Ken Borland

The Proteas batsmen found new ways to disappoint on a good MCG pitch as they were bundled out for just 189 little more than an hour after tea on the first day of the second Test against Australia on Monday.

Having been sent in to bat, openers Dean Elgar and Sarel Erwee weathered the early movement and, although Erwee, reaching for a drive and edging Scott Boland into the slips, had fallen for 18, South Africa looked solid on 56 for one as lunch approached.

But Theunis de Bruyn (12), the new face in the batting line-up as he replaced Rassie van der Dussen, then tried a wild pull stroke from off-stump against Cameron Green, top-edging a catch to the wicketkeeper. Having seen the previous delivery climb steeply from a similar line and length, it was poor shot-selection.

An even bigger Christmas present for the Aussies was to follow though as captain Elgar ran himself out for 26, moments after becoming the eighth South African to score 5000 Test runs. He had led a charmed life up till then, being dropped on seven and 19 and also surviving when an inside-edge trickled back on to his stumps. But Elgar failed to capitalise on getting in, and there was a hint of him trying to escape strike against Mitchell Starc when he pushed the left-hander into the covers and ran, Marnus Labuschagne producing a brilliant piece of fielding and a direct hit at the bowler’s end to run him out, the first time the skipper has suffered that dismissal in Test cricket.

The next delivery saw Temba Bavuma (1) caught behind off Starc and, after a promising start, the Proteas had slumped to 58 for four at lunch.

That became 67 for five in the fifth over after lunch when Khaya Zondo, flatfooted and throwing his hands at a drive at a wide delivery form Starc, was superbly caught by Labuschagne at extra over, moving sharply and then diving to his right.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Kyle Verreynne and bowling all-rounder Marco Jansen then steered the Proteas innings back on to the road as they added a much-needed 112 for the sixth wicket.

Verreynne, fresh off his half-century in Brisbane, was smoothly underway and went to another fifty, off 80 balls. Jansen took a little longer to get going, but his maiden Test half-century was just reward for how sensibly he batted.

Starc’s accident in the outfield while trying to catch Jansen saw him dislocate his finger, resulting in Green having a prolonged third spell.

And the all-rounder took full advantage as he ripped through the rest of the South African batting to finish with a career-best five for 27 in 10.4 overs.

Verreynne (52) and Jansen (59) were both caught behind the wicket to probing deliveries just outside off-stump in successive overs, and Keshav Maharaj (2), Kagiso Rabada (4) and Lungi Ngidi (2) then meekly surrendered as the last five wickets fell for just 10 runs.

This batting display, on a good surface, was even more of a reckless car-crash than the Brisbane fiasco.

South Africa’s bowling was then as loose as profligate shoppers at the Black Friday sales as Australia reached 45 for one at stumps. David Warner had cruised to 32 not out.

The Proteas did at least claim one wicket when Usman Khawaja, defending well out side off-stump, was caught behind off Kagiso Rabada for 1.

Have opposing teams in the United Rugby Championship finally found ways of nullifying the physical threat posed by the Bulls, or are last season’s losing finalists just nowhere near their best at the moment?

This was the question dominating discussion among Bulls watchers as they slipped to successive defeats away to the Glasgow Warriors and Munster, sliding down to sixth place on the log before Friday’s night tricky fixture against Benetton in Treviso.

The answer, as it often is, is probably a bit of both.

Coach Jake White admitted this week that “for whatever reason, we have not played as well as we can. Sometimes it feels like we are stuck in third gear and we struggle to get into fifth.”

But he also made the salient point that it is still early days in the URC and the Bulls’ focus is on playing their best rugby in the last three weeks – the quarterfinals, semi-finals and final in May next year.

It is also worth noting his reminder that the Bulls were in a far worse position this time last season, winning just one of their first five matches. They were all away from home though, in an extremely tough draw, and the Bulls made it five losses from six games when they were then beaten by the Stormers at home. But in the end they still managed to make the final and, in fact, were only one win away from finishing second on the log.

But the Bulls have been exposed a bit in the physicality stakes, with both Glasgow and Munster dominating the collisions, as well as other aspects of play. It has long been accepted in rugby that games are won by the forwards and the backs decide by how much.

Although White bristles at suggestions that his team has been outmuscled, he has also been going on for the last two years at least about how young his squad is, which is a key factor.

Both the Glasgow and Munster packs were full of 30-year-olds who have been in the rugby trenches for a decade. They are mature men, experienced and streetwise.

There is a lovely word in Afrikaans that describes these yeoman forwards that every team needs to do the hard graft, the ugly work – these are the haardebaarde, literally translated as the ‘tough beards’.

White said he wanted more ‘menere’ in his team, saying the Bulls are currently “overloaded with juniors”.

As brilliant as they have been, Steenekamp, Wessels, Mornay Smith, Matanzima, Grobbelaar, Louw, Swanepoel, Nortje, Uys and Steenkamp are all no older than 25, and it should not be a surprise when wiser and more mature forwards get the better of them.

