Eoin Morgan – Bulletproof Truth

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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SA’s push comes to England’s shove

“We’ve always spoken about being flexible, and looking at the players that we have in the team, I felt that I could do a role up front but I could also do a role in the middle order.” – Temba Bavuma

Telford Vice | Cape Town

LOSING is unlikely to stop England from finishing at the top of the Group 1 standings. Winning may not be enough to earn South Africa a place in the semi-finals. The contrasts between these teams, who clash in the last of their T20 World Cup group games in Sharjah on Saturday, don’t end there.

Unbeaten England have been a juggernaut, dismissing West Indies for 55 and Australia for 125, and never losing more than four wickets. South Africa, beaten by the Aussies with two balls remaining, scraped home with a delivery to spare against Sri Lanka.

Going into Friday’s games, Jos Buttler’s 67-ball 101 not out against Sri Lanka in Sharjah on Monday was the tournament’s only century. Aiden Markram’s 51 not out against the Windies in Dubai last Tuesday is not just the South Africans’ top score but their only half-century at an event where 35 other efforts of 50 or more have been recorded.

South Africa’s bowlers, particularly Anrich Nortjé and Dwaine Pretorius, have kept their team’s play-off hopes alive with their respective returns of eight wickets at an economy rate of 4.56 and seven at 6.08. England don’t have a bowler among the top 10 wicket-takers, but Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan, Chris Woakes and Liam Livingstone are all operating at less than a run-a-ball.

Expect the key contest to be between England’s batters and South Africa’s bowlers, although the absence through a thigh injury of Tymal Mills, the most successful seamer in the English squad, should even those odds a touch.

The English have roared off into the brave new world of white-ball cricket, swinging their bats innovatively and their bowling arms cannily. South Africa, particularly at the batting crease, have looked like an ODI side from the mid-1990s; content to nudge and nurdle their way to a defendable total or a successful chase using good old cricket strokes.

England have reeled off five consecutive T20I wins against South Africa, all of them since February last year, and have lost only one of their last 10 games in the format. Whichever way you spin it, Eoin Morgan’s side will be heavily favoured to add a fifth victory to the four they have achieved at the tournament. And yet …

This South African team are unlike those who have gone before. They arrived unfancied, they have not panicked, and they are winning without much help from their stars — Quinton de Kock has yet to fire and Kagiso Rabada was off his mark for three games before he took 3/20 against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

South Africa are having a much better time of it than they did the last time their men’s team were at a World Cup: the 50-over version in England in 2019, when they lost five of their eight completed games and were out of the running before the end of the group stage. So reaching the semis would be a welcome over-achievement.

England and Australia are currently in the semi-final positions, but should the Aussies stumble in Saturday’s earlier match — against the Windies in Abu Dhabi — and South Africa win, England and South Africa will advance. If Australia win and South Africa lose, the Australians will join England in the final four. Victory for both the Aussies and the South Africans would leave the matter in the hands of net runrate. At least South Africa, by dint of playing in the later game, would know how quickly they would need to score to nudge past the Australians. Only England, whose booming NRR of 3.183 is more than three times Australia’s, would seem secure.

Seven of the 10 IPL games in Sharjah this year were won by the team batting second, as have five of the ground’s seven T20 World Cup matches. Three of the latter have been day/nighters, and two of them went to the side fielding first.

The smart money will be on an England win. Happily for South Africa, a lot of money isn’t smart.

When: England vs South Africa, Super 12 Group 1, 14:00 Local, 16:00 SAST

Where: Sharjah Cricket Stadium

What to expect: Don’t believe everything you read about this ground being a batter’s graveyard. The truth is runs flow faster per over in T20Is in Sharjah (7.23) than in Dubai (7.10) or Abu Dhabi (7.18). How the runs are scored on Saturday will be influenced by the fact that the pitch to be used is only two strips from the edge of the table. So one of the square boundaries will be significantly shorter than the other.

T20I Head to Head: England 11-9 South Africa (1 no result; 2-3 in World T20 games)

Team Watch:

England

Injury/Availability Concerns: Tymal Mills was ruled out of the rest of the tournament earlier this week, which means there will be at least once change to England’s team. Mark Wood, who has been struggling with an ankle issue, came through a training session on Thursday and will need to do the same again on Friday in order to be considered to play. David Willey is the other option to come into the team.

Tactics & Matchups: England played far more aggressively against Sri Lanka’s pacers in their last match as the slowness of the Sharjah surface made taking slow bowling on far trickier. Sri Lanka’s spinners conceded just 34 runs from their combined eight overs. England could adopt a similar approach against South Africa too, by sitting in against Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj and trying to attack the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortjé.

Probable XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (wk), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan (c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Mark Wood/David Willey, Adil Rashid

South Africa

Injury/Availability Concerns: Somehow Temba Bavuma’s thumb, Tabraiz Shamsi’s groin, David Miller’s calf and Quinton de Kock’s previously unbent knee are all holding up. Clearly the magic spray really is magical. All are fit and accounted for.

