George Linde – Page 2 – Bulletproof Truth

3rd T20I preview: Van der Dussen, Fakhar should return

Will Rizwan bounce back? Will South Africa cast a spell over him again?

Telford Vice | Cape Town

MOHAMMAD Rizwan doesn’t suffer first-ball foolery often. It’s befallen him only four times in his 77 innings for Pakistan across the formats, and just once when he has been entrusted with opening the innings. That happened in the second T20I at the Wanderers on Monday, when George Linde induced a stroke that saw the ball follow the curve of an upturned pudding bowl as it blooped to mid-off.

So ended a streak of 10 innings in the format — half of them for the Multan Sultans in the PSL — in which Rizwan had passed 40. He scored a century and six half-centuries, four of them higher than 70, in those trips to the crease. The South Africans would have needed no reminding of his T20I prowess: he has made his hundred — a 64-ball undefeated 104 in Lahore in February — and two half-centuries in four innings against them in the past three months.

To get Rizwan first ball was thus a shock to both teams’ systems. It told Pakistan they were not as strong as they would like to think they are, and South Africa would have proved to themselves that even the most in-form opponents are only human. Rizwan’s dismissal set the tone for Pakistan to shamble to 140/9, their lowest total in seven T20Is. South Africa hauled it in with six overs to spare to level the four-match series at 1-1.

Will Rizwan bounce back? Will South Africa cast their spell over him again? It’s a question that hangs over the third T20I in Centurion on Wednesday like the Highveld’s famous thunderstorms. Happily, the angry clouds are not forecast to put in a significant appearance. But even if Rizwan is kept quiet again, Babar Azam will welcome being back at a ground where he scored 103 and 94 in the ODI series inside the past two weeks. So will the rest of the side. Pakistan won both of the ODIs at Centurion, where they have earned eight victories in 17 matches in all formats. Nowhere in South Africa have they won more games, though they have played fewer matches at all the other major grounds except the Wanderers.

The likely return of Fakhar Zaman is another reason for the visitors to be bullish. He missed Monday’s game because of a rash on his leg, but word from the Pakistan camp on Tuesday was that he should be good to go. Fakhar’s 193 in the second ODI was one of the greatest innings yet seen. That it graced the Wanderers and not Centurion is neither here nor there. Besides, in his next match, the third ODI at Centurion, he made 101.

But while Pakistan’s confidence in staying competitive in the series is justified, no-one should expect South Africa to cower. Having made a mess of things in the first T20I at the Wanderers on Friday, when they conceded 60 runs in five of the last six overs of Pakistan’s innings and were limited to 37 runs in the last five overs of their innings, they regrouped impressively three days later. And they did so with the same XI.

Aiden Markram, who scored 51 and 54 in the first two T20Is, hasn’t known the feeling of making consecutive half-centuries for 31 innings stretching back more than two years. That he sauntered off on Friday and Monday looking like a player who knew he had left plenty of runs out there was an ominous sign for those who will have to bowl to him on Wednesday.

Heinrich Klaasen’s efforts of 50 and 36 not out are evidence of decent form, and the Pakistanis can consider themselves fortunate that Janneman Malan’s flying starts have resulted in crash landings at 24 and 15. Lizaad Williams is the series’ leading wicket-taker and Tabraiz Shamsi the most economical bowler. Suddenly, laments for the five stars who have gone AWOL at the IPL and the injuries to Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen are difficult to find. Better yet for the home side, the latter is over his quadriceps strain and should feature on Wednesday.

Good luck picking a favourite from all that, but we do know there’s a lot of cricket still to be played in the up to 80 overs that remain of these entertaining teams’ engagements this summer. So far, every ball has been worth watching.

When: Wednesday April 14, 2021. 2.30pm Local Time

Where: Centurion

What to expect: Another hard, fast Highveld pitch and outfield on a perfect late summer’s day.

Team news

South Africa: Faith was kept in the XI that lost the first game, and they won the second. No changes are thus required, but the recovered Rassie van der Dussen is likely to replace Wihan Lubbe.

Possible XI: Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Henrich Klaasen, Pite van Biljon, George Linde, Andile Phehlukwayo, Sisanda Magala, Beuran Hendricks, Lizaad Williams, Tabraiz Shamsi.

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman should return at the expense of Sharjeel Khan. Other than that, it’s difficult to tinker.

Possible XI: Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Haider Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain.

What they said

“I’m actually glad he came down the wicket first ball. We tried to play on his arrogance a bit – that’s not to say he’s arrogant in a bad way – but just to try and force a false shot out of him. Maybe for two balls we were going to try and keep mid-off up and see if he’d give us a false shot. Luckily he did.” – George Linde on South Africa’s successful plan to counter Mohammad Rizwan at the Wanderers on Monday.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Magala magic no mystery

“I believe, and I think a lot of guys believe, that he’s probably the best death bowler or white-ball bowler in the country.” – George Linde on Sisanda Magala.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

THE 12th over of the first innings at the Wanderers on Monday didn’t seem ripe with significance as the bowler stood at the top of his run. Something like calm had settled on the scene after Pakistan’s rocky start. They had lost Mohammad Rizwan, their beautiful bruiser, to the first ball of the match and his partner, Sharjeel Khan, to the 17th; both to looping catches in the deep off George Linde, who also had Mohammad Hafeez caught behind.

But Babar Azam looked set to deliver another commanding innings, and with Haider Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Hasan Ali still in the equation, 72/3 had the room to grow into an imposing target in eight overs’ time. Waiting to deliver the first of those remaining overs, the 12th of the innings, was Sisanda Magala.

