and registering nine pars before also playing the first and second holes in regulation.

All that determination finally paid off on the par-four third with his first birdie, and he picked up another shot on the par-five eighth.

“It was definitely harder for me today and I just did not hit the ball as close to the hole as I did on the first day, so I didn’t have as many birdie opportunities,” Prinsloo said after his 70 took him to nine-under-par.

“It was good to be bogey-free though because this is not the easiest course. But it’s still a weird place to be with 11 pars in a row. It’s good but not so good.

“It meant I was still playing solid golf and in control of the ball, and I’m definitely happy to still be in front,” Prinsloo said.

Herman Loubser was two behind Prinsloo after the first round, but he could sadly only shoot a level-par 72 on Friday and has been overtaken by CJ du Plessis, who roared into second place with a 68 that took him to seven-under-par overall.

Loubser has slipped into a tie for third on five-under with Jean Hugo (68), Rhys West (69), Martin Rohwer (68) and Ricky Hendler (71).

“I’m not going to change anything,” Prinsloo said of his approach to the final round of the R1 million event. “I’m going to take it as just another round and the game-plan will stay the same.

“You just have to keep your head down and see where you land up.”

Duanne Olivier was a member of the South African Test squad on their previous tour of England in 2017, but he had just one Test under his belt then and is obviously a very different bowler to the rookie who played in two of the matches as the Proteas were beaten 3-1.

Having enjoyed match figures of five for 57 on debut against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers in January of that year, Olivier arrived in England in the role of enforcer, pace and bounce being his key weapons. He played in the second Test, when South Africa levelled the series with an imposing 340-run win at Trrent Bridge, and then in the last Test at Old Trafford, which the hosts won by 177 runs.

Olivier took seven wickets in the series at an average of 27.57.

“The way I played in 2017 will be completely different to now,” Olivier told Saturday Citizen. “England play swing quite well and you need to get the ball to nibble around over there.

“That’s what I worked on in my three years of county cricket. But there are times when you can’t do that because the pitches and conditions play a massive role in England.

“It’s important not to complicate things, it depends on the situation whether you can be more aggressive or must be defensive. Maybe my job is to get the run-rate down.

“The important thing is to bowl in partnerships, put pressure on the batsmen. But you have to graft to get wickets. You get pitches where you have to just sit in and build pressure,” Olivier said.

The previous incarnation of the Groblersdal-born paceman seldom drew the batsman forward, he preferred to bombard them, pushing them back and only using the fuller ball if he hadn’t yet found a glove or an edge behind. Olivier, who turned 30 in May, knows he has to have a more rounded strategy in England.

“At times you can be aggressive with short-pitched bowling, but you aim to be fuller, especially early on with the newer ball,” Olivier said. “I don’t mind the batsmen coming at me, I will just try and hit my length and stay there.

“You have to stay within your game-plan and some days it goes for you, some days it doesn’t. We have to be patient, England play a risky game and if they lose two or three wickets early on then everything changes.

“Things happen quickly in Test cricket, and when you have that momentum, it’s about riding the wave, being ruthless when you’re on top. As bowlers, we also want to throw the first punch.

“We believe in our game-plan and we will stick to that, what we believe in, the simple things. Small things can make a big difference in the end and we know we have a world-class bowling unit,” Olivier said.