Ken Borland

A change in their batting order has Joburg Super Kings captain Faf du Plessis hopeful that they are over their batting woes as they head into their do-or-die eliminator against the Paarl Royals at the Wanderers on Wednesday.

JSK just snuck into the playoffs courtesy of their rousing victory over then log-leaders Durban Super Giants at the Wanderers last weekend, successfully chasing down a daunting target of 204. Du Plessis himself was man of the match with his 57 off 29 balls, marking a return to form for the former Proteas captain who had averaged just 20.66 in the tournament up till then.

Leus du Plooy opened the batting with Du Plessis and also scored 57, with Wayne Madsen coming in at number three and scoring 44 not out off 29 balls as he partnered big-hitters Moeen Ali and Donovan Ferreira as they took the Super Kings to victory with a ball to spare.

“After we were bowled out for 78 by the Sunrisers here, I felt embarrassed for the sell-out crowd, you’re hurting as a player and as a team. You’re half-expecting them not to turn up for the next game because they think you’re down-and-out, but we are extremely grateful we have such great supporters and we’re really glad we turned things around,” Du Plessis said at the Wanderers on Tuesday.

“I’m really proud of the performance against DSG, we were under a lot of pressure and managed to chase more than 200 against the best team in the tournament so far. So we will take a lot of confidence from that because DSG are a remarkable side with such balance.

“Obviously you need your big players to perform in a competition like this to put you in contention and there’s no doubt me not scoring many runs before that had a huge impact on the confidence of the team.

“You hope a couple of batsmen will have a purple patch and carry the batting line-up, but we were a bit light in that respect. But once we found our rhythm, we had better starts and that flowed through the team. We made a change with Leus moving up front and tactically that was a good change.

“Reeza Hendricks is an unbelievable player, but with the ball gripping in the first six overs like it has here, having two right-handers open the batting made it an uphill battle. To have two different batsmen at the crease [right-hand & left-hand] is important, especially if there’s something in the conditions.

“Wayne Madsen has also been fantastic in the last couple of games. Last season the pitch spun quite a bit here and so we went for Wayne because he’s very experienced and plays spin really well, his game centres around sweeping and reverse-sweeping. He’s been brilliant for us and he’s also one of the reasons our batting is in a better place,” Du Plessis said.

For Paarl Royals captain David Miller, the major change they need is in how they finish innings with the ball, having lost their last four games on the trot.

“It’s not ideal losing the last four, but it would look different if we lost five matches scattered through the tournament and there’s no stress or panic in any way. I was really happy with the way we went about our game at St George’s Park, even though we lost.

“In previous games, the opposition has taken the match away from us in the last four/five overs. You think you’ve restricted them to a good score to chase, but then it becomes a massive total and, as a batsman, chasing 10 or 11 an over from the get-go, you’re under pressure.

“So we’ve been in the game until the 15^th or 16^th over, playing really good cricket, but we need to stick to our processes, that’s what we’ll look to correct. T20 cricket can switch quickly, we have worked really hard and we still finished third on the log. So we are really positive and we just need to find our mojo again,” Miller said.

Playing at home in the eliminator and also potentially Qualifier 2 should also pump up the tyres of the Joburg Super Kings, but Du Plessis admitted they have struggled to adapt to the vagaries of the Wanderers pitch.

“Being at home will make a difference, it can give you an extra 10%, although we have been a bit frustrated here because we have not been able to produce our best. We’ve been a bit unsure of what the pitch will do. Winning your matches at home means you will generally be near the top at the back end of the tournament.

“But the last game here had a really good cricket wicket and it did not make that much difference whether you batted or bowled first. In the first few matches here, the pitch was very dry in the first innings and that played a bit into the oppositions’ strengths.

“But against DSG it was about playing your best cricket and then the best team would end up on top. It was all about how well you do your skills,” Du Plessis said.

As Miller pointed out though, Paarl Royals have won both their matches on the Highveld this season. Lungi Ngidi took four wickets as they won a thriller against the Pretoria Capitals in Centurion, and then they took advantage of a messy display in the field by the Super Kings to chase down 169 at the Wanderers and beat them by five wickets with an over to spare.

