The Proteas will hope for good weather and great cricket across their four World Test Championship at home which will round out their programme in the tournament.
They will need the leading teams ahead of them to slip up and will also need to win all four of their WTC matches at home to stand a realistic chance of making the final.
Assuming the Proteas win all four of their home Tests this summer they should end the Championship with 78 points from a possible 120 for a points percentage of 65.00.
As things currently stand that would put South Africa in second place and the Proteas might also be aided by the results in a series between the current top two of India and Australia, down under.
The Proteas will hope for result wickets in Australia as drawn Test matches could ensure that both the hosts and India retain their place in the top two of the World Test Championship standings.
New Zealand and Sri Lanka are also between South Africa and the top two at the moment although the latter would do well to remain there through their WTC series against England away from home.
The Black Caps are among those who have a realistic chance of catching up to the top two and muscling in on the final at the expense of one of the two teams that perhaps rightly believe they are the best in the world at the format.
New Zealand’s hopes rest on getting enough out of their trip to India this October and November to keep them in the frame when they host England in their final series of the Championship in their home summer.
England are probably out of the frame due to the extreme number of penalty points they have taken for slow over-rates.
It would be a real feather in the cap of coach Shukri Conrad if he could get the Proteas into a major final in the neglected red-ball format.
That will rest on a strong home summer after the 1-0 series win in the West Indies where the Proteas took 20 of 24 points available to them after weather helped to force a draw in the first Test.
The Proteas’ usual batting problems were still lurking about during the win over the West Indies which relied heavily on a strong fourth-innings effort from the bowlers on a pitch that was just beginning to flatten out.
For Conrad the key to success now will be ensuring as much continuity as possible and in that vain he will hope that the key players stay fit for the four big home Tests.
South Africa really need to nail their performance at home against teams that have traditionally struggled to deal with conditions in this country.
Even if they don’t reach the final a strong finish to the World Test Championship would be a boost to this team in a rebuilding phase.
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