Deepak Chahar – Bulletproof Truth

Indian silver gleams for South Africa

“The confidence that he will bring into the team, we look forward to that.” – Temba Bavuma on David Miller.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

EIGHT trophies gleamed behind Temba Bavuma during an online press conference on Tuesday that was conducted from the Wanderers, home of the Lions in South Africa’s domestic competitions. This was no gratuitous display of unearned accolades: Bavuma has been instrumental in winning those prizes.

He played in the Lions’ successful first-class campaigns in 2014/15, 2018/19 — when he captained them — and 2019/20. Bavuma was also part of the Lions’ teams who won the list A title in 2012/13 and 2015/16, and the T20 version in 2012/13, 2018/19 and 2020/21. He led them in the last two of the latter, and scored a century in the 2018/19 final.

Small wonder that, as Bavuma entered the room on Tuesday, he allowed himself a smug smile and made reference to all that sparkling silverware. He will hope to make a similar deposit in a different trophy cabinet in the coming weeks.

Bavuma will lead South Africa in the five T20Is they will play in India from next Thursday to June 19. The South Africans have won and drawn their only two bilateral series in the format in India — in October 2015 and September 2018 — and are no doubt eyeing another victory. With Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah rested for the series, and Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav out because of injuries, the home side would seem ripe for the beating. Bavuma might want to schedule a detour to CSA’s offices — less than three kilometres from the Wanderers — to drop off the trophy on his way home from India.

If only beating India in India was that simple. KL Rahul, who will captain the home side in Sharma’s absence, was the second-highest runscorer in this year’s IPL, which ended on Sunday with Gujarat Titans beating Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in the final in Ahmedabad. Hardik Pandya, who turned in an exemplary performance as a captain and a player to engineer Gujarat’s triumph in their first bite at the biggest cherry in cricket, is also in India’s squad. As is Yuzvendra Chahal, the tournament’s top wicket-taker.

Bavuma knows his opponents will not go quietly, even without some of their most prominent players. “Even though India are resting their main players, it will still be a competitive series,” he said. “The guys in that squad can walk into the Indian team.”

South Africa are not giving their stars a break. David Miller, a vital cog in the Gujarat machine, will be in action. As will Quinton de Kock and Kagiso Rabada, who were third among the IPL’s leading run-scorers and wicket-takers.

Miller had his best IPL yet with 481 runs in 16 innings. He is the subject of an enduring subplot in South African cricket discourse that says he has either not lived up to his potential in an international shirt or not been given enough opportunities to shine for the national team.

Gujarat, this theory goes, got the best out of Miller by entrusting him with more responsibility. There is evidence for this argument in the fact that Miller batted at No. 5 in 13 of his innings for Gujarat. That’s in 86.67% of his trips to the crease for them. In his 83 T20I innings for South Africa, Miller has batted at No. 5 only 34 times: 40.96%. Or less than half as often as he filled that position for Gujarat.

Bavuma brings intelligence and sensitivity to the delicate business of captaincy, attributes that could be important in the cause of keeping Miller’s form flaming. “The confidence that he will bring into the team, we look forward to that,” Bavuma said of the lusty left-hander. “He has performed exceedingly well at the IPL and I’m sure that will do a world of good for his confidence and whatever feelings of insecurity that might be there. The conversations that I have had with David, he has never expressed those types of feelings to me.

“David is still an integral member within our team and we trust his performances will continue well into the future. In terms of him batting a bit longer, that has always been the conversation over the years when David has done well. He understands where he fits in within the team. If he feels he can add more value in a different position, a conversation can be had in that regard. There is no way we are going to stifle him or restrict David in any manner. That’s how we try to treat all the players. We try to set them up in positions where they can succeed and make strong plays for the team.”

That 17 players made more runs in the IPL than Aiden Markram, who scored 381 in a dozen innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad, might not seem worth noting. But it is in light of the fact that, in the same number of innings across the formats for South Africa before he went to the tournament, Markram made just 191 runs. Or just more than half his aggregate at the IPL, which may have given him his game back just in time for the T20I series.