Tactics & Matchups: Quinton de Kock remains South Africa’s most dangerous batter, even though he hasn’t scored more than 16 in any of his three innings in the tournament. If he strikes form South Africa will undergo a batting revolution. With Kagiso Rabada having rediscovered his mojo against Bangladesh on Tuesday, and Anrich Nortjé boasting the best economy rate in the tournament for bowlers who have sent down at least 15 overs, the South Africans could have the most potent pace pair in the business.

Probable XI: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma (c), David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortjé, Tabraiz Shamsi

Did you know?

No team have lost fewer wickets in the tournament than England’s dozen. And no team have taken more wickets than the 39 claimed by England.

What they said:

“One of the things that makes me extremely proud is that regardless of how well we’ve done or how poorly we’ve done, guys have always wanted to get better. They’re not really that interested in standing still or spending too much time reflecting on what has been and gone. They want to continue to get better because they know that once you lose that drive in trying to achieve things individually and as a team, it has a big repercussion effect on the wider game and throughout our country.” – Eoin Morgan

“We’ve really had to graft as a batting unit. We’ve always spoken about being flexible, and looking at the players that we have in the team, I felt that I could do a role up front but I could also do a role in the middle order. We’ve had a guy like Rassie [van der Dussen] go in earlier because we know if he has the opportunity to face a considerable amount of balls he can really put a bowling attack under pressure. A guy like Reeza [Hendricks] has come off well recently at the top of the order. So we’re trying to utilise that form.” – Temba Bavuma

(With inputs from Rob Johnston)

First published by Cricbuzz.

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CSA boss slams ‘negative’ England

“There is an awkward narrative coming out that third world countries can’t manage these things properly. In my view, we have been managing the virus much better than England has been.” – Zak Yacoob, CSA interim board chair

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

THE leader of CSA’s interim board has slammed England for abandoning their tour of South Africa. Eoin Morgan’s squad were scheduled to leave the country on Thursday with half of the six white-ball games they were supposed to play postponed indefinitely.

Zak Yacoob, the retired judge who chairs the board, has called that decision “negative”, rejected the theory that South Africa’s Covid-19 protocols were not up to standard, and said South Africa’s players resented their opponents being afforded what was considered preferential treatment. He stopped short of demanding an apology from the English.

Seven positive tests for the virus among members of the South African and English squads, as well as two staff members at the Vineyard hotel in Cape Town where the players and their support staff were staying in a bio-secure environment, were announced after England arrived on November 17. The two cases in the England camp were later declared false positives.

England won the T20I series 3-0, but the start of the ODI rubber was delayed three times in four days because of positive tests. That prompted England’s players to drive the decision to scupper the tour.

“What I want to negate is the idea that our provision of services was sub-standard, and that there is any justification for the English saying that they did not want to participate and going home,” Yacoob told an online press conference on Thursday. “The facts are that ultimately [England] were negative.”

Yacoob was adamant CSA’s anti-virus measures were up to scratch: “We have gone into our protocols, and we think that [they] have been very good. There may have been an issue of psychological troubles. People may have felt nervous and complicated about the false positives, and so on. We do not wish to blame the English, but we wish to say absolutely and completely that any notion that they went away was our fault is completely wrong.”

South Africa has around half the coronavirus infection rate compared to the United Kingdom, a fact not lost on Yacoob: “There is an awkward narrative coming out that third world countries can’t manage these things properly. In my view, we have been managing the virus much better than England has been.”

The visitors took a dim view of South Africa’s squad gathering for a barbecue on the first evening that the parties were in the bubble. But whereas a small number of the South Africans took to the golf course once, CSA has confirmed that some of the English played golf on eight separate days at five different courses between 13 kilometres and 72 kilometres away from the hotel.

Yacoob suggested England recognise they were more privileged than their hosts: “The only criticism [of the protocols] I can make is that we were too lax with the English and their desire to do things that, in our strict view, they shouldn’t be doing. Unfortunately we were stronger in preventing our players from doing things and we allowed the visitors a little more laxity. We favoured the visitors just a little, not enough to compromise the thing. The problem with that was that it did give rise to some feelings of unfairness as far as our players were concerned. The board regretted that a great deal.”

England were also accused of violating virus protocols by training in an out-of-bounds area at Newlands. They said the practice facilities that were provided were “unacceptable” and that they had created “a security cordon to ensure the players and coaches could enter the facility safely”.

Did Yacoob want the ECB to say sorry for the tour going awry? “I don’t think we want an apology from anyone, but if they say lies about us we will defend ourselves. I’m prepared to leave it on the basis that we do understand, although it is sometimes difficult for us to understand, the sensitivities of the matter. We’ve got this virus for the first time and we do understand how people can get put off. Therefore we have to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

Sri Lanka are due to arrive in South Africa next week to play two Tests, but there has been speculation that SLC wanted the series moved to Sri Lanka or postponed. Yacoob said he was “95% certain” the Lankans would keep their end of the bargain. He was less sure about Australia, who are scheduled to tour for three Tests in February and March: “It depends on what Australia thinks is in its political interest. Australia is a powerhouse in cricket, and powerful people are usually laws unto themselves.”

Reports have said CA are considering asking CSA to move the series to Perth, but Graeme Smith, CSA’s director of cricket, said conversations had yet to start: “We’re only having our first operational planning meeting with CA next week. There’s been no engagement up until this point.”

