Ken Borland

The last time the Proteas played against Bangladesh in white-ball cricket was earlier this year when Bangladesh shocked them by winning the ODI series in South Africa, so there is a pace attack that is highly-motivated to do some damage when the two teams meet in the T20 World Cup in Sydney on Thursday.

The Proteas and Bangladesh were meant to play a warm-up game before the tournament, but that was washed out, and the rain then also forced South Africa’s opening match against Zimbabwe to be abandoned without a result. Given their experience in last year’s T20 World Cup, where they lost just their opening game but missed out on the semi-finals on nett run-rate, the Proteas know they have to win all four of their remaining matches to make sure they progress.

“Last year we learnt that every game is so important and we’ve wrapped our heads around having to win everything from here on in to give us the best chance of qualifying for the semis,” paceman Lungi Ngidi said on Wednesday.

“We’re definitely hungry to win, but every team is under pressure. The last time we played against Bangladesh, their batsmen came out pretty aggressively against us. So we will definitely target their top-order.

“They have Shakib al-Hasan to control the middle, but if we cut off the head of the snake up front, then hopefully we can restrict them to as low a total as possible.

“We will play towards our strengths and we have seen that pace has been most successful so far in the tournament. So we would like to attack them with our strength and we will see how they handle that tomorrow [Thursday],” Ngidi said.

The skilful 26-year-old also did not want to sell the Proteas bowling line-up short, saying they embraced talk about them possibly being the best pace attack in the world.

“For people to say we have the best attack in the world is an honour and privilege for us, it gives us lots of confidence as well,” Ngidi said. “It means we can walk with our heads held high.

“It also means we really want to showcase what we have. We have three or four seamers and everyone is better at something than someone else

“It makes the job a lot easier because it becomes pretty difficult with two seamers having to do everything.

“That gives the bowlers the sense of calm and confidence that’s needed in a tournament like this,” Ngidi said.

Unfortunately, there is a high probability of a lunchtime thundershower in Sydney putting a dampener on the Proteas’ efforts once again.

Play starts at 5am.

It’s been many years since Australia experienced such volumes of rainfall as they are at the moment and the Proteas fell victim to the inclement weather on Wednesday when their second and final warm-up match for the T20 World Cup, against Bangladesh in Brisbane, was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

South Africa will open their World Cup campaign on Monday in Hobart against the top qualifier from Group B, in which Scotland, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Ireland are all locked on two points.

The abandonment of the Bangladesh game happened without there being a toss, so we don’t know whether appointed captain Temba Bavuma was going to play or not. But his form in a year so badly disrupted by injury and illness has been the biggest talking point in South African cricket of late, and there is no doubt he would have loved to have gathered some much-needed runs under his belt.

For the rest of the Proteas team, the weather was a mild irritation and Rilee Rossouw, such a well-travelled T20 player these days, said they are ready for when their curtain comes up on Monday.

“Some guys might be frustrated that we couldn’t play today, but for the others, we’re pretty much ready to go,” Rossouw said. “It’s something we couldn’t control and it’s unfortunate that we did not play today.

“But the guys put in a good shift in the indoor nets and the team is very confident, we have played a lot of cricket over the last month, we’ve had a lot of game-time.

“The boys are ready, playing good cricket and excited for that first match,” Rossouw said.

While Bavuma’s woes would almost certainly see him left out of Monday’s starting XI if he were not the captain, at least the Proteas know they have a ready-made, in-form replacement in Reeza Hendricks. Either him or Rossouw could comfortably open the batting with Quinton de Kock.

In the absence of both Bavuma and De Kock in the first warm-up game – the nine-wicket hammering of New Zealand – Hendricks and Rossouw opened the batting and put on 66 at 10-runs-an-over. It’s been six-and-a-half years since they played together in the Free State Knights team and Rossouw is hoping his former provincial team-mate can really announce himself on the global stage considering the great form he is in at present.

“Reeza and I go a long way back and it’s always nice to bat with him, he always brings something special,” Rossouw said.

“I hope he gets the chance to show the world what he’s about. We are all much better players than we were in those Knights days, we’ve learned from experience and from each other. And he is world-class,” Rossouw said.