But Dewald Brevis, who celebrated his 19th birthday during the IPL and scored 161 runs in seven innings for Mumbai Indians, is not in the squad. Bavuma wasn’t fussed by that: “In all fairness to him, he hasn’t played a first-class game. In terms of expectation but also to allow the boy to grow within his game, it would be fair to allow him to play a couple of first-class games where he can really get an understanding of his game. It will be a lot of pressure to throw him into the international set-up and expect him to make plays. He will be treated like any other exciting young prospect who comes onto the scene. He should be given time and space to hone his game within the system and ease into the international side of things.”

Several of the other players Bavuma will have at his disposal in India will be raring to go, having spent much of the IPL on the bench. Marco Jansen featured in eight games, Anrich Nortjé and Dwaine Pretorius in six each, Rassie van der Dussen in three, Tristan Stubbs in two, and Lungi Ngidi in none at all. Bavuma, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, Wayne Parnell and Tabraiz Shamsi — the members of the squad who were not at the IPL — haven’t picked up a bat or ball in anger since April or May.

“From a mental point of view, in terms of wanting to play, I don’t think we will be falling short,” Bavuma said. “As a professional cricketer, you have to find a way to mentally, physically get yourself into the right space to be able to perform. Those guys who went to the IPL and didn’t get much opportunity to play will maybe want to prove something.”

Something that says they know what to do to put another trophy in the cabinet.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Here be South Africa’s giants

“It’s been a challenging period for the team; for players, for particular members of management.” – Temba Bavuma

Telford Vice | Cape Town

SOME people look at Temba Bavuma and see a cricketer. Others see a South African. Still others see a black South African cricketer. Kevin Pietersen famously said it isn’t easy being him. He should try being Bavuma.

Particularly at a time when the world outside the dressing room seems to be trying to destroy much of what Bavuma and his teammates have achieved in recent months. So there was no surprise when a bent question about how easy or difficult it might be to captain South Africa met with a straight answer.

“There’s a lot of dynamics that you need to manage,” Bavuma told an online press conference at Newlands on Sunday. “For me the biggest thing is trying to keep cricket the main focus amongst the guys. I hate to bring this up but it’s been a challenging period for the team; for players, for particular members of management. There’s been a lot of scrutiny surrounding the team and the organisation.

“To manage the conversations that happen within the changing room, to ensure that our energies are 100% geared towards performing out there, that’s been the biggest challenge. It’s been a big responsibility but it’s also been a privilege. It’s not easy leading a South African national team.”

The unmentioned rhino in the room was Mark Boucher, whose disciplinary hearing on charges of gross misconduct is set to start on Wednesday. Boucher stands accused of nothing less than racism, that, if proven, could end his international coaching career — which after a damp start and a slow gathering of momentum, has caught fire in the shape of Test and ODI series victories against an India team who came to South Africa as outright favourites.

But those successes cannot stand in the way of justice being done. If Boucher is found guilty, there must be consequences. If he is considered guilty enough to warrant being fired, that must happen. If he is guilty but not terminally so, he will be deserving of a lesser sentence. If he is acquitted, so be it. In any eventuality, his record as a coach and what he might yet achieve in that capacity must not come into the equation.

CSA’s board are divided on the issue. The remnants of the chronically dysfunctional structure, replaced in June by a majority independent board, are adamant Boucher must go. The rest either support Boucher or are taking the objective view and putting their trust in the disciplinary process. It’s difficult to imagine the players aren’t also conflicted. Some no doubt won’t understand why he is in trouble. Others will want the matter cleared up, one way or the other, at the hearing and for this damaging darkness to go away.

The external tensions over Boucher, which have sparked ever more shrill and outrageous dialogue, for and against, on social media, make Bavuma all the more worthy of praise. Having delivered two half-centuries and three unbeaten knocks in the Test series, in which he topped the averages, he scored a century in the first ODI. The responsibility of hanging tough in the Test team’s batting order against India — he featured in four of South Africa’s nine half-century stands in the series — and of leading the ODI side would seem to have enhanced Bavuma’s own game.

“I enjoy captaincy, and I guess that is the knock-off benefit that it has — it seems to have shown in my own performances,” he said. “With captaincy there’s a lot of thinking. I enjoy the tactical side of things. That flows into your own performance. I’m clearer as to what I’m trying to do. I’m always trying to assess the situation and come up with solutions and plan how to counter those situations.”

