Tag: Johnson Charles

WI-SA series between IPL rock and T20 World Cup hard place

“I called my mum to let her know I’m in the squad. I didn’t tell her I’m going to West Indies because she gets very, very emotional.” – Nqaba Peter

Telford Vice / Cape Town

DON’T bother trying to stop us even if you have heard this one nine times before: King Charles is likely to open the batting for West Indies in their men’s T20I series against South Africa that starts in Kingston on Thursday.

Brandon King, that is, and Johnson Charles. They’ve opened in nine of the 14 instances they’ve batted together in both kinds of white-ball internationals. So why not again in a rubber that is stuck between the rock of the ongoing IPL and the hard place of the impending T20 World Cup?

The series is made for that kind of joke. Here’s another: what do you get when two stand-in captains lead their teams at a ground the T20 World Cup won’t visit? You get King, Rassie van der Dussen and Sabina Park. Still another: what do you call players who are in the West Indies and South Africa squads for the series but haven’t cracked the provisional nod for the T20 World Cup? You call them on Saturday, because that’s when the T20 World Cup squads will be finalised. 

We said there was room for jokes. We didn’t say they would be funny.

Please see below for the players who are not in action in Jamaica, largely thanks to the IPL. Among them are much of the cream of these two crops, which is hardly surprising considering the Indian tournament is the most important in the world of T20 cricket. Yes, that does take into account the T20 World Cup.

So, with Sunday’s IPL final bearing down on us like an approaching avalanche of, mostly, sixes, this series could be swept from memory even before it ends. But it will never be forgotten by King and Van der Dussen, who haven’t captained any of their senior national teams before. Fabian Allen, Alick Athanaze, Matthew Forde, Kyle Mayers, Hayden Walsh, Van der Dussen, Matthew Breetzke, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi and Nqaba Peter, meanwhile, will know Friday’s game is their last chance to sneak into the T20 World Cup.

It’s a long shot. Both camps would be loathe to make changes with the tournament starting seven days after the series ends, but it’s the only shot those players have.

Those already bound for the T20 World Cup will see the rubber as a chance to tighten whatever nuts and bolts are not yet secure. And to familiarise themselves with the conditions that will prevail for most of the tournament.

Spare a thought, then, for players who are not in the IPL spotlight nor primed to step onto the T20 World Cup stage. For them, this series is no joke.      

When: May 23, 25 and 26, 2024; 2pm Local Time (9pm SAST, 12.30am IST)

Where: Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica

What to expect: Thunderstorms have been forecast for all four days of the series’ duration, but shouldn’t get in the way of the cricket too much. The six men’s T20Is played at this ground have yielded a century and three 50s, and a four-wicket haul and seven of three wickets — four of them by seamers. That would suggest it’s a bowler’s venue.   

Team news:

West Indies:

Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford and Alzarri Joseph are not involved because of their IPL commitments, but Joseph could be included if Royal Challengers Bangalore don’t reach Sunday’s final. Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran have been rested. Fairytale fast bowler Shamar Joseph looks set for a T20I debut. 

Possible XI: Brandon King (capt), Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Roston Chase, Kyle Mayers, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, Mathew Forde, Akeal Hosein, Obed McCoy, Shamar Joseph

South Africa:

The visitors’ IPL absentee list is also lengthy: Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj. Kagiso Rabada is also missing with a leg infection. Might leg spin sensation Nqaba Peter earn his first international cap in any format?

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Ryan Rickelton, Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen (capt), Matthew Breetzke, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Gerald Coetzee, Anrich Nortje, Nqaba Peter, Lungi Ngidi          

What they said:

“This series is a vital part of our preparation [for the T20 World Cup]. Match practice is something that you cannot replicate in training. We are coming from a training camp [in Antigua], and this is an opportunity to put those plans and skills in place.” — Brandon King is eager to get cracking.

“I called my mum to let her know I’m in the squad. I didn’t tell her I’m going to West Indies because she gets very, very emotional.” — Nqaba Peter bowls his mother a googly.

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Proper strokes, proper cricket, proper records

“When we walked off the field ‘KG’ said they’re 10 runs short.” – Reeza Hendricks

Telford Vice / Cape Town

ALONG with the bowling, Johnson Charles and Quinton de Kock rubbished one of cricket’s oldest chestnuts in Centurion on Sunday. Trust me, you’ve heard this before: the first-class game is the bedrock on which all good and true things must be built. Deviate from that dictum and you are doomed to disappointment.

The logic is that no cricketer, particularly those who bat for a living, can hope to succeed unless they have mastered the skills demanded in matches scheduled for at least three consecutive days.

Charles played all manner of strokes in his 46-ball 118. His third century in the format but his first at international level flew off 39 balls, the fastest by a West Indian and joint second-fastest in T20I history. Had Johnson got there in five fewer deliveries he would have broken the world record.

Many of the shots he played didn’t strain the envelope of the emphatic as much as rip it up. Most were also ripped in another way: from the pages of what the fogeys regard as the copyrighted first-class playbook. De Kock’s 44-ball 100, his first century for South Africa in the format and his sixth in T20s, also shimmered with audacity and orthodoxy in equal measure. It was also his first century for South Africa in the format and his sixth in T20s. He broke his own record for South Africa’s fastest 50 by getting there in 15 deliveries.

Charles and De Kock reeled off what would have seemed, to the hapless few fated to have to bowl to them, a series of punchlines without jokes. Here’s another — Charles last played any first-class cricket in December 2016 and De Kock in February 2018, not counting Tests.

Charles has yet to earn a Test cap, which is not surprising considering he has a first-class average of 20.79 with one century and three 50s after 65 innings. De Kock played his 54th and final Test in December 2021. He retired with six hundreds and 22 half-centuries from 91 trips to the crease.

For all the pyrotechnics of the 10 fours and 11 sixes that lit Charles’ innings, the stroke that will stick in the memory was his most exquisitely delicate: he shimmied far outside off to Marco Jansen in the 14th, aimed little more than a top edge at the ball, and deflected it deftly through fine leg for four.

De Kock’s finest shot was a crisp, contained punch down the ground for four off Sheldon Cottrell. It was one of nine boundaries he hit to go with his eight sixes, and it was unveiled with only the eighth ball he faced.       

Charles isn’t a Test or even a noted first-class player and De Kock has made clear his preference for pyjamas over whites. And yet they essayed their innings in the grand and ancient manner, only with more elegance and excellence than has in the past been enough to hail performances as exceptional. In the space of one Sunday afternoon Charles and De Kock took batting in any kind of cricket to a level it has rarely been, if ever. Where does all that leave the fogeys?

“Cricket shots will always be cricket shots, because we’re playing cricket,” Charles told a press conference. “It’s not as if you could play a football shot in a cricket match. Guys are constantly evolving and learning how to go forward. It’s a beautiful sight. I’d love to see the game 10 years from now.”

Charles has played 40 T20Is but he featured in none from September 2016 to October last year. That was in the wake of reaching 50 just twice in his previous 20 innings. His explanation for how he ended his six-year absence from the side offered further evidence that success in the format is about playing properly: “I’ve changed my game in that I’ve gone back to the basics, made sure that I’ve got that on the down low. It’s worked for me. If I continue to do that I’ll continue having great innings.”

He did acknowledge that “with such a good pitch and on a small field you don’t have to over-hit the ball”, but staving off the urge to do so takes discipline. Kyle Mayers and Charles delivered a masterclass in exactly that in their 58-ball stand of 135. Reeza Hendricks and De Kock followed their lead and shared 152 off 65.

On another day Hendricks’ 68 off 28 — a strike rate of 242.85 — would have won the match. On Sunday this comparatively understated performance all but flew under the radar. Aiden Markram referenced Hendricks’ batting in his television interview: “You talk about playing attacking cricket but that doesn’t mean you have to slog everything.”  Also on television, De Kock had praise for his partner: “He was quite the silent assassin. We said to each other after he got out [in the 13th], ‘Jeez, we’ve done something special’.”

In his presser, Hendricks — cramp kept De Kock in the dressing room — fought his own corner: “T20 allows for normal cricket shots. It’s still your normal strokeplay. You don’t have to go out there and swing from the hips from ball one. T20 still allows for good cricket. Everyone who contributed today played really good cricket shots.”

And they realised 517 runs, the highest aggregate in the 2,032 men’s T20Is yet played. Only six first innings have surpassed West Indies’ 258/5. No reply has been bigger than South Africa’s 259/4, reached with seven balls to spare. No team have hit more sixes in an innings than the Windies’ 22. No match at this level has delivered more sixes than Sunday’s 35, nor more fours than its 46. Never has a greater chunk of the runs in a T20I been hit in fours and sixes: 76.21%.

“When we walked off the field [after West Indies’ innings] ‘KG’ said they’re 10 runs short,” Hendricks said. That drew parallels with Jacques Kallis’ comment during the innings break in a famous ODI at the Wanderers in June 2006, when Australia put up a then world record total of 434/4: “The bowlers have done their job. It’s up to the batters now.” South Africa replied with 438/9 with a ball remaining. Now the T20I version of South Africa’s team have their own magical number to celebrate. “I would say it’s equivalent to the 438 game, so to be part of it is a big deal,” Hendricks said.

Rovman Powell described the afternoon’s events as “pretty, pretty crazy”, and the madness was still swirling in the smoke thrown by the post-match fireworks when Bob Marley’s voice rang out over the ground: “Every little thing is going to be alright.” A member of the groundstaff danced in time to the music as he collected the circular white markers denoting the 30-metre circle on the outfield. He looked happy with what his and his colleagues’ efforts had produced, and so he should have. Everything was indeed alright.

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