But back-to-back defeats to both the Durban Super Giants and Sunrisers Eastern Cape has punctured the confidence of the Royals; just how deflated they are will be seen on Wednesday evening.

Proteas batting coach Justin Sammons says a large part of his team’s batting woes this year is due to their lack of experience because they do not play enough red-ball cricket.

While South Africa already play less Test cricket than most teams – a situation which will worsen markedly in the next couple of years – Cricket South Africa have also cut the number of four-day matches the provinces play to just seven per season due to financial constraints.

It means the country’s top batting talent may only play ten first-class innings a season when the effects of the weather and innings victories are thrown into the equation. Senior Proteas have also been conspicuous by their absence in domestic cricket, which weakens both the batting and bowling standard of the competition.

“What’s very important to realise is that there is no substitute for experience and you only gain that from playing,” Sammons said on Friday in Sydney. “The more you play, the more experience you get and the more lessons you learn.

“As a country, we need to look at how we look after the four-day system going forward. With the way the world is going, it’s a tricky balancing act, but we do need to find a way.

“The bottom line is that the players need to play as much cricket as possible. We’ve got to think out of the box, whether that’s the board or the director of cricket.

“But there has to be a way. We can’t just resign ourselves to T20 dominating and not playing enough first-class cricket. I believe the key for us is playing more four-day cricket,” Sammons said.

While the batting coach admitted that the batsmen were suffering from a lack of confidence, one positive has been the form of wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne, who has proven himself to be a tenacious customer. Verreynne was one of only three Proteas batsmen to average more than 30 (32.12) in 2022, the others being Temba Bavuma (40.07) and Keegan Petersen (38.38).

“The growth in Kyle’s game has been tremendous, both technically and obviously mentally,” Sammons said. “The key I think is that he has figured out his own way of playing at his tempo.

“He has stuck to the tempo that allows him to be successful. He will continue to work on that, but he’s clear in terms of his identity as a cricketer, he understands how to go about scoring runs.

“He’s like Dean Elgar, Jacques Kallis or Graeme Smith in that you knew what you would get from them. I think he has that clear identity of who he is as a cricketer, which goes a long way.

“Following the England series, in tough conditions, our batsmen’s confidence was dented a bit. And then the first Test here the conditions really favoured the bowlers and naturally the confidence was hit even more,” Sammons said.

Being a South African cricket fan can certainly be like a sugar rush as they have demonstrated this summer with their sterling deeds against India and in New Zealand. But it can also be like the massive shot of glucose that leads to hypertension and diabetes, especially when one considers all the boardroom shenanigans and our previous World Cup woes.

Which is why the last week has been an especially sweet one – in the healthiest sense possible – thanks to the irrepressible form shown by our Women’s Proteas at the World Cup in New Zealand and the great news that Cricket South Africa have finally found their new, permanent CEO.

And he was there all along, hiding in plain view, if you like, in the form of Pholetsi Moseki, who has been serving as acting CEO anyway for the last 15 months. Choosing the right person, which CSA did when Moseki replaced the disgraced Kugandrie Govender, has borne fruit for the organisation since December 2020. I am confident Moseki will continue to be the glue that is fixing many of the cracks and wounds the organisation suffered in recent years.

As the saying goes, to get the juice out of an orange you need to apply pressure and it has been incredible to see how Marizanne Kapp and the rest of the Proteas have blossomed when their matches have been on a knife-edge at the World Cup. Kapp has enjoyed a phenomenal week and is displaying the sort of all-round stardom that has previously been the preserve of Lance Klusener and Ben Stokes at World Cups.

In the sterilised, rarefied atmosphere of a World Cup, the Proteas are producing the goods and, with Australia, are the only unbeaten team after four matches. It is encouraging though, that with South Africa probably just one win away from the semi-finals, they have not yet produced their best cricket. There are still areas of their game that need cleaning up.