Bavuma’s ODI side not only played well, they played as if they had their eyes on a higher prize. And as if they were a happy team. How much of the credit for that belongs to Boucher? How much to Bavuma? And how much to a pair of leaders who, despite their obvious and less than obvious differences, have plenty in common?

We cannot know. But we do know that captain and coach were on the same page after South Africa squeaked to a four-run win in Cape Town on Sunday to seal a whitewash in the ODI series. “We wanted to win 3-0,” Boucher told an online press conference. “We’ve been through the hard times, and only once you’ve done that do you appreciate the good times. So we will appreciate this, but our feet will be firmly on the ground. Because this is just the journey of this team so far. We’ve got a captain in ‘Tems’ who is really demanding about results, which is good.”

South Africa were averaging a touch more than a run-a-ball an over when Jasprit Bumrah had Quinton de Kock caught in the deep for 124 in the 36th over. They didn’t score as many as six runs an over for the rest of their innings, and lost their last seven wickets for 73. Then, with India reduced to 195/5 in the 38th over in pursuit of a target of 288, Deepak Chahar arrived to hammer 54 off 34 and narrow the gap between the teams to a sliver.

“Today we let it slip with the bat,” Boucher said. “We got a speed wobble trying to go too hard too early and we were probably 25 runs short. Then, when we had the game sort of won with the ball, maybe we took our foot off the gas.

That South Africa prevailed came down to the bounce of the ball. Or did it? “It’s nice to learn these lessons while you’re winning,” Boucher said. “On another day we probably wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to get back into the game. When things are not going for you, you tend to lose games like that. When it’s going for you, and you’ve got confidence behind you, winning games like that is special.”

The people who win them, on and off the field, have to be special, too. When you look at them, you’re seeing giants.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Imperfect De Kock’s perfect game

“He’s got a daughter now, who he’s probably looking forward to getting back to. That puts life into perspective.” – Mark Boucher on Quinton de Kock.

Telford Vice | Newlands

THERE were no mad dogs and precious few Englishmen about, but too many others went out in the pre and post midday sun for their own good at Newlands on Sunday. Quinton de Kock, for instance, batted for nine minutes short of three hours and then kept wicket for close on four hours.

That added up to more than six-and-a-half hours of daring the weather to undo you on one of the hottest weekends the Western Cape has yet experienced. And that, mind, in long trousers and long sleeves, much of the time wearing a helmet, and all of the time in gloves. At least, if we’re looking for positives, De Kock was in minimal danger of sunburn.

In time terms he was at the crease for a mite more than 70% of South Africa’s innings and, of course, for all of India’s. Of the 595 fair deliveries that constituted the match, De Kock was involved, in some way or another, for 426 of them. That level of fortitude, along with his 124, the fact that he neither dropped a catch nor missed a stumping, and didn’t concede a single bye culminated in, to borrow from baseball, a perfect game.

Infamously, De Kock abandoned his Test career after the first match of India’s tour, at Centurion — where the visitors won. How would South Africa cope without their only remaining proven world class batter? Just fine, as things turned out. They won at the Wanderers in rousing fashion and, less dramatically in the fresh knowledge that they could do it but just as solidly, at Newlands to claim the Test series. The ODI rubber was in the bag after the first two ODIs, on Wednesday and Friday in Paarl. That marked the first time India had lost four matches on one tour to South Africa. Sunday’s win — by four runs, with the Indians dismissed for 283 with four balls left in the match — earned the South Africans five consecutive victories for the first time since they beat Sri Lanka 5-0 in a home ODI series in March 2019.

Until No. 7 Deepak Chahar — playing his first match of the series, which showed in a good way — set about his 34-ball 54 on Sunday, the Indians had looked about as keen to play the ODIs as they might anticipating a dental appointment. Who could blame them: as the matches did not carry World Cup Super League points, it’s as if they didn’t exist. Or shouldn’t have existed. The South Africans, buoyed by the wave of their unexpected success over the world No. 1 team in the Tests, almost couldn’t stop continuing to win.

De Kock made 78 on Friday, which was even hotter than Sunday, and his performance in the third match had much to do with his team being able to complete a whitewash. On Wednesday, De Kock had looked primed for bigger things when R Ashwin cut him off at 27 by rattling his off stump with an arm-ball. But no-one piled up more runs in the series than De Kock: 229 at an average of 76.33 and a strike rate of 96.62. That and the ice-cool Andile Phehlukwayo, who finished as the rubber’s top wicket-taker with six, and at the leading average of 18.33, did more than anything to seal the deal.