As Yacoob was appointed by Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of sport, he is free to kick a hole in the company line, rather than toe it, without some CSA suit trying to rein him in. And it’s bracingly refreshing to hear someone attached to an organisation known for weasel wording its way into and out of almost every situation voice their views with such strength and clarity. But he may want to spare a thought for people like Smith, who could have to clear the air of tetchiness when next he speaks to his English and Australian counterparts.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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1st ODI preview: More breathing room for SA, but England still favourites

Not having players of the calibre of Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Dawid Malan when you’re winning is easily preferable to being without stars like Faf du Plessis and Kagiso Rabada when you’re losing.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

Before the T20I series, South Africans of a particular bent would have argued that England are not the men’s 2019 World Cup champions. That they are merely the holders; the caretakers, even.

It’s true that Eoin Morgan’s team didn’t win the final against New Zealand, and ended up being given the trophy by dint of an obscure technicality. If England are champions of anything it’s of the boundary count. Nothing else. What happened on the podium at Lord’s on July 14 last year was not unlike a team being awarded a football trophy because they earned more corner kicks than the other lot.

But South Africans who would be so bold — or so pigheaded — are suddenly thin on the ground. Their team are peddling the theory that the T20Is weren’t as one-sided as they seemed. Really? England won by five wickets, four wickets and nine wickets. Two matches went into the last over, but it is folly to suggest that South Africa weren’t struggling to stay in the contest with the visitors in every game. England batted better, bowled better, and thought better.

Will the ODIs be different? Perhaps not, say the portents. England have sent home Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Dawid Malan, Sam Curran and Chris Jordan. Joe Root, Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone, Olly Stone and Lewis Gregory have joined the squad. South Africa are resting Faf du Plessis and releasing Pite van Biljon, Bjorn Fortuin and Reeza Hendricks. Injuries have taken Kagiso Rabada and Dwaine Pretorius out of the running.

Not having players of the calibre of Stokes, Archer and Malan when you’re winning is easily preferable to being without stars like Du Plessis and Rabada when you’re losing. So, as in the T20Is, England will start this series in pole position.

The bright side for the South Africans is that they will have more room to breathe and assess scenarios, and plot and play accordingly. The English will, too, of course. But by the look of them they don’t need it.

A greater threat to their focus could be the curiously intense exploration of the sideshow that is the signs displaying numbers that were on England’s balcony while they was in the field during the T20Is and will be again in the ODI series. They are intended to convey messages from analyst Nathan Leamon to Eoin Morgan. As Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach, said on Thursday, this is nothing new — Corrie van Zyl did it years ago when he coached the Knights. But the way it’s being written up and talked up, you would have thought Leamon had decoded the coronavirus itself.

South Africans will look for more engagement from Quinton de Kock and their other senior players. The way everyone left Lutho Sipamla twisting in the wind all alone while he was being hammered for 45 runs in 2.4 overs at Newlands on Tuesday was painful to watch. The home side’s supporters will also want to see their bowlers avoiding blow-out overs like the one in which Beuran Hendricks went for 24 in the first T20I at Newlands last Friday. And for the batters not to get out after establishing themselves, as happened all too often in the T20Is.

England? The 2019 World Cup caretakers, err, holders? Keep on keeping on. Now with extra breathing room.

When: Friday December 4, 2020. 1pm Local Time

Where: Newlands, Cape Town

What to expect: A faster pitch than was seen in the two T20Is played at the ground. And more pressure on calling correctly at the toss: teams who have batted first have won 24 of the 33 day/night ODIs played at Newlands. Fielding first has been the successful option in only nine day/nighters. It’s got to do with an abundance of moisture in night air, apparently.

Team news

South Africa

With Faf du Plessis and Kagiso Rabada out and Andile Phehlukwayo and David Miller uncertain starters, South Africa are in a hole. George Linde deserves an ODI debut, which would give him a full set of caps.

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Janneman Malan, Jon-Jon Smuts, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, George Linde, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortjé, Tabraiz Shamsi

England

Eoin Morgan confirmed that England would name their team on the morning of the game as he wants more time to look at the wicket. Joe Root and Chris Woakes will certainly come into the side after not being a part of the T20 squad while Jofra Archer, Sam Curran and Ben Stokes have been rested from this series. How England balance the side without Stokes remains to be seen. They could go in with just five bowlers.

Possible XI: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Tom Curran, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid

“In T20 cricket you’re dealing with a pressure situation whenever you put your hand to the pump. In 50-over cricket it’s still high intensity but it’s over a longer period. So batters will take their time to try and settle in, and it gives bowlers time to get into a rhythm.” — Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach, looks forward to things slowing down a touch.

“There’s always been constant communication, verbal or physical, from the changing room to us on the field to help improve my decisions as captain and Joss’ [Buttler] decisions as vice-captain to try and correlate the feeling of the flow of the game and what we think are the right decisions against the data that we’ve already researched coming into the game and, as the game progresses, how that might change.” — Eoin Morgan comes up with a 69-word sentence to explain those damn flashcards.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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1st T20I preview: Focus on SA’s uncertainties

“The guys are ready to go and help change what’s been going on around cricket in South Africa.” – Quinton de Kock

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

THIRTY-SIX matches of men’s international cricket have been played since England and West Indies brought the game back from the worldwide Covid-19 lockdown in Southampton on July 8. None of those contests have featured South Africa.

