Ken Borland

There is no sense of inertia among South Africa’s batsmen, they know they have to contribute more and bigger runs when the decisive third Test against England starts at The Oval on Thursday, Keegan Petersen said on Tuesday.

The hundreds scored by Sarel Erwee and Kyle Verreynne in New Zealand are the only centuries scored by the Proteas this year, while only Petersen and the injured Temba Bavuma average over 40 in 2022.

“Quite obviously we need to score more hundreds, our batsmen haven’t been there for a while and the lower-order has had to save us,” Petersen said on Tuesday.

“It’s time for us to step it up now and get big scores. It’s just mental, nothing else, we’re getting starts, we’re getting in but just not going on.

“Both Tests were lost in the first innings. Conditions did lean towards the bowlers, it gave them the advantage, but if we can play the first innings better then we should be the team that comes out on top.

“We would love to play for five days for once, but there’s a lot on the line and even if it is another low-scoring match, I think it’s going to be a good game,” Petersen said.

While the media talk around the South African team tends to veer towards their lack of Test cricket in the new FTP, despite them currently being in line to play in the World Test Championship final, Petersen said the Proteas will not err by focusing on anything other than the decisive final Test of the series against England.

“It hurt to get beat like that in the second Test, but we’ve had some time away from the game now. We’re not thinking about the World Test Championship final, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

“Our focus is only on the next Test, there’s a lot at stake and hopefully we can turn things around from Manchester. We don’t feel the pressure to make any statements in that way, about our Test future.

“We’re just trying to prepare for whatever situations we will face out in the middle, we know it will be tough.

“Personally, kicking on is the problem right now, and I’m still trying to figure out what to do. I’m trying to get to triple figures and hopefully it will happen soon,” Petersen said.

Having last week given the impression he believed it was only a matter of time before the middle-order clicks, Proteas captain Dean Elgar now seems to have lost patience and said changes were going to happen for the third and decisive Test against England starting at The Oval on September 8.

South Africa will be forced to make at least one change to the batting line-up, with Rassie van der Dussen returning home with a fractured left index finger.

Van der Dussen’s place has been under pressure as he has now gone 13 innings without a Test half-century, although his 41 in the second innings at Old Trafford, spending nearly three hours at the crease when his finger was obviously causing him pain, was a substantial effort. It probably would have saved him, but ironically he now cannot play.

Aiden Markram is still very much in the firing line, having gone 15 innings without reaching fifty. His only chance of survival would seem to be if the Proteas management decide it would be too risky bringing two inexperienced players into the middle-order for the series-decider.

Van der Dussen is likely to be replaced by Ryan Rickelton, who has played two Tests against Bangladesh at home, or Khaya Zondo, whose only Test cap came as a concussion substitute on the final morning of the Gqeberha Test against Bangladesh, and he did not bat.

“There are a few tough decisions coming our way,” Elgar said after the Proteas’ innings defeat in Manchester. “Obviously we have to replace Rassie, so that’s a definite change.

“But whether that’s the only change, we’ll have to see, we’ve got a few days to get ourselves a better combination. The bottom line is that we need runs from the middle-order and they have let us down quite a bit. The guys know it already.”

Markram’s cause is not helped by both his dismissals at Old Trafford making him look like a clot: In the first innings he fell crucially just before lunch, skying a pull at a Ben Stokes long-hop outside off-stump; in the second innings he got a nick to an ambitious drive on the up, outside off-stump, against Stuart Broad.

The Proteas have passed the test of their character and fighting spirit when put under pressure, especially after losing the first Test, coach Mark Boucher said after South Africa sealed an epic 2-1 series win over India in the third Test at Newlands on Friday.

Chasing a testing target of 212, South Africa won by seven wickets thanks to three successive half-century partnerships between Dean Elgar (30), man of the series Keegan Petersen (82), Rassie van der Dussen (41*) and Temba Bavuma (32*).

Having been beaten so thoroughly by the world’s No.1-ranked side in the first Test at Centurion, it was a remarkable comeback by a team that is still in transition.

