Jason Holder – Bulletproof Truth

Caribbean cookie crumbles, Scotland’s flowers bloom

“This is probably one of the lowest points I’ve had with the team.” – Jason Holder

Telford Vice / Harare Sports Club

OH flowers of Scotland! It’s not so much that they beat West Indies in their men’s World Cup qualifier at Harare Sports Club (HSC) on Saturday. After all they now own consecutive victories over them, having won the T20 World Cup match between the teams in Hobart in October.

It’s also not that the Scots have come out on top in 16 of the 27 white-ball internationals they have played from December 2022. Nor that they are 12th in the ODI rankings, above Nepal, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates — the other three teams who were included in the ICC pecking order for the first time in June 2018. Nor that they have easily the highest winning percentage of those teams since then. From June 2018 they have won 38.12% more of their ODIs than the Dutch.

Nor is it that Scotland have beaten Ireland, the UAE and Oman — and lost only to Sri Lanka — during the qualifiers despite the absence from their ranks of 108 caps worth of white-ball international experience. Brad Currie, Josh Davey and Michael Jones have opted to stay with their counties, while Brad Wheal is injured but likely would have done the same.

Unfairly, for neutrals of a certain age and perspective, nothing Scotland did at HSC on Saturday mattered as much as the confirmation of the unhappy transformation of the men in maroon to maroon macaroons, to crumbling Caribbean cookies. They are fragile and easily chewed, swallowed and forgotten; mere morsels of empty calories. And now, for the first time, they are not good enough to go to a World Cup: Saturday’s result means West Indies have no chance of qualifying for this year’s tournament in India in October and November.

It’s been a long time coming — since 1995, when the Windies’ domination of the global game started to slip. For 20 years from the start of the inaugural World Cup in 1975, when they triumphed, they won 265 of the 452 matches they played — a success rate of 58.63% — and lost only 121. Since then they have won 355 and lost 536 of 999; a winning percentage of 35.54. The difference is 23.09%.

That’s a hopelessly inadequate way to gauge decline. Rather the truth of it is in the West Indians’ sloped shoulders and slow movement, in their bleak disbelief at having played another poor stroke, in their desperate trudge through the memories of how good their elders and betters were used as they make their way towards the boundary.

In 1976, Tony Greig, England’s unpleasantly aggressive South African-born captain, was rightly castigated for saying, before the start of a Test series that would define the era, “You must remember that the West Indians, these guys, if they get on top are magnificent cricketers. But if they’re down, they grovel, and I intend, with the help of [Brian Close] and a few others, to make them grovel.”

Thus provoked by an undeserving beneficiary of a deeply racist society drawing too close a connection with slavery, Clive Lloyd’s West Indians whipped their former masters 3-0. The real sadness of their current state is that now they are struggling under the weight of their own accumulated failures.

The assumption that the good times would keep on rolling in the Caribbean, and other teams’ efforts to catch up, notably Australia’s, cost West Indies their place at the top of the pile. This we have known for ages. But the past seven days have brought push to shove with rude and indecent haste.

Last Saturday, in front of a roaring, rollicking HSC crowd of 21,000 in a ground built for 10,000 — around 4,000 of the extra 11,000 were accommodated on the rugby field next door, which was equipped with a big screen — they were beaten by Zimbabwe. These things happen, especially against a confident, skilled, talented, ably captained, cleverly coached, passionately supported home side.

But, at Takashinga on Monday, the Netherlands ran West Indies off their feet; first piling up 374/9, their record ODI total, to tie the match and then dominating the super over thanks to Logan van Beek’s heroics with bat and ball.

And then came the bonnie Scots, well drilled and flinty, and not at all awed. Winning the toss on another damp Harare morning helped, but it still needed proper bowling to reduce the Windies to 81/6 inside 21 overs. Brandon McMullen knocked over the top order of Johnson Charles, Shamarh Brooks and Brandon King in the space of 14 of his deliveries and at the bargain price of seven runs. Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd staved off utter ignominy with a stand of 77, but a target of 182 was never going to be enough to hold Richie Berrington’s side. They knew it, and wended their way to victory with seven wickets standing and 6.5 overs to spare.

Christopher McBride slapped the first ball of the reply, a full toss from Holder, straight into midwicket’s hands. But Matthew Cross and McMullen snuffed out any hope of a fightback with a partnership of 125. Cross took his team home with an unbeaten 74.

Unlike on Monday, when, led by Holder, the West Indians kept up a lively level of chatter in the field until deep into the Dutch innings, a forlorn and desolate silence prevailed as the Scots chased the runs. The last ball of the 12th over captured the mood — Akeal Hosein bowled to McMullen, who swept to midwicket, where Kyle Mayers shelled the catch. For good measure, the throw back to the middle sailed high and wide of everything and a bonus run accrued.

“No difficult questions, please,” Holder implored as he arrived for a press conference. “There are no easy questions,” he was promptly told. For instance, had he known a more dismal moment in his more than 10 years and 251 matches as a West Indies international?

“This is probably one of the lowest points I’ve had with the team, but there’s still a lot of positives,” Holder said. “I was really happy and excited for Nicholas [Pooran, the tournament’s second-highest runscorer] and the way he has played throughout this competition.

“It’s good to see some of the younger guys get an opportunity on a big stage, and try to grasp it. I don’t think all is lost. There’s a lot of young guys in the group who can definitely develop and turn things around for West Indies cricket. We’ve got a young crop of guys. We’ve just got to put some support around them.”

Pooran turns 28 in October. Shai Hope and Roston Chase, the Windies’ next most successful batters in the qualifiers, are 29 and 31. Their leading wicket-takers are Alzarri Joseph, Mayers and Hosein, who are 26, 31 in September and 30. That’s not a lot of youth. But, if you’re Holder, struggling for little reward as your 32nd birthday looms in November, maybe almost everybody else seems younger and fresher.

“It’s disappointing, especially after last year’s effort in the T20 World Cup where we didn’t qualify [for the second round]. I’ve had the luxury of playing in two 50-over World Cups and a couple of T20 World Cups. They’re special occasions. This one will definitely hurt, as the one last year did. But there’s no point moping and keeping our heads down. We’ve got to find a way to turn our cricket around and head in the direction we need to head in consistently. There’ve been too many fluctuations between good and bad performances.”

