Ken Borland

The runs flowed for South African IPL stalwarts Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock in the third week of the tournament, but Kagiso Rabada, the Purple Cap winner in the last edition, has had a drier time of it in terms of wickets this time around.

Kagiso Rabada has now taken just five wickets in six matches and his economy rate is a mediocre 8.72. He conceded 15 runs in the last over of the match against the Hyderabad Sunrisers, allowing the bottom-placed team in the IPL to force a Super Over, which fortunately the Delhi Capitals won. Rabada then took one for 38 in four overs against the Bangalore Royal Challengers, having to contend with AB de Villiers in full flow and conceding 22 runs in the 10 balls he bowled to his compatriot. Rabada then conceded 18 runs off the penultimate over against the Kolkata Knight Riders, finishing with none for 31 in his four overs.

AB de Villiers continues to make life easy for the IPL advertisers by producing a spectacular innings practically every week. This time it was the high-flying Delhi Capitals who suffered under his brilliance, De Villiers scoring an explosive 75 not out off 42 balls as the Bangalore Royal Challengers won by just one run. His other scores were 4 (9) and 3 (9), but De Villiers did become far and away the fastest to 5000 IPL career runs during his blitz against Delhi, needing just 3288 balls to reach the landmark. David Warner was second quickest on 3554 deliveries.

Faf du Plessis is batting with incredible consistency for the Chennai Super Kings, scoring two more half-centuries this week, giving him three in a row in this year’s IPL. He followed up his match-winning 95 not out off just 60 balls last week against Kolkata, with 50 off 41 balls versus Bangalore and 56 (38) against Hyderabad, against whom he also took an incredible catch, running and diving on the boundary. With these performances, the 36-year-old is showing the Proteas should definitely take him to the T20 World Cup in India later this year.

The Mumbai Indians were perhaps trying to send a message to the under-performing Quinton de Kock when they included Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile as one of their four overseas players in their last game against Rajasthan Royals, but De Kock responded with a man of the match display, firing an unbeaten 70 off just 50 balls to lead his team to victory. De Kock had scored just 47 runs off 54 deliveries in four innings before that.

David Miller has been peacefully finishing innings for the Rajasthan Royals in the last week, scoring an unbeaten 24 not out off 23 balls against Kolkata and seven not out off four deliveries versus Mumbai.

Chris Morris may not have batted for the Rajasthan Royals in the last week, but he has shown just how effective a bowler he is both up front and at the death. He was superb in the closing overs against Kolkata, taking four for 14 in his last two overs and winning the man of the match award for his overall figures of four for 23 in four overs. He then took two for 33 in four overs against Mumbai.

Imran Tahir is the sort of person who will still behave like an absolute angel even if he is just in the squad carrying drinks, but this week he finally got a game for the Chennai Super Kings and he took the chance with both hands, taking two for 16 in four impressive overs against Bangalore.

Lungi Ngidi also played one game for Chennai this week and took two for 35 in four overs against Hyderabad Sunrisers, dismissing half-centurions and international T20 batsmen in David Warner and Manish Pandey, helping his team to a seven-wicket win and top of the log.

Marco Jansen (Mumbai) and Anrich Nortje (Delhi) did not play in the last week.

Sharks star Sbu Nkosi is a top-class wing, a current Springbok and World Cup winner. He will be coming up against two young rising stars in Bulls wings Kurt-Lee Arendse and Stravino Jacobs.

“They are both very good players or Jake White would not have selected them. We all have a lot to learn but I guess I’m a bit further down the road in my journey so there are probably a couple things more that I have picked up. But they are both very exciting players and they will bring energy. I will bring my best game as if I’m playing against the best in the world,” is what Nkosi said about Arendse and Jacobs.

So what will Nkosi be up against in the Currie Cup final on Saturday? Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers runs the rule over Jacobs and Arendse.

Stravino Jacobs

“I’m extremely proud of how he has really stepped up to another level, especially since he comes from my alma mater Paarl Gim. So I’ve watched him for a while, he was already a beast at school and Jake White is always good at giving those sort of talents opportunity. He’s a big, physical guy but he doesn’t lack pace either,” De Villiers told The Citizen on Wednesday.

Kurt-Lee Arendse

“He also comes from Paarl even though he did not take the traditional route to the top. But he has all the skills and I have been so impressed by his all-round performance. He’s smaller than Stravino but he doesn’t shy away from defence and he has a good eye for every opportunity. It’s very exciting to see the way he’s playing and the influence of Sevens on XVs, so credit to Springbok Sevens coach Neil Powell and his work and guys like Cornal Hendricks and Stedman Gans who are also in the Bulls team.

“As a combination, both of the Bulls wings have speed and they’re a bit like a Julian Savea and Cheslin Kolbe combo – those are the two extremes when it comes to wings, but it’s complete package,” De Villiers said.

Nkosi, who is not lacking in power, will be marking Jacobs so that could be a titanic clash out near the tramlines on Saturday.

