Bristol – Bulletproof Truth

No Rabada, but Shamsi could loom large in small Bristol

“When the pitches are good and the boundaries are smaller the margin for error becomes a lot smaller.” – Aiden Markram on bandstand grounds like Bristol’s.

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

FOR an assortment of reasons, among them his choice to play in the IPL, Kagiso Rabada has missed 10 of South Africa’s 23 matches across the formats this year. Soon that number of absences will rise to a dozen: he has been ruled out of the T20Is against Ireland in Bristol on Wednesday and Friday.

This time injured ankle ligaments have taken Rabada out of the equation. The same problem stopped him from playing in the T20I decider against England in Southampton on Sunday. What with a Test series starting on August 17 and the T20I World Cup looming in Australia in October and November, Rabada and the rest of his cricketminded compatriots will hear the recovery clock ticking loudly.

A CSA release on Tuesday suggested he remained in the frame for the rest of the England tour: “He will continue medical management and rehabilitation and his progress will be closely monitored in preparation for the … Test series.” Some will read hope, rather than conviction, between those lines.

South Africa do not want for quality quicks; Rabada’s replacement on Sunday was Anrich Nortjé. But a player of Rabada’s stature is not simply a source of wickets and, in this case, useful lower order runs. He is the spearhead of the attack and among the team’s better, clearer thinkers. Rabada is a standard bearer for excellence. To lose him is to lose significantly more than a fine fast bowler.

Even so, South Africa should have the beating of a team who have lost their last six T20Is, and who haven’t won any of their half-dozen games in the format against non-associate opponents since September 2021 — when they were 3-2 winners over quasi-minnows Zimbabwe. That series followed the 3-0 thumping, by increasing margins, Ireland endured at home in July at the hands of the South Africans.

Bristol’s cosy boundaries will help even those odds, and perhaps take the edge off the threat posed by Tabraiz Shamsi in the wake of his career-best 5/24 to clinch Sunday’s clash. That followed his haul of 3/27 in Cardiff on Thursday and made him the England series’ highest wicket-taker. He had South Africa’s best economy rate and was second only to Lungi Ngidi in strike rate terms. And that after Shamsi was hit for 49 runs in three wicketless overs in the first match of the rubber on Wednesday — which was played in Bristol, where England won handsomely.

It’s difficult to imagine the Irish inflicting that kind of damage. In their last five T20Is, against India and New Zealand, they have been bowled out for 142 and 91 and only Harry Tector and Andy Balbirnie have scored half-centuries. Craig Young took 17 wickets at an economy rate of 9,05 across those games, so his omission from this series with a groin injury will hurt Ireland.

South Africa have a patchy recent record in T20Is, winning only two of their last five completed games. But they haven’t given themselves over to the kind of crazy cricket played by England, which Ireland seem to have adopted as their method of choice.

All good. Except when it doesn’t work.

When: August 3, 2022; 7.30pm Local Time

Where: County Ground, Bristol

What to expect: A sprinkling of rain in the morning, but not enough to get in the way of the match. And runs. Short boundaries will do that.

Team news:

Ireland: Craig Young’s withdrawal because of a groin injury could mean South African born and raised Graham Hume will make his debut in the format.

Possible XI: Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie (c), Lorcan Tucker, Harry Tector, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Curtis Campher, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Graham Hume, Josh Little

South Africa: Kagiso Rabada’s removal from the equation should prompt the retention of the XI that clinched the series against England on Sunday.

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller (c), Tristan Stubbs, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortjé, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi

What they said:

“The brand of cricket we are playing means that sometimes we will be bowled out for a low score, but that’s what you see with pretty much most international teams.” – Harry Tector rationalises Ireland’s run of poor results.