There was no such gloom in the eyes of Doug Watson, Scotland’s coach and a South African far more pleasant than Greig: “That’s a proper blueprint for how we want to play. Bowl a team out — we dropped one catch unfortunately — and then someone in the top four batted through the innings. That’s what we’re looking to do in all our games.

“It shows that we can compete at this level. We realise we have to play at our best to compete. It’s tough cricket. Games like this are a real highlight for us and we look forward to them. We see it as a privilege to play in them.”

No-one intercepted Watson as he left the room. Holder was asked to stop and pose for selfies. It’s not much, but at least the Windies will have that when they are sent homeward to think again.

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Busy, busy, busy at World Cup qualifiers

“Most of our boys have watched the West Indies only on television.” – Monty Desai, Nepal head coach

Telford Vice / Harare

WINTER’S dusk descends hard and fast in Zimbabwe, banishing the day’s warmth and flooding the sudden gloom with an invasive chill in an instant. Even so, the West Indian and Nepalese players took the opportunity to linger in each other’s company on a rapidly darkening outfield after their match in the men’s World Cup qualifiers at Harare Sports Club on Thursday.

Alzarri Joseph, sitting on the turf languidly, held court in one gaggle. In another Jason Holder stood all of his 2.01 metres tall, chatting and smiling and clearly enjoying the moment. Most of the talking was done by the West Indians, most of the listening by the rapt Nepalese.

One of the topics discussed might have been their workload. Including warm-up matches, Thursday’s game was the Windies’ fourth in nine days. They will have played two more by Monday evening. Nepal have been on the park five times in the same nine days, with another match to come on Saturday. Stand by for the Super Sixes, the place play-offs and the final.

The finalists, who will meet at HSC on July 9, will have played 10 matches in 27 days. This year’s IPL champions, Chennai Super Kings, played 16 times in 59 days. If all of those games in both tournaments went down to the last ball, the finalists at the qualifiers would have been on the field for 1,000 overs and CSK for 640. The internationals would have worked 36% harder than the IPL sides in 45.76% of the time it took to complete the latter. Fifteen of the players who featured in the IPL, which ended 21 days before the qualifiers started, are among the 151 in the squads in Zimbabwe.

The 10 teams will play all 34 games in the tournament proper — minus the warm-ups — in the space of 22 days. The same programme was followed in the previous edition of the qualifiers, also in Zimbabwe, in March 2018.

Shai Hope has never played in the IPL, but he’s here. As West Indies’ captain and first-choice wicketkeeper-batter, he has been on the field for 269.5 of the 381.4 overs — more than 70% — his team have spent batting and fielding in the qualifiers. How was he holding up?

“I’m not sure at the moment, I’ll be able to answer that question in the morning,” Hope said after Thursday’s game, in which he batted for 43.3 overs for his 132 and was behind the stumps for Nepal’s innings of 49.4 overs.

“We got some time off after the first game, which was good. But these games are going to come at a much faster turnover, so we’ve got to make sure our recovery is on point and we focus a lot more on how we do things off the field.”

That time off was three days between a game against the United States on Sunday and Thursday’s match. Happily for the Windies, all four of their games have been in Harare — Bulawayo is a 35-minute flight away — as is their showdown with Zimbabwe on Saturday.

Nicholas Pooran hasn’t been as busy as Hope — 237.4 on-field overs, or more than 60% of the total. “This is what we signed up for,” Pooran said after scoring 115 on Thursday. “Unfortunately we have to qualify for the World Cup. It’s a tough road. We need to get some rest tonight, recover tomorrow, and turn up on Saturday.”

Nepal, Oman, Scotland and Ireland will have only one day off between each of their four group games. “I would have preferred one more day of rest inbetween but it is what it is, we just have to get on with it,” Monty Desai, Nepal’s head coach, said on Thursday.

Desai’s team face the Netherlands at Takashinga, also in Harare, on Saturday in what looms as a shootout for third place in group A — and thus for a spot in the Super Sixes. “It’s straightforward: Netherlands or us,” Desai said. “It’s all a mental game now. We’ll get ready mentally and trust our skills.”

Nepal played the first of their 111 white-ball internationals in March 2014. Only eight of them have involved countries that were full members at the time. They have had three games each against Zimbabwe and Ireland and one against Bangladesh. And, on Thursday, West Indies — who followed the stand of 216 Hope and Pooran shared by bouncing out the Nepalese to nail down victory by 101 runs.

Not that you would have thought they had been roughly dealt with as they mingled willingly with the winners on the outfield. Nepal looked like winners themselves, and they were. To get to the qualifiers they had to finish among the top three teams in World Cup League 2, a competition that ran from August 2019 to March this year in which each of the seven teams played 36 matches. Nepal won 19 games to finish behind Scotland and Oman.

“Most of our boys have watched the West Indies only on television,” Desai said. “For them it was a proud moment to play against a Test nation. Maybe the batsmen got distracted by the occasion and the barrage of short balls. But it’s OK. For us it’s a pure learning experience.”

Even in the aftermath of defeat, in the sniping cold and gathering dark of an outfield far from home. Maybe they were tired, but they were also happy.

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Mr Holder, meet Mr Hooper. Discuss …

“We’ve come here to qualify, and that’s what we need to do.” – Jason Holder

Telford Vice / Harare

HOW low can you go? Carl Hooper made plain his views on the subject on Saturday, labelling West Indies’ ongoing decline “distressing”. That can land in two ways with players: as motivation or as a punch to the gut. Which was it in this case, Jason Holder?

“It’s the first I’m hearing it,” Holder said in Harare on Monday. “People will have their opinions, and they’re entitled to them. We’ve got a job to do. We don’t need to make it harder on ourselves by taking on any outside pressure.”

Reminded that Hooper, whose temporary appointment as West Indies assistant coach was announced on June 2, wasn’t an outsider but inside the dressing room, Holder said: “Fair enough. At the end of the day, the thing is to stay focused on what we need to do. We’ve come here to qualify, and that’s what we need to do.”

Holder and Hooper want the same thing: for the Windies to nail down one of the two men’s World Cup places available at the qualifiers being played at four venues in Harare and Bulawayo, which will culminate in the final at Harare Sports Club on July 9. But they could differ on the means to achieve that end.

