Ken Borland

Heinrich Klaasen called himself an “unexpected” captain on Friday and stressed that he will be sticking very closely to Temba Bavuma’s plan when the Proteas’ T20 series against Pakistan starts on Saturday afternoon at the Wanderers.

With Bavuma ruled out of action for the entire series with a hamstring strain suffered in the final ODI in midweek, Klaasen was on Friday morning once again thrust into the stand-in captain role he fulfilled in the three T20s in Pakistan in February. But the 29-year-old was clear that he will not be trying to stamp his mark on the team, however subtly; Bavuma’s astute game-plan will be the one they will be using.

“We have a set plan for how we want to play, we are still fine-tuning it and the new guys in the squad need to play that way in order to fit in. But it’s the way we’ll be playing going forward, the way Temba wants it, and I will definitely be pushing that going forward. It’s just a positive brand of cricket, with a bit of streetwise play thrown in. I can’t really expand on the rest of it.

“But it’s the way the game is heading and we need to keep up with the new style of play. There’s a process we need to follow. It was unexpected to be given the captaincy, but a big honour again. It’s unfortunate we don’t have some big players again, but this is still a very strong side and the players have lots of confidence in this format,” Klaasen said on Friday.

Klaasen will obviously fill one of the middle-order slots, but the job of wicketkeeper could go to Kyle Verreynne. The stand-in captain said the brilliance of the youngster in the third ODI showed that he could “play for South Africa for a very long time”.

Janneman Malan was praised in the same vein by Klaasen and the departures of Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks and Bavuma himself from the squad means the recruitment of a new opening partner for the Cobras talent is necessary. Aiden Markram has been added to the T20 squad as cover, but could the selectors go the less-obvious route and introduce debutant Wihan Lubbe at the top of the order?

The 28-year-old took on the might of the Imperial Lions attack in the recent T20 Challenge and showed he fits the bill as an opener with a great knock of 52 off just 38 balls.

The fitness of the exciting Sisanda Magala, a star of the Lions’ triumphant T20 campaign, is apparently still an issue for the Proteas management, but the introduction to international cricket of him or Lizaad Williams of the Titans is a possibility.

Temba Bavuma narrowly missed out on a century but he enjoyed the greater delight of notching his first win as Proteas captain as South Africa beat Pakistan by 17 runs in the second ODI at the Wanderers on Sunday to level the series, despite Fakhar Zaman’s record-breaking, magnificent 193.

Bavuma was the glue around which the rest of the Proteas batted, his 92 off 102 balls being a masterpiece of determination and intensity as he overcame a tough start by being busy at the crease and rotating the strike well. With Quinton de Kock (80 off 86), Rassie van der Dussen (60 off 37) and David Miller (50* off 27) all contributing well, South Africa posted a sizeable 341 for six after losing the toss and being sent in to bat.

It was tough going again for the first 90 minutes in cool conditions, before the clouds cleared and the pitch flattened out, allowing the Proteas to gain reward for their earlier hard graft. Aiden Markram made a flying start, hitting a couple of imperious sixes as he cruised to 39 off 34 balls, but missed out on making a substantial score when he slapped a back-foot drive straight to extra cover off Faheem Ashraf.

De Kock made a scratchy start, struggling to find the middle of his bat, but he was not lacking in application as he and Bavuma added 114 off 126 deliveries for the second wicket.

Van der Dussen then added impetus with his brilliant innings, which saw 101 added for the third wicket off just 69 balls, Miller then providing the slick finish even as wickets tumbled, Haris Rauf finishing with an impressive three for 54 in 10 overs.

Pakistan, needing to mount the second biggest run-chase behind the famous 438 game, made a promising start as Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam added 63 off 56 balls for the second wicket. But the visitors were then rocked by another ferocious burst from fast bowler Anrich Nortje.

He claimed the key wicket of Babar for 31 and then removed another dangerman in Mohammad Rizwan for a two-ball duck. Making liberal use of the short ball, Nortje then bounced out rookie Danish Aziz for 9 to reduce Pakistan to 85 for four.

Pakistan were kept in the game though by a quite extraordinary innings by opener Fakhar, who made the highest ever score in an ODI chase and the biggest on South African soil.

He reached his century off 107 balls and by that stage it seemed it would be a valiant losing effort. But the South African bowlers were then put to the sword by the left-hander, as he plundered 93 more runs off just 48 deliveries, hitting 18 fours and 10 sixes.

He was eventually run out in the final over by a superb direct hit by Markram from long-off and a brilliant piece of deception from wicketkeeper De Kock, who motioned that the throw was going to the bowler’s end, causing Fakhar to continue ambling back for the second run.

Rabada was the other South African paceman to shine, taking one for 43 in his 10 overs.