“We are maybe a team who play better cricket on slow pitches and bigger fields, which is strange. You would think that, as a team, you’d be hoping for great pitches and smaller boundaries. But this team has played some of their better cricket in tougher conditions and on bigger outfields. When the pitches are good and the boundaries are smaller the margin for error becomes a lot smaller. It’s something we’re going to try and improve on. We’re going to try and nail that on a smaller field here in Bristol.” – Aiden Markram on South Africa’s cricketing claustrophobia.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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De Kock, Hendricks, Shamsi go round cricket’s galaxy

“We know the bowler that he is, we know what he’s capable of.” – David Miller on Tabraiz Shamsi’s comeback.

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

THIS time last week Quinton de Kock could do no wrong. Seven days on he doesn’t seem to be able to do much right. A week ago Reeza Hendricks was a fringe player in white-ball internationals. Now he seems a fixture in the T20I side. Welcome, pilgrim, to the South Africa chapters of the cricket hiker’s guide to the galaxy.

De Kock’s undefeated 92 in the third ODI at Headingley last Sunday reduced to an asterisk the fact that the match was washed out. When a batter plays as sublimely well as he did, like a zen master at home in their garden, the result cannot possibly matter. Don’t take our word for it. Here’s Socrates, the footballing philosopher doctor: “Beauty comes first. Victory is secondary. What matters is joy.”

But, in the T20I series that followed, De Kock made two, 15 and nought — only his fourth duck in 66 innings in the format. He was first out all three times, something that hadn’t befallen him in his previous nine trips to the T20I crease if we count as one of them Temba Bavuma retiring hurt against India in Rajkot in June.

On Sunday De Kock played an uncharacteristically indecisive drive to the third ball of the match and, with no runs on the board, dragged David Willey onto his leg stump. De Kock has been part of six T20I opening stands that have been snuffed out for zero, but Sunday marked the first time his dismissal ended a barren partnership — he has tended to be part of the solution, not the problem.

None of which is to suggest that De Kock’s form is or is becoming a problem. He is South Africa’s leading runscorer among current players in the formats he still bothers with, clearly the best batter of his generation in his country, and a long way from running out of steam or runs. So, when he does falter, we should pause for thoughts on the magic of even the magnificent being rendered mortal, if only for a moment.

Hendricks came to England having played in fewer than a quarter of South Africa’s white-ball games — 67 of a possible 278 — since his debut in a T20I against Australia in Adelaide in November 2014. He has since reeled off innings of 57, 53 and 70 in the T20I series and complicated the selection conversation for the World Cup in Australia in October and November.

The last South Africa player to hit a hattrick of half-centuries in T20Is was De Kock, who scored 72, 60 and 60 against West Indies in Grenada in June and July 2021. Hashim Amla and Aiden Markram were the only other South Africans on that list before this series. For Hendricks to join it will make Victor Mpitsang and his panel sit up and take notice. Hendricks was probably on board for the World Cup already, but now he has staked a serious claim for a place as a first-choice opener. Where might that leave Bavuma, who is at least as valuable to his team as a captain as he is as a batter?

But such grown-up questions can wait. Sunday’s emphatic victory in Southampton clinched a series South Africa looked a long way from winning when they were bossed in Bristol as recently as Wednesday. Their 90-run triumph is their second biggest in T20Is and equals India’s win in Colombo in September 2012 as England’s heaviest defeat. It is also only South Africa’s second victory in the eight bilateral white-ball rubbers they have played in England, and their first since 1998.

This convincing success was achieved on the back of a total of 191/5, in which Hendricks shared stands of 55 off 35 with Rilee Rossouw and 87 off 61 with Markram, who made 51 off 36 in his only innings of the series and went on to put on 41 off 17 with David Miller. Then Tabraiz Shamsi — who was hit for 49 off three wicketless overs in the first match — took a career-best 5/24, which added to his 3/27 in Cardiff on Thursday made him the series’ leading wicket-taker.

“One day it’s my job, the next day somebody else takes wickets,” he said during his television interview about bouncing back from his bruising in Bristol. He also revealed a nugget of healthy domesticity: “My wife said she wants four wickets from me today, as if you can buy wickets at the supermarket.”

