Proteas in search of a tougher test

Cricketers, like sharks, need blood in the water to stay sharp. So, if South Africa could, they would implore Pakistan to bring a better game to Auckland on Saturday than Ireland did to Canberra yesterday.

For a while 500 looked possible. Instead, the Proteas settled for 411/4 to become the first team to reach 400 in consecutive one-day internationals and to join India as the only sides to have done so five times.

Then South Africa reduced the Irish to 48/5 in 62 balls before easing off and putting them out of their misery for 210 in 45 overs to win by 201 runs.

That seems reason to celebrate, but not since the Proteas' match against India in Melbourne 11 days ago have they been tested. For a team with ambitions to win the trophy, that is no good thing.

Australia learnt that lesson the hard way on Saturday. Having massacred England by 111 runs on Valentine's Day, they did not hit or bowl a ball in anger for what turned out to be an unlucky 13 days. Then they took on New Zealand in Auckland - and were shot out for 151 on their way to defeat by one wicket.

After losing the plot and with it the match against India by 130 runs on February 22, the Proteas dealt with the West Indies as ruthlessly as they dared in Sydney on Friday.

But neither that match nor South Africa's thumping of Ireland have hardened them for the bigger challenges that loom. Pakistan represent their best chance of doing so before the knockout stages.

While the value of yesterday's game was questionable for the Proteas as a team, it was worthwhile for individual players.

Hashim Amla looked set for a double hundred before holing out for a career-best 159 to become, in 108 innings, the fastest batsman to reach 20 one-day centuries.

Yesterday's effort was Amla's fifth hundred in his last 15 innings in the format. Faf du Plessis scored 109 - his first century in 16 trips to the crease in ODIs.

It cannot mean much to plunder an attack that would struggle to mash a boiled potato. But far rather rack up the runs against them than suffer Quinton de Kock's fate of having scraped together 26 in three innings.

That makes De Kock the only member of South Africa 's regular top six who has not scored a century at the tournament.

Amla and Du Plessis shared 247, a record for South Africa's second wicket. The highest stands for the Proteas' first, second and third wickets are each 247. They've all been made in the past six-and-a-half weeks. Talk about peaking at the right time.

All of those stands involved Amla and two have featured Rilee Rossouw, who scored an unbeaten 61 yesterday to go with the 61 he made against the Windies.

How South Africa are going to fit Rossouw into the XI once JP Duminy has recovered from his side strain is a waiting dilemma. Kyle Abbott poses a similar selection challenge.

Dale Steyn bowled with more of his usual zip than he has hitherto in the tournament, and better than his figures of 2/39 suggest. Put some blood in the water and let him loose.