White has said that the age profile of the Bulls, but also the Lions and to some extent the Stormers, is wrong – they do not have enough of those middle-aged players between the ages of 27 and 30, when they are at their peak.

The blame for that can be laid on the economic situation of the country which has allowed overseas clubs to cause bad damage to our teams by taking advantage of the weakness of the Rand and cherry-picking the best talent.

The Sharks have managed to counter that talent-drain through equity partners and strong leadership at board level, while the Bulls are committed to a long-term plan of rebuilding their strength and are also benefiting from excellent investors and the great work of their CEO Edgar Rathbone and union president Willem Strauss.

One can only congratulate John Dobson and the Stormers for managing to get the absolute best out of their talent given the fact that the union was basically bankrupt, and it is going to be thrilling to watch the current Lions side grow and develop, given how well those youngsters are playing this season.

But imagine how much more depth all our sides would have if we could bring that 27-30 age cohort back to South Africa?

South Africa’s top-order produced a terrible batting display in the first T20 against India in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, crashing to nine for five after being sent in to bat, and top-scorer Keshav Maharaj admitted that they had been caught unawares in the powerplay and needed to look at ways of ensuring such a parlous start does not happen again.

The Proteas eventually made it to 106-8 thanks largely to Maharaj’s greatly determined 41 off 35 balls, while there were also rearguard knocks by Aiden Markram (25) and Wayne Parnell (24). But despite a shaky start they saw them reduced to 17-2 in the seventh over, India cruised to victory by eight wickets with 20 balls to spare, thanks to unbeaten half-centuries by Lokesh Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav.

“We don’t want to dwell too much on the match, but there are things we can address and hopefully rectify,” Maharaj said after the awful start to the tour. “We do need to chat about how we started.

“When you are put under pressure like that then it’s very difficult to come back. But we showed some fight and we can build on that. It showed great character to go from nine for five to 106, we made a game of it and there are a lot of positives from that.

“But we need to adjust better against the new ball, they were getting a lot of swing, so we needed a change of plan and mindset. We didn’t expect the ball to swing so much, and the pitch was also two-paced, there was a lot of tennis ball bounce, so it was not easy.

“We need to find a way to combat the swing up front and our application at the top also needs to be looked at. But the ball was swinging prodigiously and we were just trying to get to the 16^th over and not get bowled out,” Maharaj said.

Losing five wickets in the powerplay was the difference between the two sides though, as Rahul dug in and Suryakumar scored an inspired 50 not out in 33 balls.

“With five wickets down in the powerplay, you’ve still got to be focused. We wanted to try and get to 16 overs and not get bowed out, and then unfortunately Wayne got out.

“Our seam bowlers also did really well in the powerplay, KG Rabada and Wayne were exceptional. Small moments went India’s way, but they batted exceptionally well.

“It was always going to be very difficult to come back from five wickets down in the powerplay, maybe it was a bit of rustiness on our part. Hopefully we can execute much better and make the second T20 more exciting.

“Conditions were in the bowlers’ favour, but full credit to Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh for landing the ball in the right areas. They had us under pressure in the powerplay,” Maharaj said.

Enoch Nkwe says there will always be a part of him that will hanker after the excitement of on-field, hands-on coaching, but for now the former Proteas assistant coach sees his future as being in more strategic ways, setting up systems for teams.

The Central Gauteng Lions announced this week that Nkwe was returning to them as their Strategic Cricket Consultant for March and April. It is a short-term gig, but at least the coach who took the Lions to three franchise trophies in 2018/19 is back in the system.

But what will the 39-year-old be doing after that? Does he have his eye on the Technical Director position rumoured to be in the process of being created by Cricket South Africa? Or will he aim even higher and go for the Director of Cricket post because Graeme Smith’s contract concludes at the end of this month and the position will be readvertised.

“There will always be a part of me that enjoys the on-field coaching,” Nkwe told The Citizen at his unveiling at the Wanderers on Wednesday, “but I’ve made peace with the technical aspect of coaching, having done it through from U19s and Academy level to the Proteas.

“There are different ways of coaching and I’ve always been very strategic in my approach. I like setting up systems and I’m a big believer that for your main team to be successful, they need a well-aligned system beneath them.

“The Lions have offered me a great opportunity to step into that direction and we’ll see how far we get to or if I am led into a different space.

“My passion is driving systems and entrenching new ways of playing the game. I’m always open to opportunities, but it needs to speak my language, I need to fit in,” Nkwe said.

Having experienced life at international level and enjoyed tremendous success domestically, Nkwe would seem to be an excellent asset for CSA to keep involved. Despite his unhappy departure from the Proteas, Nkwe did not rule out working for the national body again.

“As a cricketer or as a coach, if you get an opportunity to make a difference to the national system then you would certainly look at that.

“If it makes sense to me and if it fits me, then I would be willing to realign my plan to take things forward at national level,” Nkwe said.