Shamsi, bowling with fine control of his variations, struck all five times as England lost their last eight wickets for 49 runs to crash to 101 all out in 16.4 overs. Only in three of their 154 T20Is have they been dismissed for lower totals.

It was a comeback, Shamsi told a press conference, built on silence: “Credit goes to the management and all the players, because nobody even had a word with me [after the first match]. That’s the best way to deal with something like that. It’s an anomaly. On a field like Bristol, which maybe looks bigger on TV, these things happen. We’re playing T20 cricket against world class players, and from time to time things like that might happen. I don’t think there was much to think about. I focused on what I know I can do best.”

Miller confirmed, in his presser, Shamsi’s version: “We know the bowler that he is, we know what he’s capable of. If anything there were one or two pointers mentioned to him, just to remind him what he is capable of — to build his confidence up rather than tell him what to do, because he knows what to do.”

Eoin Morgan, on television commentary, concurred that England’s batting on Sunday had been “timid”. Even Jonny Bairstow, whose 30-ball 27 bore not a jot of resemblance to the 90 he hammered off 53 deliveries four days previously with the help of significantly smaller boundaries, seemed frozen in the headlights of the South Africans’ resurgence.

Sunday’s result means England’s only series wins in the past year have come in a Test series against New Zealand at home in June and, in the same month, an ODI rubber in the Netherlands. In that time they have lost Test series to Australia and West Indies, an ODI engagement with India, and T20I rubbers against West Indies, India and now South Africa.

So the home side would have been warmed by Shamsi’s respect for them: “When you’re playing against a team like England it’s really important to have a strong heart. They’re capable of hitting sixes and spoiling your day.”

If that doesn’t help ease their concerns, Douglas Adams had advice for them in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “Don’t panic.”

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Don’t blink or you’ll miss the T20I series decider

“The schedule’s hectic; heavy on our bodies.” – Reeza Hendricks

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

ALL white-ball series should be played inside a week. That way there’s no time to think too much about a kind of cricket that cannot survive much thinking about.

England won the first T20I with a bang in Bristol on Wednesday. South Africa returned the favour in Cardiff on Thursday. And here we are, hurtling towards the decider in Southampton on Sunday. To borrow a former slogan from one of CSA’s many former sponsors: simpler, better, faster.

Both teams’ XIs were retained from the first game of the series to the next, and there isn’t much reason to fiddle with them. How do you justify making significant changes to combinations that have done what was asked of them, and done it well, albeit on different days?

Not that the series has been about constants. About the closest we’ve come to that state of grace is the batting of Reeza Hendricks, the only player on either side to score half-centuries in both matches. And Chris Jordan, who followed going for only three runs in the 18th over of South Africa’s innings in Bristol with conceding just four in the 20th in Cardiff.

Rather, it’s the wild swing of contrast that, along with and probably aided by the rubber’s compressed timeframe, has kept things interesting. The South Africans dropped five catches on Wednesday, some of them surely easier to hold than spill. On Thursday, they caught everything that came their way — including chances that seemed impossible to hang onto. On Wednesday, England’s batting bristled with unstoppable attacking intent. Until it was stopped in its tracks on Thursday.

Thus trying to predict what might happen on Sunday is futile and, worse, boring. The Rose Bowl will resemble nothing so much as a giant roulette wheel, and the ball a die ready for the rolling. Because the series has delivered casino cricket, there is every reason to believe the unpredictability will, happily, continue unchecked on Sunday.

This time next week, few of us might remember what happened in Bristol on Wednesday, Cardiff on Thursday and Southampton on Sunday. And that’s the way it should be: this is not cricket to analyse and unpick for hours after it has been played, but cricket to appreciate for what it is when it is being played.

That isn’t to devalue it, but instead to recognise and indeed celebrate that not everything is or should be forever. Especially three T20Is played in five days. Besides, what’s not to like about having dessert before the rest of a meal? Have fun. Move on.

When: July 31, 2022; 3.30pm Local Time

Where: The Rose Bowl, Southampton

What to expect: Rain on Saturday night, which could slow the outfield and quicken the pitch.

