Centurion – South Africa scored just 57 runs in 27 middle session overs on day four of the second Test against India at Centurion.

It certainly wasn’t the most eye-catching two hours and 15 minutes of cricket, but it was one of the most important periods in the game.

With just four sessions remaining, this Test could still go either way and what happens between now and the end of Tuesday is crucial.

The Proteas are currently 230/7 and 258 runs ahead, with a patient Faf du Plessis (37*) and Kagiso Rabada (0*) at the wicket.

As things stand, India will have to score the highest ever fourth-innings total to win a Test at Centurion.

The Proteas had lost three quick wickets in the morning session – including that of powerhouse AB de Villiers (80) – and they resumed after lunch on 173/5.

At that stage, the game was very much in the balance and the two South Africans made it clear that not losing wickets was the immediate priority.

Both Du Plessis and Philander were incredibly cautious and while runs were hard to come by, so too were opportunities.

India, though, kept plugging away and as long as the scoreboard wasn’t being overly troubled, they would have felt that they were still in it.

Eventually, the visitors got their breakthrough when Philander completely mistimed a pull off Ishant Sharma.

The ball looped to Murali Vijay at mid-wicket, who took a comfortable catch and brought an end to a sixth-wicket partnership that had lasted 156 balls and contributed 46 valuable runs.

Keshav Maharaj (6) came and went, caught behind off Sharma, but still Du Plessis was watchful, not forcing anything.

By the time Du Plessis had faced 100 balls, he had scored just 26 runs. 

Pretoria – The big news of Saturday, before Aiden Markram’s classy 94 and South Africa’s woeful running between the wickets stole headlines, was 21-year-old Lungi Ngidi being handed a Test debut.

READ: Markram appreciates Kohli’s kind words

It had been a toss-up between Ngidi, Duanne Olivier and Chris Morris for the fourth seamer spot at Centurion given Dale Steyn’s injury-enforced absence, but in the end the Proteas went for the young-gun and Ngidi becomes the 99^th South African Test player since re-admission.

With the Proteas batting throughout the opening day of the second Test, Ngidi has not had a chance to feature yet.

Still, the selection was met with excitement as South African cricket unearths another fast bowling prospect with a bright future. 

Ngidi burst onto the international stage at the beginning of 2017 when he impressed in a three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, picking up six wickets.

A naturally aggressive bowler with plenty of pace, he immediately caught the eye.

But what was supposed to be a breakthrough year for Durban-born speedster quickly became a treacherous one as he battled injury throughout. 

Injuries are never welcomed, but they are particularly concerning when they affect players as young as Ngidi.

As a result, there were immediately worries that he might be a player who is naturally injury-prone.

After months of rehab, Ngidi eventually made his comeback in October and hit the ground running. He has his pace back and looks physically stronger than he did before a side strain and then a problematic back ruled him out for most of last year.  

“He is a guy who really does wear his heart on his sleeve and I’ve got no doubt he’s going to be fired up tomorrow when he does get his chance,” Aiden Markram said of his Titans team-mate.

“He’s worked hard and it’s good to see good people getting rewarded.

“He’s got much stronger and fitter. He’s put in a lot of hard work in the gym, not just on the field.”

Markram also believes that Ngidi’s improved physical condition will give him a mental boost on the field.

“When you’re fit and strong you generally run in and don’t worry about getting injured,” he explained.

“It’s good to see him bowling at 100% intensity. He is an x-factor bowler and we’re looking forward to seeing what he can do.”

Ngidi’s first duty on the Test stage is likely to be with bat in hand. The Proteas will resume their first innings on Sunday morning on 269/6. 

Cape Town – SA Rugby president and SASCOC board member Mark Alexander was one of only two board members who voted against the findings of Advocate Anton Myburgh SC, who chaired the disciplinary inquiry against Tubby Reddy, Vinesh Maharaj and Jean Kelly on December 4-7 in Johannesburg.

Explosive details have emerged which led to the immediate sacking of SASCOC CEO Reddy, as well as the organisation’s chief financial officer (Maharaj) and executive manager (Kelly) following a disciplinary hearing last month.

Advocate Myburgh is an independent senior advocate and member of the Johannesburg Bar.

At the end of his findings, Advocate Myburgh recommended ‘the summary dismissal of all three employees’.