That will change at Newlands on Friday, when Quinton de Kock’s team are set to take on England in the first of three T20Is, which are to be followed by three ODIs. If it seems as if everything else in the world has also changed since South Africa were last on the field in March, that’s because it has. From the pandemic to the race debate that exploded in the country as part of the global Black Lives Matter uprising to the heights the internecine strife at CSA has reached, nothing is as it was. About the only thing that hasn’t moved is that South Africa still haven’t appointed a Test captain to succeed Faf du Plessis, who stepped down in February

How will South Africa respond to all that uncertainty on the field on Friday? Having angered many by saying they will not take knee to show their opposition to racial injustice — but also released an impassioned statement pledging their commitment to anti-racism — the pressure to perform well will be significant. The prize is that nothing relegates the real world and issues above and beyond cricket to the sidelines as effectively as victory, the more thumping the better.

But the South Africans will be up against it. De Kock, Faf du Plessis, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortjé and Lungi Ngidi featured in the IPL, but David Miller is the only member of the rest of the squad who has played a T20 since February. Five last saw action in the format in December.

England, by contrast, have played 18 matches, six in each format, since helping to restart cricket in Southampton in July — when they did take a knee. They have won three of their five completed T20s, which includes a series success over Australia at home in September.

Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow were their major batters in that rubber, and Adil Rashid was their most successful bowler in terms of wickets and economy. That should change in South African conditions, where Jofra Archer and Mark Wood will be key threats.

It’s tempting to cast the series as a battle of the quicks, what with South Africa throwing Rabada and Nortjé into the fray. But T20 is a batter’s game, and the difference is far more likely to be made by big hitters like Buttler and Ben Stokes. In that department, South Africa will bank on De Kock and Janneman Malan. The more measured batting will come from Eoin Morgan and Du Plessis.

England must start as favourites. The South Africans will hope the energy they have conserved while being locked down all these months will boost their chances. But that’s not the way these things tend to pan out. Even so, right now just getting onto the field will feel like winning for the home side.

When: Friday November 27, 2020. 6pm Local Time

Where: Newlands, Cape Town

What to expect: A desolate building site. Capetonians like to talk up their cricket ground as the game’s Nirvana. Not right now. With more cranes than spectators in the place — a major redevelopment has collided with Covid-19 regulations banning crowds — it looks more like a scene from a dystopian movie. But Table Mountain is still there, and the pitch is still the pitch: fair and balanced, with enough zip to keep the seamers interested and enough zap to allow batters to play freely.

Team news

South Africa

Allrounder Dwaine Pretorius is out of both series with a hamstring injury he picked up in training. He will not be replaced in the squad.

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma, Faf du Plessis, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Anrich Nortjé, Kagiso Rabada, Lutho Sipamla, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.

England

England will announce their team at the toss as they wait to see whether the groundsman takes more grass off the surface. The main decision is whether Sam Curran or Moeen Ali takes the number seven spot, with the former in better recent form but the latter providing England with a second spin option. While the identity of the top six is more or less settled, the order in which they will bat remains to be seen. The only certainty appears to be that Jos Buttler will open with Jason Roy. After that, it’s anyone’s guess.

Possible XI: Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Eoin Morgan, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid.

“The guys are ready to go and help change what’s been going on around cricket in South Africa. We’re the leaders, and we’re going to try and lead from the front.” — Quinton de Kock on the more important issues than cricket afoot in the game in South Africa.

“There are very few times you play sport or contribute to things when people actually really need it. Given the circumstances, how bad they still are, particularly at home, it’s important for us to go out there and hopefully put on a bit of a show.” — Eoin Morgan gets it.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Another decider, another defeat

“He’s a discussion in the media and in the public. He is no discussion for me.” – Mark Boucher on the possible return of AB de Villiers to international level.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

AGAIN there was almost no separating the teams. Again a close contest ensued. Again the crowd wen’t home richly entertained. But weasel words like almost, close and entertained don’t cut it. The stone cold truth is South Africa haven’t won any of their last seven series — a bleak sequence that started almost 11 months ago and includes their dismal World Cup campaign.

England’s five-wicket win in the deciding T20 at Centurion on Sunday means they go home with two trophies. Good thing, perhaps, that the second of the three ODIs was washed out: a clean sweep would be too much. Already, it’s difficult to stomach the fact that South Africa lost their way after winning the first match in each of the three rubbers.

Sunday’s pill was particularly difficult to swallow. Despite scintillating batting by Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller to put up only the second score of 200 or more at this ground, they still weren’t good enough. Eoin Morgan tried to make the South Africans feel better by starting his post-match television interview with: “It was a hell of a game.” Not for everybody, pal. For some, it was simply hell. De Kock offered: “We were confident but we knew it was a great pitch.” Not only that, the outfield was as slick as an ice-rink and the thin Highveld air offered no resistance to the scything ball. Nearly a third of all the total runs flowed in fours. More than a third soared in sixes.

“It’s the way the game is going,” Mark Boucher shrugged his shoulders and told reporters. “The guys play with no fear. That’s something we encourage as well although you need facilities to be in your favour to go out and play like that. On the day you might have to play a different way; try and be smart because your awareness has to be good to exploit what the conditions offer you. It’s a ‘free your mind and hit the ball’ sort of game at the moment.”

None of South Africa’s bowlers escaped Centurion with an economy rate in single figures. Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin were mauled for more than two runs a delivery. South Africa’s bowling has improved significantly under Charl Langeveldt but his charges failed him this time.

“We bowled a couple too many soft deliveries which they managed to capitalise on,” Boucher said. “They’ve got aggressive players. When you’re chasing a high score like that, you’ve got no option but to come out and play. But we missed our areas too often. Our bowling let us down today. The mindset to go for yorkers was right but the execution wasn’t good.

“It’s difficult to train for those sorts of things because we play and then we travel [leaving little time for practice during series]. I don’t think the skill is where it should be and that’s something we need to work on. They hit one or two [yorkers] for boundaries which were good shots but inbetween we bowled too many soft balls.”

So, here we are. Graeme Smith, Boucher and Jacques Kallis haven’t had the effect that was promised far and wide when they were appointed in December. Neither has the removal from the equation, for the T20s, of Faf du Plessis. That, too, was heralded as, potentially, a great leap forward. Now what? South Africa have four days to find an answer to that question before Friday, when they will be at the Wanderers to play the first of three T20s against Australia.

Bavuma, who has transformed himself into a white-ball wizard in this series — only the captains scored more runs than he did, and no-one scored them more emphatically — might not be part of that effort. He pulled up with a hamstring problem while fielding and must be in doubt for Friday. We’ll know on Monday, when the squad is due to be announced. Might it feature the return of one Abraham Benjamin de Villiers? De Villiers ending his self-imposed international exile in time to be considered for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November has been a slow-burning conversation for weeks.

But Boucher was done talking about that: “He’s a discussion in the media and in the public. He is no discussion for me. I have had chats with him and we will probably know pretty soon what’s going to happen with him. Like I said from day one when I took over, if we are going to a World Cup I would like to have our best players here. If AB is in good form and he is raring to go and he makes himself available for the time we have asked him to be available, and if he is the best man for the job, then he must go. It’s not about egos or anything like that, it’s about sending your best team to the World Cup to try and win that competition.”

Quite who’s ego might be bruised by De Villiers coming back isn’t certain. But it won’t help his possible reintegration that Du Plessis spent too much of last year’s ODI World Cup in England going on about exactly that. It emerged that De Villiers had made — apparently casually — an offer to return and that it had been declined. That happened because De Villiers hadn’t played ODIs since February 2018 and was thus ineligible. A similar scenario looms ahead of the T20 World Cup: he will have to feature in at least some of South Africa’s remaining eight games in the format before the tournament in order to be considered.

Will he be named on Monday? Will Du Plessis? Will Kagiso Rabada, who like Du Plessis was rested for the England T20s? All are important questions. But their answers, whatever they are, won’t take South Africa any closer to improvement. For that to start happening they will have to win consecutively games, something they haven’t managed since their last two matches of the World Cup in June 2019, both of them dead rubbers. They’ve had 14 completed games between then and now, and have twice shambled to a hattrick of defeats.

That’s not good enough for any ambitious team, much less a side who harbour a longing as grand as triumph on the global stage. Almost won’t get them there. Neither will close games matter if they keep ending up on the wrong side of the equation. And it won’t matter how entertaining they are. You want to win? Then go out and win.

First published by Cricbuzz.

How to get out of jail? Ask a jailer

“Having watched him, the way he used to bowl, he has given me a lot of confidence as a young player knowing someone like that is now on my journey.” – Lungi Ngidi on Charl Langeveldt.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IN Charl Langeveldt’s previous life he was a prison warder. So he knows all about getting out of jail. And how to transfer his knowledge of escapology to the bowlers he now coaches. South Africa benefitted greatly from those skills at Buffalo Park in East London on Wednesday, when they won a match they should have lost.

England needed 50 off the last six overs to win the first T20. By then Jason Roy had sent 36 balls careening into the night for his unbeaten 66. Eoin Morgan’s 23 not out had come off 19 deliveries. Both seemed intent on taking their team home with plenty of balls to spare. Surely Joe Denly, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Tom Curran and Chris Jordan would, between them, score what Roy and Morgan didn’t? And without having to resort to Adil Rashid and Mark Wood. So how did England shamble to 176/9? They choked.

“These type of wins, we want to be able to scrape them in the big events,” Temba Bavuma said of the only one-run defeat yet inflicted on England in their 115 matches in the format, and with a view to the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November. “We know we’re going to be called upon to do that. The best time to start is against top teams like England.”

As big a role as England played in their downfall, it was up to South Africa to do the necessary once the rabbits were frozen in the headlights. Enter Langeveldt. Of the 90 deliveries bowled by South Africa’s seamers, more than half — 49 — were slower balls. Some were off-cutters, some leg-cutters, some tumbled down the pitch out of the back of the hand.

One, quite beautifully bowled by Dale Steyn, was still above Jonny Bairstow’s eyeline in the two metres before it reached him. Then it dropped like a dead pigeon, forcing Bairstow to stab his bat directly downward to keep the damned thing away from his pads and his wicket. Steyn smiled in wonder. Bairstow smiled in desperation. Umpire Adrian Holdstock smiled with relief that he didn’t have to decide whether the ball would have hit the stumps.

Beuran Hendricks wasn’t used until the 15th over. Dwaine Pretorius didn’t bowl at all. That prompted the conservatives — some of them on SuperSport’s commentary team — to protest, even after the match was won. Can they not take yes for an answer? Because they once played international cricket doesn’t mean they understand how international cricket is played now. When next they get the chance to talk to Langeveldt, they could do worse than learn from him so they don’t expose their ignorance and arrogance.

The bowlers won Wednesday’s game; Langeveldt’s bowlers. He forged a career not by bruising batters into submission in the time-honoured South African way but by seizing on the small things — a smidgen of swing, a modicum of movement, an attitude of all’s good — to do big things. He found ways to win matches, particularly with the white ball. Langeveldt’s 100 ODI wickets amount to a touch more than a quarter of Shaun Pollock’s South Africa record of 387. But Pollock bowled 2,571.4 overs and Langeveldt 581.3. That’s 11,941 more deliveries for Pollock, or almost four-and-a-half times as many opportunities as Langeveldt had.

Lungi Ngidi was 14 years old when Langeveldt played the last of his 87 games for South Africa in October 2010. Almost 10 years on at Buffalo Park on Wednesday, a taller, faster, blacker version of Langeveldt, who looked a lot like Ngidi, not only defended seven off the last over but had Curran caught in the deep with an off-cutter and conjured a breathlessly paceless delivery to nail Moeen’s off stump.

“He’s had a massive impact in terms of the mental side,” Ngidi said of Langeveldt’s influence. “Having watched him, the way he used to bowl, he has given me a lot of confidence as a young player knowing someone like that is now on my journey. He has made sure I back the skills that I’m good at. Where someone else would say maybe a change of [the type of] ball was needed or maybe a yorker, [he says] stick to what’s working. And it worked out just fine.”

Langeveldt’s was easily the least heralded of the appointments South Africa made in December. The headlines were reserved largely for Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis. That they had bigger playing careers than Langeveldt is beyond question. They loom larger in the memory of South Africans who remember a time when the game was in better shape. They are the poster boys for an improved present. They carry a heavier share of the hopes for a brighter future. But what do they know about getting out of jail?

First published by Cricbuzz.

3rd ODI preview: Winning isn’t everything, apparently

Under-performing South Africa versus over-thinking England

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

WHAT happens when one of the teams in a match are bent on winning and the other are kinda, well, meh about the whole thing? That the side who are more in the game will walk away with the honours, surely. We’re about to find out. South Africa want to be able to present an emphatic victory in Sunday’s third ODI at the Wanderers as evidence that they have put the trials and tribulations of the past few months behind them. England are less concerned with conventional success than with exploring the depth of their squad.

The upshot is that, should England prevail, South Africa will sink deeper into their trough of self-doubt: how bad are things when you can’t beat even a team who are not bent on winning? That result would also serve as the basis of a question to chronically over-thinking England: maybe if you played with more freedom and less fussing about the details you would win more than one World Cup every few decades.

All that said, on the strength of South Africa’s overpowering performance in the first match of the series at Newlands, they should win and claim the rubber. England were monstered in all departments by the South Africans, who won by seven wickets with 14 balls to spare. At Kingsmead on Friday, rain limited proceedings to 11.2 overs, in which South Africa scored 71/2. The weather promises to be a factor again on Sunday, what with an 80% chance of the wet stuff predicted. But, unlike Durban’s determined dreary drizzle, rain in Johannesburg usually comes in short, sharp electrical thunderstorms that clear in time for play to continue. It’s as if the cricket is scheduled around spectacular fireworks displays. So sit back and enjoy, but don’t forget to wear rubber-soled shoes.

England, who fielded the same XI in the first two matches, might well clear their dugout and name the four players who have yet to see gametime in the series. Although it will be tough to find places for both Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid at a ground where only one of the 22 bowlers who have claimed four wickets in an innings has been a spinner. It won’t help uncomplicate matters that Eoin Morgan’s team are using this series to tune up for the coming T20s, which are in themselves preparation for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November. Cross-format pollination is always a tricky business. But England wouldn’t be England if they weren’t too tricksy for their own good.

South Africa will pitch their strongest XI into the breach. That is likely to mean a return for Lungi Ngidi, who was not on the team sheet at Kingsmead, at the expense of left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, who won’t have many reasons to remember his debut considering he neither batted nor bowled.

The century stand Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma shared at Newlands was a joy to behold for South Africa’s supporters, but the home side will be interested to see how the rest of their batting stands up to match scrutiny. Reeza Hendricks, in particular, will want to build on the unbeaten 35 he made in Durban in the wake of being caught behind for six in Cape Town. That’s if Hendricks cracks the nod: the bristling Janneman Malan, who has played two T20Is, is also in the squad and no doubt raring to go one up on his brother, Pieter Malan, who made his international debut in the Test series against England.

When: Sunday February 9, 2020. 10am Local Time

Where: The Wanderers, Johannesburg

What to expect: Pink, pink and more pink in South African cricket’s annual effort to raise awareness around breast cancer. And a belter of a pitch. The Wanderers is, as much of the marketing in the ground explains, where “the greatest ODI ever played” was staged — the famous 438 game between South Africa and Australia in March 2006. South Africa have won 26 of their 35 ODIs there, and have lost only one of the last nine their have played there.

Team news

South Africa

Unlike England, South Africa are trying hard to clinch the series. It’s the least they could do in the wake of winning only 13 and losing 14 of the 28 completed matches they have played, across the formats, in the past 12 months. And it wouldn’t hurt Quinton de Kock’s captaincy tenure to get off on the right foot. Accordingly, they won’t tinker much with their XI. Expect one fewer spinner than at Kingsmead.

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Reeza Hendricks, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Jon-Jon Smuts, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Beuran Hendricks, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Tabraiz Shamsi.

England

Dawid Malan has played only one ODI, so Sunday seems as good a time as any to find out what he can do in the format. Better yet, why not give Saqib Mahmood a debut. And Moeen Ali’s also hanging around. Adil Rashid? Get in the game. You get the picture: everyone who hasn’t played yet in the serie, you’re up. Maybe not Rashid. This is the Wanderers, after all.

Possible XI: Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Joe Denly, Tom Banton, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Saqib Mahmood, Chris Jordan.

“It’s one of the biggest days of the year in our calendar at home. Everybody will dress up in pink. Guys’ bat stickers will probably be pink. The [South Africa] players’ clothing will be pink. People will support the charity and it will be an awesome day.” — Quinton de Kock does his bit for South Africa’s breast cancer awareness campaign.

“We’re looking to know more about people and present opportunity. Yes, we want to win. But, also, we want to know a lot more about other guys come the end of the tour with a longer term plan in place. When guys like Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid first came into the team — Jos Buttler — they weren’t the players they are now. So you have to combine the talent with opportunity to try and get the best [from them] or at least find out what the character is about.” — Eoin Morgan explains why England’s top priority is not winning the series.

First published by Cricbuzz.

De Kock delivers a better day for South Africa

Temba Bavuma hit a pull-scoop for six as casually as if he was slinging a jacket over his shoulder on his way out the door after a hard day’s work.

TELFORD VICE at Newlands

QUINTON de Kock suggested what sort of captain he might make when Eoin Morgan called incorrectly at Newlands on Tuesday. That marked the first time a South Africa captain had won the toss in eight games, or since the World Cup. For the first time in a while that has included six losses in seven Tests, things were looking up.

But it takes more than luck to captain a cricket team. It takes knowledge. So, what do you do if 75.76% of the teams who have batted second in the 33 previous day/night ODIs at this ground have lost? You bat first.

We’ll have a bowl, De Kock said. And when England made 258/8 it looked as if he had got it wrong. Modest though that was, it was also the biggest score successfully chased under lights at Newlands. At least, it was until it became obvious that South Africa would reel in the target without having to roll up their sleeves. They were winners with seven wickets standing and 16 balls to spare.

Perhaps De Kock had been a step ahead of history, and the rest of us, all along. Those records were set when day/nighters started 90 minutes later than Tuesday’s game. When the sun set at 7.49pm (local time), South Africa had all of 11.3 overs left in which to score 48 more runs. Conditions were thus significantly more even throughout the match than in the past.

De Kock was central his team’s scintillating performance, hitting harder and handsomer than even he tends to do and scoring 107, his 15th ODI century and his first in 11 completed innings. He shared 173 off 170 balls with Temba Bavuma, who was a revelation for his 98.

Bavuma played a pull-scoop off Chris Woakes as casually as if he was slinging a jacket over his shoulder on his way out the door after a hard day’s work. But there was nothing casual about the emphatic six that resulted.

The De Kock-Bavuma stand was South Africa’s biggest for the second wicket in ODIs against England. Only two partnerships for any wicket in any match in the format at this ground have been higher. Few stands anywhere could have been blessed with running as slick as this. The pair scampered 96 of their runs, or more than half, hammered the rest with gusto, and were rarely not on the attack.

And they prompted questions. On the strength, or rather the weakness, of England’s bowling shouldn’t the ICC revisit the fateful boundary count in last year’s World Cup final and investigate what it would cost, in money and embarrassment, to have to belatedly ship the trophy to New Zealand? No: Woakes was the only survivor from England’s attack that day at Lord’s. For that matter, England’s only other common factor was the top four of Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Morgan.

So let South Africans not get too excited about one small step towards better days. There are two more games in this series, then three T20s, then engagements against Australia, India, West Indies and, perhaps, Pakistan. And then there’s a T20 World Cup. Based on recent factual events, a lot could yet go wrong for them.

Another question, this one more serious: what kind of batter might captaincy make of De Kock? It is an odd thing to ask about someone 117 innings into an already glittering ODI career. But the context is that De Kock has taken every opportunity he has had since being named captain to sum up his elevation in one word: responsibility. As in the taking thereof. That’s what he did on Tuesday. So much so that when he reached his century, in the 34th over with a silky off-drive for four off debuting leg spinner Matt Parkinson, he removed his helmet slowly and deliberately to return the crowd’s salute. Then he raised his bat almost gingerly, as if calling for a replacement. It wasn’t so much a celebration as the marking of a milestone on a road a long way from fully travelled.

There were several good signs for South Africa at Newlands on Tuesday, not least Tabraiz Shamsi emerging from officially expressed doubts over his conditioning to take the wickets of Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton and Sam Curran for 38 — and deserve to do so in 10 superbly slippery overs of left-arm wrist spin. But De Kock’s maturity was the best of them.

First published by Cricbuzz.

The moment is yours, England. Don’t waste it

Tell those who have stolen your game from you that you want it back.

Firstpost

TELFORD VICE at Lord’s

THEIR captain is Irish. The ticking bomb in their middle order is from New Zealand. Their most threatening bowler is Jamaican. Two others in their 15 were born in South Africa, one to Zimbabwean parents.

But it is England who are the World Cup champions, and it is to England, its people and its cricket that this triumph belongs. Finally, in England’s fourth trip to the final, cricket — one-day cricket, at any rate — has come home.

Eoin Morgan paused proceedings in front of the Mound Stand as he and his team took their lap of honour after Sunday’s outrageous, ridiculous, absolutely bloody bonkers match at Lord’s.

He spotted someone in the higher reaches of the stand, someone he knew. And he raised the trophy to them and shook it in salute. This, mate, is for you!

It was, in fact, for all of us. I am South African, and I have lost hope that the team who come from my country — they do not represent me or anyone but themselves — are ever going to do right by their own talent and skill. I don’t care whether they win or lose. I do care that they don’t make idiots of themselves; that they don’t let themselves down. I will try to rekindle my hope, but I can’t promise.

So, thank you, Mr Morgan and company. And Mr Williamson and company. You have given all of us something to treasure forever.

It was the perfect movie moment as Morgan, stationery and sublimely calm, smiled so wide it seemed as if the top half of his head would topple to the turf. The Mound Stand was soaked in the kind of sunshine only seen in England. From his clock tower nearby, Father Time looked down on the scene, as gobsmacked as the rest of us by what he had seen. Or what he thought he had seen. Had he really seen it? He had. We had.

As Morgan stood there, the trophy aloft and honeyed by the sunshine, “This Is The Sea”, the stirring title track of the Waterboys’ 1985 album, hit the right emotional note as it swayed around the ground.

“These things you keep,

“You’d better throw them away,

“You want to turn your back,

“On your soulless days,

“Once you were tethered,

“And now you are free,

“Once you were tethered,

“Well, now you are free,

“That was the river,

“This is the sea!”

Up in the pressbox a feral electricity had crackled through the air as the equation veered this way and that like Hunter S. Thompson in his Pontiac on the motorway after too many drugs and too much bourbon. None of us had ever covered a match anything like this one, and it showed in desperate yawps and skittish jolts.

Once things had settled down, a reporter from one of the most august newspapers of them all was spotted shopping online for an England replica shirt. Good on ’em. This was not a time for pious protestations of the preciousness of objectivity. This was a time to feel your heart racing and your blood rushing along with every other cricketminded child, woman and man, a time to shell out £60 for a thing of love. Besides, the price is only going to go up.

But this, too, shall pass. Once all the drinks are drunk and the players meet the queen and the highlights lose their sheen and it all fades to something like grey and what happened with each and every ball bowled is no longer instantly recallable, English cricket will ask itself: now what?

Even immigrants in this country are more interested in football than cricket, and that includes people from places like Bangladesh. The more they assimilate, the more English they become. And so the less attached to cricket they become.

Sunday’s match will change that. But for how long? The Springboks won rugby’s men’s World Cup in 1995, and Nelson Mandela himself handed over the trophy.

That, too, was the perfect movie moment. Indeed, the movie, “Invictus”, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, was made.

And at its heart was an untruth. Sport can unite a nation, but that unity is easily squandered — as South Africans, freshly emerged from the awfulness of apartheid, discovered when they all retreated back into their respective physical, mental and political encampments a week or two after the tournament. Nothing changed and, 24 years on, not nearly enough has changed. Most black people are still poor. Most white people are still affluent. Apartheid is officially dead but, in reality, it stalks our streets like a zombie.

“Now I can see you wavering,

“As you try to decide,

“You’ve got a war in your head,

“And it’s tearing you up inside,

“You’re trying to make sense,

“Of something that you just can’t see,

“Trying to make sense now,

“And you know you once held the key,

“But that was the river,

“And this is the sea!”

Do not waver, England. Tell the suits you want cricket back on terrestrial television. Tell state schools to start offering the game to their students. Tell the newspapers that football doesn’t deserve the back page just because it’s football.

Tell those who have stolen your game from you that you want it back.

“Now I hear there’s a train,

“It’s coming on down the line,

“It’s yours if you hurry,

“You’ve got still enough time,

“And you don’t need no ticket,

“And you don’t pay no fee,

“No you don’t need no ticket,

“You don’t pay no fee,

“Because that was the river,

“And this is the sea!

“Behold the sea!”

Come on in. The water’s lovely.