Cape Town – While the national men’s team continues to experience violent ups and downs, Quinton de Kock was a sound choice for ascension to the Proteas’ white-ball captaincy.

That is the view of former England skipper Mike Gatting, speaking on Table Mountain on Tuesday as one of the leaders of a Lord’s Taverners charity-geared tour of this city promoting Table Cricket, a game designed to accommodate people with various forms of disability.

The 62-year-old, who played 79 Tests and 92 one-day internationals for his country and led the Test cause between 1986 and 1988, told Sport24 that De Kock’s perceived limitations in a public relations capacity should not be considered an impediment to his captaincy of South Africa.

“Without a doubt, what happens between the dressing room walls is of broader importance: you’ve got to get the team on your side, first and foremost, and squeeze the best out of them as the captain,” Gatting said.

“Speaking for myself, when I got the England captaincy, I followed David (Gower, a fellow-Taverners tourist on this trip) who was quite eloquent, while I wasn’t really good at all in that area at the time that I got the job.

“It was hard, but my real challenge was still more to get the players right on board with me, and for me to understand how they perform under pressure.

“Quinton’s got a really big job on his hands but I think he’s a very good guy: I believe the players will look up to him and support him.”

Asked whether he had been surprised by England’s relatively clear-cut 3-1 Test series triumph in South Africa earlier this summer, Gatting replied: “I wouldn’t say it was that clear-cut, considering we lost the first Test!

“It was only once we won the second (at Newlands over New Year) that I felt we might go on to win the series because of the turning pitches, possibly.

“It wasn’t all doom and gloom for South Africa: they showed some really promising cricketers, and were missing (Lungi) Ngidi a little bit.

“But Anrich Nortje came through, looking very promising: from what I’ve seen so far he could be an asset, with a lovely action.

“It’s a question of how he looks after his body … if he did what Richard Hadlee did, he might last an awful long time. Dale Steyn was pretty good at that for a long period.

“I have liked seeing Temba Bavuma back in the team again more recently and doing well in several one-day matches against both Australia and (England).

“You’ll always see fine cricketers coming out of South Africa; there’s a great heritage here.”

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing

Cape Town – Finland’s Sami Valimaki have beaten South Africa’s Brandon Stone in a play-off for the Oman Open title after the pair were tied on -12 at the conclusion of the fourth round.

Stone started the day tied for the lead with six others at the start of the day, including Valimaki on -11.

The pair both fired two-under par 70s, with the Finn draining a monster put on the 18th to set up the playoff.

After firing pars on the first two play-off holes, a wayward approach to the green by Stone saw Valimaki claim his first tour victory in just his sixth start.

More to follow…

The Finn has done it! ??????@sami_valimaki is the #OmanOpen Champion in just his 6th ever European Tour appearance! pic.twitter.com/8FSpernYug

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 1, 2020

Cape Town – Proteas batsman Janneman Malan believes he has what it takes to become an all-format player for South Africa.

Malan is part of the Proteas’ 15-man squad for the upcoming ODI series against Australia.

So far, he has only made two T20I appearances to date for South Africa. Those came against Pakistan in February 2019.

Malan was also named in the Proteas’ ODI squad against England earlier this year but never got the chance to make his debut in the series which ended 1-1. 

Nonetheless, the Cape Cobras batsman is optimistic that he could make his one-day debut against Australia.

“It’s very exciting to get called up and to get the opportunity to play for the squad,” Malan told Sport24 on Wednesday in the KFC Big Bucket at Newlands.

“I was with the squad against England and it’s great to be around the camp and just get the feel and value.

“It’s a good motivation to see what needs to be done to get the opportunity to play.”

Earlier this year, Janneman’s older brother, Pieter, made his international debut against England at the New Years Test at Newlands.

The 23-year-old explained that his older brother gave him advice on how to handle pressure in the middle when things get tough.

“He spoke about how it felt, the emotions he went through and he took me through the process and told me what to expect. What I took from it was that he trusted his preparation and tried to perform on the day so it’s all about preparation and backing yourself.”

Malan has made his intentions known that he just doesn’t want to be known as a limited-overs batsman.

“The ultimate goal for me is to one day be an all-format player for the Proteas,” he said.

“I’m a fan of red-ball cricket. I like the challenges up front as a opener, getting in and trying to maximize the score. I pride myself in making big hundreds, obviously you go through slumps, but it’s definitely a goal of mine to put on the whites.”

The first of three ODIs gets underway on Saturday at Boland Park (13:00).

Proteas ODI squad:

Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma (Lions), David Miller (Dolphins), Kagiso Rabada (Lions), Andile Phehlukwayo (Dolphins), Tabraiz Shamsi (Titans), Lungi Ngidi (Titans), Beuran Hendricks (Lions), Heinrich Klaasen (Titans), Janneman Malan (Cape Cobras), Jon-Jon Smuts (Warriors), Anrich Nortje (Warriors), Lutho Sipamla (Warriors), Keshav Maharaj (Dolphins), Kyle Verreynne (Cape Cobras)

Cape Town – Temba Bavuma and Heinrich Klaasen will undergo fitness tests ahead of the third and deciding T20 against Australia at Newlands on Wednesday to determine their availability.

