Ken Borland

An ill wind blew for South Africa on the second day of the first Test against Australia in Durban on Saturday. Ken Borland explains the day, with help from Wiaan Mulder and the heroic Matt Renshaw.

The Ball in Play

With a north-easterly wind blowing over Kingsmead, the Proteas’ prospects went south on the second day of the first Test against Australia in Durban on Saturday.

Having been reduced to 124 for six midway through the second session of the opening day, Australia managed to stabilise their innings and reach 187 for six at stumps.

On Saturday, with a 9.30am start and the pitch having provided assistance to the bowlers through the first day, as well as the second new ball being due in 14.4 overs, South Africa would have been confident of wrapping up the Australia innings for the addition of maybe 70 runs maximum.

But those who know Durban and Kingsmead know that the wind direction here is crucial to how the pitch behaves. Never mind the mythical effect of the tide coming in or out, with the Indian Ocean just a kilometre away. When the south-westerly blows, it is the cool wind bringing moisture, clouds and rain. The grass on the pitch stands up and the ball swings and seams.

The north-easterly, however, is the warm wind, bringing clear blue skies and hot weather from the Mozambique Channel. The increased temperature sees the grass on the pitch wither and what used to be a snakepit affectionately known as the Green Mamba (a highly venomous snake found along the KwaZulu-Natal coast) becomes a batting paradise.

And so South Africa’s bowlers toiled on the second day. In their way stood Matt Renshaw, a gritty Yorkshire-born Queenslander who played with immense control and determination to score a career-best 190 in 468 minutes, off 397 balls. The epic effort lifted Australia to 390 all out, a highly-impressive comeback from 124 for six and an above-par total that means the Proteas will have to bat very well in their first innings as the pitch is expected to take more turn as the match progresses.

The lower-order stood their ground in support of Renshaw with great application.

Captain Pat Cummins scored 43 as he survived the important first nine overs of the day, extending the seventh-wicket partnership to 86.

Wiaan Mulder had Cummins caught at second slip and then bowled Mitchell Starc for nine with a beauty that pitched middle-and-leg and hit middle-and-off as the left-hander tried to flick the ball through midwicket.

It was 230 for eight, the new ball had just been taken and the Proteas once again seemed on track to have 250-odd to reply to.

Nathan Lyon averages 12.53 with the bat in Africa, but he did score 47 and share a 66-run ninth wicket partnership with Tim Paine in the infamous Newlands Test of 2018. He has caused South Africa frustration with the bat a couple of times, but on Saturday he took it to new levels and, together with Renshaw, broke a Donald Bradman record.

Renshaw made a plan to protect Lyon from strike as much as he could and executed it brilliantly. The off-spinner scored just seven of the first 50 runs they added.

When the partnership reached a hundred, the first time Australia’s ninth wicket has ever done that against South Africa, Lyon had made 17. The previous record was the 78 the great Bradman and Bill O’Reilly put on in Adelaide in 1932.

Eventually, with the tea break 15 minutes away, Marco Jansen fired a yorker into Lyon’s pads to trap him lbw for 27. The partnership had been worth 134 and had taken Australia to 364.

Mulder, who finished with a four-wicket haul for the third time in his Test career, praised Renshaw’s innings, while also musing that the home side had perhaps not always deployed their fielders in the best places when the left-hander was dominating the strike.

“Renshaw played beautifully, he left really well. He was able to keep the strike, which was really important, and played the situation as well as anyone can. You have to credit him for playing the conditions as well as anyone.

“I don’t think things went wrong for us, it’s just that they played well. We executed most of our plans, maybe we could have bowled a touch fuller, but it was just a good innings to be honest. He left extremely well, with the spongy, steep bounce, sometimes he let it go over the stumps.

“He seemed to get off strike so easily. He had a very different approach to the first four balls of an over and maybe we could have been smarter with the field, that’s something we’ll have to look at. Maybe we could have made it a bit harder for him, but we bowled well and put the ball in the right areas,” Mulder said.

Renshaw, whose innings eclipsed the late Phil Hughes’s 160 as the highest score for Australia against South Africa at Kingsmead, said the aim had been to keep the home side in the field, on a hot day, for as long as possible. Hence there was little need to over-attack and Australia stretched their innings out to 137.2 overs, Renshaw eventually being caught at slip off Simon Harmer, two balls after the tea break that had been delayed for half-an-hour.

