South Africa can see clearly now the rain has gone

“There is a lot more confidence in the structures coming from the top. Now you can trust the system a little bit more.” - Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE in Centurion

AS significant as South Africa’s victory in the first men’s Test against England was at Centurion on Sunday, the gains off the field were bigger. Faf du Plessis led his team to victory by 107 runs with a day and a session to spare. England’s last eight wickets were taken for 100 runs, six of them for 46 with the second new ball. Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé shared 7/159.

The result snapped a streak of five South Africa losses that started in February, and means England have lost half of the dozen Tests they played in 2019 while winning only four. Even before this match they were condemned to a year without winning a Test series for the first time since 1999.

But while England fans can cling to a successful World Cup — despite neither winning nor losing the final against New Zealand — 2019 has been an annus horribilis for South Africa. Their 2-0 loss to Sri Lanka in February was their first to an Asian team in a home Test series, they were the first team to crash out of the World Cup, and they endured a 3-0 drubbing in India in a Test series in October.

“It’s been a tough season; it’s been a while since our last victory,” Du Plessis said. “We trained hard and there was a good feeling in the camp that we’d done some really good stuff. We knew we needed to put in some performances to get the engine running. The guys’ skill was remarkable; consistent all the time. We needed that to get our confidence back as a Test team.”

But it’s likely South Africa were able to focus on what needed to be done on the field largely because some of the fires that have been burning beyond the boundary have been extinguished.

New appointments in important positions — Jacques Faul as Cricket South Africa’s acting chief executive and Graeme Smith as acting director of cricket, and Mark Boucher as head coach and Jacques Kallis and Charl Langeveldt as batting and bowling consultants — have rebuilt trust.

“There is a lot more confidence in the structures coming from the top,” Du Plessis. “There were plans in place before but I feel there are better plans in place now. We have got the right people at the top. Leadership comes from the top and filters down. By starting the way we did that’s set the tone for the way we are playing. Now you can trust the system a little bit more.”

The black section of South Africa’s cricketminded public — which is bigger than its white counterpart — has responded more nervously to the changes, perhaps worried that racial transformation in the game is being undermined.

Maybe they will take heart from the fact that, despite two more white players than the maximum of five having been in the XI at Centurion, not least because of injuries to Temba Bavuma and Lungi Ngidi, blacks more than did their bit.

Zubayr Hamza was the only black player among the recognised batters, but blacks still scored almost a third of South Africa’s runs. Black bowlers took 13 of the 20 wickets.

More than four hours after the last wicket fell and the celebrations began, the most raucous version of South Africa’s team song this reporter has yet heard roared out of the dressingroom.

There is much still to be done for genuine unity to be achieved in South African cricket, but there was no doubting the togetherness heard in the shouted crescendo: “Proteas! Proteas! Proteas!”

First published by Cricbuzz.