As if he has never been away, much less missed being part of two epic Test triumphs, De Kock returned and opened a tap of runs. He played with childlike abandon; like we all do. In our dreams. There’s something about the huntin’, fishin’, outdoorsy kid he will always be in his follow-through; his bat laying long and languid down his back. We saw a lot of that in these three games.

And it was good to see. Cricket is chronically short on adults, on people who take responsibility not only for their own lives but also for those of their nearest and dearest. De Kock’s decision to stop playing Tests because, as he explained, he was becoming a father put him among the grown ups in the dressing room. That he has been able to come back to at least part of the world he knew, and do so emphatically well, and be the boy he used to be into the bargain, is his reward.

“If you look at ‘Quinny’ as a person, when he’s freed his mind up that’s probably when he plays his best cricket,” Mark Boucher told an online press conference. “It was great to see him come out and play the way that we all know ‘Quinny’ can play; the way that he has been when he’s at his best. He’s got that sort of freedom about his game. You can’t have all six of your batters play like that, but you can certainly have one or two. On their day, if they score a hundred, more often than not they’re going to win you a game.

“It’s great to see ‘Quinny’ back and smiling again. He’s got a daughter now, who he’s probably looking forward to getting back to. That puts life into perspective, as a lot of people who are dads will know.”

Perspective. Boucher knows all about that after a week in which he was served with papers for a disciplinary hearing starting on Wednesday on charges that could cost him his job. Coming so soon after he had helped his team win the Test series, and before the start of the ODIs — but years after his victim, Paul Adams, had been racially abused by the language of a dressing room song sung by a team that included Boucher — the sweetness of Sunday’s win would have been tinged with bitterness. Or had it?

“I think you’ll appreciate I can’t answer that,” Boucher said. “Not now, in any case.” Maybe he will once it’s all over and his fate is known. Maybe once the whole picture is painted, not just edited to suit whichever narrative. Maybe when he knows what it feels like to be a boy again. Maybe once mad dogs and Englishmen stop going out in the midday sun.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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All dots, no dashes in Ngidi’s perfect over to Williamson

“Dhoni didn’t have much to say. But my cricket made a lot of progress a lot because I was being led by someone who didn’t tell me what to do.” – Lungi Ngidi

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

OF all the 477.4 overs bowled in IPL finals only six have been scoreless. Lungi Ngidi owns one of those heroic half-dozens. He shared the new ball with Deepak Chahar for Chennai Super Kings against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mumbai in the 2018 showdown and sent down six spotless deliveries to Kane Williamson in his second over on his way to figures of 4-1-26-1. Curiously, only half the bowlers in this club, founded by Makhaya Ntini in 2008, ended up on the winning side. Ngidi is among them. Here he recounts his experience of playing in the biggest game of the biggest cricket competition in the world:

South Africans never play in front of home crowds as big and as boisterous as those the IPL draws, a truth that would have been evident to Ngidi long before he helped CSK reach the final. Not just another game, then …

“Playing in any final is pretty nerve-racking, but it was probably one of the worst for me just knowing how many people were watching around the world and how many people were in the stadium. That’s why it would be one of the most exciting but also one of the most nerve-racking games for me. It felt different from the other matches I played because I knew what was on the line. When you’re still playing the group stages you don’t know where you’re going to end up. But once it gets to the play-offs you know either you win or you’re out. So there’s jitters. It’s not as easy to sleep. You can’t sit still. You’re playing the game in your head over and over. There’s a lot going on. There’s so much hype as the day approaches. There’s always a crowd of people at the hotel. It’s a pretty big day, but the best part is getting to the ground. Because then you know it’s pretty much gametime. It’s the waiting that kills you. The night before, you’re so anxious about what’s going to happen tomorrow you end up thinking about it so much that you forget what time it is. Eventually you realise and understand that you should probably get to bed!”

MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Ravindra Jadeja, Imran Tahir, Suresh Raina, Murali Vijay — CSK aren’t often short of big names, and 2018 was no different.

