Ken Borland

The sweet fragrance of blooming confidence and the reward for hard work put in seems to be permeating through the Proteas batting line-up in Sri Lanka at the moment and South Africa are hopeful they will hit their peak in the third and decisive ODI in Colombo on Tuesday.

The Proteas have posted scores of 286 for six and 283 for six in the two matches thus far. Their defeat in the first ODI was mostly due to some shoddy bowling and fielding. As a measure of their improvement with the bat, of their last 20 innings totals on the subcontinent, only five have been higher.

“Sri Lanka is known for spin bowlers, we were well-aware of that before the tour and a lot of work was put in behind the scenes, especially at our camp in Potchefstroom, which really helped. Coming here, our focus has been on how we face spin. Fortunately all that hard work is paying off, we’ve adapted well and we are playing nicely,” top-order batsman Reeza Hendricks said on Monday.

“We would now love to play our best game in the decider. It’s just about mindset. We played well in the first game but we came up just short, we leaked 15-20 runs too many in the field. The good thing is there are a few guys contributing and we are quite confident with the team we’ve got and the way we’ve been playing.”

Hendricks batted particularly well in the second ODI, coming into the side for the injured regular captain, Temba Bavuma. The 32-year-old, playing his 22^nd ODI, came in at 43 for one in the ninth over and scored at pretty much a run-a-ball from the outset, making the Sri Lankan bowling look pretty friendly as he cruised to 51 off 54 balls.

“I still took some time to get myself in and then I was able to play freely. My role was to keep the intent going and the scoreboard ticking over. I would have loved to go on further though,” Hendricks said.

He most certainly fulfilled his role as he helped increase the run-rate in a second-wicket partnership of 96 with brilliant centurion Janneman Malan.

Speaking of friendly, fast bowler Kagiso Rabada was decidedly unfriendly as he rocked the Sri Lankan reply with two for 16 in his six overs up front. Unfortunately he then sprained his ankle fielding and had to pull out of the rest of the game.

According to team management, Rabada was “progressing well” on Monday and will do a final fitness test before the match on Tuesday.

South Africa levelled their three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Saturday, winning the second ODI by 67 runs in a rain-affected match, victory being achieved through the medium of the traditional principles of winning 50-over cricket.

They won the toss and batted first, opener Janneman Malan getting a masterful 121 and the rest of the top-order supporting him in successive partnerships of 43, 96, 38 and 86.

With Heinrich Klaasen providing the explosive finish with his impressive 43 off 27 balls, South Africa were able to post a commanding 283 for six in 47 overs, the match being shortened due to a wet outfield after showers in the morning.

Ace fast bowler Kagiso Rabada then struck twice in the fifth over and, with medium-pacer Wiaan Mulder also chipping in with the new ball, Sri Lanka were rocked early on as they struggled to 19 for three.

And then the South African spinners took over, Keshav Maharaj, on his Proteas captaincy debut, squeezing the batsmen hard with one for 32 in eight overs, and Tabraiz Shamsi bringing his wicket-taking ability to the fore with a career-best five for 49 in 7.4 overs.

It was in impressive all-round display by the Proteas and there were several important contributors who supported the main stars.

Aiden Markram (21) helped ensure a solid start with the bat, before Reeza Hendricks came in and batted with beautiful fluency to stroke 51 off 54 balls and ensure the Proteas took momentum into the middle overs.

Malan went through tough times against spin, but his maturity and class were evident as he battled through and also overcame painful cramp attacks. He has now scored three centuries already in the eight ODIs he has played and he boasts the ridiculous, Bradmanesque average of 104.50.

Klaasen came in at 177 for three in the 36^th over and showed intent from the outset and his glovework was also sharp.

Rabada had taken two for 16 in six excellent overs up front, but then sprained his ankle and had to leave the field, but Mulder and Andile Phehlukwayo produced tidy seam bowling as well.

Charith Asalanka threatened to chase down Sri Lanka’s revised target of 265 in 41 overs after another rain delay when they were already four down, as he struck a dangerous 77 off just 69 balls. He and Dasun Shanaka (30) added 64 for the fifth wicket and Chamika Karunatne caused problems as well with his 36 off 23 deliveries before he was outfoxed by Maharaj.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt is known for his backing of young players, but he has also ensured the acquisition of some wise old heads to impart their wisdom like a herbal infusion spreading its aromas through Kings Park.