Team News:

England: Richard Gleeson’s 38 runs in three overs on Thursday may prompt his replacement by David Willey.

Possible XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (c), Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Reece Topley.

South Africa: It’s difficult to tinker with an XI that bounced back emphatically 24 hours after being properly beaten.

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Rilee Rossouw, Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller (c), Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.

What they said:

“You want to win every series you play. We haven’t won one yet this summer and that’s something we’re not accustomed to as a group. But this is the start of a new cycle as a team. We’re still working ourselves out and gelling and we need to do that quickly. Winning a series would be great for that.” — Jos Buttler tries to get a grip on England’s transition.

“The schedule’s quite hectic; quite heavy on our bodies. But if you get onto a good run you can continue with that momentum.” — Reeza Hendricks has done just that in the first two games.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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What changed between Bristol and Cardiff? Plenty …

“We had one or two meetings this morning to clear up last night, but you can’t harp on things too much.” – David Miller

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

SAME time, same XIs. The place had changed — from Bristol to Cardiff, a marginal difference of 41 kilometres — for the second T20I between England and South Africa on Thursday, which followed the first game on Wednesday. But not a lot else. Or so it seemed initially.

In Bristol, Rilee Rossouw’s first innings for South Africa since October 2016 was snuffed out after four deliveries and as many runs. In Cardiff he showed the touch that made him a destructive white-ball Kolpak player, hitting an unbeaten 96 off 55.

Tristan Stubbs’ 28-ball 72 on Wednesday, batting at No. 6 after taking guard in the 10th over, earned him a promotion by one place. Even so, Stubbs arrived 27 balls later and couldn’t latch onto the bowling in the same way in his 15 not out, which came off a dozen deliveries.

Not a lot changed for Reeza Hendricks, who scored 57 off 33 in the first match and made 53 off 32 this time. Nor for Chris Jordan, who kept the damage down to three runs in a masterful 18th over on Wednesday. On Thursday, he went for four in the 20th.

Jos Buttler won the toss for the first time in eight white-ball games, and South Africa made 207/3 — the only time 200 has been breached in all nine T20Is at Sophia Gardens. England’s reply of 149 in 16.4 overs confirmed the most important difference of all between the two matches. It means the series goes to Southampton on Sunday level at 1-1.

Tabraiz Shamsi, who was hammered for 49 off three wicketless overs on Wednesday, dismissed Jason Roy, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran in four overs that went for 27. Andile Phehlukwayo took 1/63 from four overs in Bristol. In Cardiff he claimed 3/39 from three. Ngidi owned the most expensive five-wicket haul in T20I history in the first match, a leaky 5/39 for an economy rate of 9.75. In the second, he claimed 2/11 in 16 deliveries: a rate of 4.12, or less than half as many as in Bristol.

Another notable contrast was that South Africa held all their catches, having shelled five on Wednesday. Keshav Maharaj’s running, diving effort on the straight boundary to remove Moeen was a thing of wonder. Lungi Ngidi, a jumbo railway sleeper of a human being, found a way to follow the ball dipping from over his shoulder as he sprinted into the deep from backward point — and hold on as everything crashed to earth — to end Jonny Bairstow’s innings cheaply, for him, at 30.

Instead it was England who faltered in the field, with Buttler claiming a grab on the bounce off Jordan when Rossouw was 37 and Richard Gleeson spilling a chance he should have pouched at fine leg off Curran when Hendricks was 51.

For the South Africans to find the wherewithal to turn things around as emphatically as they did just 24 hours after they had been more thrashed than beaten only an hour’s drive away was remarkable. How did they manage it? “We had one or two meetings this morning to clear up last night, but you can’t harp on things too much,” David Miller said during his television interview.