“The benefit was keeping them out in the field for as long as possible and their quicks were bowling around 30 overs. I had to play the 4+2 game and sometimes I had to think hard about how to get off strike at the end of the overs, I played some of the weirdest shots I ever have. There was a lot of thinking about how many balls I needed to face and it was tough when the field was spread, I had to try and hit twos,” Renshaw said.

The clouds were just starting to roll in when South Africa, no doubt physically and mentally fatigued from their ordeal, began their reply. The dismissal of Ryan Rickelton, driving loosely at his third ball, and edging the waft to third slip off Josh Hazlewood, looked suspiciously like the after-effects of all that frustrating time in the field.

Aiden Markram (15*) and David Bedingham (12*) found the boundary five times between them with handsome drives as they took South Africa to 27 for one before the umpires mercifully ruled bad light had ended their long day.

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South Africa’s top-order were dying slow deaths as they went in pursuit of a mediocre target of 134, before Aiden Markram and David Miller switched gears in the second half of the innings to carry the Proteas to a thrilling five-wicket victory with two balls to spare in their T20 World Cup match against India at the Perth Stadium on Sunday.

After a superb bowling display led by Lungi Ngidi and Wayne Parnell had restricted India to just 133/9, South Africa’s top-order was blown away by brilliant swing bowling up front. Whereas the Proteas had used pace and bounce to unsettle the batsmen, India showed tremendous skill up front with the new ball.

Outstanding young left-arm paceman Arshdeep Singh swung the ball away from Quinton de Kock (1), to have him well-caught by Lokesh Rahul at second slip, and two balls later he swung the ball into another left-hander, Rilee Rossouw, to trap him lbw for a duck.

Temba Bavuma’s lack of form meant he was unable to get a bat on many of the magnificent deliveries bowled to him by Arshdeep and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and then attempted an ambitious scoop shot against Mohammed Shami and was neatly caught behind by Dinesh Karthik for 10.

South Africa were teetering on 24/3 and Markram and Miller almost looked like condemned men as they tried to weather the storm. They did well to stay in, but after 10 overs the score was just 40/3, meaning another 94 needed to be scored off the last 60 balls.

Markram decided to go for broke and, in a brave innings of 52 off 41 balls, he swung hard and shifted the momentum of the game, beating back the Indian bowlers. He should have been caught twice and Rohit Sharma also missed an easy run out chance, as he and Miller added 76 for the fourth wicket in 10 overs.

Miller was then left with the last 34 runs to score off 26 balls, and he once again showed his sheer class and skill at the death, steering the Proteas home with 59 not out off 46 balls.

India had chosen to bat first, and on a pitch offering steep bounce and plenty of pace, Ngidi set the cats amongst the pigeons as he reduced them to 49/5 in eight-and-a-half overs. The tall paceman used the bounce superbly, taking 4/29 in his four overs, and all four wickets came off shortish deliveries. But his line, just outside off stump with the occasional straighter delivery, was also outstanding.

Ngidi struck with just his second ball as Rohit (15) spliced a pull shot and the bowler took a return catch; Ngidi then ended his first over with the wicket of the other opener, Rahul (9) trying to steer the ball to third man but being caught at slip as the delivery got too big for him. Markram was practically standing on the fielding circle when he took the catch.

Virat Kohli counterpunched in scoring 12, but Ngidi then dismissed him, top-edging a hook to fine leg, where Kagiso Rabada took a good catch running around the boundary.

Rabada then took an absolute screamer, sprinting in from the fine leg boundary and diving forward to catch Hardik Pandya (2) off Ngidi.

With Anrich Nortje blasting out Deepak Hooda for a duck, India were crashing, but Suryakumar Yadav pulled the blue aeroplane out of its dive with a great innings, his 68 off 40 balls piloting them to a total that kept them in the match because of the strength of their own pace attack.

Left-arm seamer Parnell had done a fine job for the Proteas up front with the new ball, and he soared in the closing stages, taking 3/15 in his four overs, which included a maiden in the first over of the match.