“The team showed great character and fight, but that did not surprise me because Dean Elgar is a captain that leads from the front and Temba Bavuma too,” Boucher said after his biggest triumph as coach.

“That fight showed in Dean and Temba’s batting as well, so the guys will certainly follow that. When you have real fighters like that as leaders, then that will probably be the character of the team as well.

“This is a team that is on its own mission and it is a special, driven changeroom to be in. It’s fantastic that the results are starting to come in now. There were lots of ebbs and flows in the last two Tests.

“But we played those pressure moments pretty well and if we lost a session, we didn’t lose it too badly so we were still in the game. We are playing good pressure-cricket at the moment,” Boucher said.

As the new-look Test side’s most notable triumph, the players are going to take away enormous confidence and belief from what is one of the best results for South African cricket sine the return from isolation.

“It was a really hard-fought series, and certainly one of the best, top-five, we’ve ever had in South Africa,” Boucher said. “We lost all three tosses and lots of people wrote us off after the first day of the first Test.

“But we need to see this result through the perspective of where this team is and where India, probably the best team in the world, are. Our youngsters will take a lot of confidence from this.

“There’s nothing like winning games when you know you’ve had to play very, very hard Test cricket. But our feet are firmly on the ground and we know we are not the finished product.

“But from where this team has come from, in terms of the on and off-field stuff, they have been through a lot as a unit. But we have had solid chats and we are a close-knit group that has worked very hard,” Boucher said.

Keegan Petersen survived and then flourished in a breathless 22 overs before stumps to take South Africa, who are chasing 212 to win the series, to 101/2 at close of play on the third day of the third Test at Newlands on Thursday.

A dramatic final session saw captain Dean Elgar all but bat through to the close, but he fell with just two balls remaining to stumps when he flashed at a delivery down the leg-side from Jasprit Bumrah, getting an edge, confirmed by DRS, which was well-taken by diving wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

Elgar had scored a typically measured 30 and shared in a tremendously plucky stand of 78 for the second wicket with Petersen.

The skipper had earlier been involved in a flashpoint just over an hour into their partnership when India – and most onlookers – were left convinced that the DRS system needed a breathalyser after Elgar, on 22, managed to overturn his lbw dismissal against off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ashwin drifted the ball into the pads of the left-hander and then straightened it off the pitch into his front leg, around knee height. Umpire Marais Erasmus understandably gave Elgar out and early replays suggested South Africa’s captain was stone dead. But ball-tracking then showed the ball bouncing over the stumps, much to the bemusement of practically everyone at the ground.

India were furious and made their displeasure known as both captain Virat Kohli and Ashwin made a point of shouting into the stump microphones.

Petersen continued to impress at the highest level, scoring 48 not out in another display of great composure and high skill.

Unfortunately for Aiden Markram, the embattled Proteas opener did not show as good judgement and his Test career is now in doubt as he was caught in the slips for 16, flashing a drive at Mohammed Shami, the ball after he had survived an edge through the slips.

India had earlier rather wasted an opportunity, on a sweltering day, to bat South Africa out of the game as they were dismissed for just 198.

Resuming on 57/2, they would lose Cheteshwar Pujara (9) and Ajinkya Rahane (1) in the first two overs of the day, bowled by Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada respectively.

Pant counter-attacked boldly, but with excellent shot-selection, as he and Kohli added 94 for the fifth wicket.

But the pressure bowling of Lungi Ngidi bore fruit after lunch as he ripped through the middle-order with a spell of 3/12 in seven overs, including the wicket of Kohli for a 143-ball 29, Markram taking a fantastic leaping catch at second slip.

Pant batted superbly while losing wickets at the other end and eventually completed a pugnacious, stroke-filled 100 not out off just 139 balls, which include four sixes.

Marco Jansen was threatening throughout and finished with 4/36 in 19-and-a-half overs, while Ngidi (14-5-21-3) and Rabada (17-5-53-3) kept the pressure on the batsmen.