As should be clear from that, Miller is a quintessential doer, not a talker. But he scored only eight in Bristol and, because Stubbs was sent in ahead of him on Thursday, didn’t bat in Cardiff. Whatever else England have to think about before Sunday’s decider, they shouldn’t forget that Miller will be itching to make his mark on the series. You can change the venue and the time — Sunday’s match is a day game, as opposed to the day/nighters in Bristol and Cardiff — but good luck trying to change Miller. His stage awaits.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Stubbs smack after Bairstow blast

“He’s got a gift.” – David Miller on Tristan Stubbs.

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

SAM Curran may never have to walk anywhere ever again. Jonny Bairstow will carry him on his shoulders for the rest of his days. At least, Bairstow should in the wake of what happened in Bristol on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bairstow left the indoor nets at the ground on Tuesday with ice packs strapped around his left knee after seeming to injure himself as he tried to rise from a lunge performed with Curran slung across his back like a sack of vegetables. Footage of the incident looked like a trick in a Victorian circus gone wrong.

In the first T20I on Wednesday, Bairstow survived four — four! — chances in the deep to hammer 90 off the 53 balls he faced from South Africa’s bowlers, clubbing 60 of his runs in fours and sixes, and sharing 71 off 45 with Dawid Malan and 106 off 37 with Moeen Ali to help England pile up 234/6 — their second-highest total in the format. Knee injury? What knee injury?

Bairstow has had a bumper 2022. His feat on Wednesday, aided and abetted by Bristol’s cosy boundaries, was his ninth trip past 50 in 22 innings across the formats this year, during which he has reached six centuries. He seemed fated to register a seventh when, with two deliveries left in the innings, his talisman, Curran, put him on strike with the help of another spilled chance — what would have been a fine catch at short midwicket by Kagiso Rabada off Lungi Ngidi. But, needing at least a six and a four to give his personal fairytale another happy ending, Bairstow hoisted the next ball to midwicket. Surprisingly, given the quality of South Africa’s catching in the innings, Rilee Rossouw — who had given Bairstow one of his lives — held on.

Lost in all that was that Moeen’s 16-ball 50 — he ended up with 52 off 18 — was the fastest half-century in England’s 152 T20Is, and that Ngidi’s 5/39 was the most expensive five-wicket haul in the 1,693 games in the format yet played.

Facts like those, significant though they were, were dazzled into insignificance by Bairstow’s blast. The same went for just about everything else that happened in the match. Reeza Hendricks’ 33-ball 57 was his first half-century in eight white-ball internationals, and Tristan Stubbs spent much of his time in the middle nodding frenetically at David Miller and the rest of it clubbing England’s bowlers for 72 off 28 balls. “He’s got a gift,” Miller said in his television interview.

Stubbs, 18 days away from his 22nd birthday and playing his third international but batting for the first time, raced to 50 off 19 deliveries to claim South Africa’s second-fastest half-century in their 153 T20Is. He played like a beardless Bairstow, 11 years the Englishman’s junior and with a keener, cleaner eye. And perhaps an even more emphatic talent for sending the ball screaming for the fences.

But experience would win on the night. Chris Jordan, who turns 34 in October and was playing his 121st match for England, stood at the top of his run with 54 required off the last three overs. The sizzling Stubbs was still there on 70, Andile Phehlukwayo looked in the mood with 18 not out off 10, and the game remained in the balance. The calm, canny, cool, collected Jordan changed that equation with four yorkers and two full tosses, conceding only three off the over and, effectively, shutting down the game as a contest. Was that how to counter über aggressive batting line-ups like England’s?

It was left, unfairly, to Ngidi to answer that question at his press conference: “All bowlers have their own gameplans, and as much as we say nothing beats a good yorker we also realise that guys line up and hit yorkers a lot better now. Keeping the guys guessing is also part of the gameplan. It all boils down to execution. Tonight [Jordan’s] execution was on point. On any other evening it could have gone the other way.”

South Africa ended up 42 runs short. Stubbs was the solution, but the visitors had too many problems. “We had full faith in Stubbs,” Ngidi said. “Even during training we have seen what he’s capable of, so we weren’t really surprised to see what we saw today. I’ve bowled to him and I’ve been on the receiving end of what you saw tonight.”