When the recommendation to sack the three was put to the SASCOC Board, there were seven members, including president Gideon Sam, who agreed with Advocate Myburgh, three who abstained and only Alexander and Kaya Majeka who voted against the chairperson’s recommendation.

None of Reddy, Maharaj and Kelly attended the disciplinary inquiry, with Advocate Myburgh declaring that Reddy’s request for a postponement due to an “alleged illness” supported by two medical certificates, amounted to “inadmissible hearsay evidence”. Both Maharaj and Kelly had not released the necessary funds to their attorney and thus were not represented.

All of SASCOC’s 75 member federations have received full details of the findings and are in possession of the explosive document.

Reddy and Maharaj were found guilty on numerous charges, while Kelly was found guilty of two charges, but Advocate Myburgh declared that “in both instances she acted dishonestly or in breach of her duty of good faith, and colluded with Mr Reddy against SASCOC. Her misconduct was severe.”

Of Maharaj, Advocate Myburgh said that “in a number of instances (he) acted dishonestly or committed financial irregularities. Overall, his conduct is incompatible with the position of CFO.”

According to the findings, among the guilty verdicts against Reddy was that he failed to disclose to the SASCOC Board his dealings with a Hong Kong-based company, who were the marketing agent of the Chinese sportswear brand which supplied Team SA with controversial kit to events that included the 2016 Olympics.

Don Chen, representing the Hong Kong company, sent Reddy an email on April 1, 2015, referring to an agreement for kit to be supplied at a rate of $900 (around R11 000 at the time) per set. Chen emailed Reddy to ask, “Let me know if we shall put the price up a bit or not, OK?”

The following year, on June 8, 2016, Chen then contacted Reddy’s son Mushed, using a Chinese-based sports agency email address, asking that an email be sent to Reddy. In the email to Reddy’s son Chen says he is “Tubby’s friend and partner in China.”

He proposed “projects” between SASCOC “or relevant companies under SASCOC” and then wrote “of course all these projects don’t have to be real projects … what we need is to create these opportunities and cash flow between SASCOC and the Chinese sports agency side.”

Advocate Myburgh ruled that Reddy had “acted dishonestly/and or in material breach of his fiduciary duties as CEO” and referred to “fictitious projects.”

Reddy was also found guilty of sexual harassment for sending a SASCOC employee an “erotic calendar” via email and asking the colleague to “identify her birthday position.” He was also found guilty of “repeatedly asking for neck and shoulder massages during working hours.”

Other guilty findings against Reddy included that he had acted in breach of SASCOC’s Code of Conduct by failing to disclose a conflict of interest in setting up the controversial Ekhaya and bid exhibition at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Reddy didn’t disclose that he had a close personal relationship with a marquee hiring firm managing director, David Naidoo, and entered into a SLA with Naidoo without securing three quotations. The records showed that Naidoo’s company was paid R9 million in two separate payments on May 2, 2014 and July 21, 2014, where the SLA showed that they should have received R5.94m.

The guilty findings against Reddy, Maharaj and Kelly also included that all three had acted with “grossly dishonest” conduct around the so-called SS Griffin report in the period from March to May 2017.

Reddy had commissioned SS Griffin to debug SASCOC’s offices and his own home after misinterpreting the SASCOC president’s staff meeting address in February 2017 – at which Reddy wasn’t present – and believing that Sam had arranged for the organisation’s offices to be bugged.

A payment of R171 850 for debugging was requested by Reddy and Maharaj was asked by Kelly to pay the amount. This amount was paid from the account of Volleyball South Africa, a SASCOC federation.

Another payment was made to SS Griffin, this time R28 700, on May 20, 2017, from the SASCOC account.

Other guilty verdicts against Reddy and Maharaj included acting in breach of the Finance Policy when it came to an agreement with a consulting service company.

Maharaj was also found guilty for engaging with a well-known SASCOC service provider to pay for renovations to his home, which amounted to corruption. The original quotation in January 2016 had been R90 000.

Last July, SASCOC revealed that Reddy had been suspended with full pay pending the completion of the investigation and it was concluded after an exhaustive and thorough process.

All three former executives had been employed by SASCOC for long periods; in the case of Reddy and Maharaj 12 years each, and in Kelly’s case 10 years.

“In the circumstances, despite (their) length of service, and clean record, I recommend their summary dismissal,” Advocate Myburgh recommended.