On the playing front, the well-travelled, 32-year-old flyhalf Lionel Cronje was acquired on loan from Toyota Verblitz, and highly-rated former Leinster Academy boss Noel McNamara was appointed as attack and backs coach, with world-renowned defence guru John McFarland also proving to be a big hit in Durban.

“A guy like Noel has a great impact, he’s really vibrant, he has good energy and he works closely with the players. He’s really clear with what is expected and when the Sharks go to the Northern Hemisphere, it’s going to be great to have a guy in the camp who has such insight into the conditions, who has that background. He’s really adding value for the younger guys.

“And John has won five Currie Cups and is very passionate about South African rugby. He’s a really good defence coach and we’ve improved that side of our game over the last couple of weeks. He knows what he wants and I worked with him before in 2012,” Cronje, who played five matches for the Bulls, said.

“And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience of coming back to the Sharks as they develop an exciting new culture. I’m just trying to pass on my experience and add value to the very talented youngsters in the group. The Sharks want to play an exciting and captivating brand of rugby that allows the players to flourish and Sean is a very positive coach.

“I worked with him when I was here before and he wants the players to express themselves. Hopefully we can keep building on that. But it’s been really exciting for me to challenge myself here in the latter part of my career and I’m also trying to add some leadership support. There’s stuff I’ve learnt abroad – we have a lot of New Zealand coaches in Japan,” Cronje, who previously played 23 times for the Sharks in 2014/15, said.

One youngster Cronje mentioned as having a germ of greatness in him is fellow flyhalf Curwin Bosch.

“There is a ton of talent in Curwin, we just need to keep backing him. He’s very aware of the areas of his game he needs to be working on, but he’s a great talent. He’s a phenomenal kicker and he has attacking ability second-to-none. There’s no reason why he should not become a household name at Springbok level. I’ve really enjoyed playing with him.

“Curwin’s only 24, but we are so spoilt for talent in South Africa and the fans are so critical, they expect a certain level of play at 21 years old. But we need to keep trusting his talent to develop and, as a player, it’s nice to get four or five games in a row under the belt, that’s how you get rhythm and start understanding the game-plan,” Cronje said.

One thing that has become clear in this year’s Carling Currie Cup is that the ‘smaller’ unions, those not playing in Europe, cannot be taken for granted and the belief and hunger now flowing through the veins of the Griquas and Pumas players is going to make them hard to stop in the last three weeks of competition.

Griquas are third on the log and the Pumas fourth, with just the Sharks and Bulls ahead of them. At least one of them is going to make the semi-finals as they play each other in Kimberley on Saturday, but they will both go through if Western Province fail to beat the Sharks in Durban.

For the Pumas, the success of their season has been based on the realisation that they cannot just rely on their forwards to grind opponents down and they have produced some fine attacking rugby with ball-in-hand too.

“Our forwards were our go-to and they are still one of our strong points. But we said that we must play balanced rugby, we can’t just rely on our forwards for 80 minutes. The engine must rest a bit as well! So we have spread the workload, we are also using the kicking game more and overall we are just playing with more ball.

“When we played in SuperRugby Unlocked last year we got exposed to playing against the very best guys, Springboks included. We saw that we can beat them, but we just needed to rectify the small mistakes that were costing us. We spent two months focusing on that in pre-season and now we are starting to really get belief that we can beat the big unions,” ever-dangerous Pumas fullback Devon Williams told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Griquas wing Daniel Kasande also said there was a link between last year’s experiences and all the narrow defeats they suffered and their strong showing in this year’s Currie Cup.

“Not much has changed in terms of our system and structure from last year, but we had a lot of narrow losses then, things would just not go for us at the end of matcheis. So since then we have been fine-tuning our play and getting in sync with each other. Being together now for two seasons, you can see the chemistry in how we play.

“Before, every time we went into a competition we were the new boys and you get a bit of cold feet. But once you are in with the big boys for a while, you grow in confidence. You start to feel that you can dominate and it was very special beating Western Province at Newlands, once you do that sort of thing once, you believe you can do it again and again,” Kasande told The Citizen.

The way Griquas and the Pumas have contributed to the competition, one hopes many of their players are voted into the team for the newly-created Carling Champions Match – an all-star Currie Cup team chosen by the public – on November 6.