Under fire South Africa skipper Faf Du Plessis desperate for sparkle in the City of Gold

DANIEL GALLAN: The Proteas captain might be preparing for a curtain-call but he will be eager to go out with a bang by denying England a series victory in Johannesburg

• South Africa hub
• Du Plessis replaced as ODI captain

Johannesburg is a city that shouldn’t exist. Its sprawling mass lies 380 miles away from the nearest ocean. It is not situated near a natural body of water worth mentioning. Its beauty is manufactured and without the planting of trees, it would be a barren, dusty wasteland.

Greed is the foundation block on which South Africa’s largest and wealthiest city is built. Gold was discovered here in 1886 and ever since fortune chasers, chancers and charlatans have come in search of riches only a few have found. The whole place thrums at a frenetic pace, shorn coastlines, mountains and national parks, Joburg, Jozi, Egoli has made impatience a collective character trait. 

It is here that Proteas captain Faf du Plessis has one last chance to change his own story. Time is running out and the public are growing weary after the crushing defeat to England by an innings and 53 runs in Port Elizabeth - his third loss by an innings in five Test matches. The skipper is running out of puff and he intimated that we may not see him lead in whites on home soil again.

“I can’t do it forever,” he said of the burden of steering a team lacking in world-class talent where senior batters play with reckless abandon and the tempestuousness of his best bowler, Kagiso Rabada, has led to him being suspended for the final Test on Friday. “It has been chipping away, it does chip away at your character. But I can’t leave the team when they need me most, as one of the leaders in the team. For now, it’s what we need. I think it will make it worse if I say I’m out.”

He has already relinquished the reins of the ODI side, handing them to Quinton de Kock who will now captain for the foreseeable future. Du Plessis’ final assignment in white may come later this year in the West Indies as he prepares to abdicate from the position he has held since deputising for his best mate AB de Villiers in 2016.

Kagiso Rabada breaks silence on fourth Test ban: "I'm letting the team down and myself"

South Africa haven't lost successive home Test series for seventy years since England won in 1948/49 and Australia in 1949/50

— Benedict Bermange (@Benedict_B) January 22, 2020

Has there ever been a better captain in South African cricket? The sepia tones of the 1950s and 1960 distort our vision of the past but it is impossible to fully recognise a team when it represented just a fraction of a country embroiled in the evils of apartheid.

Kepler Wessels was always going to serve as a midwife between eras and Hansie Cronje’s downfall discredits his obvious qualities. Shaun Pollock was too nice for the role, Hashim Amla didn’t want it and De Villiers’ outrageous talent meant he couldn’t relate to those underlings who didn’t have what he had.

Graeme Smith is the most successful Test captain in history with 53 wins, 21 more than his closest competitor Alan Border. He strode into the role as a 22-year-old. His colossal frame was matched by his bewildering precociousness and he scythed through English captains with as much disdain as he clipped fast bowlers through midwicket.

But Smith had the good luck of captaining a side that, for a brief period at least, was as good as anything the game has seen. Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn, Amla, De Villiers, Mark Boucher, Vernon Philander, Makhaya Ntini and Pollock could all stake a claim to be included in an all-time XI. Morkel, Prince, Gibbs, McKenzie, Duminy, Kirsten played their part too. It takes a force of nature to manage superstar talent but often all Smith needed to do was wind up his machine and watch it rip.

Du Plessis has been shackled with a team on the slide, especially with the bat. Under Smith, South Africa’s top six averaged 46.3. Du Plessis has found himself in the middle of a unit averaging just 33.5 under his watch.

A lack of runs and time in the middle has been a painful burden for him to shoulder. He is woefully short of confidence with the bat himself and his mental capitulation that led to his dismissal to Dominic Bess in the first innings showed that he is under pressure to perform.

^{Can Vernon Philander bow out of Test cricket with a win?}

“Personally, from a runs point of view, I am not up to the level that I should be,” Du Plessis said in Port Elizabeth, looking like a man who had finally confessed to some egregious sin. “But I still have a huge role to play as captain to make sure I lift these guys to win a Test match in the next game.”

There is every chance he can do it. England arrived in this country a flawed team and the brilliance of Ben Stokes and maiden milestones from Ollie Pope, Bess, and Dominic Sibley do not change that. With better use of the new ball and prolonged concentration with the bat, South Africa are more than capable of serving their guests a taste of their own medicine.

Of course, major improvements are required and Du Plessis will be without his spearhead. He said he did not feel let down by Rabada’s stupidity but inside he will be furious with the situation, if not with the player himself.

Like the city it resides in, the Wanderers is a cricket arena that never misses a chance to hit the fast forward button. There are places to go and people to see in Johannesburg and spells like Stuart Broad’s in 2016 and Philander’s against Australia in 2018 hasten things along.

If Jofra Archer is fit he will surely play. This is a surface that has earned its reputation as one of the most frightening on the planet and the thin air helps the ball explode into the ’keeper’s gloves. Alongside Mark Wood, who was rapid on the pedestrian St George’s track, England now have the upper hand in the pace race. How often has that been said of these two sides?

^{England have all the momentum after going 2-1 up in Port Elizabeth}

Dane Paterson was adequate but unspectacular in the only innings he got to bowl in Port Elizabeth and will likely miss out to the (slightly) extra oomph of Beuran Hendricks. The 29-year-old left-armer has yet to represent his country in whites and a lot will be asked of him, but he knows this ground better than most and took 4-54 and 3-67 in a recent first-class match here. 

Rabada’s exclusion means there is a need for at least one more black African to partly meet South Africa’s transformation targets and Temba Bavuma will certainly fill that void. The diminutive batter who injured himself before the start of the series was then controversially dropped from the squad which ignited a social media furore largely divided along racial lines. 

Bavuma has always carried the extra responsibility of what he represents as South Africa’s only black African batter with a Test ton - scored against England in 2016 - and he will feel the sting of expectation once again. Like Hendricks, he calls the Wanderers home as captain of the Lions and returns to the team having scored an eye-catching 180 last week.

Last year was the worst for South African cricket since it was reintroduced to the international scene in 1991. Sri Lanka became the first Asian side to a win Test series in the country and a worst-ever World Cup saw coach Ottis Gibson sacked. Another 3-0 Test series defeat in India dampened an already sodden mood exacerbated by ineptitude at board level and mistrust from major sponsors.

This new decade has not started well. Two gut-wrenching defeats have left Du Plessis on the brink. He needs help from senior teammates. Philander has already confirmed that this will be his last match for the Proteas. If it is Du Plessis’ final bow, he’ll be determined to exit the stage to a rousing crescendo at the Bull Ring.