Ken Borland

Vice-captain Temba Bavuma’s unbeaten half-century, his 18^th coming up in his 50^th Test, and captain Dean Elgar’s brisk 67, bookended a highly satisfactory day for South Africa as they reached 233/4 at stumps on the first day of the first Test against Bangladesh at Kingsmead on Thursday.

It was an extremely solid top-order display by the Proteas, especially since they had been sent in to bat, Bangladesh being swayed by a steamy morning that should have aided swing and a greenish tinge to the pitch.

The facts are, though, that Bangladesh bowled inconsistently through the day and South Africa suffered some soft dismissals.

The day began badly for the hosts when the start of play was delayed for 33 minutes by a malfunctioning sightscreen advertising board. But once Taskin Ahmed finally delivered the opening ball – a filthy leg-side full toss that was clipped away for four by Elgar – it was smooth sailing for the Proteas.

Elgar and Sarel Erwee took South Africa to 95/0 at lunch, but both fell soon afterwards, in the eighth and ninth overs after the break. Khaled Ahmed delivered a rearing delivery that found Elgar’s glove, wicketkeeper Liton Das snatching up the chance with a full-length dive. South Africa’s captain was at his pugnacious best, needing just 60 balls for his fifty and in all he hit 11 fours.

Erwee had worked hard for his solid 41, but then dragged a full and wide delivery from spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz into his stumps in the next over.

Keegan Petersen (19) was then run out by a spectacular piece of fielding by Mehidy, who dived full-length at point, got the ball in his hand and threw down the stumps while half standing up. It harkened back to the days of Jonty Rhodes at Kingsmead.

Debutant Ryan Rickelton moved boldly to 21, his first Test runs coming from a reverse-sweep for four off Mehidy, but he then mistimed a pull shot off fast bowler Ebadot Hossain and looped a catch to mid-on.

South Africa’s innings was at a crossroads on 180/4 half-an-hour after tea. But Bavuma, who had played with some glamour in the early part of his innings, really knuckled down and made sure he was there at the end of the day.

Bavuma reached the close on 53 not out, having occupied the crease for more than three hours and faced 119 deliveries, with six fours.

Kyle Verreynne (27*) showed good composure to bat through to stumps, which came at 5.18pm due to bad light, adding 53 with Bavuma to make it South Africa’s day.

Theunis de Bruyn decided today was the day to return to form as his commanding, unbeaten innings of 92 put the Northerns Titans in a strong position after the second day of their crucial CSA 4-Day Series match against the Central Gauteng Lions at SuperSport Park on Saturday.

Replying to the Lions’ first innings of 270, Northerns had reached 261/3 when bad light brought the day’s action to a close with just over an hour still scheduled to be played.

De Bruyn, who had scored just 67 runs in four previous innings in the competition this season, came to the crease in the second hour of the day following opener Grant Mokoena’s dismissal for 25, bowled by arguably the ball of the day from Cody Yousuf. The former Proteas batsman played himself in solidly, reaching 16 not out by lunch.

The Titans’ other opener, Neil Brand, had reached a composed half-century by then and the pair of lanky batsmen rammed home their advantage after lunch as they took their second-wicket partnership to 95 before Brand was caught at a deepish square-leg off Malusi Siboto for 81. The left-hander played an excellent innings, but greater things beckoned.

De Bruyn batted on and was left on the brink of his first century since May 2021 when he lashed 113 not out off just 64 balls for SA A against Zimbabwe A. He has faced 168 deliveries and struck eight fours and four imperious sixes.

Heinrich Klaasen (35) helped him in a third-wicket stand of 55 and Sibonelo Makhanya (20*) has so far added 41 with De Bruyn for the fourth wicket.

The Eastern Province Warriors, who are also trying to overtake the Lions at the top of the log, were also frustrated by the weather in Bloemfontein as they reached 166/3 in reply to the Free State Knights’ 227 all out.

Rudi Second (59*) and Diego Rosier (50*) had both scored half-centuries and shared an unbeaten fourth-wicket stand of 99 as EP also put themselves in a powerful position. If they win their last match and the Lions lose to the Titans, then the Warriors will claim the four-day title.

Earlier, Free State had resumed on 198/7 and once Patrick Botha was caught behind off Tiaan van Vuuren for a defiant and dazzling 123, the rest of the innings folded quickly.

The same bowlers did the damage for Eastern Province as on the first day, with Van Vuuren taking 4/46 in 19 overs and Akhona Mnyaka (15-1-54-3) and Mthiwekhaya Nabe (16-3-45-3) sharing the other six wickets.