Pink Day, the charity event raising funds for cancer research, has been hosted by the fast-paced city of Johannesburg at the Wanderers for the last 9 years and Sunday’s second ODI between South Africa and Pakistan may not have any spectators allowed, but the Proteas need to bring their usual intensity and action-packed approach in order to stay alive in the series.

The first ODI was lost on the back of a second-wicket partnership of 177 between Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq; Pakistan scraped to victory off the last ball of the match because the Proteas then fought back and claimed six wickets for 85 runs. They did that using aggressive fast bowling led by Anrich Nortje.

The Wanderers is traditionally a haven for pace and bounce and Autumn on the Highveld adds more moisture and swing into the equation as well. South Africa’s pacemen need to be smarter about exploiting the conditions more, they perhaps relied too heavily on slower balls and cutters at Centurion when an approach more in line with how they would bowl in a Test match was called for.

“The plan was to bowl more Test lengths and we started brilliantly, but as the pitch became harder and flatter it was really difficult to defend and the batsmen were able to score quite freely. But a lot of credit should go to the bowlers, I’ve been in a lot of situations like this on the Highveld and the team chasing gets home with five or six overs to spare,” centurion Rassie van der Dussen said after the first ODI on Friday night.

It was a valuable toss for Pakistan to win in the first game and it was tough going for the Proteas batsmen in the first hour. But some of the strokes offered were not well-executed as South Africa slumped to 55 for four before Van der Dussen came to their rescue.

The star batsman said the shot-selection could be excused, it was just the execution that let the batsmen down, and a similarly positive approach is likely to be brought to the Wanderers.

“Quinton de Kock and Aiden Markram gave us a good start and thought that they could then take on the powerplay. In hindsight they couldn’t because the pitch was a bit more difficult to bat on than they thought. You have to assess conditions and sometimes you make mistakes. But a guy like Quinny has played like that his whole career and we’re not too worried about the batting.

“England have probably been the best ODI team over the last two years and that formula works for them, so we want to give the batsmen the freedom to express themselves, especially up front in the powerplay. Quinny is usually brilliant there but it’s the nature of cricket that you won’t have success every time. Losing three wickets in a cluster is what we don’t want to do though,” Van der Dussen said.

Titans batsmen Aiden Markram and Dayyaan Galiem came out after tea and sat in the dugout patiently waiting for the umpires to restart play on the second day of their Four-Day Franchise match against the Imperial Lions at the Wanderers on Wednesday, but it never happened as bad light prevented any further play.

With the morning being more suited to canoeing than cricket, play only got underway at 11.30am on Wednesday and then the rain returned at the tea break as only 200 minutes of action were possible on the second day.

The reason for Markram and Galiem’s eagerness to get back out on the park was because, at 169 for five, the Titans are just 24 runs short of ensuring they have enough bonus points to secure their place in the final next week, regardless of what happens in the Warriors match against the Dolphins.

Markram once again stood tall with the bat, scoring a wonderfully defiant 85 not out as Kagiso Rabada hollowed out the Titans innings with four for 32 in 18 overs.

Fellow fast bowler Lutho Sipamla claimed the other wicket to fall as he had Quinton de Kock caught in the slips, the left-hander having used his tree trunk bat to collect four fours in his 18.

The other notable action involving Proteas was when Rassie van der Dussen dropped Sibonelo Makhanya at first slip off Wiaan Mulder before he had scored; he went on to make 23. In the next over, with Markram on 59, Van der Dussen missed another chance off Rabada, which had the cellphones in the media centre abuzz with social media comments.

It got worse for the Lions when Reeza Hendricks dived across from second slip to catch Markram off Beuran Hendricks on 68, only for the left-arm paceman to have bowled a tight no-ball.

*At Newlands, the Knights must be heartily sick of the sight of opening batsman Pieter Malan, who has batted for 490 minutes and almost certainly dashed their final hopes.

Malan finished the second day on an epic 195 not out, steering the Cape Cobras to 382 for three, a lead of 201 runs.

Zubayr Hamza (86) and Kyle Verreynne (74*) helped plunder the Knights attack.

*St George’s Park is often one of the trickier destinations to go to, but the Dolphins have not only all but assured themselves of a place in the final but look almost certain to host it in Durban, as they dominated the second day against the Warriors.

Khaya Zondo led the way with a composed 111, a quality knock featuring 15 fours and three sixes to lift the Dolphins to 358, a first-innings lead of 234.

Zondo came to the crease on 107 for three with the dismissal of Senuran Muthusamy for 52, and had to stabilise matters after the visitors slipped to 194 for seven.

Keshav Maharaj once again shone with the bat, stroking 66 with 10 fours, as they added 132 for the eighth wicket.

The Warriors reached stumps on 88 without loss, with Ed Moore on 42* and Gihahn Cloete 39*.