CAPE ST FRANCIS, Eastern Cape – Dylan Naidoo is one golfer who certainly won’t be ill-prepared for the vagaries of the St Francis Links when the Vodacom Origins of Golf Sunshine Tour event gets underway there on Thursday, the 24-year-old winning the pro-am on Wednesday with partner Malcolm Subramony.

After a blustery, totally overcast first day which really tested the golfers, Wednesday was much calmer and the sun made a welcome appearance. So Naidoo feels he is well-prepared for whatever weather the professionals get over the next three days.

“Today was a lot more like the weather we’re expecting for the tournament proper, so playing well works in my favour a bit. We’re expecting the same wind direction and amount of wind,” Naidoo said.

“But the first round was really different and difficult. I didn’t play great, but thankfully my amateur Malcolm came through with a bunch of points.

“This course is a really good test of every part of your game. You have to be good off the tee, your game-management needs to be really on-point and my chipping and putting was really good.

“I’m looking forward to a good week and I’ve been playing well for a little while, since I got through the first stage of European Tour School Qualifying three weeks ago. In fact, in the last six months my game has been heading in a good direction and I’m quite happy with it,” Naidoo said.

The globetrotting golfer now has his very own piece of Vodacom Origins silverware to cherish and he says the series has been a great help for him and many others in his fledgling professional career.

“It’s been a great series for many years now. To have the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series through the winter is a real bonus because otherwise there are not a lot of tournaments for us to play in.

“And if you’re a young pro who hasn’t played a lot, then the series gives your game really good preparation for the tour. It’s an opportunity to learn how to be a better golfer. It’s always a great start to the year for us,” Naidoo said.

The Proteas paid dearly for lapses in four key areas when they were hammered by 41 runs by England in the first T20 International in Bristol on Wednesday night, a defeat which would have been even worse were it not for Tristan Stubbs’s sensational 72 off just 28 balls in his first innings for South Africa.

These are the aspects of their game that have to be fixed if they are save the series in Cardiff on Thursday night:

Fielding lapses

On the 53^rd birthday of their most famous fielder, Jonty Rhodes, South Africa marked the occasion with a dreadful display of fielding. Apart from a couple of clumsy misfields, half-a-dozen catches went down.

That included Jonny Bairstow being dropped four times – on 12, 57, 72 and 77. The Proteas paid dearly for that as the richly in-form batsman smashed an incredible 90 off 53 balls.

South Africa used to be the best fielding side in the world, but standards have lagged drastically and every player needs to focus on taking responsibility for this.

Bowling lengths

The very short straight boundaries in Bristol really played with the Proteas bowlers’ heads and they generally bowled too short to avoid being hit straight, especially spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who was slaughtered for 49 runs in three overs. Given what effective ball-strikers England’s batsmen are, dishing up long hops is going to be another recipe for disaster at another small venue at Sophia Gardens. The home bowlers showed the way in Bristol by bowling fuller and leaving it up to the batsmen to make good enough contact if they did hit straight, rather than what amounted to a free hit square.

Select Markram

For all the adulation that Rilee Rossouw has received for his domestic T20 performances, he was a disappointment in his return to Proteas colours, scoring just four before getting out to a poorly-executed stroke and he dropped one of the easier catches off Bairstow. Although one would normally like to see a batsman getting a second chance because of the fine lines in T20 cricket, South Africa have to choose a sixth bowler – between them, Shamsi, Andile Phehlukwayo and Stubbs went for 132 runs in eight overs because there were no other options. It would be hugely unfair to leave out Reeza Hendricks after his pugnacious 33-ball 57.

Aiden Markram also does not get enough credit for how good his T20 form has been – he averages 39 at a strike-rate of 147 and is No.3 in the ICC rankings. He has a respectable economy rate of 7.44 with the ball.

Use an extra paceman

Seam bowlers have enjoyed quite a bit of success at Sophia Gardens in T20s this season and the Proteas have depth in this department. Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi both bowled extremely well in Bristol and Anrich Nortje should join them, replacing spinner Shamsi. England’s batsmen seem to have his number on these small fields.