The Proteas will be anxious to sort out the middle-order batting collapses that have made it necessary for Kapp to produce her late heroics with the bat, in the company of, at various times, Chloe Tryon, Trisha Chetty, Shabnim Ismail and Ayabonga Khaka.

Two key batters have not fired at all, with Lizelle Lee scoring just 28 runs in three innings and Mignon du Preez making 27 in four knocks. Plus Tazmin Brits has been uneasy at the crease and her 51 runs in four innings have come at a strike-rate of just 40.

If a couple of those batters can click next week, then South Africa will be hard to stop as they head into the knock-outs.

Magnificent is probably the best description of the Proteas bowlers, who can comfortably claim to be the best attack at the World Cup.

Ismail, Masabata Klaas, Khaka and Kapp apply such consistent pressure on the opposition throughout that the Proteas’ relatively low totals have proven to be enough.

As for the Proteas men’s side, they have their chance to once again enthral us in their series against Bangladesh. The ODIs are all on the highveld and South Africa will be favoured to win comfortably, having seen off the might of India 3-0 in their previous 50-over series.

Victory in the Test series will have to be achieved via their reserve strength, with five regulars deciding not to delay their departure for the IPL.

The fact is the IPL is their chief employer, at least in financial terms, so it is difficult to criticise the players for putting their livelihoods first.

But it is also unavoidable that Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen have both put their shaky Test careers in doubt by not playing against Bangladesh in the two-match series.

One of them was going to fall by the wayside anyway with Keegan Petersen returning, and Ryan Rickelton has been in such good form this summer that, if he finally gets the chance, he might just imitate Sarel Erwee and make an immediate impression.

It looked like being another instalment in the Bulls’ woes on tour given their messy start, but the Currie Cup champions enjoyed an impressive second half as they hammered Zebre Parma 45-7 in their United Rugby Championship match at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi on Friday night.

Where the Bulls put things right

Having wasted half-a-dozen try-scoring chances through over-eagerness and impatience, the Bulls began demolishing their Italian opposition as soon as they turned to a more measured, patient build-up; attack by instalments if you like.

Allowing their massive ball-carriers up front to be more direct, the Zebre defence couldn’t just rush up on to the backline as they were doing before. Suddenly the Bulls were getting behind the gain-line with regularity and opening up the space for flyhalf Chris Smith to pull the strings and allow centre Lionel Mapoe and fullback Kurt-Lee Arendse to fulfil the attacking threat they displayed throughout.

Much to be happy about at flyhalf

Much has been said about the Bulls’ flyhalf crisis with Morne Steyn and Johan Goosen both unavailable at the moment.

So coach Jake White will be delighted by the assured showing of Chris Smith in the No.10 jersey.

Not only did he succeed with all six of his kicks at goal, a couple of them being right from the touchline, but his tactical game was excellent and he had much to do with the Bulls’ attacking flow.

He played a key role in the Bulls’ crucial first try of the second half, as they built on a 17-7 lead, staying on his feet really well under pressure from several tacklers and then freeing Arendse on a strong run that led to Marcell Coetzee’s try from close range.

Smith’s brilliant kick in the 62^nd minute gave the Bulls a 50/22 lineout, from which Mapoe burst through to score and make the game safe at 38-7.

Always trust the Bulls forwards to lay the attacking platform

While coach Jake White has ambitions of playing more expansive rugby, and he has exciting backs to do that, the Zebre win showed once again that he should always look to his superb pack to set the platform by dominating the gain-line.

Problems persist in the scrums & lineouts

The Bulls scrum did concede a couple of penalties in that set-piece, but it did not have a major effect on the game.

But the Bulls wasted several promising attacking positions due to their lineout failing, which will no doubt require work in the week ahead.

Scorers

Zebre Parma: Try – Antonio Rizzi. Conversion – Rizzi.

Bulls: Tries – Johan Grobbelaar, Embrose Papier, Marcell Coetzee, Arno Botha, Lionel Mapoe, Kurt-Lee Arendse. Conversions – Smith (6). Penalty – Chris Smith.