Scores in brief for other matches

KZN Dolphins 422 (Grant Roelofsen 49, Keegan Petersen 123, Andile Phehlukwayo 107, Prenelan Subrayen 51; Achille Cloete 3/58, Shaun von Berg 3/134) v Boland 129/1 (Pieter Malan 74*, Stiaan van Zyl 40*).

Western Province 576 (Jonathan Bird 128, Yaseen Vallie 44, Gavin Kaplan 73, Daniel Smith 153, George Linde 70; Delano Potgieter 6/87) v North-West 124/3 (Lesego Senokwane 57*; George Linde 2/33).

The Sharks ensured their unbeaten record in the Currie Cup was not broken on Friday night but it required a mighty effort from last year’s finalists as a physical, combative Pumas side pushed them for the whole 82 minutes in Nelspruit.

The Sharks eventually prevailed 24-10 for their fourth successive win and their triumph, on the scoreboard at least, was entirely thanks to flyhalf Boeta Chamberlain, who succeeded with all eight of his penalty kicks at goal.

Although the Sharks shaded the territory battle and their scrum started to give the Pumas a really hard time in the second half, the visitors’ attack was disconnected and just lacking in the polish required to break down a manful Pumas defence.

The Pumas in fact scored the only try and a brilliant try it was, worthy of being try of the match even if half-a-dozen had been scored. It began deep inside their own 22 and was sparked by inside centre Eddie Fouche’s chip and regather. The end-to-end try saw 10 Pumas players handle, but scrumhalf Lucky Dlepu was prominent, before flank Anele Lungisa, who was a prominent figure with his huge work-rate throughout the match, went over for the try.

In a tough encounter in which any soft characters would have had to leave the field crying for mom, the Sharks were more clinical in terms of hanging on to the ball, although their failure to convert pressure into tries will be distressing for coach Etienne Fynn.

They kept their composure though and did not get blown off course by a Pumas side that was typically ferocious on their home turf.

Apart from Chamberlain, the likes of scrumhalf Sanele Nohamba, wing Yaw Penxe and flank Thembelani Bholi all advanced their cause in terms of getting into the Sharks’ URC side.

The Free State Cheetahs showed that they might well be the team to chase in the Currie Cup as they downed the previously-unbeaten, two-time defending champions, the Bulls, 38-25 in an all-action display at Loftus Versfeld on Wednesday night.

It was clear from the outset, when the Cheetahs kept the ball alive with offloads and passing through multiple phases, that the visitors were after tries and they scored six of them. Two of them were via hooker Louis van der Westhuizen at the maul, but the rest were slickly worked and the reward for ball-in-hand rugby.

Flank Andisa Ntsila’s grubber through for wing Rosko Specman to score was an early highlight.

A helter skelter first 20 minutes saw the Bulls match the Free Staters on the scoreboard, even if they only scored two tries to the three of the Cheetahs. Nineteen-year-old debutant loose forward Cameron Hanekom was rewarded for following up a botched restart by the visitors for the opening try, and a good long pass out wide by flyhalf Chris Smith led to the second try by wing Stravino Jacobs.

Fullback Clayton Blommetjies cutting through for a try after a lovely angled run by flyhalf Siya Masuku was not enough to prevent Free State actually trailing by one point (19-20) at halftime.

But the Bulls were left chasing the game in the second half as very little went right for them.

They had practically zero lineout platform and a physical, streetwise Cheetahs pack meant the Bulls’ rolling maul had no traction.

Referee Paul Mente was also ruthless in targeting their ill-discipline and both lock Reinhardt Ludwig and prop Lizo Gqoboka were yellow-carded in the final quarter.

The problems started in the 47^th minute when wing Siyabonga Novuka was a fraction-of-a-second early in tackling Specman in the air. The Cheetahs set the maul, went wide right and then, when they came back left, there were no defenders left and lock Aidon Davis strolled over for the try.

The visitors built on their lead 12 minutes later when Van der Westhuizen rumbled over for his second try and Masuku then put in a lovely crosskick for Ntsila to score to put Free State 38-20 up and out of sight.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Cameron Hanekom, Stravino Jacobs, Siyabonga Novuka. Conversions – Chris Smith (2). Penalty – Smith. Drop goal – Smith.

Free State Cheetahs: Tries – Rosko Specman, Louis van der Westhuizen (2), Clayton Blommetjies, Aidon Davis, Andisa Ntsila. Conversions – Ruan Pienaar (4).