Ken Borland

It was in December 2013 ahead of a Test against India at the Wanderers that former Proteas coach Russell Domingo spoke about the DNA of South African and Indian teams and how pace bowling was the strength of the home side and the weakness of the subcontinent team.

“They have always had issues playing pace in South Africa and that is what history shows. It is a South African strength. It is the way that we were brought up playing cricket,” Domingo said.

“Subcontinent sides will always turn to spin and South Africans will turn to pace because that is in our DNA. Having a four-pronged pace attack is important for us against a country like India in our conditions.”

An epic Test match followed in which India dominated the South African bowling, Virat Kohli scoring 119 and 96 and Cheteshwar Pujara confirming his pedigree as a special player with 153, his first century overseas. An incredible final innings saw the Proteas flirt with chasing down 458, before settling for a noble draw on 450/7.

Although South Africa then won in Durban to win the two-match series, India had shown they were on the brink of rustling up a pace attack fit to compare with any in the world. When they returned to the Wanderers in 2018, they beat the Proteas by 63 runs with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami both getting five-wicket hauls.

Now the tourists are back at a venue where South Africa have not been able to beat them in five attempts, India actually winning at the Bullring in 2006 and 2018. And India showed in the first Test at Centurion just how wonderful their current pace attack is, and it is the Proteas batsmen who have the issues trying to handle the heat.

Out-bowled as well as out-batted at SuperSport Park, South Africa may well consider playing an all-pace attack at the Wanderers; with Quinton de Kock already having to be replaced, Duanne Olivier coming in for spinner Keshav Maharaj as the only change would be the least disruptive selection.

But Maharaj, even though he is not a broad-chested alpha-male in the mould of a Graeme Smith or Jacques Kallis, is an important leader in the team and captain Dean Elgar has spoken of his reluctance not to have him in his XI.

As much as Marco Jansen has shown he can deliver useful runs as a batsman, No.7 is surely too high for him at this fledgling stage of his career. So South Africa will have to choose between having four frontline seamers and an all-rounder (Wiaan Mulder) at 7, three specialist pacemen, a spinner and an all-rounder, or just four bowlers, including Maharaj, and an extra specialist batsman.

Needing to deliver a win at the Wanderers to maintain their hopes of winning the series, the Proteas should perhaps put the responsibility of bowling much better than they did on the first day of the first Test, and getting 20 wickets, on four bowlers and thereby strengthening the fragile batting with someone like Ryan Rickelton coming in at No.7.

Kyle Verreynne is likely to replace De Kock at No.6 and the uncapped Rickelton, who is a top-order batsman for the Central Gauteng Lions, has scored centuries in his previous two innings at the Wanderers.

Prices will have to be paid for another Proteas’ batting failure as South Africa look to stay alive in the series when the second Test against India starts at the Wanderers on Monday, their batting line-up being further weakened by the absence of Quinton de Kock.

The wicketkeeper was always going to miss the New Years Test as well as the final match of the series due to the birth of his first child, but then rocked the Proteas camp even further by announcing his retirement from all Test cricket on Thursday evening, just hours after South Africa had lost the first Test by 113 runs.

Kyle Verreynne is the most likely replacement for De Kock, although Ryan Rickelton has the advantage of playing on his home ground and being in red-hot form with two centuries in his last two innings at the Wanderers.

There is a chance that both could play if the Proteas decide to go into the match with just four frontline bowlers, replacing Wiaan Mulder with a specialist batsman. The all-rounder has done a solid job with the ball, but he has made just 106 runs in eight innings this year. South Africa need more from their No.7.

Keshav Maharaj is indisputably South Africa’s No.1 spinner and one of the senior players, but he was unused in the Indian second innings at Centurion and went wicketless in 18 overs on the first day. If the Wanderers pitch is similar – and it has certainly given the pacemen plenty of assistance so far this summer – then the Proteas will be tempted to leave Maharaj out and play an all-seam attack with Duanne Olivier joining left-armer Marco Jansen, who took four wickets in the Indian second innings and also showed enough gumption with the bat to do well at No.8.

Captain Dean Elgar paid a massive compliment to Jansen after the first Test and he also supported the suggestion that Keegan Petersen, who has scored just 76 runs in his five Test innings but in all of them he has come to the crease with less than five runs on the board, drop down the order.

“We’ll definitely look into the all-rounder position,” Elgar said. “Wiaan has been pretty good with the ball but obviously has not lived up to the standards he has set himself with the bat.

“So we’ll be having the sort of open conversations we need to have in this environment. I thought Marco was our player of the game and had a brilliant debut. But carrying two all-rounders is maybe not ideal.

“It’s a valid point about Keegan dropping down the order and that’s also a conversation we’ll have. We could potentially exercise that option, it’s not a bad idea to give him better opportunity against the older ball.

“He’s played three Tests and they’ve all been in relatively tough batting conditions. It’s been a rough start to his career but it doesn’t reflect on him as a player. He is extremely talented, he’s been one of our best domestically for a few years,” Elgar said.

Having failed to withstand the heat of the Indian attack at SuperSport Park, the Proteas will now hop into the furnace of the Wanderers in the second Test starting on Monday, but captain Dean Elgar says their confidence has not been dented.

South Africa, bowled out for just 197 and 191, lost the first Test by 113 runs in Centurion on Thursday and a struggling batting line-up is going to have to come to terms quickly with the outstanding Indian pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.

“India have a really balanced attack. Shami posed issues for our right-handers and Bumrah always runs in with high energy, he’s always challenging you. You have to be very mindful of both of them,” Elgar said after his brave four-hour 77 was not enough to inspire the rest of the batting line-up, apart from Temba Bavuma, who remained unbeaten on 35.

“And when Mohammed Siraj has his tail up he’s also a bit of a handful.

“But we will not lack confidence going into the Wanderers Test. It’s never nice to lose but we know where we went wrong and we have time to reflect and learn from that.

“You need big runs to compete in Test cricket and we did not execute in the first innings when that was doable. We’ve got to compete against the new ball, but we were behind on the number of runs scored on all four days,” Elgar said.

South Africa’s bowlers also took a while to wake up to what was required, although India’s pacemen certainly enjoyed the benefit of a more lively pitch on the third day as the surface quickened up with the early moisture gone.

India reaching 272/3 at the end of the first day meant they could snooze easily for the rest of the Test match, knowing they were already ahead of the game.

A formidable four-strong Central Gauteng Lions pace attack produced another top-class performance on Sunday as they wrapped up victory by an innings and 72 runs over the North-West Dragons in their CSA Four-Day Domestic Series match at the Wanderers.

Despite a pugnacious 70 not out by captain Nicky van den Bergh, North-West were bowled out for 177 in their second innings. A commanding innings of 159 by Ryan Rickelton had set up a Lions total of 408 after they had dismissed the Dragons for just 159 on the first day.

Duanne Olivier completed a fine return to South African domestic cricket with three for 58 on Sunday, giving him seven wickets in the match, but the chief destroyer in the North-West second innings was Malusi Siboto, who returned outstanding figures of four for 21 in 10.4 overs.

At Centurion, left-arm paceman Marco Jansen showed that he is mature way beyond his years as he produced a brilliant counter-attacking innings with the bat that ensured the Eastern Province Warriors still have a chance of pulling off a thrilling win over the Northerns Titans.

Jansen came in with EP, chasing 236 for victory, on 91 for six, and struck a fabulous 55 off 59 balls.

Together with Lesiba Ngoepe (46*) they lifted EP to 180 for seven when Jansen was bowled by left-arm spinner Neil Brand in the final over of the day with a superb arm-ball.

Junior Dala had ripped through the EP middle-order earlier with two quickfire wickets to put them on the back foot.

But the fact that the Warriors were chasing as much as 236 was thanks to a Northerns innings that just got better and better as it progressed.

Sibonelo Makhanya (74) and Jordan Hermann (62) extended their fifth-wicket partnership to 141 and then Dayyaan Galiem ensured the momentum continued with his 47 off 56 balls.

Corbin Bosch took over from Galiem when he was ninth man out as stroked a confident 40 not out and put on a crucial 43 for the last wicket with Dala, who played sensibly for 42 deliveries.

Mthiwekhaya Nabe was the best of the EP bowlers with four for 89 in 22 overs.

At Newlands, Western Province are in trouble at 186 for seven in their second innings against the KZN Dolphins, still trailing by 34 runs with only a couple of decent batsmen left.

Fast bowler Daryn Dupavillon has taken four for 33 including the wicket of top-scorer Yaseen Vallie, trapped lbw for 76.

Left-arm spinner Bryce Parsons, who took five for 82 in the first innings to bowl Western Province out for 269, enabling KXN to enforce the follow-on, dismissed key batsman David Bedingham for 50.

Wayne Parnell who top-scored with 79 not out in the Western Province first innings, sharing a face-saving 105-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Mihlali Mpongwana (40), is still at the crease of for the hosts.

Janneman Malan, reinventing himself as a middle-order batsman, was the mainstay of the Boland Rocks innings as he scored a composed 139 not out to lead his team to 386 for seven against the Free State Knights in Bloemfontein.

That means the visitors are 66 runs ahead on first innings.

There was some solid top-order batting by Boland as Peter Malan scored 44, Isma-eel Gafieldien 37 and Stiaan van Zyl 48, but Ferisco Adams, who is perpetually and stupidly under-rated as a cricketer, scored 74 not out as he and Janneman Malan put on an unbroken 156 for the eighth wicket.