“Among the senior CSK players I was close to Faf, having played under him as a captain. I found it easier to communicate with him, but it wasn’t difficult to talk with all the other big names. They give insight where they feel they should. That was the most helpful thing about having so many senior guys around. They know that they don’t need to give too much information, but they will give you what they can when they feel you need it. I was never bombarded with information. And if I needed anything I was always more than welcome to ask them. It was a very comfortable environment. Dhoni, for instance, didn’t have much to say. But my cricket made a lot of progress a lot because I was being led by someone who didn’t tell me what to do. I think he captains on gut feel, or how he thinks the game is going to go. So he’ll change the field sometimes, and as player you need to understand where his mind his — where he wants you to bowl — just by the change in the field. That helped my game grow a lot in terms of me not needing to be told what to do when the situation changes. I can see for myself by the movement in the field what balls I need to bowl and what balls I shouldn’t bowl. That helped me a great deal.”

Dhoni had played in seven of the 10 previous finals, Raina in six, and Bravo, Jadeja and Vijay in four each. Did that calm the situation or serve to ramp up the tension?

“The mood was different on the day of the final. There were a lot of senior players and a lot of them had played in finals, even World Cup finals. They had pretty much done it all in cricket. They were very relaxed. It was actually unsettling at times because I didn’t know if they were taking it seriously! That’s how calm they were, and it rubbed off on me. I thought to myself, ‘You know what, you’ve got nothing to worry about’. We had played good cricket leading up to that point. So I knew that if I just kept doing what I had been doing everything would be OK.”

How about that outrageous over to Williamson?

“You set yourself targets. Within two overs in the powerplay I don’t want to go for more than 15. I went for eight runs in my first over, which is pretty decent in T20 cricket in the powerplay. In my second over, after the first two dot balls, my gameplan started to change — I knew Kane [Williamson] would either try to attack or get off strike. But I got more dot balls. After the fourth ball I just wanted to close out the over well. Another two dot balls and it was a maiden. I wasn’t really thinking about that at the time. I was just happy that I had gotten through the over unscathed! He could have put the last ball through the covers but it was fielded. It was a relief, but I also wasn’t too worried. Even if he got four, it’s obviously not something you want but I’ll take it in that kind of match situation.”

Ngidi has yet to reach 20 in an innings in any form of the game at senior level. So the prospects of him winning the game with the bat weren’t good. Happily for him and CSK, it didn’t come to that: Shane Watson’s undefeated 117 guided them to an eight-wicket triumph with nine balls unbowled. A match earlier, things hadn’t been that uncomplicated.

“As the game went on I thought about the possibility of having to bat. In the playoff, also against Sunrisers, Faf finished it off for us. We needed six off the last over and I was in next. That was nerve-racking because I hadn’t batted in the rest of the tournament. I pretty much didn’t need my batting kit — I used to take only my bowling spikes to training. You don’t want to walk in as the No. 11 with the game on the line in the final! Besides, I had done my job earlier: come on batsmen, do your job now. I’m very grateful and very happy it didn’t come down to me having to bat to win the game.”

How hearty was the party afterwards?

“Our celebration was very shortlived because we had to catch a flight three or four hours after the game. So it was get the trophy, take a few pictures, have a few drinks with the guys, sing the team song, and then we were out.”

Ngidi’s economy rate of 6.00 for the 2018 tournament is the third-best in the history of the event, and he was the only seamer in the top five in those terms that year.

“I was successful in that tournament because I was able to adapt very quickly. People always talk about Indian wickets and how well the Indian batsmen play on them, but the video analysis we had done — Eric Simons, our coach, was fantastic — helped me keep it all very simple. Sometimes, as a youngster, you try to do too much too early. But Eric broke it down for me in basic terms: it’s the IPL, so batsmen will try to come after you. You’ve got to have gameplans to counter that. I bowled hard back-of-a-length, slower ball, and yorker. Basically, I was only thinking about those three balls. The main main thing for a bowler is when to bowl which ball. I think I got that spot on during that tournament, which is why I was able to do pretty well.”

Ngidi turned 24 on March 29. Thus he would seem to have several more IPL campaigns to look forward to once the global coronavirus lockdown ends and something like normality resumes.

“I’d love to go back. I enjoyed the Chennai changeroom, just being around those guys. They were so competitive. It was really good for my cricket, a step in the right direction. I got a lot of confidence from that and I can only see my game growing by going back there.”

First published by Cricbuzz.