South Africans will hope they see more of the same, and less of Bairstow, in Cardiff on Thursday and in Southampton on Sunday. The English will hope for the opposite. Neutrals will covet many more runs from both.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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From Miller to Buttler on captaincy curve

“It’s about having clear plans along with trying to stay as calm as possible.” – David Miller

Telford Vice / Catania, Sicily

DAVID Miller is a more experienced T20 player than Joss Buttler, but Buttler has a longer CV as a captain. Might details like that matter in the hurly-burly of the three-match T20I series between England and South Africa that starts in Bristol on Wednesday?

Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Miller summed up the uncertainty during a press conference on Tuesday: “As captain you can’t control everything. It’s about having trust in the players, which I do have.”

Miller has played 382 T20s — 100 of them internationals; 97 for South Africa, the other three for an ICC World XI against Pakistan in Lahore in September 2017 — to Buttler’s 319, including 91 for England. Buttler has led teams in 38 games, among them 23 white-ball internationals. Miller’s leadership credentials amount to 14 matches. His only time at the helm of South Africa’s senior side was in two T20Is against Pakistan in February 2019.

Buttler, England’s appointed white-ball captain, has presided over the five losses his team have suffered in eight completed matches in the two formats this month. He is thus under scrutiny to turn things around. Miller is standing in for the injured Temba Bavuma, and so is under less pressure to succeed as skipper.

While Buttler would have liked to have Ben Stokes around — the allrounder is being rested for the series — Miller will welcome back Kagiso Rabada from his break for the ODI rubber, along with Rilee Rossouw, the former Kolpakian who is likely to play his first match for South Africa since October 2016.

South Africa have played 139 international matches of all descriptions on 14 different grounds on their 22 trips to England since their first visit in 1907. But they have never played an international in Bristol. By Friday next week, they should have played three — their two T20Is against Ireland next are also scheduled for WG Grace’s home ground.

England and South Africa will play the second match of their series in Cardiff on Thursday, just 41 kilometres away from Bristol, with the third game in Southampton on Sunday.

The teams last met in the format at the World Cup in Sharjah in November. South Africa won by 10 runs, inflicting England’s only loss in their five group matches. This series will be important preparation for the next edition of the global showpiece in Australia in October and November.

With England currently ranked second and South Africa fourth, high octane cricket can be expected.

When: July 27, 2022; 6.30pm Local Time

Where: County Ground, Bristol

What to expect: A dry day/night. Bristol’s boundaries are on the short side both straight and square of the pitch, which tends to be slow but sound.

Team news:

England: Harry Brook could play ahead of Phil Salt, and David Willey might crack at the nod at Sam Curran’s expense.

Possible XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (c), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.

South Africa: Andile Phehlukwayo’s availability remains uncertain in the wake of the concussion he suffered in the first ODI last Tuesday.

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Rilee Rossouw, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller (c), Heinrich Klaasen, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.

What they said:

“Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. But, more often than not, if you have that mindset, and if you’re playing with that aggressiveness and you are fully committed to it, it will come off.” – Adil Rashid makes the case for England continuing with their relentlessly attacking approach.

“I’ve captained a few times in my career so far, and what I’ve learnt is that things do get a bit crazy and frantic out there. It’s about having clear plans along with trying to stay as calm as possible.” — David Miller on his impending challenge.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Attack leaves bowler fighting for life

Club launch crowdfunder to help cover costs.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

A young South African fast bowler is fighting for his life in the wake of a brutal assault in England on Saturday night. Mondli Khumalo, a former under-19 international, was attacked outside a pub in Bristol — where his club, North Petherton, had been celebrating a win.

Khumalo, 20, is in an induced coma in hospital after suffering significant head injuries. His condition remains serious and his prognosis uncertain. Efforts are being made to bring his mother, who lives in Umlazi in Durban, to his bedside. Police have arrested a 27-year-old on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

At under-19 international level, Durban-born Khumalo played two Tests for South Africa in England in July 2018, and 10 one-day games including four in the 2020 World Cup in South Africa. He has played four first-class matches, a list A game and four T20s for KwaZulu-Natal Inland, where he is on a high-performance contract.

