Ken Borland

Opening batsman Lokesh Rahul was the dominant figure on the opening day of the first Test between South Africa and India at Centurion on Sunday, whether it was in partnership with Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli or Ajinkya Rahane, his unbeaten century steering the tourists to 272/3 at stumps.

Rahul went to stumps on 122 not out, showing great patience at the start as he took 21 deliveries to get off the mark, before gradually asserting himself and establishing his command over the bowling.

It was the sort of statement innings captain Kohli would have desired on the opening day of the series. Having won the toss, India made the right decision to bat first, even though it felt like a bowler’s morning: cool temperatures and a greenish tinge to the pitch.

But an underdone Proteas attack was either too full or too straight and Rahul and Agarwal batted brilliantly to put on 117 for the first wicket.

Lungi Ngidi, whose readiness for this Test was in doubt given he had only bowled seven competitive overs since July as well as having had a bout of Covid, made an understandably uncertain start with the new ball. But after lunch he had the masterstroke of using off-cutters on a dampish pitch and removed Agarwal (60) and Cheteshwar Pujara (0) with successive balls.

Agarwal was struck above the roll and the lbw appeal was turned down, but South Africa reviewed and DRS showed the delivery to be hitting the top of leg stump. Agarwal clearly did not agree, and many others were in agreement with umpire Marais Erasmus’s on-field decision of not out.

That disappointment turned to shock for India as Pujara inside-edged his first ball on to his thigh-pad, Keegan Petersen moving sharply from backward short-leg to take the catch.

But Kohli helped restore the equilibrium as he and Rahul added 82 for the third wicket. Kohli looked in fine touch as he went to 35, before Ngidi once again came up with a cunning plan to unseat the Indian captain. It was a speculative full and wide away-swinger, but Kohli went for the drive and edged it to first slip.

With the new ball less than a dozen overs away, Rahane came to the crease. The 33-year-old’s place in the middle-order has been in serious doubt, but he played with no sense of hesitancy or feeling pressure as he strode to 40 not out by the close, adding 73 for the fourth wicket with Rahul.

South Africa have not been helped by the absence of Anrich Nortje nor the recent bout of Covid suffered by Duanne Olivier. According to sources close to the team, team management were not convinced Olivier’s bowling loads since then have been enough to get him through a five-day Test.

Young Marco Jansen came in for his debut and endured a tough day with figures of 17-4-61-0.

But the Proteas will be thrilled with Ngidi’s contribution on Sunday, as he ended with three for 45 in 17 overs. He should only get better in this series.

On the night of the first Test against the British and Irish Lions, there was already an acknowledgement from the Springboks that the tourists’ brilliant kicking game had been the key factor in their 17-22 defeat, but on Monday the lack of dominance up front in the second half by the pack, which teed up the Lions kickers, was addressed by forwards coach Deon Davids.

“You’ve got to have a solid base in the lineouts and scrums, your forwards need to put you on the front foot, in order for you to play to your plan. If one thing goes wrong, that will influence the kick, it has a ripple effect. It’s so important that your set-pieces give you a solid base and the Lions were streetwise in what they did, we will have to handle that better.

“It’s one thing to win the ball in the lineout, but it’s also important to have quality possession and be able to set the platform to kick. Not all our roles were totally fulfilled and there was not always proper support after we had won the ball. We let ourselves down in the second half and some individual standards need to be raised, although everyone definitely tried very hard,” Davids said on Monday.

Apart from the obvious slackening off in intensity in the second half, which is partly a conditioning issue that might not be able to be fixed in one week, Davids acknowledged that the Lions had also played much smarter rugby than the Springboks. Not giving the home team many lineouts was one such clever strategy, which prevented the Boks from launching from their fearsome rolling maul.

“I’m not sure but only having four lineouts might be a world record for a Test match. The Lions were very smart and they did not give us lineouts, instead we were fielding high balls all the time and that put us under pressure. But we also have to ensure that our kicking game is exceptionally accurate to ensure you get the advantage of territory. We can be better in execution and be smarter.

