Cape Town – South Africa are looking to make it three wins in a row when they take on Sri Lanka in the third and final women’s T20 international at SuperSport Park tomorrow.

They won the second match by a narrow, two wickets with one ball to spare to clinch the series but all-rounder Marizanne Kapp is looking for a much improved performance from the team, in particular the batting unit.

“We’ve not played our best cricket at all,” she said during her pre-match media briefing at SuperSport Park this afternoon.

“I think we were a bit lucky coming out on top there but having said that, we’re missing players like Lizelle Lee and Chloe Tryon which leaves quite a big hole in your batting line-up. It was good to see the youngsters take us over the line, but we need to do better if we want to win tomorrow. I was up there at number three, I should have ended the game there. But if we come out on top playing the way we did, I’ll take it any day.”

Kapp admitted that the team still had some distance to go before they get to where they want to see themselves in world cricket and with the introduction of their crop of youngsters, the coaches have a few more combinations to consider as they begin to plot their way towards the 2020 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. She believes that having young players with nerves of steel will serve the team in good stead in the future.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” she continued.

“We’re still trying out a few new combinations and we have a few new faces in our squad as well, so we’re still working things out and hopefully we can just get better as we get along. It’s good to see such fearlessness from the younger players, to still come out on top and have them in at the end there to take us over the line, that’s a big learning curve for them and we’ll take that any day. Hopefully tomorrow’s match will be a bit more clinical.”

The team has seen a few changes since their disappointing turnout in the 2018 World T20. Kapp is pleased with the heightened sense of competition in the squad and believes that the measures that Cricket South Africa have put in place says a lot about the organization’s commitment to supporting the national women’s team in their ambition to become world beaters.

“It’s good signs for us because it shows how seriously CSA is about taking women’s cricket forward. We can’t settle for second best. We’re at that stage now where if we don’t make our fitness and if we don’t score runs or play our part, we’re gonna have to bring in youngsters and I think that just shows where we’re at as a team and where we want to see ourselves in the months and years to come,” she concluded.

The women’s T20i will start at 13:00 and will be live on SuperSport 2.  

Cape Town – There was a time when the players in a Springbok touring squad who did not play in matches were referred to by teammates as Tommy Tourists or “tackle bag carriers” but that has changed in the past few years, particularly since Rassie Erasmus took over as coach.

Under Erasmus the coaching aspect, the commitment to improving players and making them better at their jobs, has been an important part of his focus, and Stormers lock JD Schickerling is just one of several players who has returned from an international tour in recent times feeling that he has been enhanced as a player even though he didn’t play.

Schickerling will be putting in a big push this year to get into the Bok mix after missing much of 2018 to injury. Highly rated ever since he was a schoolboy, Schickerling proved his mettle by recovering from a broken neck sustained in an age-group game between Western Province and the Blue Bulls a few years. Although injuries have held up his momentum subsequently, he has shown when he has been on the field that he has the ability to fulfil his early career expectations if he gets an extended uninterrupted run.

He hopes that will be the case this year, and has had his confidence boosted by his first experience of being a Bok, even though it was in a non-playing capacity, on the recent end of year tour of France and the UK.

“We worked really hard on tour, all the squad guys who weren’t playing had to work incredibly hard to prepare the guys who were playing,” said Schickerling in a break to the build-up to Sunday’s clash with the Bulls in SuperHero Sunday at Cape Town Stadium.

“Every player wants to play so it was a bit frustrating being on the sidelines (on match day) but aside from that the tour was one of the best experiences I have ever had and it was a privilege for me being in the camp. I feel I have come back a much better player and have learnt so much from the other players on what it is like to play at international level.”

One of those players is Lood de Jager, the experienced Bulls lock.

“Lood is a player I look up to, he is a really good player and he is a really good person too. Obviously I would like to do well against him and it will be a competitive battle between us.”

De Jager and Schickerling had similarly frustrating 2018s. De Jager was injured halfway through the Bulls’ Super Rugby campaign and ended up missing all rugby between then and the end of year tour, where perhaps he was a bit rusty initially. His best game while away from home was when wearing the jersey of the Barbarians against the Pumas at Twickenham.

De Jager will want to hit the season running as he goes all out to nail down a starting position in the Bok World Cup team. And so will Schickerling, who was in good pre-season form last year but was then ruled out for several months due to an injury sustained in the last move of the second tour match against the Crusaders.

“Everyone wants to play their way into the World Cup squad and I would love to do that, but at the moment we are focussing on Super Rugby and at the Stormers, as we are building such a strong squad, we are focussing on ourselves.”

The Stormers have two Bok locks on their books in the form of Eben Etzebeth and Pieter-Steph du Toit, and last year that might have been seen as an inhibiting factor for Schickerling (although as it turned out Etzebeth was out injured for the entire Super Rugby season). However, the success Du Toit has enjoyed under Erasmus on the blindside flank has changed the landscape for Schickerling.

“I hope it it turns out that way as I have been working incredibly hard for it,” said Schickerling when asked if he could expect to be a permanent starter in the Stormers’ second row.

“We feel we will have a good year this year as we haven’t got so many new guys coming in and we have a really good base to build from. We’re looking forward to it.”

