Heinrich Klaasen, Kyle Verreynne, Dean Elgar, Theunis de Bruyn score big, but Simon Harmer only Test bowler in form.
Telford Vice / Cape Town
A triple century, two double centuries, 13 centuries, one 10-wicket haul and six five-fors were the highlights of this month’s opening three rounds of matches in the top division in South Africa’s first-class season. Four of the biggest scores belong to players who are in the squad for next month’s Test series in Australia, as is the competition’s leading wicket-taker.
That will spark hope that fresh memories can be made to take the edge off a shambolic performance against the Netherlands in the men’s T20 World Cup in Adelaide on November 6. The 13-run loss did far more than eliminate South Africa from the running for the semi-finals.
It was a genre-busting, format-leaping, disbelief-suspending disaster that plunged the game in South Africa into the kind of gloom previously reserved for administrative meltdowns. Worse, in fact. South Africans have grown accustomed to their team rising above whatever nonsense the suits got up to. The Adelaide awfulness said that divide no longer exists.
It’s only one loss and it was suffered in the most unpredictable format. But the despair is justified. However well teams like the Dutch play against sides like South Africa, only the weather should stop the latter from winning. Always. Anything else is a disgrace to the team and a slap in the face of the people who support them.
Of the XI who were part of that catastrophe, Temba Bavuma, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé will be back on their way to Australia on Thursday for the Tests, which start at the Gabba on December 17. They wouldn’t be human if the thought of atonement hadn’t crossed their minds.
So Klaasen will no doubt have been heartened by his 292 for the Titans against the Knights in Centurion in the second round, the highest score in the competition until Tony de Zorzi — who is not in the Test squad, made an undefeated 304, his second century of the summer, for Western Province against the Knights at Newlands a week later. Maharaj took 3/80 in the 29 overs he bowled for the Dolphins against Boland in a rain-affected draw at Kingsmead in the second round.
But Bavuma, Rabada and Nortjé have not been playing first-class cricket. Nortjé has taken 2/37 in the six overs he has bowled for the Samp Army in the Abu Dhabi T10. Bavuma and Rabada are being rested. No South Africa player has faced more deliveries this year than the 1,342 that have been bowled at Bavuma across the formats, and none of their fast bowlers has sent down more overs in 2022 than Rabada’s 309.4.
Of the other 11 players in the 16-member Test squad who have been in first-class action, Dean Elgar and Theunis de Bruyn have scored centuries and Verreynne has made a double ton — 201 for WP against Boland at Newlands in the second round. Simon Harmer, who tops the wicket-taking list with 20 in three matches, has two five-wicket hauls aside from the 14/151 he claimed for the Titans against the Lions at the Wanderers in the third round.
Gerald Coetzee, who is in a Test squad for the first time, went wicketless for 147 in the 22 overs he bowled for the Knights while Klaasen was scoring his near-triple century. Coetzee was also part of the attack De Zorzi took apart, when he finished with 4/117 from 27 overs.
Lungi Ngidi looked like one of South Africa’s better bowlers at the T20 World Cup and will be a key part of the attack in Australia, but he was lacklustre in taking match figures of 1/89 in 22 overs for the Titans against the Lions in the same match in which Harmer caused mayhem.
South Africa’s only left-arm pace threat in the Test squad, Marco Jansen, took 3/40 in each innings — one victim was his twin brother, Duan Jansen — for the Warriors against North West at St George’s Park in the third round. Lizaad Williams, an injury replacement in the squad for Glenton Stuurman, has claimed nine wickets at 22.44 in two games.
How have the other batters in the Test squad fared? Rassie van der Dussen, coming back from the broken finger that ended his tour of England in August, has made 94 runs in four innings for the Lions. Sarel Erwee has scored 115 in three for the Dolphins, 76 of them in one innings. Khaya Zondo has a return of 53 runs from three trips to the crease for the Dolphins.
Overall, then, South Africa’s batters would seem better prepared for the Australia series than their bowlers, Harmer excepted.
Ryan Rickelton isn’t part of this discussion despite scoring two centuries in four innings for the Lions, for whom he averages 120.00 this summer. Don’t blame the selectors: Rickleton’s name wasn’t on the list of players they were given by CSA to choose the squad for Australia. Don’t blame CSA either: sensibly, they have a policy against selecting injured players.
Rickelton returned, in September, from South Africa’s tour to England with two torn ligaments and unwanted bone growth in his left ankle. He requires surgery and is able to play only with the help of pain-relieving injections. He also stands to earn the equivalent of more than USD58,000 playing for Mumbai Indians Cape Town in the SA20, which starts on January 10. But not if he is out of action recovering from an operation. If Rickelton had been picked for Australia he likely would have ridden the bench in a bib. By staying home he will be able to play in CSA’s one-day competition, which starts on Friday.
If it was your ankle and your bank balance and your doctors were able to keep you on the park earning money until you had a suitable window in your schedule to go under the knife, wouldn’t you make the same decision?
CSA didn’t drop the ball in taking Rickelton out of the selection conversation. But they probably should have done a better job consulting with him about his situation, and they definitely should have explained why they did what they did better than they did. A solitary line in a press release saying he “has an ankle injury that forced him to be overlooked by the national selectors but allows him to still be picked by his domestic team” reads like nonsense and is asking for trouble.
The cricketminded public haven’t hesitated to take up those cudgels. Who could blame them. First Adelaide. Now this. Could the players and the suits get it together already?
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