Proteas look to conquer Darwin and get a fast start against Australia in T20 series

Daily Maverick

7 hours ago

The Proteas are away from the big cities in their white-ball tour of Australia as they get their T20 World Cup preparations under way.
The Proteas' opening two matches of their T20I series against Australia will be played in a tiny little city in the Northern Territory called Darwin.
Fewer than 200,000 people live there, and the stadium the two teams will play in only has capacity for a little more than 12,000 spectators — a far cry from the 90,000 plus that the Melbourne Cricket Ground can accommodate, by comparison.
It's not the first time a South African men's side will play at the venue, however. In 2014, a South African 'A' side played a 50-over quadrangular-series against hosts Australia 'A', India 'A' and a young Australian side, dubbed the ​​National Performance Squad.
A young, 19-year-old Kagiso Rabada played in that series — his first series as a professional cricketer. He's the only member in the current crop in Australia to have played at the stadium. The memories of the tour aren't too sweet, with SA 'A' ending third, only beating out the National Performance Squad. They were also put to the sword by the late Phillip Hughes in their penultimate match, who smashed a double-century (202*) against the side — which was the highest List-A score in the country at the time.
For opening batter Ryan Rickelton, not only is the experience in Darwin a big change, it's also his first time in Australia.
'I've never been here,' he said this week. 'It's my first time to Australia, actually. So, this is my first time playing cricket here too.
'I always knew it was up north, I had a friend who lived up here for a bit. It's a different part of the world.'
A break from the game
The 29-year-old wicketkeeper-batter has forced his way — with runs and consistency — into an all-format regular. So much so that he was one of five players rested from South Africa's tour of Zimbabwe last month alongside Rabada, Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs and Marco Jansen in order to manage their workload.
Sunday's opening T20 encounter will be each of the aforementioned quintet's first match since the successful World Test Championship final in June.
What did the opening batter do with his time off?
'I locked my cricket bag far away,' he said. 'I travelled a bit just around South Africa, and it was nice just to spend time at home. I didn't do much training, if not any training. It was nice just to switch off from the game and spend time with my family and friends.'
But a month away from the game also means he's lost some of his usually sweet timing.
'I haven't hit the ball too well these last couple of days,' he said. 'But I'm not too worried. We've played a lot of cricket this year already. It's not something that you just lose full stop.'
The time spent away from the sport also meant not watching it, including South Africa's T20 tri-series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand, only throwing an eye on the highlights on SuperSport Blitz every now and then.
But the glimpses he did catch were of a talented young group, including Dewald Brevis, Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Kwena Maphaka.
'There were lots of opportunities given to quite a few promising players, and to see them here on tour with us now is quite exciting for them and obviously the group,' Rickelton said.
Changing space
Rabada sees the trio of youngsters as being in the same spot he was 11 years ago, playing in Darwin for the first time.
'This kind of reminds me of the space that they're in,' he said of Pretorius, Brevis and Maphaka. 'I'm sure they just want to do their best and have no fear.
'When you're young, you've got no fear at all. I'm excited to see how they're going to go in their careers.'
The tour of Australia is head coach Shukri Conrad's first tour with a full-strength side following the return of Rabada, Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs and Aiden Markram (Marco Jansen is nursing a finger injury he sustained in the WTC final).
It's the official start of their journey towards the T20 World Cup in February next year, with a slew of short-format games to come.
'It's been quite interesting to try to understand how he's going to go about the two different formats, and his methodology as to what he feels outside of the Test space,' Rabada said about working with Conrad in the national white-ball space for the first time.
'It's been kind of similar (to Test cricket); quite a few things are a bit left-field, which is quite refreshing and interesting to think about.'
Rabada will hope that his memories of Darwin will be a lot happier this time around as South Africa looks for a fast start in the small city. DM
The opening T20I match gets under way at 11.15am (SAST) on Sunday.