Nortje (4-0-23-1) and Rabada (4-0-26-0) maintained the relentless pace pressure.

Kyle Verreynne went to a superb maiden Test century and Kagiso Rabada was explosive with both bat and ball to put South Africa in firm control of the second Test against New Zealand on the fourth day at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday.

Verreynne’s 136 not out, a magnificent innings combining bravery, tenacity, composure and skill, carried the Proteas to 354/9 declared in their second innings.

It allowed them to set New Zealand the daunting target of 426, which has never been successfully chased in Test cricket before, and the home side had struggled to 94/4 at stumps on the penultimate day.

Rabada removed both openers, Will Young (0) and Tom Latham (1) in his first two overs and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj then began to weave his magic as he bowled both Henry Nicholls (7) and Daryl Mitchell (24) with brilliant deliveries.

Rabada ended the day with 2/17 in eight overs, while Maharaj bowled 16 overs and claimed 2/32.

Devon Conway was the one batsman to frustrate the Proteas as he showed plenty of determination, sticking around for 127 deliveries and reaching 60 not out.

South Africa began the fourth day on 140/5, just 211 ahead, and Verreynne and Wiaan Mulder had to show great composure and skill to get through the crucial first hour.

They took their sixth-wicket stand to 78 before Mulder fell for a valuable 35 on the first drinks break, wicketkeeper Tom Blundell taking a fine diving catch off Kyle Jamieson.

South Africa took lunch on 232/7 and a remarkable second session followed as Verreynne and a ferocious Rabada were in rampant form with the bat.

Rabada blasted a career-best 47 off just 34 balls with four sixes, while Verreynne also cut loose as 69 runs were thrashed in the first eight overs after the break.

New Zealand’s frustration did not end either with Rabada’s dismissal, as Verreynne added another 57 runs with Maharaj and Lutho Sipamla before the declaration came at the tea break.

The second-half comeback by the Sharks will please coach Sean Everitt, but he will be dismayed by the unfocused start they made to the match as they went down 35-24 to Glasgow Warriors in their United Rugby Championship match at Scotstoun on Saturday.

From the moment the Sharks allowed Glasgow wing Rufus McLean to run almost from 22 to 22 from the kickoff, leading to a second-minute try for the home side, it was clear the visitors were not switched on from the start. And it proved crucial as the Warriors scored three times in the first quarter to rattle up a 21-0 lead. The Sharks did manage to score a tap-and-go try by lock Le Roux Roets, but they were still 28-10 down at halftime, a lead that was stretched to 35-10 three minutes into the second half. But then the Sharks belatedly cut out the ill-discipline and basic errors, and dominated the second half to show what could have been.

“We thought it was a game that we could win if we gave a good, disciplined performance. But we conceded five penalties in quick succession in the first half and that put us under the pump,” Everitt said.

“It’s very difficult on a 4G [artificial] pitch once the opposition are behind you or get ascendancy. It’s very difficult to stop their momentum.

“But the fact that we only conceded 10 penalties overall is exactly why the second half was so much better. Our lineout and scrum improved, those were pleasing aspects that made it a smoother second half.

“I thought we were unlucky not to get a fourth try and two points on the log, but there were a lot of improvements in only our second game in the Northern Hemisphere,” Everitt said.

Moving Ruan Pienaar to flyhalf certainly seemed to help, because he and Boeta Chamberlain did not really stamp their mark on the game as a halfback combination. The Sharks’ backline produced some slick attacking play in the second half, and the pack showed their power as props Thomas du Toit and Ntuthuko Mchunu both scored tries.

Everitt is confident that, in the long run, and the URC is a very long competition, these sort of experiences will be good for a young Sharks side.

“There’s a big hole left by the 12 regular starters who are not here and we have to field a lot of youngsters, but it’s really good experience for them against international players.

“We will get better and we are learning hard lessons. It’s important that we stay the course and keep improving,” Everitt said.

Scorers

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Ross Thompson, Ryan Wilson, Jamie Bhatti, Cole Forbes (2). Conversions: Thompson (5).

Sharks – Tries: Le Roux Roets, Thomas du Toit, Ntuthuko Mchunu. Conversions: Curwin Bosch (3). Penalty: Bosch.