Sharks coach Sean Everitt praised replacement wing Sbu Nkosi for his performance against the Pumas in their Currie Cup match in Durban on Friday night, saying his brace of tries were a fitting demonstration of why the 24-year-old Springbok is a World Cup winner.

Nkosi has had his share of injury problems this year as well as a brush with Covid-19 that forced him into quarantine, necessitating Everitt’s decision to play him off the bench. But it seems inevitable the Sharks coach will be finding a way of fitting him into the starting line-up when they return to action against the Bulls in a fortnight.

Nkosi scored with his first touch in the 53^rd minute when he spectacularly claimed the restart after the Pumas’ only try and then blazed away to score, and then he scored again with 10 minutes remaining with an intercept try completed with impressive pace.

“Sbu’s performance tonight was definitely the highlight with his two tries, he was phenomenal and showed why he is a World Cup winner with the Springboks. What a difference he made for us, he’s world-class in the air. He helped us win in Kimberley as well against Griquas. We scored some good tries through big defence tonight and we’re ecstatic with scoring seven tries,” Everitt said after the impressive 45-10 victory.

Because the Currie Cup fixtures have merely been a continuation of Super Rugby Unlocked, the Sharks now quirkily have a bye after just one Currie Cup match. They then host the Bulls at Kings Park on December 12 and they will certainly need to be more consistent in maintaining the level of performance they showed in the first half against the Pumas for the full 80 minutes against the log-leaders.

“I’m very proud with how we stood up in the first half, conditions were not easy but we were brave enough to move the ball around and score some good tries through big defence. I’m very happy with the way we played in the first half, the forwards laid a really good platform and there were three maul tries, we scrummed well and stuck to the plan.

“For the second half, the plan was to stick to our processes but unfortunately the Pumas put us under the pump at the set-pieces. You have to give them credit for that, putting us under pressure in the second half, especially at the scrums. But we also put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we certainly could have been better in the second half. But to win 45-10 definitely deserves credit,” Everitt said.

Pretoria Country Club probably has two favourite current professional golfers in George Coetzee and Tristen Strydom and on Friday the two ‘pets’ went head-to-head in the final round of the Titleist Championship with Coetzee emerging as a four-shot winner in a contest he said was tighter than the final margin suggested.

Coetzee and Strydom began the day both on seven-under-par, but Coetzee added to his two Tshwane Open titles at the Waterkloof course by firing a superb six-under-par 66 on Friday, winning himself R95 100.

The 23-year-old Strydom, in just his second season on the Sunshine Tour, performed admirably to post a 70 and earn R69 000, more than his total previous earnings of R58 877. And the resident and member of the Pretoria Country Club estate would have been properly in contention were it not for consecutive double-bogeys on the par-three fifth and the par-four sixth holes, from which he did exceptionally well to still shoot two-under-par.

“Tristen is a really exciting player, he hits the ball so good and definitely has a bright future. Were it not for just a couple of holes he would have really had me sweating,” Coetzee admitted. “But it’s always special winning at Pretoria Country Club and being a Titleist player, they have both supported me my whole career. I’m really happy to have won in front of everyone who was expecting me to perform, I could hear their cheers from a long way off,” he added below the clubhouse balcony that was littered with people supporting Coetzee and Strydom.

“Usually expectation is the killer so it was nice to pull it off,” Coetzee continued. “I really enjoyed the pressure of playing while in the lead, being in a tournament situation and under stress, because I’ve worked a lot on my mental game in Lockdown and made a lot of good strides. I felt comfortable attacking the flags, tending to a certain side if I missed so I would still be safe.”

Coetzee actually made an awful start to the day with bogeys on the first two holes. A five at the first was in fact a big escape for the 34-year-old, who had to fashion a cunning piece of innovation to only drop one shot as his ball was against the boundary wall. Coetzee hit it into the wall and rebounded it back on to the green.

“The last time I was against that wall was when I was 13 years old, I learnt my lesson then but obviously forgot it today. In the end I was very happy to make bogey because it was a tough putt,” he said.

Another bogey on the par-four second may have suggested Coetzee was vulnerable but it was one of the great cons as he powered his way back from his poor start with six birdies between the fourth and 10^th holes. He added two more birdies on the par-three 14^th and the par-four 17^th holes to complete his 11^th Sunshine Tour victory.

“On the second I basically hit the ball flush over the green so I had really hit just one bad shot, so I was still pretty happy and was confident to still go for the flags,” Coetzee said.

On a glorious sunny day that was fantastic for those wanting to work on a spring tan, Darren Fichardt made the biggest move on the final day with a top-class seven-under 65 that lifted him into fourth place on six-under. Jaco Ahlers completed a solid week’s work with a 67 to finish third on seven-under, two behind second-placed Strydom.

The Rise Up Series now takes a three-week break before resuming with the penultimate event at ERPM Golf Club on September 23.