South Africa

5:45 PM GMT “Hit him again,” came the cry from an exasperated South African supporter, as Anrich Nortje geared up to deliver the final ball of his sixth over, eight minutes after his previous delivery, which sconed Zak Crawley on the helmet. It was hardly a classy piece of advice for the quick bowler –

1:56 PM GMT South Africa is home to the world’s oldest and largest paved ultra marathon, the Comrades Race, the person who can do the most consecutive one-handed back handsprings, 34, and the most surfers to ride the same wave simultaneously, 110. It also holds the joint-biggest winning margin in a rugby world cup final,

2:58 PM GMT Faf du Plessis refused to answer questions pertaining to anything other than the Wanderers Test, including one that asked if the series finale would be his last red-ball match, as he prepared for the must-win clash. A tired-looking du Plessis did not respond to acting director of cricket Graeme Smith’s assertion that

8:00 AM GMT Big picture This was not the farewell that Vernon Philander would have hoped for. After rolling back the years with several pinpoint spells of nagging line-and-length seam bowling at Centurion, where he took 4 for 16 in 14.2 overs in the first innings, he has looked off the pace – to put

4:10 PM GMT Graeme Smith, South Africa’s director of cricket, says that Quinton de Kock’s appointment as ODI captain is the first step in a succession plan aimed towards a successful challenge for the 2023 World Cup, as he confirmed that Faf du Plessis will not be reinstated as leader should he return to the

3:40 PM GMT Quinton de Kock says that he intends to lead South Africa in his own “street-smart” style when he takes over as ODI captain for next month’s series against England. However, he will also take a leaf out of Faf du Plessis’ captaincy, in particular his ability to balance big egos at the

4:22 PM GMT Kagiso Rabada‘s aggressive wicket-taking celebrations could be a result of being overburdened, according to Graeme Smith, South Africa’s acting director of cricket. Rabada, who has 43 Test caps to his name at the age of 24, accumulated a fourth active demerit point when he entered Joe Root’s personal space and screamed at

12:50 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Jonty Rhodes, the former South Africa batsman, has admitted that he might not have been picked to play for his country had it not been for white privilege. “I certainly benefited from the fact that I wasn’t really competing with 50% of the population,” Rhodes said in a recent interaction

2:01 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Lungi Ngidi has earned a recall to South Africa’s one-day squad for the upcoming series against England in which Quinton de Kock will step up as captain in the absence of Faf du Plessis. Ngidi was ruled out of the current Test series against England after suffering a hamstring tear

10:48 AM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Joe Root equalled an unwanted record on the final day at Port Elizabeth, conceding 28 runs in a single over as Keshav Maharaj made a mockery of his decision to bowl himself with the new ball. Here’s how Varun Shetty recorded the brutalising on ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary… More Root, around

10:29 AM GMT Faf du Plessis has admitted that the fourth Test of the series against England could be his final one on home soil. South Africa’s captain has found himself under pressure after a difficult run which has seen his side lose consecutive Test series at home to Sri Lanka and in India, and

6:37 PM GMT Mark Boucher knows as much about Faf du Plessis‘ future as a Test cricketer as we do, which is that du Plessis is under pressure. Asked directly if du Plessis is going to retire next week, Boucher said: “I’ve got no clue. He hasn’t said anything. I don’t think so.” Du Plessis

8:00 AM GMT South Africa 208 for 6 (de Kock 63*, Philander 27*) trail England 499 for 9 dec by 291 runs Dom Bess became the latest of England’s young bloods to leave his mark on South Africa but the old foe of bad weather, coupled with some much-needed defiance from the home batsmen (plus

3:29 PM GMT South Africa’s frustrations on the second afternoon at Port Elizabeth were exacerbated by a bizarre incident towards the end of England’s first innings, when Joe Root was permitted to withdraw his team’s declaration after an umpiring error. The incident occurred in the 149th over of England’s innings, after the apparent dismissal of

5:56 PM GMT Mark Boucher, South Africa’s coach, is in a quandary. He needs to find a way to ensure his premier strike bowler, Kagiso Rabada, does not lose his instinctive aggression but also that Rabada does not use it beyond the parameters of the ICC’s Code of Conduct, as he did to his cost