No-one took more wickets in either of the franchise white-ball competitions this season than Magala. In the T20s he claimed four more than Kagiso Rabada at a better average and despite bowling fewer overs. There was little surprise at that: Magala has been a force at domestic level, especially when the pressure is on, since he led the wicket-takers at the 2016 Africa T20 Cup.

His success had earned him inclusion in South Africa’s squad for their white-ball series against Australia and England last year, only for him to be denied a debut by his failure to meet the required fitness levels. Magala is a big fella in ways that don’t do him favours in an age that demands something close to physical perfection from players, fast bowlers in particular. How someone of Magala’s apparently unacceptable attributes has, from the start of the 2016 Africa T20 Cup, managed to send down 7,702 balls in senior representative matches — and take 221 wickets — is thus a mystery beyond the realm of science.

None of which was likely on Magala’s mind as he lingered on the cusp of the 12th over on Monday, his eyes wide with focus, his brow glistening with preparation, his body — the only one he has, the one that has made him the fine bowler he is — ready. What he was probably thinking about in the moment, and trying hard not to think about, was Sunday.

Also at the Wanderers, his first delivery in a South Africa shirt was short and limping down leg. Babar didn’t quite sneer as he dispatched the ball to the fine leg fence for four. Worse, Magala had overstepped. Rizwan cracked two fours and a six off the last half of that over. Magala was sent to the outfield for four overs. When he returned he immediately bowled a wide, the first of two in an over that cost only five runs. He came back when Pakistan needed 22 off 12, and promptly conceded two boundaries to Faheem Ashraf. But the damage was limited to 11.

Nobody in sport gets everything right all the time. Those who survive and prosper find ways to get more right than wrong. But there is no foolproof way to keep the good while discarding the bad and the ugly. Magala would have known this long before Monday, when Babar was again the first player to face him. And, again, he shot himself in the foot with a no-ball. Followed by another, and another, a wide, a four over backward point, two runs through midwicket, another wide, a single down the ground, a dot ball — edged into the pads — a four fine on the off side, another wide, and another dot ball, this one dribbled into the covers to bring up a dozen deliveries to mark the 12th over. No South Africa bowler has had to send down as many deliveries to get through an over in a T20I. The best thing you could say about that was Magala broke a record held by Dale Steyn, who needed 11 balls to emerge from an over against West Indies during the 2010 World T20.

After each part of Magala’s personal cluster bomb exploded, he walked back to his mark muttering oaths and shaking his head at the unbelievability of it all. There weren’t many reasons to be relieved that no spectators were in attendance, but that was one of them. Had there been, and even though Magala plays for the Lions, the most bilious crowd in the country would have been booed him to shreds.

Two overs later Magala again ran in to Babar, who put him away for four behind square leg. Then came a chilling moment as the umpires checked whether that, too, was a no-ball … it wasn’t, and breathing resumed. Only two singles accrued in the rest of that over, which was without extras. But not without evidence that, finally, he was bowling, not drowning.

So Magala was kept on. Having conceded singles off the first four balls of his next over — perfectly respectable in the 18th over — he pitched the fifth on off-stump, aiming for the top third. Babar, who had reached 50 off the previous delivery, swung for the fences. And missed. The ball did what it was bowled to do, and as the tumbling bails lit up the afternoon sky Magala let loose a roar that was three-quarters relief and a quarter revelry.

Still another over, his fourth, the 20th, was afforded him. The result was five runs, one of them a leg bye, and a runout at his end, which he effected with suddenly slick confidence. From bleeding 18 runs in his first over to begrudging 14 in the other three, and taking the most prized wicket of the lot, it had been quite some journey for the big fella.

Asked about Magala’s fightback, Linde told an online press conference: “It showed his character. I believe, and I think a lot of guys believe, that he’s probably the best death bowler or white-ball bowler in the country. So we weren’t worried after that first over because we knew what was going to come next. He knew what he had to do and he corrected it.”

Linde deserved to be behind the microphones. He had taken the new ball, and with it 3/23. He also claimed three catches and, with Heinrich Klaasen, ushered South Africa to their win by clipping an unbeaten 20 off 10 balls. But Linde is the kind of player who wouldn’t know what to do with his own trumpet if you sent him to Miles Davis for lessons. So, instead of taking pride in his own performance, he lauded the rest of the attack: “I’m very happy for him [Magala], Lizaad [Williams], Beuran [Hendricks], Shami … ag, [Tabraiz] Shamsi, sorry; almost said ‘Shammo’ … I’m very happy for everyone that bowled.”

It was a far cry from what happened on Sunday, when South Africa conceded 60 in five overs to leave Pakistan the relatively simple task of scoring 11 off the last, which they did with a ball to spare. “We should have won the game,” Linde said. “We were just not good enough on the day, especially the last five overs. Today the bowlers showed up. We had a point to prove and we did that.”

And how. They did so well enough for South Africa to clinch victory in 14 overs and level the series with two games to play. The show will go on at Centurion on Wednesday and Friday. But the 12th over at the Wanderers on Monday will always be Magala’s triumph.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Maharaj tames Lions with bat and ball

Double centuries for Markram and Verreynne.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

KESHAV Maharaj batted and bowled the Dolphins to victory over the Lions at the Wanderers in the latest round of franchise first-class matches in South Africa, which ended on Wednesday. Despite a double century by Aiden Markram, the Titans and Knights couldn’t find a way past each other in Centurion. At Newlands, not even the season’s biggest total and the highest individual score of the summer, by Kyle Verreynne, could help the Cobras end a run of more than two years without a victory.

The Knights top pool A with one round of matches remaining but the Dolphins are only 1.16 points behind. The defending champions, the Lions, are 28.98 points off the pace. The Titans are 14.16 points ahead of the Warriors in pool B with the Cobras a further 10.32 adrift. The final, which will be contested by the pool winners, is scheduled for five days from March 25.