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Cape Town – Springbok Sevens forward, Zain Davids, is relishing the experience of starting in the Blitzboks team and embracing the responsibility with great enthusiasm.

The 21 year-old prop started all six matches the team played last weekend in Hamilton, which was a new experience for the former Rondebosch Boys High player, especially since that position usually belongs to team captain, Philip Snyman.

This, however, is no longer the case as Blitzboks coach, Neil Powell, continues to find ways to extend the careers of his stalwarts, while also ensuring that the younger players gain more experience with an eye on the future. In Davids’ case, the coach felt he was ready to start after accumulating 15 tournament caps thus far, and playing in the Rugby Sevens World Cup last year.

Davids, who is determined not to fluff this opportunity, said: “It was a big surprise when coach told me I will be starting. We are a squad and a family, so we have each other’s backs, but I still didn’t expected it, as Philip is the captain.

“Even Philip supported the decision, and that made me very proud and humble.

The two time gold medal HSBC World Rugby World Series winner, who made his Blitzboks’ debut in 2017, added: “I trust the processes in the team and I know that will comfort me in games. The rest of the squad will also look after me, just as I look after them.”

The vote of confidence and support from his captain was a particularly huge boost for Davids, who also represented the Junior Springboks as a loose forward.

“Hearing from Philip that he backed me to take up a starting berth meant a lot,” he said. “I am very determined to make sure I don’t disappoint that trust. These are big shoes to fill, but I will do my absolute best to contribute in my new role,” said Davids.

The Blitzboks will be looking to improve on their fourth place at the Hamilton Sevens in New Zealand when the Sydney Sevens tournament gets underway this weekend.

Melbourne – It was fascinating to hear Novak Djokovic explain what it will be like to face Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final.

“The intensity that he brings on the court is immense,” Djokovic said. “Without a doubt, probably the most intense tennis player that I have witnessed and played against.”

Hmmm.

“It makes you be alert, so to say, from the very first point,” Djokovic said. “He doesn’t allow you to kind of ease your way into the match.”

All sounds rather similar to the way someone might describe competing against Djokovic.

When the No 1-ranked Djokovic and No 2 Nadal meet on Sunday night at Rod Laver Arena for the tournament championship, there will be differences, right down to the most obvious: Djokovic is a righty, Nadal a lefty.

The similarities are far more compelling, among them an ability to go from suffocating defence to “How did he put the ball there?!” offense by aggressively staking out territory at the baseline, and an unwavering commitment to playing every point with full effort and desire, as though the ultimate outcome of the match hinged on each racquet swing.

This match-up is their 53rd, the most between two men the professional era. Djokovic leads 27-25.

It is their 26th on a hard court. Djokovic leads 18-7.

It is their 15th at a major, equalling the record. Nadal leads 9-5.

It is their eighth in a Grand Slam final. Nadal leads 4-3.

It is their second in an Australian Open final. Djokovic won a five-setter in 2012 that lasted 5 hours, 53 minutes, the longest Slam final ever.

“Nadal has historically, throughout my life and career, been the greatest rival that I ever played against, on all the surfaces. Some matches that we had against each other were a great turning point in my career. I feel they have made me rethink my game,” Djokovic said.

“I had some disappointing moments where I lost to him… I won, also, some great matches. Those kind of encounters have also made me the player I am today, without a doubt,” the 31-year-old Serb said. “These are the kind of matches that you live for, finals of Slams, playing the greatest rivals at their best. What more can you ask for?”

Djokovic is to collect a record seventh Australian Open title, breaking a tie with Roy Emerson and Roger Federer.

That would lift his Grand Slam haul to 15, pushing Djokovic one ahead of Pete Sampras.

The only men with more? Federer is at 20, Nadal at 17.

For Nadal, this represents a chance to cut into Federer’s lead and become the third man with at least two championships at each major. The 32-year-old Spaniard’s previous title in Australia came in 2009; he’s lost three other finals, while Djokovic is 6-0.

Both were outstanding in the semi-finals. Nadal beat 20-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-4, 6-0; Djokovic defeated 24-year-old Lucas Pouille 6-0, 6-2, 6-2.

Tsitsipas on Nadal: “Just has a talent to make you play bad.”

Pouille on Djokovic: “Not so many players can beat him, for sure. Maybe one or two.”

He put Nadal in that category, and it’s easy to see why. A tweaked serve and that lasso of a forehand are making Nadal as dangerous as ever; he hasn’t dropped a set in Melbourne.

And to think: He is coming off a series of injuries on unforgiving hard courts.

Nadal retired from his Australian Open quarter-final last year because of a right leg problem; stopped again during his US Open semi-final in September with pain in his right knee; had off-season surgery on his right ankle; pulled out of a tune-up tournament this month because of a bothersome thigh.

He was rusty. He acknowledged being a “little bit worried” because of “issue after issue.”

“After four, five months without action at all,” Nadal said, “then, of course, you know that you can come here and anything can happen, no?”

Djokovic dealt with his own health scare: A sore right elbow that cost him the last half of 2017 and contributed to a fourth-round loss in Melbourne a year ago before he had an operation.

Like Nadal, Djokovic is once again at the top of his game.

They’re ready to resume their rivalry.

“Hopefully,” Djokovic said, “we’re all going to have a good time.”