Keshav Maharaj claimed a hard-earned five-wicket haul © Stu Forster/Getty Images It’s a thankless job. Keshav Maharaj‘s sixth career five-for came as a result of him bowling more overs than a South African has delivered in a home Test in 55 years and was also the most expensive by a South African bowler, ever. It’s

Kagiso Rabada roars in celebration after bowling Joe Root © Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Kagiso Rabada will miss the Johannesburg Test after being sanctioned for his celebration following the dismissal of Joe Root on the first day of the Port Elizabeth Test. Rabada was found guilty of a level one offence. He was fined 15 percent of

3:31 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Temba Bavuma pitched his case for Test selection with a career-best first-class score of 180 on Thursday, before suggesting that he had grabbed his opportunity to spend time in the middle “with both hands”. Faced with an improbable fourth-innings target of 430, Bavuma resumed his innings on 41 after Lions

Kagiso Rabada roars in celebration after bowling Joe Root © Marco Longari/AFP/Getty If you want to guess how much goes on in Port Elizabeth, use today’s play as your most revealing clue. With 224 runs scored and four wickets taken, you will conclude that not that much happened and you would not be wrong, on

12:51 PM GMT Faf du Plessis will not be drawn into a social (or any other kind) of media battle over his form or comparisons with other players, specifically Temba Bavuma, who continues to crop up in conversations despite not playing in South Africa’s ongoing series against England. Bavuma was dropped for the Newlands Test

2:10 PM GMT AB de Villiers is set to play in at least one of South Africa’s T20 series before the T20 World Cup, where he is expected to make an international comeback. De Villiers, who retired in May 2018, and long-time friend and current T20 captain Faf du Plessis have been in talks since

Ben Stokes produced the vital breakthroughs © Getty Images Big picture You have to hand it to England and South Africa. They may not often be the best two teams in the world, but when they go head-to-head – at whatever stage of their respective team developments – sparks cannot help but fly. The Port

3:20 PM GMT Temba Bavuma is not among the 12 South Africa players who have assembled in Port Elizabeth to prepare for the third Test against England, but he remains close to the conversation. So close, that assistant coach Enoch Nkwe has indicated that if Bavuma finds form, he could be candidate for the national

6:53 PM GMT The fastest ball Anrich Nortje has bowled clocked in at “something 150,” but who’s actually counting? Not him. At least not, all of the time. “It [checking the speed gun] is not something I aim to do but once the blood gets flowing it is nice to see it on the big

5:02 PM GMT South Africa’s assistant coach, Enoch Nkwe, who carried the title of team director until a month ago, has acknowledged that being moved sideways was difficult but provided reassurance that he is not the victim of a whitewash and has been able to hold his own. Nkwe took South Africa to India in

1:58 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff South Africa’s players received a rousing send off to the Women’s World T20 next month with their coach Hilton Moreeng claiming that “the players we have at our disposal are some of the best” in the world. Dane van Niekerk, who has not played a T20I since February 2019, leads

3:45 PM GMT There is someone in the South Africa set-up who needs the team to produce big first-innings runs and it is not who you might immediately think. It’s not the trio of experienced batsmen, Dean Elgar, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock, who all played reckless shots at Newlands, and it’s not

2:58 PM GMT In the wave of change that has broken over South African cricket in the last month, one thing has stayed the same: the captaincy. But that does not mean Faf du Plessis‘ leadership has escaped scrutiny. The skipper, who last scored a Test century more than a year ago and has not

2:03 PM GMT South Africa have named an unchanged 16-man squad for the second half of the ongoing four-match series against England but there is unlikely to be any tinkering to the XI that lost at Newlands. Though defeated, South Africa found a decent balance to their team, with Pieter Malan slotting in seamlessly in

3:03 PM GMT ESPNcricinfo staff Jos Buttler has escaped serious punishment for his expletive-laden sledging towards Vernon Philander on the final day of England’s Test against South Africa at Newlands. Stump microphones picked up and broadcast Buttler calling Philander a “f***ing knobhead” after the bowler stood his ground rather than get out the way of