Khumalo is in England as a professional for North Petherton. He is the club’s leading bowler this season with 15 wickets at an average of 14.93, and has scored 191 runs — among them two half-centuries — in seven innings.

While Khumalo’s medical bills are covered while he is in hospital, he will likely need access to financial resources once he is discharged. To that end, North Petherton have launched a crowdfunding bid.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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What connects WG Grace, Steve Smith and David Warner?

For the South Africans to resist reminding the Aussies of the ball-tampering scandal at the World Cup will be impossible.

Times Select

TELFORD VICE in London

BRISTOL, birthplace of WG Grace, will soon have another claim to fame. Or should that be a claim to infamy?

It’s there, on June 1, that Australia will play the opening match of their World Cup campaign against newbies Afghanistan.

So it’s in Bristol that David Warner and Steve Smith are likely to appear in an Australia line-up for the first time in a full international since the dark days at Newlands in March last year, when their ball-tampering — and Cameron Bancroft’s — was exposed.

Something like the meltdown of Australian cricket followed, complete with lies, tears, lengthy bans, and morbid introspection by any Aussie who could tell a googly from a thigh pad. And by too many who couldn’t.

How might the prodigals’ return be received? Is cricket ready for them to come back? And will non-Australians play nice and not mention the war? That depends, of course, on who you ask.

Here’s Peter Siddle in an interview in the Guardian: “What they’ve done is done and dusted. Half the time people keep worrying about it because people keep talking about it. I think there’s not much to be talked about.

“They weren’t the first people to ball tamper and, I hate to say it, they’re probably not going to be the last.

“So I don’t think we should keep going on about it. I’m just looking forward to them getting back on the park for Australia and performing the way we know they can.”

Siddle isn’t in Australia’s World Cup squad, but he does have an eye on playing in the Ashes in England in August and September. So he would say that kind of thing, wouldn’t he?

But he didn’t stop there, and warned England supporters of the apparent dangers of taunting Smith and Warner about their sorry recent past.

“It’s probably going to come back and bite the spectators on the bum more so than not by pumping them up, because the boys have got a point to prove and I’m sure they’ll do that with their bats.”

In the real world, people who fall foul of the law aren’t allowed to profit from their crimes. In Siddle’s world, wrongdoers not only use their wrongdoing for their own benefit — they should also not be reminded about it lest that makes them better players. Planet Australia, it seems, is a strange and twisted place.

Smith, Warner and indeed Bancroft have done the crime and served the time and so should not be prevented from being re-admitted to the game. But they cannot expect people who feel differently not to say so. Conversely, those people cannot expect their objection to the players’ return to be paid significant attention.

The Afghans are unlikely to be among the outraged, given that they will be pre-occupied with playing their first ever World Cup match.

In fact, the Aussies are more likely to have had a tougher time of it by then in their warm-up matches against England and Sri Lanka, both in Southampton, on May 25 and 27.

But matters will come to a head in the last match of the entire group stage — at Old Trafford on July 6, when the opponents will be Australia and South Africa.

For Australia to have to confront those dark days at Newlands again, and see several of the same faces from the other side of the fence, could be crippling. For the South Africans to resist reminding them of all that will be impossible: forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting.

Would Grace disapprove? Like the Australians he put himself above his peers when it suited him, reputedly replacing the bails after he had been bowled and batting on, and taking more than his share of the money raised in matches he played in.

But he was also very English in an era when the British thought they ruled the world, which predisposed him to look down on everyone else.

Cricket, like everything else, can do without that attitude. It’s also better off without Australians’ notions of exceptionalism and others’ irrational ideas about the importance of retribution.

The message, then, to all involved at Old Trafford on July 6 is don’t do Grace. Instead, do grace.