The Dolphins slipped to 162/5 before Khaya Zondo and Eathan Bosch added 119. Once they were separated the wickets resumed falling: the last five went down for 94. Beuran Hendricks and Lutho Sipamla shared six of them in a total of 375, in which Bosch scored his first century, 104 off 127 balls. The Lions replied with 362, and they would have been far more than 13 runs behind without opener Ryan Rickelton, who was last out for 194 — his sixth first-class century but his first at franchise level. Reeza Hendricks made 52 in a second-wicket stand of 134 and Lutho Sipamla was part of a ninth-wicket effort of 63. But between those peaks the Lions lost 7/99. Maharaj bowled more than a third of the overs in the innings and took 6/126.

The Dolphins let the advantage slip when they shambled to 113/6 with Marques Ackerman and Zondo suffering first-ballers and only Keegan Petersen standing firm. Then Maharaj joined the latter to add 79. Petersen scored 56 off 77 and Maharaj made 89 off 62 — hitting 62 in fours and sixes — to boost the visitors to a total of 235 in which Wiaan Mulder took 4/37. That left the Lions a gettable target of 249, but Daryn Dupavillon bowled Dominic Hendricks without a run on the board and Maharaj, who came on at first change, removed Rassie van der Dussen second ball. The Lions crashed to 90/5 on their way to being dismissed for 162 in 53 overs, which made the Dolphins winners by 86 runs. Maharaj took 7/48 to complete a match haul of 13/174.

Migael Pretorius and Mbulelo Budaza took seven wickets between them to dismiss the Titans for 263 on the first day. Neil Brand’s 107 and Grant Thompson’s 52 shone from a scorecard in which the last six wickets fell for 24. The Knights earned a lead of 151 when they declared at 414/9 with Farhaan Behardien making 142 amid half-centuries by Raynard van Tonder, Patrick Kruger and Shaun von Berg. Behardien shared 106 with Van Tonder and 113 with Kruger. Lizaad Williams plugged away for 30 overs for his 4/103.

Dean Elgar and Markram batted together for 55 overs at the top of the order in the Titans’ second innings on Tuesday and for another 13.4 overs on Wednesday before Von Berg had Elgar caught behind for 90 to end the stand at 213. In his next over Von Berg caught and bowled Brand for a duck. But thoughts of the Knights riding away with the match receded as Sibonelo Makhanya, who scored 68, helped Markram put on 141. Markram was still there when elbows were bumped on the draw. He scored 204 not out, his first double century.

The Cobras overcame losing openers Pieter Malan and Jonathan Bird with 15 runs scored to pile up 513/6 before they declared as stumps loomed on the second day. The total was built on Verreynne’s undefeated and career-best 216, 118 of them claimed in boundaries. Verreynne put on 108 with Tony de Zorzi, who scored 68, another 192 with George Linde, who made 107, and 122 with Imran Manack, whose unbeaten 55 was his best effort at this level. The Warriors used nine bowlers to send down 144 overs, but none of them could take more than two wickets. By the close on the third day the visitors had been reduced to 259/9 with Ayabulela Gqamane and Marco Jansen, numbers eight and nine, scoring half-centuries and Tshepo Moreki and Akhona Mnyaka taking three wickets each. The Warriors needed another 104 runs to avoid being told to follow on, but rain began falling on the third evening and continued until the match was called off just before noon on Wednesday. The Cobras have now gone 15 first-class games without winning.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Nirvana or nowhere for South Africa

“We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for the challenge, and that we’re ready to enjoy the challenge.” – Enoch Nkwe

Telford Vice | Cape Town

HEAD south-east. In 2,218 kilometres, stop, watch and learn. If an app could guide South Africa — or any non-Asian tourists — to victory in Rawalpindi, that’s what it might tell them to do. But the visitors would arrive at their destination too late. Because the lesson was handed down while Pakistan were building their advantage in the second Test.

Set out as instructed from Rawalpindi, passing through Kathmandu, skirting Bhutan, and you will arrive, after a flight of 11 hours and 50 minutes, in Chattogram, Bangladesh’s second city. It was there on Sunday that West Indies successfully completed their chase for 395, the highest winning fourth innings in all 675 Tests played in Asia.

South Africa don’t need 395 to beat Pakistan and square the series. They require 25 fewer runs. And when your batting is as fragile as theirs has been, more often than not and for too long, 25 extra runs might as well be 250.

More than nine years have passed since South Africa last scored 200 or more to win: against Australia at Newlands in November 2011. Phillip Hughes played in that match. Vernon Philander made his debut. Yes, it was that long ago. Since then they have been dismissed in the fourth innings for 200 or fewer nine times.

The other side of that equation is that, during the same period, Pakistan have they been beaten because they failed to defend a target of at least 200 only once — when England made 277 to win by three wickets in Southampton in August last year. Pakistan have bowled out teams in the fourth innings for 200 or fewer four times.

South Africa will likely avoid becoming the fifth entry on that list. They are 127/1 going into the last day on a pitch that has remained sound by the standard of Test surfaces anywhere, as Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen have proven in their unbroken stand of 94. But if some of those facts sound familiar it’s because the same pair shared 127 before they became two of three men dismissed in the space of 33 deliveries near the end of the third day of the first Test in Karachi. That became part of a collapse of 9/70, a key factor in Pakistan’s seven-wicket win.

“We lowered our intensity,” was how Enoch Nkwe, South Africa’s assistant coach, described what happened as stumps loomed in Karachi two Thursdays ago. “That was an area we looked at and addressed very well. It’s good to see the same two who were in that situation taking full responsibility to make sure the team doesn’t fall into the same situation.”

The visitors’ intensity disappeared down a rabbit hole again on Sunday. Having reduced Pakistan to 76/5 on Saturday, they conceded 222 more runs in the innings. George Linde took 5/64, his first five-wicket haul in only his third Test and from just 26 overs. But it tells the story of how badly South Africa lost their way that he had claimed 4/17 in his first 14.5 overs. Mohammad Rizwan, who took guard at 63/4, batted through three half-century stands — one, with Nauman Ali, of 97 — and was still there at the end. His reward was an undefeated 115, his first Test century and a performance of shimmering defiance.

Even so, not only are the South Africans confident of breezing past 200, they seem bullish about reaching what would be the fifth-highest target achieved in a subcontinent Test. It would be the highest in Pakistan, where the home side’s 315/9 against Australia in September 1994 is the record. But that was in Karachi. In Rawalpindi, no team have scored more runs in the fourth innings to win a Test than Sri Lanka’s 220/8 in February 2000.

Nkwe wasn’t about to talk that kind of game: “Every opportunity that we get, we must always look to win. After the first Test we had to review where we are as a unit and look at areas in which we need to improve. In this Test we’ve brought ourselves into the game nicely. We believe that we can win this game. That’s the mindset.

“There’s a lot of belief. The players are backing themselves and freeing themselves up. We’ve done a lot of work in terms of clearing their minds and getting them to play within their own character. When the opportunity is there to speed up the game, do that. If it’s not there we need to absorb the pressure as well as we can. We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for the challenge, and that we’re ready to enjoy the challenge.”

If you didn’t know better, you might have thought the South Africans had been inspired by debutant double centurion Kyle Mayers and company in Chattogram. “I’m sure tonight, when we watch some highlights, the guys might find some sort of motivation [from West Indies’ triumph]. But we have enough role models in our dressingroom.”

Rizwan had news for South Africa: “Today they came with good intent and they attacked us. That’s Test cricket. It’s a five-day game and it goes up and down. And we still have one day left. The pitch is taking spin and we have quick bowlers for when the ball is new. Tomorrow is a different day. Inshallah we’ll get them out.”

Not long before he spoke, Rizwan had caught what became the last ball of Sunday’s play. It was delivered by Nauman, and it spun so sharply and bounced so steeply that it needed slick work to stop it from costing byes. After he had snared it, Rizwan stood, gloved hands high above his shoulder, staring at the spot on the pitch from where the snake had sprung. No doubt some of his reaction was gamesmanship, and fair enough in the context of an intriguing context. But some was a genuine response to a fine nugget of bowling.

Markram took no notice of Rizwan’s antics. He had aimed a textbook forward defensive at the delivery, which more or less laughed out loud at him as it scooted past his outside edge. Unflustered, Markram stayed within the frame of the stroke for a long moment. Seconds later, when the light was pronounced too poor to allow play to continue, he tucked his bat under his arm and his chin into his chest, and made his way off the ground like someone who was indeed looking forward to Monday’s challenge. So did Van der Dussen. They seemed certain of their destination, no directions needed.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Fate and finger collide, but George Linde is ‘OK, actually’

“I started running off the field because I saw a bone sticking out.” – George Linde

Telford Vice | Cape Town

“AG, you know, it’s OK, actually,” George Linde began when he was asked, during an online press conference on Saturday, about the state of the little finger on his bowling hand. Then he got down to the gory details of what happened on Thursday, when Babar Azam smashed the left-arm spinner’s 17th ball of the second Test in Rawalpindi straight back at him.

“I thought that’s my season done when I saw the injury,” Linde said. “I started running off the field because I saw a bone sticking out. As I was running I just popped it back in myself.”

All television viewers saw as Linde loped off was blood painting his whites an alarming shade of red. He covered the rest with his hands. “The doctor and the physio were awesome,” he said. “I got stitches, went for X-rays, and luckily, for some reason, my finger wasn’t broken.”

So Linde returned to the fray. He sent down just 18 more balls in Pakistan’s first innings, without success. But in nine overs on Saturday he bowled with fine control and attacking intent to take the important wickets of Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam and Faheem Ashraf in nine overs that cost only a dozen runs. And that despite having to change the way he held the ball: “I had to make a small adjustment with the grip. Not too much. I never knew I use my pinkie when I bowl. Now, every time I bowl, I’ve got to first lift it up a little bit so I can get a better grip on the ball.”

If that seems too stoic to be true, consider that Linde is 29, and that before he made his Test debut against India in Ranchi in October 2019 he didn’t seem bound for a place at the top table. Consider, too, that he has had to bowl his way into a team that already includes Keshav Maharaj. And that he mightn’t have played in Rawalpindi had Tabraiz Shamsi not been taken out of the mix by fears that he wasn’t yet over the back spasm that had ruled him out of the first Test in Karachi. So, unlike that of many players, Linde’s perspective isn’t short on reality: “You don’t know when you’re going to get the opportunity to play for your country,” he said. “So that’s not going to get me down. It’s just pain.”

And there was a bigger picture to consider: “There are people sick at home, people who are seriously ill, who are dying because of Covid or other diseases or something else. My injury is nothing compared to that. You’re playing for your country. I’m not going to stand back just because my finger is a bit sore. It’s painful for 10 minutes. You get an injection and you go back.”

Please, Mr Linde, keep coming back.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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The devil in the details of South Africa’s batting problems

Crashes of 5/41 and 9/70 last week were followed by 5/37 on Saturday.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

ANOTHER day, another collapse. Watching South Africa bat has become an exercise in ominousness, like waiting for the bogeyman to emerge from under the bed. So the hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics among us shouldn’t read the next paragraph.

Add South Africa’s total of 201 in Rawalpindi to the 220 and 245 they made in Karachi and you get what christians call the number of the beast: 666, the mere mention of which makes hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics pull the blankets over their heads and wait for the evil to slither back from whence it came.

South Africa’s crashes of 5/41 and 9/70 last week were followed by a slide of 5/37 on Saturday. Last month they suffered a shambles of 9/84 against Sri Lanka at the Wanderers, where England smashed and grabbed 5/95 and 8/93 in January last year.

It’s pointless asking why this keeps happening. “Trust me, if I knew I would let you know,” Quinton de Kock said after the Karachi Test. “And if we knew how to fix them we wouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Damn straight.

But, while they persist in giving away wickets like politicians spraying promises during election campaigns, the South Africans will be asked. Because, unlike politicians, players face a vote of confidence every time they take the field and are held accountable for their failures to deliver.

Of the visitors’ frontline batters, only Rassie van der Dussen — who was undone first ball by a delivery from Hasan Ali that didn’t get up — had an excuse this time. The rest all faced at least 20 balls. Aiden Markram saw 60 and Wiaan Mulder 83. Temba Bavuma’s unbeaten 44 was assembled from 138 deliveries, as painstakingly as a bicycle built from matchsticks. He set an example, but South Africa aren’t often going to be in a winning position if Bavuma’s teammates score as slowly as he does. Just as true is that they would fare far worse without Bavuma’s stickability.

South Africa are averaging 13.32 per wicket in this series, and they’re better than that: of their XI, only Rabada and Anrich Nortjé have lower career batting averages. So George Linde would have been justified in having a moan about the batters. He knew better than to do that. “It is what it is,” he told an online press conference. “You don’t get out on purpose. [Pakistan] bowled well, so you’ve got to give credit to them. Our batsmen have gameplans and I’m pretty confident they’re going to take us over the line in the next game … in the next innings.” The first version of what Linde said was no doubt a slip of the tongue, but it is likely to be proved accurate.

Hasan recovered impressively from an indifferent first Test to take 5/54. He bowled with enough pace and more than enough passion, and deserved his success. But the innings was riddled with the now familiar tropes of poor shot selection and shoddy running between the wickets.

South Africa’s bowlers kept them in the contest early in Pakistan’s second innings. Kagiso Rabada trapped Imran Butt in front before the first run was scored off the 26th ball, and Keshav Maharaj had Babar Azam leg-before, dismissing him for the third time in four innings — or as often as Nathan Lyon and Rabada but in fewer matches, and more often in fewer matches than Mitchell Starc and James Anderson. Linde bowled nine overs for a dozen runs and took three wickets. And they weren’t just any wickets: Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam and Faheem Ashraf.

But three dropped catches, all close to the bat, released the pressure. With a lead of 200, Mohammad Rizwan well set and four wickets in hand, the advantage is firmly with the home side.

Not for the first time, South Africa’s batting had let them down and tilted the narrative in the wrong direction. Would it be the last time that happens? “I don’t look too deeply into batting,” Linde said. “As a spin bowler I’m focused on that. When it’s my chance I’ve got my gameplans, so I’m sure the batters have theirs.”

Maybe the batters could learn from him. Linde is playing in his third Test. He faced 81 balls in his debut innings, against India in Ranchi in October 2019, and 55 in the second innings. In Karachi, he stood firm for 64 and 29 deliveries, and for 21 in Rawalpindi.

Doubtless that kind of grit fuelled his optimism when he was asked how many runs he thought South Africa were equipped to score to level the series. “Anything under 300, we’ll take that,” he said. “Hopefully it will be 250 or 220, whatever. Realistically, under 270 or 300 I’m pretty confident we’ll chase it down.” On the available evidence, many would reckon South Africa have about as much chance of doing that as they have of correctly spelling hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Rawalpindi rips, then rests

Batting in the morning was about staying out of trouble. In the afternoon it was no trouble.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

ON a clear day in Rawalpindi you can see all the way to the foothills of the mighty Himalayas. Thursday was, for the most part, not a clear day. It was grey and drippy, and the wall of gloom that dominated the sky kept a respectful distance until tea, when it soaked the scene.

South Africa would be forgiven for being quietly relieved at not having to endure a third session. After a hurtling start in which they removed Pakistan’s top order at the cost of one run across 23 deliveries, they laboured for no reward for the next 43.1 overs.

Given the start they made the South Africans would have been justified in thinking the day would offer them opportunities for more success. But a pitch that spat with spin in the dampness of a dewy morning smiled ever more broadly on batters as the day lengthened. The outfield was as slick as an ice rink throughout, adding value to almost all strokes. “With the newish ball and moisture, the ball sort of sticks in the wicket a bit more,” Keshav Maharaj told reporters. “We saw that, as the day went on and the moisture seeped away from the surface, the turn was minimised substantially … Everyone was a bit confused as to what to expect but it seems pretty hard. The moisture might bind it together come tomorrow. At the end of the day tomorrow we’ll probably have a clearer idea and understanding as to how the wicket’s going to deteriorate, if it is going to deteriorate.”

Babar Azam and Fawad Alam made hay whether or not the sun was shining, adding 123. They remain so focused on forging ahead on Friday that neither was made available at the post-play press conference. Babar’s textbook technique dazzled in his driving through the covers. Fawad’s extraordinary unorthodoxy didn’t get in the way of his off drive. They were the embodiment of the sacred and the profane. As Maharaj said, “They absorbed pressure nicely and bided their time, and after lunch it seemed to get a little bit easier to bat on the wicket.”

It was indeed a tale of two sessions. Whereas batting in the morning was an exercise in staying out of trouble, in the afternoon it was all about not being given any trouble — neither by the surface nor by the bowlers. Babar and Fawad looked as if they were making themselves comfortable to watch the steady scoring of runs, not as if they would to have to score those runs themselves. Batting isn’t easy at this level, but they made it seem so.

It was anything but when Maharaj was introduced in the eighth over. His first delivery bounced and jagged away from Imran Butt, who pushed forward defensively and steered a healthy edge to the single slip, Temba Bavuma — who dropped an eminently takeable catch. That cost Maharaj a single. It was the only run he conceded from his first 28 balls, in which he had Butt caught behind and trapped Azhar Ali in front for a duck. The most impressive aspect of Maharaj’s bowling wasn’t that he turned the ball on a turning pitch — anything else would have been grounds for concern — but that he realised the value of his quicker, straighter delivery even in those circumstances. He used it to great effect.

And here we need to pause. Criticism of Quinton de Kock’s captaincy is not difficult to find, and some of it is warranted. He was found wanting in the first Test in Karachi in the key areas of referring umpiring decisions and making bowling changes. The sensitivity of the subject is perhaps why South Africa’s team management has taken issue with reports that Mark Boucher has confirmed that the Rawalpindi Test would be De Kock’s last at the helm. Boucher told a press conference on Wednesday: “When we get back after this tour we’ve got a bit of time before our next Test series. So we can sit down and make a good, solid call on who can take over from him and release him from that burden, and try and get the best out of him.” De Kock was appointed until the end of the season. With Australia pulling out of their series in March over fears of South Africa’s Covid-19 infection rate, the end of the Test season is, as things stand, the end of this match. Management says Boucher’s words have been “misinterpreted”. It is difficult to understand how.

But the point of interrupting the narrative is not to brew an argument. It is to make sure De Kock is given the credit for tossing the ball to Maharaj so early in the match. Only one other South Africa slow bowler has taken two wickets in the first 15 overs of a Test — Reggie Schwarz, whose googly was his stock ball, opened the bowling with another wrist spinner, Aubrey Faulkner, against England at the Old Wanderers in Johannesburg in January 1906. Schwarz dismissed Plum Warner and Lucky Denton with only six runs scored.

Whether De Kock knows any of that doesn’t matter. What does is that he summed up the conditions and the situation and made what proved to be the right decision for his team. That’s what captains do. Good ones, at any rate. When South Africa choose their next Test captain, they should remember this moment — especially if De Kock adds more like it to his curriculum vitae.

Back to the real world of Rawalpindi, where Maharaj’s consistent quality from one end was complemented by a single flash of brilliance from the other an hour before lunch. Anrich Nortjé speared a delivery at Abid Ali, who edged it onto his body. Lurking like a 1.85-metre hawk at short leg, Aiden Markram flung himself rightward and took a fine catch low to the ground and far from where he had crouched.

Babar was joined by Fawad, and Maharaj was proved human after all when Babar hit the last two balls of the next over through cover point and fine leg for four. Fawad clipped the first delivery of the next over, bowled by Nortjé, through Markram’s legs for another boundary. Five overs passed, none of them scoreless. In the context of what had gone before, you could feel the fulcrum tilting and the advantage sliding the other way.

Then George Linde, in his second over, sent down six spotless deliveries to Fawad.

Would he wrestle the match back into South Africa’s corner? No. Babar hammered Linde down the ground in his next over. Before the ball reached the outfield it hit the little finger on Linde’s bowling hand — which he clutched as he ran off, blood spattering onto his whites as he went. He did not return.

South Africa picked all three spinners they have in their squad for the Karachi Test, only for Tabraiz Shamsi to suffer a back spasm 20 minutes before the toss. Doubt about Shamsi’s readiness took him out of the equation for Rawalpindi, but there was no doubt both Maharaj and Linde would play. Now the visitors were down to Maharaj, not counting part-timers like Dean Elgar and Markram. Linde’s finger was stitched and bandaged, and X-rays did not reveal a fracture. “It’s fine,” he could be seen saying, with a dismissive shake of his head, on the sidelines on Thursday while holding a ball and going through the motions of his bowling action. “I was concerned for his well-being, but I’m glad to know that he’s feeling a lot better,” Maharaj said. “If all goes well he should take the field at some stage tomorrow.”

Maharaj himself started the match with an injury: “I was bowling on Tuesday and I felt a really sharp pain in my abdominal rib cage area. I was a bit concerned and it’s still there, but our medical staff sorted me out and made sure I was ready to play this Test match.” On the evidence of the 25 overs he bowled on Thursday, some of them rasping with threats, most of them immaculate, Maharaj will get through this test in one piece. And through this Test with several more wickets. You can see that happening, clearly.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Rabada back for historic Pakistan tour

Daryn Dupavillon, who had the best economy rate on his international debut in May, and Ottniel Baartman, who has dismissed Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks and Temba Bavuma this season, are also in the squad.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

OF the nine fast bowlers South Africa have selected for their historic Test series in Pakistan later this month, one’s name sticks out: Kagiso Rabada. It’s no surprise that the leader of the attack should be in the squad, but he will be welcomed back after missing the rubber against Sri Lanka in the past 14 days because of a groin strain. The series will end South Africa’s absence of 14 years from Pakistan because of security fears.

Two of the other quicks selected were Daryn Dupavillon, who made his international debut in an ODI against Australia in Potchefstroom in May — when he dismissed Aaron Finch and returned South Africa’s best economy rate — and Ottniel Baartman, who has removed Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks and Temba Bavuma in franchise first-class cricket this season.

South Africa steamrolled the Lankans by an innings at Centurion and by 10 wickets at the Wanderers. But the conditions they will encounter in Karachi and Rawalpindi are likely to be starkly different compared to Highveld surfaces. Consequently they have bolstered their spin depth by including Tabraiz Shamsi and George Linde. Keshav Maharaj will remain the first-choice slow bowler, but he is unlikely to be the only one in the XI.

Shaun von Berg and Senuran Muthusamy, spinners both, may wonder why they didn’t crack the nod considering they are first and fourth among franchise first-class wicket-takers this season. Conversely, Dupavillon and Baartman may wonder how they made the squad — they are 14th and 24th on the wicket-taking list this summer.

“Considering that the conditions that will be faced are largely unknown to the South African team, we wanted to strengthen the attack with the skill sets that Tabraiz Shamsi and George Linde have to offer, while giving players like Daryn Dupavillon and Ottneil Baartman an opportunity after making strong cases for themselves in recent seasons,” a CSA release quoted selection convenor Victor Mpitsang as saying.

Dwaine Pretorius, who has been kept on the sidelines since November 12 by a hamstring strain, has returned to full fitness and thus kept his place. Glenton Stuurman, Migael Pretorius and Raynard van Tonder, who were all part of the squad for the Sri Lanka series and were injured while on South Africa duty despite not playing a match, were not included.

Shamsi and Baartman are the only players selected who are part of their franchise squads for the sole round of franchise one-day games that will be played before the Test squad travels to Pakistan. The release said they would “still take part in the competition” because it had “been moved into a bio-secure environment in Potchefstroom” where all of the truncated tournament’s 15 games will be played, starting on Saturday.

South Africa leave next Friday on a commercial flight — charter flights have become popular among touring sides during the pandemic — and will quarantine in Karachi before resuming training and staging intra-squad games to prepare for the series, which starts on January 26. The Rawalpindi Test is scheduled to end on February 8 and will be followed by three T20s. CSA said it would announce that squad next week.

South Africa squad: Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Kagiso Rabada, Dwaine Pretorius, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortjé, Wiaan Mulder, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Kyle Verreynne, Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Tabraiz Shamsi, George Linde, Daryn Dupavillon, Ottniel Baartman.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Knights, Warriors win, Migael Pretorius heads for Centurion

Raynard van Tonder’s 200 was his sixth century in 58 first-class innings, his fourth score of 150 or more, and his third double century.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

WHEN the latest round of first-class matches in South Africa started on Sunday, Migael Pretorius might not have been thinking too far beyond the next four days. When the round ended on Wednesday, he was probably trying not to think about making his Test debut against Sri Lanka at Centurion on December 26.

Fast bowler Pretorius was added to South Africa’s ranks on Wednesday in the absence of Kagiso Rabada, the victim of a lingering groin strain who CSA say has “not yet been medically cleared” to play in the Test series. With Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortjé, Beuran Hendricks and Glenton Stuurman also in the squad, Pretorius looks unlikely to crack the nod even if South Africa field an all-pace attack. But, having taken 20 wickets at 20.65 in five first-class matches this season, he has earned recognition.

Pretorius didn’t have too much to do with the Knights beating the Lions by nine wickets in Bloemfontein on Wednesday: he took 3/102 in the match. The tone of the contest was set in its opening hour, when Raynard van Tonder walked to the crease at the fall of the Knights’ first wicket. When he was dismissed more than seven-and-a-half hours of playing time later, Van Tonder had scored 200 — his sixth century in 58 first-class innings, his fourth score of 150 or more, and his third double century. Van Tonder hit 112 of his runs in fours and sixes, no mean feat on South Africa’s biggest ground in area terms.

But Ferisco Adams’ 96 was the Knights’ only other effort of more than 30 in a total of 472 in which the biggest partnership was the 111 shared by Van Tonder and Shaun von Berg, who faced 83 balls for his gritty 21. Leg spinner Von Berg increased his share of the spotlight by taking 5/93 in the Lions’ reply of 262, which would have been significantly smaller had Rassie van der Dussen not stood firm for an unbeaten 107.

The Lions followed on 210 runs behind, and this time opener Dominic Hendricks kept their heads above water until he was last out for 98. But, with Von Berg sharing the new ball and taking 4/68 — completing a match haul of 9/161 — left-arm fast bowler Duan Jansen claiming 4/44 on his franchise debut, and the visitors losing their last eight wickets for 85 runs, the Knights needed only 18 to win. They got there in six overs.

The Warriors beat the Cobras by 80 runs at St George’s Park despite the visitors taking a lead of 61 into the second innings. That happened because the Warriors crashed to 194 all out in two sessions with Rudi Second’s 55 — all but nine of them in boundaries — their only highlight and George Linde taking 4/52. Kyle Verreynne hit 80 of his 97 in fours to help the Cobras reply with 255. Marco Jansen and Jon-Jon Smuts took three wickets each.

There were more runs left in Second’s bat, 114 of them, and Yaseen Vallie’s 57 — and the 167 they put on for the third wicket — seemed to have established the Warriors’ dominance. But Vallie and Second were dismissed by consecutive deliveries, the start of a slide that would net eight wickets for 90 runs with Calvin Savage taking 4/81. The Cobras chased 265 to win but were dismissed for 184 with Smuts snapping up 3/47. Opener Janneman Malan, who scored 65, was the only Cobras batter to reach 20.

The other match of the round, between the Titans and the Dolphins at Centurion, was called off after the first day because one of the Dolphins’ players was confirmed to have contracted Covid-19. By then, Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar had scored half-centuries in the Titans’ first innings of 269/9, and Ruan de Swardt and Keshav Maharaj had taken 4/41 and 3/48.

Negative tests for Covid permitting, Markram and Elgar will open the batting for South Africa against Sri Lanka, while Maharaj is the only specialist spinner in the squad. Ngidi, Sarel Erwee and Keegan Petersen, who were involved in the match but didn’t get the chance to show what form they’re in, are also in the mix for the Test series.

Of the other players in the Test squad whose performances aren’t mentioned above, Beuran Hendricks took 1/77, Wiaan Mulder scored 26 and claimed 2/68, and Stuurman took 4/101 and made 30. CSA said Quinton de Kock and Anrich Nortjé were rested for this week’s matches while Faf du Plessis was granted time off to be with his family before South Africa’s busy summer resumes.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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By George, this Linde might have it

There’s a touch of a young Clint Eastwood to George Linde’s jib, and some of Kepler Wessels’ cussedness in his saunter.

TELFORD VICE | Paarl

This time last week George Linde was minding his own business in the bio-bubble, the odd man out in South Africa’s T20I squad. He had last played a match in the format almost a year previously, when he conceded 18 runs in the only over he bowled and was run out for two. Why did South Africa want him around considering they had Tabraiz Shamsi and Keshav Maharaj? Even Jon-Jon Smuts seemed ahead of him in the queue, albeit Smuts is more a batting than a bowling allrounder.

Linde’s performance was far from the reason the Cape Town Blitz lost to the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants at Newlands on December 6 — his most recent T20 before the current series against England — but you wouldn’t have thought he was on course for a place in South Africa’s side.

He played six matches out of a possible 10 in last season’s Mzansi Super League, took five wickets, was 24th in terms of economy rate among bowlers who had sent down at least 10 overs — and 14 places off the bottom of that list — and couldn’t score more than 63 runs in six innings, two of them unfinished. If Linde had potential to play in the shortest format at the highest level, it wasn’t self-evident.

So expectations weren’t high when he was named in the XI for Friday’s first T20I at Newlands, and had dwindled further when he came to the crease with eight balls left in an innings that had shambled to 161/5. But there’s a touch of a young Clint Eastwood to Linde’s jib, and some of Kepler Wessels’ cussedness in his saunter, and he didn’t seem surprised when he lashed the third ball he faced through extra cover for four. The seventh, a full toss, disappeared over square leg for six. Maybe this “kid” — he turns 29 next Sunday — could play the game at this level after. But the proof would be in his strong suit.

Accordingly, expectations perked when he stood at the top of his run holding the new ball. And peaked when Jason Roy leapt at the second delivery like a man taking a spade to a snake. Quinton de Kock held the edge, and Linde had made his case. It needed the skill and quick thinking of Kagiso Rabada, diving low and forward at square leg, to claim a catch from Dawid Malan’s scything sweep. But catch it Rabada did, and there it was: after nine deliveries, Linde had figures of 2/2.

South Africa lost, convincingly, a match that clearly was their first in almost nine months. They batted too boldly, bowled too breezily, and made too many decisions better suited to beach cricket. But Linde’s performance was a reason for them to be if not cheerful then at least cheered that attitudes were in the right place.

Would the second game of the series in Paarl on Sunday deliver more such evidence? Or was that too much to expect considering South Africa’s state of unreadiness, at least some of it due to lockdown regulations?

Certainly, unexpectedness was in the air in the hours before the match, what with a posse of riders from the Draconian Motorcycle Club — as their leather jackets proclaimed — forming part of the motorway traffic heading to Paarl on a hot, bright morning. The club’s Facebook page implores members to support efforts to raise awareness about what the racist right wing calls, falsely, an epidemic of farm murders in South Africa. All of 21,022 people were murdered in South Africa from April 2018 to March 2019. Only 57 of all the country’s murder victims in 2019 were farmers. The Draconians wore helmets, so it wasn’t possible to tell if some of their members were the white former players who have raised the same red herring in their criticism of cricketers espousing or supporting Black Lives Matter ideals.

About that, at Newlands two banners were affixed to the stands reading: “We stand in solidarity against racism and gender based violence. CSA stands for equality.” Neither of the banners made it to Paarl. Maybe there was too much motorcycle traffic on the motorway.

This time Linde took guard in the 14th over with South Africa having crashed to 95/5. He turned the first ball he faced off his hip, easy as you like, for two. He survived an appeal for leg-before by Jofra Archer, coming round the wicket, hit his team’s first four in 10 overs when he slapped Tom Curran through cover, and launched Curran’s next ball over long-on for six. Then he sent Chris Jordan’s attempted yorker scurrying through third man for four. He was run out for a 20-ball 29 to end a stand of 44, the biggest of the innings, he shared with Rassie van der Dussen.

Soon there Linde was again, standing at the top of his run, new ball in hand. Roy made another mad lunge, this time at the first delivery of the innings, and damn near edged it again. But there were no more wickets for Linde. Not yet, anyway. Even so, 0/27 from four overs is more than decent against a bristling batting line-up on a flat if slow pitch.

South Africa lost again, though less convincingly, and with that went the series. It’s unfair on Quinton de Kock considering his inexperience as a captain, but the fact is he now owns the worst record of all 11 leaders the South Africans have had in this format: played 10, won three.

But Shamsi, whose spirited bowling that earned him a return of 3/19 was another spot of sunshine in the gloom, wasn’t looking too deeply into all that. “We haven’t played together for nine months,” he said after that match. “So it’s going to take us a little bit of time to gel again. There’s no need to panic.”

Not to panic, but to be concerned going into the now irrelevant third match at Newlands on Tuesday. And, if that doesn’t go well enough, ahead of the three ODIs.

But while you have odd men out like Kepler Eastwood in the side, players who know how to get a job done even when belief in their ability to do so wavers, you have something. It’s called hope. You also have something else: a way to meet those pesky expectations.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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