This story first appeared on www.sportsclub.co.za

Cape Town – With the Proteas attack depleted after the first innings injury to Dale Steyn, somebody needed to step up in the second innings when they were defending just 207 against India at Newlands on Monday. 

That man, as has been the case so often for South Africa in Test cricket, was Vernon Philander. 

The 32-year-old produced the best figures of his career on day 4 as the Proteas skittled India for 135 on their way to a 72-run victory in Cape Town in the first Test. 

Philander took the last three wickets in just four balls as he finished with 6/42 on the day and 9/75 in the match. 

“If there is something in the wicket, Vern is as good as you get around the world,” captain Faf du Plessis said after the match.

“What impressed me most today is that he wanted to bowl overs. 

“He wanted the ball and he wanted to make a plan and that’s what you want from your senior players.”

Philander stepped up, and in a big way. 

He was handed the man-of-the-match award while he also got the vital wicket of Virat Kohli in the second innings when he trapped the Indian skipper LBW.

Philander’s class was evident in his description of how he out-foxed Kohli. 

“Virat is an aggressive player and the key thing is to keep him quiet and set him up for the other one … I always knew that I had that one coming back,” Philander explained.

“It was about two and a half overs of away swing and then one back at him. It was definitely a plan to keep him quiet and to drag him across to make sure that when you do bowl the other one he’s on the wrong side of off stump.

“From the get-go I knew that it was stone dead.”

Kohli had sent the decision upstairs for review, but to no avail. 

It was another massive performance from Philander on his home track. He loves bowling here and has 47 wickets in just eight Tests at the venue at an average of only 16.34. 

“When you look at the type of score you need to defend, someone has to make the play and you can’t wait for late in the game,” he said.

“I knew that I had to bowl overs up front to put us in a good position and I just wanted to contribute.”

Cape Town – The Proteas ripped through India after lunch on day two of the first Test at Newlands on Saturday, picking up three quick wickets, but then Hardik Pandya happened.

The Indian allrounder blasted his way to 81* off just 68 balls, leaving the visitors on 185/7 at tea, just 101 runs behind South Africa’s first innings total of 258.

SCOREBOARD: Proteas v India – 1st test, Day 2

Pandya, who was dropped on 15 and then survived a stumping scare once had had past 50, had shared a ??-run partnership with Bhavneshwar Kumar (24*) for the eighth wicket by the end of the second session.

Vernon Philander, who had gone for just one run in six overs in the first session, got his reward with the very first ball after lunch when he had Cheteshwar Pujara (26) out to a classy catch from Faf du Plessis at second slip.

Pujara had shown immense concentration to get through the first session, but when he was gone India were in deep trouble at 76/5.

In the very next over, Dale Steyn had Pandya given out caught behind only for a review to show that the ball clipped his back leg instead.

Philander then removed Ravichandran Ashwin (12) after the Indian off-spinner nicked one to Quinton de Kock, bringing an end to a poor innings that saw him play and miss countless times.

Steyn, somewhat surprisingly, kept bowling and he got his reward for some good areas in his 14^th over.

Dean Elgar dropped Pandya on 15 with a sharp chance in the slips, but Steyn was celebrating with his very next ball when Wriddhiman Saha was rapped on the pads not offering a shot.

The Indian wicketkeeper reviewed after he had been given out by umpire Michael Gough, but the ball was crashing into the stumps.

It was Steyn’s 419^th Test scalp, and he now needs just three more to overtake Shaun Pollock as his country’s all-time leading wicket-taker in the format.

Pandya then decided to be proactive rather than reactive to the Proteas seamers and with each crashing boundary that Elgar drop hurt more and more.

Pandya blasted 10 boundaries on his way to a 45-ball half-century, and he brought up the milestone by slapping Morne Morkel over mid-off.

At the other end, Kumar was frustrating the attack, playing and missing regular. Kumar took 34 balls to get his first run as the partnership for the eighth wicket grew.

Du Plessis turned to spin after 55 overs to try and get a breakthrough, and there was action immediately.

Pandya rose to the challenge, taking Keshav Maharaj on and clearing the ropes, but the very next ball South Africa let another chance go.

Pandya came dancing down the wicket, looking to clear the ropes once more, but Maharaj beat him only for De Kock to fumble and miss the stumping chance.

There was a moment of concern for the Proteas as Steyn left the field just before tea, unable to complete his 18th over.