Spin champions compare notes as Test tourists land on the Highveld

There is a sign in front of the Potchefstroom campus accommodation housing the South African and Australian teams that reads 'Home of Champions'. It's hardly bluster: Spain's football team chose the Northwest University's high-performance centre as the base for their 2010 World Cup triumph in the Rainbow Nation.

Fitting then that it is now hosting the past two World Test champions, with Australia's long-form players joining their ODI counterparts ahead of Wednesday's 50-over series finale at the quaint cricket oval their dormitories literally abut. An ensuing red-ball tour match on the same ground is the culmination of the Test group's week-long stint in this small Highveld outpost. (South Africa's Test squad assembles later in the week in Durban).

On a gloomy Tuesday afternoon, most of the recent arrivals attempted to shake the jet-lag from their long journeys across the Indian Ocean. Scott Boland walked laps; Nathan Lyon kicked a football on the outfield; Marnus Labuschagne, returning to the same North West Province his family called home before they uprooted to Brisbane, unsurprisingly engaged in a lengthy hit in the nets behind the main oval's handsome Cape Dutch-style pavilion.

Also in keeping with the collegiate vibe of the athlete-village style precinct, which has seen the Aussies rub shoulders with rugby players and track athletes in the university's double-storey gym, was the sight of two of world cricket's great spinners discussing their craft on Monday evening.

For Kingsmead's anticipated Test opener next week, Keshav Maharaj and Lyon could be their teams' most important bowlers, though much depends on whether the former's home ground can live up to its spin-friendly reputation well before the South African summer has set in.

For now, their teams' rivalry can wait. The mutual admiration is strong between the veterans, two years apart in age, who are their respective countries' most prolific finger spinners.

"We have the same philosophy that spinners should be the first on the team sheet," Maharaj said on Tuesday having mightily impressed his opponents through the Proteas' two ODI victories in Durban and Johannesburg.

"Growing up, I always used to watch him (Lyon). I'm a huge fan. He's one of the idols in terms of the finger spinners leading the way out there. What he's done for Australian cricket is absolutely phenomenal.

"So trying to pick his brains as much as possible. We have some good chats after series – you don't want to give away too much! But it's more chats about the game in general … asking how he manages himself to do what he does at his age and still be at the top of his game. You take a lot of inspiration."

Not unlike Lyon, who has suffered two major injuries since 2023, Maharaj has increasingly prioritised his physical fitness in his later years. He brings his own Greek yoghurt on tour and counts the evergreen footballer Cristiano Ronaldo as a model for how athletes can play into their forties.

The 36-year-old may well need the extra stamina for the coming summer. After the three-Test WTC rematch with the Aussies, there are Test series against Bangladesh and England to follow.

The Proteas have turned on the fire hose to quell a drought. Having not played a home Test for 15 months since saluting at Lord's, they will host eight in only three months before the SA20 kicks off in January.

Maharaj sees it as their just deserts for proving they were Test cricket's best team over the 2023-2025 cycle. Not only did the Proteas clinch their first major international trophy last year, they followed it with arguably an ever bigger achievement months later: beating India in an away Test series.

No wonder Australia's five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour in January was a topic of conversation between the pair. "He's a world-class performer, he's performed there," Maharaj said of Lyon, whose 56 Test wickets in India is the highest tally by a visiting bowler.

"I think he's taken an eight-for there (in Bengalaru in 2017). It's more that I can learn from him over there. But I think it will be a wonderful opportunity for them … he's a class act and I'm sure he'll reap the rewards."

Still, the disparity between the lots of South Africa's first descendant of an indentured labourer to play Test cricket and Australia's groundsman-to-GOAT off-spinner is stark.

Lyon is presently hoping to play all 20 Tests on a taxing 12-month run; it has taken Maharaj four years to play that many. In addition to freeing him to play a variety of overseas leagues (whereas Lyon has not played a T20 in close to four years) it has also allowed the South African more time for reflection.

"I went back to the drawing board after last season, after the India tour," he said. "I feel like the best in the world always keep trying to evolve. And I said, 'Why not? Why can't I be that person and try to evolve a different aspect of the game?'

"I haven't changed too much with the way that I bowl, but probably put a little bit more emphasis on the analysis work. I've always been someone who's been a scholar of the game and looks at the analysis part quite in depth, but just probably looking at it from a different angle and different direction.

"Still not losing that feel of that game – I think (T20) league cricket throughout the off-season has kept the cricket awareness still a little bit sharp."

So much for the South African hostility Australia have been warned about. Into the night could Maharaj and Lyon have compared notes. A longer discussion will have to wait until post-Cape Town. 

Qantas tour of South Africa 2026

All matches to be broadcast exclusively in Australia on Kayo and Fox Cricket

First ODI: South Africa beat Australia by 67 runs

Second ODI: South Africa beat Australia by 32 runs

Third ODI: September 30, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 9:30pm AEST (D/N, 1:30pm local)

South Africa ODI squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Corbin Bosch, Matthew Breetzke, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Tony de Zorzi, Bjorn Fortuin, Duan Jansen, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kwena Maphaka, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Nqobani Mokoena, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs

Australia ODI squad: Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Marsh, Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Joel Davies, Jack Edwards, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Oliver Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

Warm-up match: October 3-4, JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, 6pm AEST (10am local)

First Test: October 9-13, Kingsmead Stadium, Durban, 6:30pm AEDT (9:30am local)

Second Test: October 18-22, St George's Park, Gqeberha, 7pm AEDT (10am local)

Third Test: October 27-31, Newlands, Cape Town, 7:30pm AEDT (10:30am local)

South Africa's first Test preliminary squad: Temba Bavuma (c), Marques Ackerman, David Bedingham, Corbin Bosch, Gerald Coetzee, Tony de Zorzi, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Wiaan Mulder, Senuran Muthusamy, Anrich Nortje, Dane Paterson, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tristan Stubbs, Kyle Verreynne

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster