Glenton Stuurman – Page 2 – Bulletproof Truth

Sri Lanka reach for records as South Africa stumble

“On this wicket, if you bowl that sexy length, a little bit short, it’s not really that effective.” – Wiaan Mulder adds a word to cricket’s lexicon.

Telford Vice | Centurion

SRI Lanka’s captain wins the toss and bats? In South Africa? Surely not. But that happens more often than might be thought, and it did again at Centurion on Saturday. When the visitors melted to 54/3 in the first 58 hot, muggy minutes of the match, Dimuth Karunaratne’s decision didn’t look too clever. When they reached stumps on 340/6, choosing to bat first was as brilliant as the sun slowly sinking through the haze beyond the western edge of the ground’s sweeping single stand.

In their other 15 Tests in South Africa, Sri Lanka won the toss eight times and chose to bat on half of those occasions. They lost three times, twice by an innings after being dismissed well inside the opening day. But, at Kingsmead in December 2011, they won by 208 runs — their first victory in this country.

At the close on the first day of the latter match, at Kingsmead, they were 289/7 — until Saturday their highest score on day one batting first, irrespective of who won the toss, in a Test in South Africa. Saturday’s effort is three runs away from becoming Sri Lanka’s biggest total in this country.

The matchwinner at Kingsmead nine years ago was Rangana Herath and his nine wickets. Sri Lanka don’t have not anyone of his mastery this time, but they do have Dhananjaya de Silva, whose batting shimmered with panache as he steamed towards a century before being undone for 79 by a hip injury sustained while taking a run. Forty-eight stairs lead from the boundary to the dressingroom at Centurion, and despite supporters on either side of him, de Silva winced as he negotiated each step. It was discomforting to see someone who had shown such dash and grace for more than two hours in the middle reduced to hobbling. He was to undergo scans on Saturday night to determine the extent of the problem.

Sri Lanka also have Dinesh Chandimal, who was already at the scene of the crime of three wickets falling across 37 deliveries when de Silva arrived. They had shared 131 when de Silva was cut down. Chandimal made a measured, elegant 85 before being removed by a vicious delivery from Wiaan Mulder that reared, took the shoulder of the bat and flew to slip.

Niroshan Dickwella, a wild slasher in previous encounters against South Africa, looked like he had grown up in an innings that reached 49 before he was trapped in front by Mulder — the best performer in a South Africa pace attack that had only a dozen caps among them before the match. The last time the fast men took less experience into a Test was at the MCG in December 1993, when Allan Donald, Fanie de Villiers and Craig Matthews held 11 caps between them. South Africa’s XI at Centurion has claimed 161 wickets, 110 of them by Keshav Maharaj and another 15 by Dean Elgar.

And all that inexperience showed, even though Mulder’s 3/68 in only his second Test was just reward for sustained, focused aggression. But the only other seam bowler who looked like he had spent lockdown itching to have a crack at batters in something other than the IPL was Anrich Nortjé, who seemed able to hit 150 kilometres an hour at will. More importantly, he didn’t sacrifice accuracy. Lungi Ngidi laboured so hard he changed his sweat soaked shirt inside the first hour, but he lacked zip. Lutho Sipamla, who likely made his debut because another new cap, Glenton Stuurman, couldn’t shake off a quadriceps strain, shared the new ball with Ngidi and suffered through a first spell of 0/38 from five overs. Sipamla improved in subsequent spells but he didn’t threaten as much as he would have wanted.

To stay in the game, or avoid having to mount a mammoth fightback in the second innings, South Africa will need to score more runs in their reply than they have in their last 13 Test innings — a lacklustre list that begins with the 191 India dismissed them for in the second innings at Visakhapatnam in October last year.

“There was definitely something in the pitch for the bowlers, especially with the new ball up front,” Mulder told an online press conference. “If we had bowled a little bit fuller with more balls hitting the stumps and on a fourth-stump line we could have been a lot more successful.

“It was unlucky for Dhananjaya getting injured, but that gave us a chance to come back. On this wicket, if you bowl that sexy length, a little bit short, it’s not really that effective. We searched a little bit today. But we’ve got a really young team. One of these days it will click for us.”

If the home side were in a funk, maybe what they did before the start of play had something to do with it. Having refused all opportunities to do what so many other figures in sport have done around the world to show their support for anti-racism — take a knee — the South Africans said they would raise a fist to express their solidarity with the same cause.

But when the moment came, directly after the national anthems, hopes for a dignified display disappeared. At first, only Quinton de Kock and Elgar cocked their elbows and thrust a fist into the sky. Their teammates followed suit several seconds and sideways glances later, by which time De Kock and Elgar must have been wondering what they had done wrong. So they lowered their arms. Only to put them up again. As a showing of will and wherewithal, the gesture failed. As a metaphor for South Africa’s performance, it was about right.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Hendricks’ absence could mean Stuurman’s debut

No positive tests among South Africans in bio-bubble.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

BEURAN Hendricks and Keegan Petersen have been withdrawn from South Africa’s squad to play two Tests against Sri Lanka, starting at Centurion on Saturday. CSA didn’t explain their absence when it updated the squad on Tuesday, but it also hasn’t identified the two players who tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.

Importantly, the positive tests were announced before the squads went into a bio-secure environment on Saturday. Three rounds of testing have been conducted from Thursday to Tuesday, and no other cases of the disease have been announced. That means the bubble can be regarded as secure, at least from a South African perspective. Efforts to ascertain Sri Lanka’s Covid situation have been unsuccessful.

Uncapped batter Petersen was a long shot for a place in the XI, but Hendricks would probably have earned his second cap. He bounced back from taking 1/111 in the first innings of his debut, against England at the Wanderers in January, to claim 5/64 the second time around. His haul included the wickets of Joe Root and Ben Stokes, and he dismissed Dominic Sibley in both innings. That, the fact that Hendricks’ debut was South Africa’s most recent Test, and his left-armness in an otherwise right-arm seam attack should have seen him keep his place.

Quinton de Kock hinted on Monday that the uncapped Glenton Stuurman could crack the nod on Saturday, and thus replace Hendricks. Allrounder Dwaine Pretorius, who earned the last of his three caps in the same match in which Hendricks made his debut but has built a reputation as a white-ball specialist, is also an option. Regardless, South Africa’s fast bowling, a perennial strength, will be weakened by the unavailability of Kagiso Rabada because of a groin injury.

The focus on South Africa’s Covid tests is understandable considering England abandoned their white-ball tour on December 10 with three of their six matches unplayed after a rash of positive tests within the bubble. Last week, two of the three matches in South Africa’s senior first-class competition were affected by the pandemic. One game was called off after the first day, and in all 10 players in the Test squad were exposed to the virus. This week’s round of matches was postponed. Shortly before Thursday’s cases of the virus were revealed, Raynard van Tonder, Lutho Sipamla and Pretorius were added to the squad.

South Africa Test squad:

Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Anrich Nortjé, Glenton Stuurman, Sarel Erwee, Wiaan Mulder, Kyle Verreynne, Migael Pretorius, Dwaine Pretorius, Lutho Sipamla, Raynard van Tonder.

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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No Rabada doesn’t mean no problem for Sri Lanka

Batting on two of the fastest, swingiest pitches in cricket will be easier for the visitors than they might have expected. But not by much.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

YOU’RE batting at Centurion or the Wanderers. Who’s the last South Africa bowler you want running at you, new ball in hand, old mayhem in mind? Kagiso Rabada, of course. So Sri Lanka will be quietly relieved that Rabada has not recovered from a groin injury in time to be named in the squad to play Tests at those grounds from December 26.

Not so fast. Lungi Ngidi has been picked. As has Anrich Nortjé. Batting on two of the fastest, swingiest pitches in cricket will be easier for the Lankans than they might have expected. But not by much. The home side’s other pace options, Beuran Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder and the uncapped Glenton Stuurman, aren’t anywhere as menacing. That said, they bring other attributes. Hendricks’ left-armness, for instance. And Stuurman’s ability to move the ball both ways.

South Africa’s batting has a more familiar look, with Pieter Malan and Zubayr Hamza the only casualties in that department from the squad that finished the series against England in January. That was Faf du Plessis’ swansong as captain. He remains in the mix, but contrary to earlier indications Quinton de Kock will lead the side until the end of the season — or while the candidates for the position proper, Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen and Keshav Maharaj, stake their claims.

Another newbie, Kyle Verreynne, could relieve the burdened De Kock of his wicketkeeping duties. Still another unblooded player in the squad, Sarel Erwee, scored 199 in the opening round of first-class fixtures last month. Markram is the leading run-scorer in that competition, thanks to reeling off centuries in his last three innings. Erwee is only 47 runs behind him, albeit from one more innings.

Allrounder Mulder, a former South Africa under-19 captain and a major talent who has had to recover from too many injuries for someone who will turn 23 in February, has also cracked the nod having scored a century and 91 in five innings in the first-class competition.

Maharaj is the only spinner in the 15, not least because of the venues involved. Only at Centurion and the Wanderers do South Africa’s captains contemplate unleashing all-seam attacks. That brings us to Sri Lanka’s last Test series in the country, in February 2019.

They arrived having won only one of their previous 13 Tests in South Africa, but the narrative was rewritten when they prevailed by one wicket at Kingsmead and by eight wickets at St George’s Park. That made them the first Asian side to claim a Test series here. Again, the clue is in the venues.

Durban and Port Elizabeth harbour the slowest, most Asian surfaces in South Africa. Kingsmead is the scene of Sri Lanka’s only other win in the country — by 208 runs in December 2011, when Rangana Herath took 11/128 — and they drew their other Test there. Sensibly, they had played at St George’s Park just once before, in December 2016 when they were dismissed for 205 and 281 and South Africa won by 206 runs. So the decision to put the Lankans in Durban and Port Elizabeth last year was made either in ignorance or arrogance.

Hence they can expect to be taken more seriously than ever this time. Not only will South Africa have a point to prove, they will not have played Test cricket for 11 months when the Centurion match starts, and they will do so under a new captain and in the brave new world of Covid cricket. There is thus every reason for the South Africans to prove they can do this, especially in the wake of England truncating their white-ball tour over virus fears.

Du Plessis, Bavuma, De Kock, Elgar, Maharaj, Markram and Mulder were in the South Africa squad selected for Sri Lanka’s last Test series here. So were Hashim Amla, Theunis de Bruyn, Duanne Olivier, Vernon Philander, Rabada, Dale Steyn and Hamza, who far various reasons are not around this time.

So much has changed since last February. But it’s still not much fun batting at Centurion or the Wanderers when some of South Africa’s best bowlers are running at you.

South Africa Test squad:

Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Faf du Plessis, Beuran Hendricks, Dean Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Sarel Erwee, Anrich Nortjé, Glenton Stuurman, Wiaan Mulder, Keegan Petersen, Kyle Verreynne.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Stuurman’s week that was ends with SA selection

“It’s been a long winter and it’s really pleasing that we finally have an imminent international tour on our shores to look forward to.” – Graeme Smith

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

GLENTON Stuurman has had an interesting week. On Monday he was named among six Warriors players who had been withdrawn from the opening round of the first-class competition because they had either tested positive for Covid-19 or been in contact with someone who had. On Friday the uncapped medium pacer was included in South Africa’s squad to play six white-ball games against England from the last week of this month.

Stuurman has been too close for comfort to someone who has contracted the virus. So he is isolating but, at this stage, has nothing to recover from ahead of the matches, three in each format, which will be played in a bio-secure bubble at Newlands and in Paarl from November 27 to December 9.

At 28 and almost seven years into his first-class career, Stuurman is a bona fide late bloomer. That and the fact that he is able to move the ball both ways off the seam has earned impressive but unhelpful comparisons with Vernon Philander, who laboured for more than seven years before he made his Test debut.

The only other player in the squad of 24 who did not turn out for South Africa last summer is Junior Dala, who played the most recent of his 11 white-ball internationals in March 2019 and has since struggled with a knee injury.

Kagiso Rabada is back after missing the ODI series against Australia and the aborted rubber in the same format in India, both in March, with a groin problem.

Dale Steyn, who featured in the T20 series against Australia in February, Chris Morris, whose most recent white-ball international was in the World Cup in England in July last year, and Aiden Markram, who also last played at this level in the shorter formats at the World Cup, were the major absentees. Team management said Steyn was “unavailable for selection” while Morris is battling a hamstring injury at the IPL. Steyn has played in only three of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 14 games at this year’s tournament, and taken 1/133.

South Africans will be excited by what they have seen in the IPL from Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, Rabada and Anrich Nortjé, who are all among the top 10 runscorers or wicket-takers at the tournament — and all in the squad. De Kock and De Plessis are enjoying a more successful IPL even than AB de Villiers, who has retired from international cricket. Rabada has rediscovered the pace and aggression that deserted him at the World Cup and Nortjé sent down efforts of 155 and 156 kilometres an hour last month, the fastest deliveries in IPL history.

Unusually for a South Africa squad picked to play at home, the group includes four spinners in Bjorn Fortuin, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi — who is probably the first-choice slow bowler.

The squad is the first signed off by Victor Mpitsang, who was named convenor of selectors on October 21, the first announced since Graeme Smith became director of cricket in December, and South Africa’s first since the start of the pandemic.

“It’s been a long winter and it’s really pleasing that we finally have an imminent international tour on our shores to look forward to,” a release quoted Smith as saying. He also hinted that there would be “more good news to announce” soon involving South Africa’s women’s team.

South Africa men’s squad: Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma, Junior Dala, Faf du Plessis, Bjorn Fortuin, Beuran Hendricks, Reeza Hendricks, Heinrich Klaasen, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Janneman Malan, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortjé, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lutho Sipamla, Jon-Jon Smuts, Glenton Stuurman, Pite van Biljon, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne.

First published by Cricbuzz.

And the 3TC game’s clear winner is …

“That’s why we stand together.” – Makhaya Ntini after all involved took a knee and raised a fist before the match.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

WHO’S winning? The most annoying question asked of the cricketminded by the non-cricketminded finally earned some relevance in Centurion on Saturday. One match. Three teams. Eight players a side. Each team faces 12 overs, six from each of their opponents’ attacks. In innings split into two halves. So, who’s winning?

Ummm … Dunno. Wait until the game is over. At least that hasn’t changed, but this has: nobody won the 3TC Solidarity Cup. Instead, the Eagles were named gold medallists for scoring the most runs, 160/4. The Kites’s took silver with their total of 138/3, and the Kingfishers’ 113/5 left them with bronze.

The who? The what? Here’s something you will recognise: Aiden Markram hammered 70 off 33 balls, AB de Villiers hit 61 off 24, and Dwaine Pretorius banked an unbeaten 50 off 17, and Anrich Nortjé, Glenton Stuurman, Andile Phehlukwayo and Lutho Sipamla took two wickets each.

De Villiers owned the shot of the day, a one-handed muscle down the ground for four to a furious full toss on his gloves from Nortjé. When Nortjé’s next effort disappeared far over the midwicket boundary, SuperSport commentator Pommie Mbangwa boomed: “Don’t bowl there! Don’t bowl there! Don’t bowl anywhere!”

The cause was good. All profits will go to a hardship fund to alleviate the plight of those suffering financially during the coronavirus pandemic. The overarching scenario was not good: Centurion is in the epicentre of Covid-19 cases in South Africa, which is among the countries with the highest infection rate in the world.

Also not ideal was the fact that the match — the first competitive team sports event in South Africa since the country went into lockdown on March 27 — was robbed of two of its biggest stars. Kagiso Rabada withdraw after the death of his grandmother and Quinton de Kock pulled out due to “unforeseen personal circumstances”. Whether the virus was involved in Rabada’s case has not been disclosed, but one of De Kock’s close family members has tested positive.

That wasn’t the game’s only collision with reality. After a dozen days of social media turmoil in the wake of Lungi Ngidi expressing his support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, with noteworthy opinions flying for and against and Cricket South Africa making a public relations mess of things, the focus was firmly on the 3TC game to write a new chapter in the story.

The players wore BLM armbands and all involved took a knee and raised their right fist before the first ball was bowled. That included Graeme Smith and Makhaya Ntini, who commentated on the match. “‘Mackie’, I was next to you in the build-up; I could feel the emotion coming from you,” Smith said when the pair were on air together. “That’s why we stand together,” Ntini replied. “A very important message is being put out today,” Smith said.

“It’s one of our greatest moments,” Ntini said. “Everyone can see that, as South Africans, we all stand up and plow the same furrow together. We stand together. The more we do this the more change will happen. Here’s Lungi. He was the first one to voice it, and everyone [who has since supported BLM] stood by him.”

Over to Smith: “Rightly so. There’s no need for Ngidi to be attacked at all. I think he’s handled himself extremely well.”

Their interaction seemed sincere and warm, which only added a layer to the narrative in the wake of Ntini saying in an interview on SABC television on Friday that he was shunned by his teammates during his playing days. So he would decline to take the team bus, on which, he claimed, the other players would avoid sitting next to him.

“I would say, ‘I’ll see you back at the hotel’,” Ntini said. “And then I would run all the way back to the hotel. I would say I would meet them at the ground. I was running away from that loneliness — driving from the hotel, 20 minutes to the ground, and driving back from the ground, 20 minutes to the hotel.

“Those are the kind of things we, as players, thought we would take to the grave. Even though they were painful, you can’t run around telling people what happened to you because there was that sense that, ‘He’s a sore loser; he didn’t appreciate what was given to him’.

“Running around taking five-fors and 10-fors and high-fiving, it’s a joyful [expression] of the pain you’ve gone through. You wish you were collectively happy with everyone who surrounded you, and that not only in that moment are they happy for you.”

Smith was Ntini’s captain in 167 of the 284 matches the fast bowler played for South Africa across the formats. Shaun Pollock led teams that featured Ntini 88 times. Cricbuzz have asked both for comment on Ntini’s claims on Friday. Neither has yet replied.

Phehlukwayo took the conversation a step further on Saturday in the moments after Heinrich Klaasen dragged one of his deliveries onto the stumps. With the bails still tumbling through the air, Phehlukwayo cocked his right fist in the air and whipped the front of his playing shirt over his head to reveal a printed T-shirt underneath.

“Black lives matter,” its legend read, in bold capital letters. That’s who’s winning.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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