Batting on the ball at last

Today, as they were a dozen days ago, South Africa are in Centurion to play a one-day international that no longer matters.

Pakistan had already won the series the last time the Proteas came to town. This time, SA play India to end a rubber the home side have dominated.

In the space of those 12 days, the Proteas' ODI fortunes have turned around spectacularly.

Gone is the tentative batting that undermined their competitive bowling. In its place is the juggernaut opening partnership of Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock.

SA's opening partnerships against Pakistan were worth 12, nine and 39 runs, respectively, in the three matches.

But against India, the South Africans have realised stands of 152 and 194 for the first wicket, which have led to totals of 358/4 and 280/6 and victories by 141 and 134 runs.

Amla has been leading scorer, compiling 307 runs at an average of 61.40 in five innings.

But the catalyst is De Kock, who replaced Graeme Smith after the latter scored 12 and one in the first two games against Pakistan. After an unsatisfying 15 in Centurion 12 days ago, De Kock has drilled the Indian attack for 135 and 106.

The deeper value of the potent alliance between Amla's clearheadedness and De Kock's clean hitting is that when the Proteas' middle order fails to launch - as it did in the second match of the series at Kingsmead on Sunday - when a comparatively anaemic 86 runs were scored in the 13.5 overs that remained once De Kock and Amla had been separated - a decent total is banked regardless.

SA's average stand in Durban was 40, almost double India's 21.7.

At the Wanderers, India's average was 14.6 - not in the same league as the Proteas' 71.6.

Of the 20 pairs of Indian batsmen who have been in the middle in this series, just one has managed to share 50 runs. SA have had three century stands and a half-century partnership.

"What is missing is partnerships," Rohit Sharma said yesterday, proving he has a good grasp of the obvious.

"We have maintained good partnerships over the last year, but that's not happening here.

"We need to get one 100-run partnership and a couple of 50-run partnerships; that has been our goal."

Sharma did not blame the pitch for India's defeats.

"In Durban, the conditions were pretty much similar to what we get in India," he said.

"Yes, there was a bit of bounce, but as a batsman you need to understand that you are playing in SA - there is going to be bounce."

For Ryan McLaren, SA's dramatic turnaround had a mental component: "India rocked up as the No1 [ODI] team in the world and that presented a challenge for us. We responded with intensity and aggression."

The Indians should expect no let-up today, not with a Test series starting on December 18.

"We need to keep up the intensity because psychologically we want to make inroads into the Test series," McLaren said.