Breetzke and Stubbs stamp their middle-order authority as SA build to 2027

Where has Matthew Breetzke been all this time, you may wonder, as you watch him hit his way to half-century after half-century in ODIs? It's five fifty-plus scores now from as many games, scored in three different countries and three different batting positions and has surely secured his spot as a certain starter from now on?

The answer to the first question is, "around". He was a pupil at Grey High School in Gqeberha (one Graeme Pollock is an alumnus), made his provincial debut as a teenager eight years ago and was the leading run-scorer in the first-class competition three summers ago. He was called up to the T20I side in late 2023, had three average performances and could not claim to have done enough to replace incumbents like Quinton de Kock or Reeza Hendricks. It was only really season 2 of the SA20, where Breetzke finished as the third-highest run-scorer and his team, Durban's Super Giants, made the final, that showed Breetzke was serious. Very, very serious

Adjectives used to describe him include "fierce" from his DSG captain Keshav Maharaj and "intense," by South Africa's batting coach Ashwell Prince. Those words may also provide the answer to the second question.

With de Kock and Heinrich Klaasen both retired, South Africa need a player who can be both unafraid and entirely focused on big-hitting in the way they were. Breetzke, in what we've seen of him on the international stage so far, is exactly that.

Breetzke is a powerful hitter and backs himself to clear the ropes both square of the wicket and down the ground and both were on display at Lord's. The first of his first two shots in real anger was when he kneeled into a Jacob Bethell ball and thumped it through square leg for four. According to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball data, almost two-thirds of Breetzke's international runs have come square of the wicket and a shot like that showed why. And after Breetzke had reached his fifty, he sent Will Jacks over his head and out of the ground for six with a shot that combined power, placement and panache.

Those qualities also describe the start Breetzke has had to the international game. In eight months, in between missing out on the Champions Trophy and suffering a hamstring tweak, he has also made history. Breetzke holds the highest score by any player on ODI debut, he is the only player to score five consecutive fifty-plus scores after their first five ODIs and the player with the most number of runs at the five-match mark.

In the same eight months, Tristan Stubbs, who Breetzke shared a 147-run fourth-wicket stand with in the second ODI against England, had been in the midst of a massive slump. Across all formats, international and domestic (including the IPL), Stubbs had one score over fifty in 23 innings before Thursday. That came on the back of a poor SA20, where Stubbs scored 232 runs at an average of 29.00, which was a come-down from a summer in which Stubbs raised his bat to his first two Test hundreds.

What had happened to the player who struck at close to 200 in IPL 2024? And the "big, strong, strapping" batter Shukri Conrad initially named as his new Test No.3 but then dropped lower down the order in favour of Wiaan Mulder? Stubbs didn't quite seem to know where he fitted in and, worse, where his off stump was. He was most often dismissed when he stepped outside off, trying to force something early on in his innings.

Before this series, Prince explained that Stubbs might be struggling with making the switch from white-ball aggressor to Test-match stabiliser and then back again, which is hardly surprising considering he has been up and down both line-ups.

"Sometimes you can get a little bit clouded in terms of your approach and how to go," Prince said. "When you're dipping in between formats and you have different approaches, sometimes you're in a white-ball series where you want to play a more natural game and maybe your mindset is not as free as you would like it to be. I think Tristan is probably in that space at the moment."

For their part, the coaching staff were trying to encourage Stubbs to "be more positive", according to Prince, but it was the opposite that worked for him at Lord's.

Stubbs was at the crease with South Africa 93 for 3 after 18 overs, which was a solid but not spectacular start. Test-match mode activated. He scored two runs off his first seven balls, 22 runs off 34 balls and no boundaries off the first 47 balls he faced. He learnt from Breetzke's blueprint after he scored four off his first 17 balls, all singles, before he was offered width from Carse and cashed in.

Where Breetzke took on Bethell early, Stubbs waited until Jacks was given a second spell. White-ball mode activated. Stubbs brought out his first sweep and nailed it. Then, again, for six. And then again with the reverse. In three balls Stubbs went from 33 to 47 and was on the brink of a half-century. He got there off 55 balls in the 39th over, with enough time to show off his finishing skills until he was run out when Dewald Brevis initially wanted the run and then turned back, leaving Stubbs stranded. His reaction was to repeatedly smash his bat onto the turf in frustration before making a slow walk back.

By the time Stubbs was dismissed, Breetzke was already back in the dressing-room, beaten by a Jofra Archer yorker that thudded into his pad. Breetzke reviewed, in hope and was walking before the decision was confirmed to finish with a third score in the 80s and oh-so-close to another century.

In the end, neither Breetzke nor Stubbs got exactly what they wanted from this match. However, both may have got what they needed. Breetzke showed he belongs and Stubbs that he still has it. And those are important things as South Africa build to 2027.