“In terms of our exit plays, you also need to ensure a solid platform there so you get good delivery of the ball. That can also improve because we did not have a lot of attacking options. We want to play from set-pieces in the opposition half, but if you don’t get those opportunities then you are just left with unstructured attack off turnovers. We need to get into better places on the field,” Davids said.

Serviced by a steady flow of quick ball, British and Irish Lions fullback Josh Adams and wing Duhan van der Merwe both scored hat-tricks as the tourists hammered the Sharks 54-7 at Ellis Park on Wednesday night.

The Covid crisis surrounding this series meant the Lions had to make eight late changes to their originally announced team and they had just one backline reserve on the bench. It only seemed to fuel them to higher levels of excellence.

Playing with tremendous skill and tempo, the Lions were ruthless and clinical in scoring eight tries. Their aggressive defence took away much of the time and space the Sharks are used to normally and the tourists only conceded a single try.

The prolific Adams, who has now scored eight tries in three appearances for the Lions, and Van der Merwe both scored in the opening 10 minutes to immediately settle the tourists and banish all thoughts from their minds of the tremendous disruption they have suffered over the last 24 hours.

With Owen Farrell, one of the late changes at flyhalf, producing a tactical masterclass, the Lions scored two more tries before halftime to lead 26-0 at the break.

The Sharks scored first in the second half, flank James Venter rounding off a lovely try that featured slick work down the right touchline by Jeremy Ward, Werner Kok and Manie Libbok.

But then they ruined their promising moments with basic errors and soft moments, succumbing to the pressure exerted on them by a top-quality international side. The Lions scored four more tries, the last when they deliberately played with just 14 men. From a powerful scrum, Adams had space aplenty to complete is hat-trick.

It is highly unlikely that Sharks coach Sean Everitt sleeps well tonight. With their first foray into Europe a couple of months away, the Sharks were way off the pace. Clearly, playing against sluggish South African teams has got them into bad habits and a false sense of security.

Scorers

Sharks – Try: James Venter. Conversion: Curwin Bosch.

British & Irish Lions – Tries: Josh Adams (3), Duhan van der Merwe (3), Bundee Aki, Louis Rees-Zammit. Conversions – Owen Farrell (3), Finn Russell (4).

The fact that the British and Irish Lions tour will be moving to Cape Town at the end of the week is ironically a beacon of hope for the Bulls that their match against the tourists might still happen, according to the franchise’s CEO Edgar Rathbone.

SA Rugby confirmed on Tuesday night that the Bulls’ match against the Lions scheduled for Loftus Versfeld on Saturday has, at this stage, been postponed due to four players and one member of the medical staff testing positive for Covid. It is now up to the Lions and SA Rugby to see if the match can be rescheduled.

Rathbone, while accepting that the matter is now out of the Bulls’ hands, is hopeful that the game will still go ahead. The Bulls, although they were arguably the best club team in the world back then, also did not get to play against the Lions in 2009 for what can only be described as some arcane SA Rugby in-house political issue when it came to drawing up the schedule.

“It’s a big disappointment for the players because they were very excited to play, but the positive, the good news for the players, is that it is not cancelled and at this stage they are looking at a postponement, so there is a bit of hope. It depends on the date fitting into both the Lions and Currie Cup schedules. The Lions only come every 12 years but the Currie Cup runs on log-points, so it’s a tight balance.

“One option is the Tuesday before the first Test [July 20], but we have three Currie Cup games in the space of just about a week then. Playing midweek games between Tests has not been scheduled before. But the tour is definitely not in jeopardy, the Sharks are already in their bubble and will play the Lions on Wednesday night.

“After that the Lions play against SA A and the Stormers in Cape Town where there are much lower Covid numbers. Logically, with the Lions then in their bubble in Cape Town, our game if rescheduled will most probably happen in the Cape,” Rathbone said on Tuesday night.

And it’s not as if the Bulls are an island of infectivity either, because SA Rugby have confirmed that four more Springbok players (Marvin Orie, Frans Steyn, Handre Pollard and Frans Malherbe) plus six of their management team, including head coach Jacques Nienaber, as well as four Georgia players, have tested positive.