Maybe Hooper, as a newer member of the camp, brings harder eyes to the West Indians’ current challenge. Maybe Holder, who made his international debut in February 2013 and captained West Indies in 126 of his 247 matches across the formats, understands the importance of shutting the dressing room door before commenting trenchantly.

Maybe Hooper, who was part of a West Indies side who lost 41.64% of the matches he played in a career that stretched from March 1987 to March 2003, cannot fathom how the Windies have gone down in 54.87% of their games since his retirement. Maybe Holder can’t either, but he knows better than to say so out loud.

West Indies used to win more than they lost. Now the equation is reversed. They triumphed in the first two editions of the World Cup, in 1975 and 1979, reached the final in 1983, and did not need to qualify for the first 10 tournaments. That changed in 2018, when they did earn a place in England in 2019.

The teams Hooper played in lost 17.87% fewer matches than those that have featured Holder. That’s not to suggest Holder is among the reasons for the decline. Measured from his debut, no-one has played more games for them or taken more wickets and only Shai Hope has scored more runs.

But Hooper’s point stands. Asked by reporters whether the Windies had progressed or regressed since they failed to reach the second round of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November, he said: “The position hasn’t changed. The point is can we go lower than this? Yes, we can go lower than this. And if we don’t qualify we go a step lower. Never did I think that I’d live to see the day where West Indies are trying to qualify for major tournaments. I sat in Australia and we struggled to get through it in the T20s, And here we are in Zimbabwe.

“No disrespect to the other teams but we’re playing against the likes of the USA, Nepal and Scotland. Even Afghanistan is ahead of us. Bangladesh has gone ahead of us. So this is distressing. Can we go lower? Yes, we can go lower. This game continues to remind you that until you start doing the right things, you can go lower. As I said before, I never thought I would live to see this day, but here I am in Zimbabwe, starting a game on Sunday. We’ve got to try and beat the USA.”

The West Indians duly did that in the inaugural ODI at Takashinga, overcoming a shaky 14/2 inside six overs to total 297 and limit the Americans to a reply of 258/7. But even the silverish cloud of a convincing win had a dull lining. The match marked the first time the US dismissed a Test-playing nation in an ODI and only the second time in white-ball cricket. The other instance was in Lauderhill in December 2021, when they bowled out Ireland for 150 in a T20I.

Challenging conditions posed by a 9am start on a dewy winter morning helped explain the Windies’ poor start on Sunday. Holder didn’t take guard until the 37th over, long after the sun had dried the pitch. But he offered pithy advice on how to tackle the issue: “There’s a lot of moisture in the wicket early up, so you need to be more watchful. There’s a bit of spongy bounce and then there’s a little bit of seam movement as well. If you’re batting first you’ve got to be more circumspect, give yourself a really good chance and bat deep.”

West Indies have three remaining chances in the group stage to heed Holder’s advice or bowl accordingly if they field first — against Nepal at Harare Sports Club on Thursday, Zimbabwe at the same ground on Saturday, and the Netherlands at Takashinga on Monday. Doubtless Hooper, a Windies captain himself in 71 matches and like Holder an allrounder but unlike him a batter first and an off-spinner second, would concur with Holder’s opinion.

Maybe the dots between Holder and Hooper aren’t disparate. Maybe they need to have a chat, and to remember to shut the door first.

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When the Long Room denizens met Rihanna, and missed Joe Pamensky

“That’s something I’ll look into, to see who he was.” – Gerald Coetzee plans to educate himself about Joe Pamensky.

Telford Vice / The Wanderers

THE Wanderers Long Room is a place of dress codes and genteel burbling, a roomful of hierarchy and hegemony, and how things are and are not done. It is a mausoleum for a creaking kind of masculinity. It isn’t a place, you would think, for Rihanna.

But there she was in full voice on the speakers on Thursday morning as Marais Erasmus and Paul Reiffel, followed by the West Indians, and then Heinrich Klaasen and Wiaan Mulder, emerged to start day two of the second Test.

“Want you to make me feel like I’m the only girl in the world …

“Like I’m the only one that you’ll ever love …

“Like I’m the only one who knows your heart …

“Only girl in the world …”

At 10 o’clock on a weekday morning, the Long Room isn’t overly endowed with its usual suspects. Nevertheless, a frisson of audacity at the violation of this apparently ancient space could be felt rattling through the sprinkling of denizens in attendance.

Joe Pamensky was not among them, and never will be again. Neither was Ali Bacher. Pamensky died on Wednesday, and Bacher — who had planned to be in the Long Room on Thursday — was attending his funeral.

No doubt you have heard of the latter. Bacher has been central to cricket in South Africa for more than 50 years — as a player, a captain, and an administrator. He retired after organising the 2003 men’s World Cup with the same frenetic efficiency he brought to everything else he did.

Allegedly retired, that is. Because Bacher has yet to leave cricket. He never will. Or is it that cricket will never leave him? Either way, he remains, in his 81st year and weeks away from being fitted with his third pacemaker, relevant.

In 2019, when then CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe was wooing Graeme Smith to take up the post director of cricket, they met at Bacher’s Johannesburg home. In a long-running television interview series, “In Conversation with Ali Bacher”, he issues forth staccato statements in lieu of questions that extract long and often revealing answers from his subjects, who come from all avenues of sport. In December 2021, lampposts in Cape Town bloomed with posters advertising an exhibition at the South African Jewish Museum entitled “The Life of Ali Bacher: From the Cricket Field to the Boardroom”. The posters returned a year later. The exhibition was “back by popular demand”.

Pamensky? He was a chartered accountant who rose to the presidency of the South African Cricket Union (SACU), which was formed in 1976 as an attempt to deracialise the game but instead served as standard-bearers of white interests only. Proof of that was SACU’s reliance, between 1982 and 1990, on rebel tours to flout the international isolation of their all-white teams. Pamensky led SACU until 1991, or shortly before the formation of the United Cricket Board (UCB), CSA’s forerunner, a more serious but superficial bid for racial unity. In 1987 Pamensky received the Order of Meritorious Service Gold Medal from the government — the apartheid government.

Bacher was SACU’s managing director, and as such heavily involved in organising the rebel tours, which tended to involve clandestine meetings and large amounts of money. Had his journey in the game ended with SACU’s dissolution, he would have left a questionable legacy. Instead he became UCB managing director and, more importantly, a champion for change — putting the development of the game in black and brown communities and the search for quality black and brown talent above all else. He is by no means a universally admired figure — the churlish will forever despise him for the rebel tours, and to hell with whatever good he has done and continues to do — but only the hopelessly hidebound would argue that they do not respect him, however grudgingly.

Pamensky’s formal journey in cricket did indeed end with the SACU. But he didn’t go away, frequently popping up in the Long Room and its equivalents at other grounds like an avuncular uncle with a dodgy past. His presence was a walking, talking, smiling, handsome, elegantly turned out reminder of cricket’s bitterly divided and unequal past. If he apologised for his actions, he must have done so quietly.

Away from the public eye, Pamensky gave generously of his years of experience and influence to succeeding generations of players and administrators, many of them not white, and some of whom have paid him warm tribute. Tellingly, he had no reason to do so, gained nothing from it, and sought no attention for his efforts. A CSA release on Thursday lauded him as having “concern for young people, honesty in all dealings, unfailing courtesy, and total professionalism”. Pamensky was unquestionably on the wrong side in the game’s internecine war, but just as firmly on the right side of the flawed, fragile peace that prevailed.

Such dualities are commonplace in South Africa’s past, present and future. White people who reached adulthood before the theoretical end of apartheid in April 1994 are unlikely not to have committed personal and professional racism, and were undoubtedly party to its systemic machine — which enough of them voted for every four years to retain evil as the law of the land. Many of them are still with us, and still in prominent roles. Black and brown people who rose in stature and affluence during Jacob Zuma’s tenure as South Africa’s president — from May 2009 to February 2018 — are often suspected, with and without evidence, of being party to the corruption that swept the country in those years. Many of them will be with us for years to come, and probably conspicuously prominent.

All of which would have complicated and informed the choice made before the start of the day’s play, when the players observed a minute’s silence to pay respect to Pamensky. Cricbuzz understands a request had been made for them to wear black armbands. They did not.

Maybe the three largely funereal sessions was the real tribute. South Africa’s remaining three wickets fell in the first 18 deliveries, completing a collapse of 8/72. Then batters, bowlers and fielders alike meandered through the 79.3 overs that constituted West Indies’ reply, which was powered by Jason Holder’s 81 not out. You could argue that the boredom arrived as early as the ninth over, when Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram were playing rock, paper, scissors in the cordon.

The visitors were dismissed 69 behind, a deficit that might have been match-losing had Holder and Gudakesh Motie not added 58 for the last wicket — the biggest partnership of the innings. That made a nonsense of what Peanut, a talking robot deployed in the pressbox to serve drinks, had said after lunch: “My information is that South Africa will win by an innings and 20 runs.” Elgar and Markram faced three overs before stumps without incident, and took South Africa’s lead to 73.

Gerald Coetzee did his bit to keep South Africa on top by dismissing Jermaine Blackwood and Raymon Reifer five overs apart in his haul of 3/41. Coetzee was born in October 2000, long after people like Pamensky had stepped off various ships of state and South Africa had taken a turn towards as yet unreached democracy. Before the morning’s minute of silence, had Coetzee heard of Pamensky?

“Honestly, no, I had not,” Coetzee said. “That’s something I’ll look into, to see who he was.” He was Joseph Leon Pamensky, and he would have been 93 on July 21. He did bad things and good things, and things some people will never forgive him for, even in death.

If he inspires this generation of South Africans to learn more about their country’s past, which shapes the present and will colour the future, he will have done South Africa the greatest service. Because he came from a time and a place and a race and a gender that held this to be a self-evident truth: “Like I’m the only one that’s in command. ’Cause I’m the only one who understands.”

That’s not Pamensky. It’s Rihanna. Coetzee may have heard of her.

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Long day’s journey into trouble

“When you look at the last game between England and New Zealand and the way that finished, this could easily be set up for that.” – Jason Holder

Telford Vice / Centurion

GERALD Coetzee hadn’t been a Test player for even 30 seconds when he wandered into trouble. The fall of South Africa’s eighth wicket in Centurion on Tuesday brought him to the crease. But before he could arrive in the middle he was accosted by Keshav Maharaj, who was on the field in a day-glow bib attending to something Marco Jansen needed.

From afar the slight, shortish Maharaj might look timid. Closer to the truth is that he is South Africa’s chief whip, a vocal, respected authority inside the dressing room and out. So when Coetzee walked up with his shirt untucked, Maharaj, a veteran of 48 Tests who isn’t part of this XI, wasn’t having it. He stopped the debutant in his tracks and proceeded to shove his shirt into his whites.

Having satisfied the dress code for entry to the highest level, Coetzee punched the first two balls he faced, bowled by Jason Holder, through mid-off for four. Coetzee dealt ably with two more deliveries before bad light forced the close, and Jansen drove Alzarri Joseph’s first legal ball of Wednesday’s play — his initial offering was wided for height, impressive considering Jansen is 2.09 metres tall — for another boundary.

It took West Indies 27 deliveries to snuff out the innings for 342. Joseph jammed Coetzee with a short delivery, which flew off the gloves to second slip, and produced another short delivery to remove Anrich Nortjé by way of a crossbatted blooper to gully. Joseph already had his best figures when he claimed he dismissed Coetzee, and his 5/81 was his first five-wicket haul in his 27th Test.

South Africa ended West Indies’ reply 130 runs short of parity 45 minutes before stumps, with Nortjé threatening to set his moustache on fire in a hostile last spell of 4/7 in five overs to finish with 5/36. Raymon Reifer’s 62, a labour of 143 balls and more than three-and-a-half hours, was part of stands of 36 with Tagenarine Chanderpaul, 64 with Jermaine Blackwood and 47 with Roston Chase. None of their other partnerships survived past 11.

By the close, the home side had built their lead to 179. But they had lost Dean Elgar, Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma and Keegan Petersen. Bavuma became the only South Africa captain except AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis to suffer a pair in his first Test as captain, all at this ground.

Holder ended the day’s play with his first delivery of South Africa’s second innings, an inswinger that trapped Petersen in front. That made Holder the only West Indies player after Garfield Sobers to claim 150 wickets and score 2,500 runs.

Much will depend, for both teams, on how Aiden Markram fares on Thursday. He scored 115 in the first innings, and looked like he was batting in a different match on a different pitch and against different opponents for his 33-ball 35 not out, 24 of them stroked in boundaries.

If you’re looking for a thread of cohesion to pull from all that, consider this: 18 of the 24 wickets to fall have gone down in the third session. The first two sessions have yielded just six wickets. That’s more than 75% of the wickets falling in a third of a match in which the runs have been more or less evenly spread between the sessions. Why is that happening?

“In general a lot of wickets fall later in the day here,” Nortjé said. “It could be because of the sun and more things happening in the pitch. It seems to be a regular occurrence here. I don’t have any explanation, really, but you could see the ball misbehaving here and there. That could be contributing to it.”

Holder also had a go: “There’s variable bounce, which is a contributing factor. When batters got stuck in they really applied themselves. But I don’t think it’s a surface where, even if you bat for a lengthy time, you’re ever in. You’ve got to watch every delivery closely and try to play as late as possible.”

So how did Holder explain the freewheeling Markram? “He’s well-balanced, and he’s really moving well. That’s the key to batting on any surface. He’s pretty poised at the crease. He looks like he has more time than anybody else.”

A counterintuitive subplot is that the match is being played on one of the better batting surfaces seen in South Africa in years. Some of the pitches prepared for the South Africans’ series in India in November 2015 — particularly the pitch in Nagpur, which was rated poor by the ICC — led to a backlash that started with the Wanderers Test against India in January 2018, in which play was temporarily suspended because there were concerns the pitch was dangerous.

Twenty-one Tests have been played in South Africa from that match. Of the 33 completed innings, seven have produced totals of less than 200 and 16 of under 300. That equates to almost 70% of sub-300 innings. The average runs per wicket in South Africa in that time is 26.68. Only in the Caribbean, where the same number of Tests have been played during that period, has it been lower: 26.37. But all 21 games have been won and lost in South Africa, compared to the five draws in West Indies.

So Holder was hopeful that the pitch would play its part in a drama for the ages: “This game has created a really good challenge for us. When you look at the last game between England and New Zealand and the way that finished, this could easily be set up for that. But we’ve still got to go and play the cricket. South Africa are a little bit in front of us but the game is not far beyond us.”

New Zealand beat England by one run at the Basin Reserve on Tuesday, only the second time that a Test has been decided by a margin that narrow. Plenty will have to happen if Centurion is to deliver a sequel, especially as the protagonists could not, under any circumstances, be accused of playing Bazball.

But Holder is correct in saying the sides could have a proper contest on their hands. It is possible, after all, to play proper cricket on a proper pitch even as you maintain old-fashioned virtues like tucking in your shirt.

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SA rekindle their fire under Elgar

“I’m looking forward to the time where we get put under pressure to see how we respond. That’s where we can judge where we really are.” – Mark Boucher

Telford Vice | Cape Town

THE fire wasn’t in Babylon. It was in Pretoria. Mark Boucher says South Africa’s 2-0 Test series win in the Caribbean was sparked in conversations that crackled like the flame-warmed air that carried words and feelings into hearts and minds.

“We sat around the fire in Pretoria, where the new captain asked a couple of questions about where we are and where we were going and where we want to be,” Boucher told an online press conference in St Lucia on Monday after Dean Elgar’s team beat West Indies by 158 runs with more than a day to spare.

That followed their victory by an innings and 63 runs at the same ground last week. It was their first success in the five away series they have played since they won in New Zealand in March 2017, and only their second in seven series all told.

“Quite a few honest chats came out there, as they do around a South African fire at night,” Boucher said. “The guys bought into a process that [Elgar] wanted to align his tenure with. You were either on the bus or not on the bus. Thankfully everyone decided they were on the bus.

“It doesn’t only work when you’re on the field. That’s where you get results, but a lot of effort’s got to be put in behind close doors — the way we train, the way we talk, the language, the confidence, the way we speak to each other. That’s probably where it started, at that fire.”

Elgar has played under five captains, notably Graeme Smith and Faf du Plessis, and led the team in two Tests himself before he was appointed before the series. An old-fashioned, unvarnished straight-talker, Elgar seems to have left his players under no illusion about what is expected of them — including that sometimes they will be required to play what he has called “boring cricket” to stop opponents from gaining an advantage.

“Certain guys have different language,” Boucher said. “Dean might say it’s boring. We say it’s just disciplined cricket. But the language he’s been using is obviously resonating with the players, so good on him for bringing it.

“Test cricket is all about being able to absorb pressure at certain stages and then being able to apply it. Our guys are becoming smarter at choosing those moments — when to absorb and when to apply. If you want to call that being boring at certain stages of the game, yes, you have to be. But what’s impressive for me is that there have been stages in this series where we could drive the nail in and we did that. It’s good to see the guys respond to the language a leader is sending out.”

Elgar has taken to the leadership with enthusiasm, and from his sustained smile he is clearly enjoying being in charge. But Boucher cautioned that it was early days for a team that went into the series ranked seventh, or as low as they have yet been.

“When you’re winning the team’s always going to be smiling. The guys really want to start playing for each other again, and I think we saw that. How do sustain that? You can’t become the No. 1 team in the world overnight. This is a long process that we’ve got to keep working on from a skill perspective, being smarter, from a confidence perspective. I’m looking forward to the time where we get put under pressure to see how we respond. That’s where we can judge where we really are.”

Even so, the fact that the South Africans had impressed on unfamiliar pitches — South Africa last played Tests in West Indies in June 2010 — augured well for their future. “When you’ve got a young team, the best place for them to learn to play cricket is in foreign conditions,” Boucher said. “Although we didn’t win in Pakistan [in January and February, when the home side won 2-0] a lot of our youngsters learnt good lessons there. We came here and they knew these conditions were going to be tough.

“This is how you develop players; by playing in different conditions. That’s where they start learning about their games and making slight adjustments that are going to hopefully turn them into world class players one day. Foreign conditions can only improve you as a player.”

Elgar replaced Quinton de Kock, whose game suffered when he was South Africa’s all-format captain: in six Test innings at the helm he scored 74 runs. Relieved of the burden, he made a career-best 141 not out in the first St Lucia Test and 96 in the second match.

“The way that he’s been off the field has been fantastic,” Boucher said of De Kock. “In the changeroom he’s fun and lighthearted. That’s always going to reflect in the way that he goes out and plays on the field. When you have a player like that, who can take the game away from the opposition, it’s good to be on his side.”

Monday’s star was Keshav Maharaj, who dismissed Kieran Powell, Jason Holder and Joshua da Silva with consecutive deliveries two overs before lunch to become only the second South Africa player to claim a Test hattrick.

“Honestly, I thought Powell played a bad shot just before lunch,” Boucher said. “We saw ‘Kesh’s’ first ball against Holder the other day, so we knew that if you get the ball in the right area first up then it was always going to be a nervous time for him. He managed to get the ball in the right area and it was a nice sharp catch [by Keegan Petersen at short leg]. I felt for da Silva coming in — he probably should never having been batting at that time. Probably ‘Kesh’s’ worst ball of the lot got the hattrick. But it was a great catch by Wiaan [Mulder at leg slip].”

Considering his team’s superiority was plain for all to see, Boucher could afford to speak with a touch of deprecation. That wasn’t the case across the dressingroom divide, where Kraigg Brathwaite told an online press conference: “As batsmen we know where we went wrong: we didn’t bat well. Full stop. We didn’t do the job. We let the team down, and we let down the fans. We’re very sorry. We were disappointing. We’ve got to come back and show fight. Sometimes it’s not all about winning, but we’ve got to show fight. We didn’t show fight at all.”

De Kock scored the series’ only hundred, and South Africans made four of the six half-centuries. No century stands were registered, but the visitors recorded six 50 partnerships compared to West Indies’ one. All three five-wicket hauls were claimed by South Africa bowlers. De Kock and Rassie van der Dussen were the rubber’s leading run-scorers and Kagiso Rabada and Maharaj topped the wicket-takers.

In short, the visitors burned bright. That’s what fires do.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Maharaj magic seals SA success

“It’s important to set the example for the younger spinners out there that there is a future for spin bowling in our country.” – Keshav Maharaj

Telford Vice | Cape Town

WHAT you see is not what you get with Keshav Maharaj. You see a polite young man who seems incapable of treating anyone with disrespect, who talks in the received phrases of the modern professional cricketer, who looks like he might have disappeared into a beige corporate career were it not for the fact that he has turned himself into the best Test spinner South Africa have had since Hugh Tayfield.

What you get is a rebel. With a cause: to make slow bowling more than an afterthought in a cricket culture obsessed with speed. South Africa have come a long way since spinners would be tossed the ball only when an interval loomed, a pitch was breaking up, or the captain had run out of ideas. Even so, spinners remain a luxury not to be deployed with seriousness unless the quicks can’t get the job done. In South Africa, spin is the plunger you reach for to try and unblock a drain when the plumber doesn’t pick up the phone.

“It’s hard being a spinner and luckily the mindset in the country towards spin bowling has changed,” Maharaj told an online press conference on Monday. “If I can be catalyst in that I’m doing half the job, apart from putting in performances. It’s important to set the example for the younger spinners out there, who will eventually play international cricket, that there is a future for spin bowling in our country.”

Maharaj did his bit to make that happen in his first 35 Tests by showing grit with the bat, fielding tigerishly, and taking 122 wickets. You won’t struggle to find South Africans who list his achievements in that order. His 36th Test should give them pause for thought.

Before the penultimate over before lunch in St Lucia on Monday, just one South Africa bowler had claimed a Test hattrick — Geoff Griffin at Lord’s in June 1960. The freakishness of his feat was confirmed in the same match when, despite being unable to straighten his bowling arm because of a childhood accident, he was no-balled for chucking. He never played another Test.

Since then South Africa’s bowlers had taken wickets with consecutive deliveries 110 times but not completed a hattrick. Kagiso Rabada might have added to the list on Monday, when he jammed Shai Hope into gloving a catch to second slip and, next ball, trapped Kyle Mayers in front with a swinging full toss. Except that Rabada had overstepped …

Lunch loomed when Maharaj stood at the top of his short run, waiting to bowl to Kieran Powell — who spoilt a fine 51 by sweeping a catch to Anrich Nortjé, the only fielder in the deep on the leg side. Enter Jason Holder, who immediately exited via a prod taken by Keegan Petersen at short leg. Joshua da Silva faced the hattrick ball, and nudged it to leg slip — where Wiaan Mulder stuck out a hand as he crashed to earth and came up with an outrageous catch.

“There were so many thoughts of what delivery to bowl, and I thought let’s just stick to what’s worked,” Maharaj said of the moment before he made history. “It drifted down leg — I probably could have bowled a much better ball — but full credit to Wiaan for plucking that catch.”

The pandemonium that ensued involved Maharaj, a spindly figure, being sandwiched between the imposing frames of Rabada and Lungi Ngidi, all of them prone. That’s what hattricks do — they make people do giddy things.

But do they win games? Not always, and South Africa would surely have prevailed whether or not Maharaj did what he did on his way to taking 5/36. What tipped the balance tipped conclusively on Monday was not the hattrick but a delivery from Rabada six overs earlier which induced a flap from Mayers that sent the ball blooping over the cordon. Dean Elgar sprinted from first slip to take the catch and snuff out a stand of 64 that Mayers shared with Powell.

The partnership started after Rabada, in a first spell of rare and rasping quality, had done for Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope inside the day’s first seven overs and with only 26 of the required 324 runs scored.

But disbelief in anything except a South Africa victory was suspended for the better part of two hours as Powell and Mayers attacked as if they had a match to win. Although that was never a genuine consideration, the look on Elgar’s face as he lay on the ground after taking the catch to end the madness was of undiluted relief.

That marked the start of West Indies’ terminal spiral, in which they lost their last seven wickets for 75 runs. Roston Chase did not bat because of a quadriceps injury he suffered while fielding, but he would not have spared his team their fate. As Brathwaite said in his television interview: “It’s not good to hear, but we have to learn from this as batsmen.”

South Africa won by 158 runs with more than a day to spare to seal the series 2-0. Going into the rubber they had lost 10 of their previous 13 Tests, and they had last won an away series in New Zealand in March 2017.

“This speaks volumes,” Elgar told a television interviewer. “I don’t think we understand how big this is for us. It’s a tough thing to do when you haven’t been doing it, and the boys responded brilliantly.”

They did, and without a Test series in their upcoming fixtures they don’t know when they might get the chance to do so again. So this one will be celebrated long and hard, as it should be.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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A Trent Bridge too far as Windies blow Pakistan away

“You get two bouncers an over. Ya gotta use ’em.” – Oshane Thomas quotes, chapter and verse, from the big book of fast bowlers’ justice.

Previously unposted, from May 31, 2019:

TELFORD VICE | Trent Bridge

CHRIS Gayle spewed more runs off the edge of his railway sleeper than most of Pakistan’s players did from the middle of their toothpicks here yesterday to power an emphatic start to West Indies’ World Cup campaign.

Before Gayle hit the afterburners, Oshane Thomas, the fifth bowler Jason Holder used in an all-seam attack on a pitch nearing the green of Nottinghamshire’s crest itself and under a thick duvet of swing-friendly cloud, thundered in to take 4/27.

Gayle’s 34-ball 50, all but eight of his runs muscled in fours and sixes, fairly clanged around a ground roughly evenly populated with both sides’ supporters. Those who could get in, that is: the International Cricket Council apologised and offered a refund to fans who had been marooned in queues because of problems with electronic ticket scanners.

Tickets had to be printed at the ground because they did not arrive in time to be issued to their holders, causing delays. The same problem affected Thursday’s opening match between England and South Africa at the Oval.

You wonder whether Pakistan supporters weren’t quietly relieved they didn’t have to witness their team emptying the magazine on stupid shot after stupid shot to bristling short ball after bristling short ball.

They shambled to 105 all out 20 balls shy of half their overs. West Indies won with seven wickets standing and 36.2 overs still in the bank.

Thomas, a flatbed truck of a man and an alumnus of Melbourne Cricket Club in Kingstown, from which Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh also graduated into the greater game, made no apology for spending his morning bowling at Adam’s apples.

“You get two bouncers an over,” he rasped at the merest suggestion that the aggro might have been a touch overdone. “Ya gotta use ’em.”

Sarfaraz Ahmed protested that, in these conditions, which were excacerbated by the early 10.30am start, the toss was too decisive: “That is why we wanted to bowl first. I think at the start we lost too many wickets. That’s why we didn’t come back into the game.”

Holder was having none of that: “Well, that’s the time that the cricket is supposed to start, and I can’t control that.

“You know, the toss is 50/50, so I can’t have full control of that, either. It’s the same for both sides.

“Whether you bat or bowl in the first half of the game, you’ve got to look to do it and do it well.”

Whoever does whatever whenever, Pakistan will have to find a way out of their mental maze before or indeed during their match against England’s juggernaut side. Ominously, it is scheduled for Monday at the scene of yesterday’s cricket against batting.

“I think first we have to back ourselves and not think too much about what happened today,” Sarfaraz said. “That match is gone, so, inshallah, we have the type of players who can win the next match for us. Inshallah we will bounce back.”

The West Indians’ challenge will also stiffen when they face Australia, Steve Smith, David Warner and all, in their next match on Thursday. That game is also at Trent Bridge, which could become the tournament’s equivalent of Wimbledon’s old No. 2 court, the fast surface known as the “champions’ graveyard” until it was replaced in 2009.

Holder issued an oblique warning to opposing teams to expect what they saw yesterday: “We want to be aggressive with whoever we’re playing against. It’s something that we need to do in order to pick up wickets. With the modern-day game, if you are not picking wickets up throughout the innings you’re going to struggle to contain teams.

“So we want to be aggressive even if we give up a few runs up front trying to get wickets.

“One of the things we’ve spoken about in the recent past is just trying to have that mindset to take wickets because if you’re not taking wickets you’re going to struggle.

Easily the most competitive moment of the match happened between innings and far from the middle.

At lunch, Wasim Akram had the good grace not to lose his temper with the stream of selfie seekers interrupting his commune with a plate of chicken and chapatis. Then his eyes alighted on a figure fresh to the room.

“Hey! The big man!”

Wasim was on his feet as he boomed, and the contest was on. Would his shorter, stockier frame have the advantage when his chest met Curtly Ambrose’s, err, lower ribs? Or would Ambrose’s broomstick arms settle the issue?

Of course they did: the beaming Antiguan lamppost won the hug hands down. Or, in this case, around the shoulders.

A shame no-one suggested they take it outside. For a super over.

First published by The Guardian.

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South Africa taking humanity into World Cup campaign

“It’s a great mental exercise. Most importantly, it’s a great spiritual exercise.” – Hashim Amla on ramadan.

Times Select

TELFORD VICE in London

IT’S hard to hide someone the size of Ottis Gibson, but none of the reporters at Jason Holder’s press conference in Bristol on Sunday noticed South Africa’s coach looming in the back row of seats.

Until, that is, Holder had fielded his last question and was about to rise and leave.

But first he cocked a thumb in greeting and said with a smile: “Mr Gibson? All good?”

Gibson nodded in agreement, and asked: “How’s the golf?”

“Golf is very good,” Holder, a notorious links junkie, said as he broke into a gentle, almost bashful chuckle.

It was a moment of mutual respect between men who go back. Besides the fact that both are from Barbados, Gibson was West Indies’ coach for the first 19 games of Holder’s international career.

There was something reassuringly human about their exchange, evidence that there are real, live people under the madness even of something as crazy a World Cup throws into their lives.

And there was more where that came from. The press conference was staged in the indoor nets at Bristol County Ground, and there was a stream of gracious acknowledgement between Gibson and passing West Indies players and coaches.

Minutes earlier the umpires had pulled the plug on the warm-up match between the teams. Only 12.4 overs had been bowled in more than six hours between bouts of rain so fine it was difficult to see with the naked eye.

Hashim Amla scored 51 not out and Quinton de Kock was unbeaten on 37, and both looked in cracking form.

They also played in South Africa’s other warm-up, against Sri Lanka in Cardiff on Friday, and in all Gibson had seen 14 of his 15 players in action across the two games.

The exception is Dale Steyn, who was among the handful of South Africans who, denied time on the field, had taken to the indoor nets instead.

David Miller batted in one net, Aiden Markram in the other. Along with Steyn, among the bowlers were Justin Ontong, Dale Benkenstein and Claude Henderson, most of them wielding sidearms.

Not Steyn. He chugged in off eight paces and let loose at the pace of a decent club seamer but was nothing like what the finest fast bowler of the age generated before a succession of serious injuries put a dent in his immortality.

Steyn is currently on his way back from a shoulder problem, and whether he will mark out a run-up when England and South Africa get the World Cup proper going at the Oval on Thursday remains unknown.

Seeing him there, close enough to exchange howzits, with nary a media manager in sight, was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“All in one piece, Dale?”

“Ja, I’ll be fine.”

On Tuesday, Gibson revealed that Steyn wouldn’t be fit for Thursday. Then again, he didn’t say when he would be fine …

A minute or two later Amla made his way to the podium, and the players in the nets had to pause their training — the sound of leather on willow is a wonderful thing unless you’re in the same space trying to record a voice for broadcast.

“Which of the young players do you think will be making headlines in this World Cup,” Amla was asked.

Amla didn’t get much of a chance to think about his answer before Steyn piped up from the nets: “Dale!”

More humanity, and more reason to believe South Africa are in a good place to launch their challenge.

Amla had delivered a fine innings, tilting at the bowlers at odd angles and producing strokes of lilting harmony. At the other end, De Kock crash-banged with ripping elegance.

But getting Amla to claim credit is not unlike trying to get Steyn not to take the piss. So it wasn’t that he batted well, rather that he “managed to get the bat in the way of a few of them and the outfield did the rest”.

Holder had been more generous: “The two batsmen played very well. And the wicket played very well as well.”

The famously private Amla isn’t always the most forthcoming of press conference victims, but he was as fluent behind the microphones on Sunday as he had been in front of his stumps.

He looked at peace, which was a significant achievement considering the questions over his place in the squad before the tournament and his father’s serious illness.

“I know there was a bit of speculation but I had a few other, more important things at the time to have my mind occupied with,” he said about all that.

Might ramadan, which is currently underway — but which Amla isn’t observing because he is playing — have something to do with his state of mind.

“It really helps with my conditioning,” Amla said. “It’s probably the best month of the year for me.

“Physically, yes, you do feel thirsty and hungry. But, for me, it’s a great mental exercise. Most importantly, it’s a great spiritual exercise.”

Spirituality is slippery stuff. What is it, exactly? And can it help something a cricket team prepare to face not only the home side in a major tournament but also the top-ranked XI in the world?

Probably. At the least, it can’t hurt. Especially if those tuned in to that level of being are as perceptive and sensitive to what really matters as Amla.

An in-form Amla would be a pillar of a successful World Cup for South Africa. But he offers his teammates, particularly those who haven’t been around the block as many times as he has, so much more than runs.

“Some things you don’t try and force,” he said. “It happens naturally in our environment.

“Whether you’ve played a few years or you’ve just come into the team, I don’t think it really matters. The communication between everybody is really good.

“It’s not something I’m consciously thinking about — I think it happens anyway. You’ve got a lot of experience in the playing 15 as well as in the coaching staff.

“So that osmosis of information and knowledge is going to happen naturally. We’re really fortunate that we have that type of attitude in the team.”

Amazing, isn’t it, what you can learn from a lazy, drizzly Sunday in Bristol.

Leading Edge: Overreaction to overrate hurts cricket

What kind of sad bastard anally adds up how many overs have been bowled in an hour, and gets tense if it’s not at least 15? Cricket is better off without them – they’re missing a good game.

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE in London

JASON Holder should be scooping up the chi. Instead he’s been reduced to accepting his praise in the second prize surrounds of a plush box filled with suits.

Holder deserves to be out there doffing his cap to the crowd in Saint Lucia, enjoying the adulation he earned by leading West Indies to stirring victories in the first two matches of their test series against England.

If there’s any use for a dead rubber, which is what the third test is and thus it should have been cancelled, it has to be to give victorious teams the opportunity to bask in the glory they garnered when winning still mattered.

Or, as a man who was billed as a qigong master told about a dozen of us to do as we stood in a pristine river gorge in the Overberg a while ago, “Scoop up the chi …”

Chi is “material energy”, “life force” or “energy flow”. Followers of the ancient Chinese practice of tai chi consider it a “vital energy”.

All good. Welcome to the world, and all that. But, have to say, I neither saw, smelt, tasted, heard nor indeed felt any chi, try as I might to scoop it up from the air around me. And not that I would know what the hell chi looked, smelt, tasted, heard or felt like. But, hey, it didn’t hurt and though odd it was also fun, and maybe some of us did latch onto a handful of the stuff as they kept an eye out for passing unicorns.

Not so Holder’s absence from the field, which hurts test cricket when it can least afford it and takes the fun out of an occasion that should be awash with happiness.

That he should be excluded after scoring an undefeated double century in Barbados and taking five wickets in Antigua is only part of the glumness, as is the fact that West Indies have straightened up and flown right to win a series against proper opposition — neither Bangladesh nor Zimbabwe — for the first time in seven attempts.

What stinks properly is that the Windies should be without their captain because of the irrelevance of his second minor overate infraction in 12 months.

Faf du Plessis knows how Holder feels, having sat out the third test of South Africa’s series against Pakistan at the Wanderers last month. Du Plessis’ predecessor, AB de Villiers, was a repeat offender.

“We will, of course, abide by the ICC [International Cricket Council] ruling, but we have to wonder if such punitive action at a pivotal stage of the series is good for cricket,” West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron fumed.

“What a shame if the series is remembered not for the sparkling play of the reinvigorated West Indies players but for a crippling decision made by a rule that ought to be modified.”

That should only evoke more sympathy for Holder. Unlike when he’s on the field, in Saint Lucia he won’t be able to escape blustering bores like Cameron — who reckons an already won series is “at a pivotal stage”, that a team in good form could be “crippled” by the removal of one player, and that there’s a danger this will be our most prominent memory.

Now that Holder isn’t busy playing or captaining up a storm, perhaps he could explain to people like Cameron how to tell a googly from a thigh pad.

But Cameron is dead right that overrate regulations should be reconsidered. Scrapped, even. What kind of sad bastard spectator sits there anally adding up how many overs have been bowled in an hour, and gets tense if it’s not at least 15? If they exist, cricket is better off without them — they’re likely missing a good game.

The real reason the suits get antsy about the overrate is because fewer overs per hour mean fewer ad breaks on television, which means less money for broadcasters, who ultimately own the game.

And, unlike scooping up the chi, there’s no way you can fake keeping the customer satisfied.