Both batsmen missed the first two matches of the series – Bavuma with a hamstring strain and Klaasen with a hip injury – but are understood to have been recovering well. 

Bavuma solidified his position at the top of the order alongside Quinton de Kock with scores 43, 31 and 49 in the T20 series against England while Klaasen smashed 66 (33) in the third T20 against the same opposition. 

“They’re going to be doing fitness tests this afternoon, so we’ll have to wait and see what the outcome is. Hopefully it’s positive,” Proteas assistant coach Enoch Nkwe said at a sweltering Newlands on Tuesday.

In Bavuma’s absence the Proteas tried Rassie van der Dussen (6 off 10) and Reeza Hendricks (14 off 17) opening alongside skipper De Kock for the first and second T20s, respectively, and Nkwe acknowledged that missing Bavuma was not ideal given his current form. 

“We’ve missed him, but we have a big enough squad with good enough players that are flexible to bat in different positions,” said Nkwe.

“We have looked at it as an opportunity to see which other players can adapt. We know that we’ve got a World Cup coming, so we need to try different combinations.

“In saying that, Temba has been playing well so hopefully he will be back in the mix as soon as possible.

“If he’s not available, we will just look at what is going to be best for these conditions here in Cape Town.”

The series is tied at 1-1 and play on Wednesday starts at 18:00.

Cape Town – The piledriving, no-frills Stormers lead the way in the entire competition after round four, with a three-point cushion over defending Super Rugby champions the Crusaders … and boasting status as the only remaining outfit with a 100 percent win record.

Specifically, in the SA conference, though, the Sharks are arguably better placed behind them in second than the five-point gap may suggest … and playing the most dynamic rugby in the five-team group at present.

The key thing to remember at this stage is that the KwaZulu-Natalians are now three quarters of the way through their taxing, main overseas tour of 2020 and already assured of returning with at least a 50 percent win record – almost always a satisfactory return (and then some?) for South African sides visiting Australasia.

They will be in an even rosier position if they can prevail in the fourth and final match of their safari, against the Reds in Brisbane next Saturday: no other compatriot outfit has yet played a game across the Indian Ocean, although the Lions open their account against the Waratahs on Friday.

Saturday’s convincing enough 36-24 triumph over the Rebels in Ballarat, while still exposing certain engine-room shortcomings, saw the high-tempo Sharks register five tries for the second time in three tour fixtures – as with the earlier Highlanders encounter in Dunedin, a decisive factor in ensuring triumph.

Sean Everitt’s charges have now dotted 15 times in their quartet of games in 2020, the most of any team in the SA conference, and their easy-on-the-eye, counter-attacking thrust from deep is already a good enough reason to suggest they can be right up among the conference and broader title contenders this year.

The Sharks’ scrums and lineouts were again noticeably patchy areas for them in the sun-soaked “small town” game against Dave Wessels’ Rebels, but the attacking artistry of players like Aphelele Fassi, Makazole Mapimpi and Sikhumbuzo Notshe – supplemented by the more rugged, direct go-forward qualities of acting captain Andre Esterhuizen – proved just too much for the home defence to handle.

At least for the moment, however, the Stormers can bask in their loftiest view of all in the 15-team overall competition, a situation helped by the unexpected first setback – in Hamilton, too – for the Chiefs against the revved-up Brumbies.

Playing a tactically below-full-strength Jaguares, who clearly plan to throw a kitchen sink at next weekend’s Bulls tussle at Loftus, the Capetonians were less then enthralling in a 17-7 victory, although their watertight defence greatly aided the deprivation of a losing bonus point to the Argentineans, who had won the conference in 2019.

As the official player-of-the-match, veteran Welsh inside centre Jamie Roberts, stressed in his television interview afterwards: “We are still only at 50 to 60 percent of potential … we’re building … lots of improvements still to make.”

There seemed a strong likelihood at one stage that the Stormers would incredibly go a third full Newlands match without leaking a single point on the scoreboard, but that finally changed in the 66^th minute (and after 226 at the ground in total) when the Jaguares notched a converted try.

The Stormers will now be favoured to go five-from-five when they entertain reasonably modest New Zealanders the Blues next weekend.

Not only that, but they could substantially expand their overall lead as all three of the teams immediately below them (Crusaders, Brumbies, Chiefs) will be on byes.

While a seemingly serious upper-body injury to stalwart hooker James Parsons late in the wet, lumpy-pitch Loftus clash with the Bulls won’t help their cause in Cape Town, the Aucklanders did serve notice that they won’t be prepared to simply roll over against the log-leaders: they seemed genuinely chuffed with their last-gasp steal of the spoils with an Otere Black penalty for a 23-21 outcome in Pretoria.

The result was a passion killer of note for the Bulls, who now stand on an ominous nought-from-three record and did not show many signs that they’ll have the quality or chutzpah to claw back to among the ranks of contenders this season.

Next weekend’s fixtures (home teams first, all kick-offs SA time):

Friday: Highlanders v Rebels, 08:05; Waratahs v Lions, 10:15. Saturday: Hurricanes v Sunwolves, 05:45; Reds v Sharks, 10:15; Stormers v Blues, 15:05; Bulls v Jaguares, 17:15. Byes: Crusaders, Chiefs, Brumbies.

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing …