Matthew Breetzke – Bulletproof Truth

Walter’s T20 World Cup squad gambles on a dream

“I’m definitely not a betting man. I trust the quality of the players.” – Rob Walter

Telford Vice / Cape Town

NO to Rassie van der Dussen, Matthew Breetzke and Lungi Ngidi. Yes to Quinton de Kock, Anrich Nortjé and Marco Jansen. If you didn’t know whether Rob Walter was a gambler, you do now.

The experienced and respected Van der Dussen was among the top 10 run-scorers in this year’s SA20 and CSA T20 Challenge. Only Babar Azam has made more runs in the format in the world this year. But Van der Dussen has not cracked Walter’s nod for the T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean in June.

Neither has Breetzke, who was the third-highest runscorer in the SA20 and the highest in the T20 Challenge. Nor Ngidi, despite taking more wickets than all but five other fast bowlers in the SA20.

But De Kock has been included even though he looks jaded and is having an under-par IPL, where he is 27th on the runscoring charts. Nortjé is also at the tournament, and has an economy rate of 13.36 — maybe because he was sidelined by a lumbar stress fracture from last September to March this year. Jansen, too, is at the IPL, although you might not have noticed considering he has played one match.

Walter denied, during a press conference on Tuesday, that his squad was the product of a long night at the roulette wheel: “I’m definitely not a betting man, never have been. But I trust the quality of the players. Anrich has another month before the World Cup starts, so no doubt he’ll hit his straps. It’s good to see that his speed is up and, with playing and more time training, he’ll start to get his feel back. It’s the same with Marco. Again, Quinny is a quality cricketer. We’ve seen him do the job time and time again for us.”

How did Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach and so the sole selector in those formats, go about making up his mind? “There are various criteria — performances this year, performances over the last year, historical performances further back than that, the make-up of squads, the potential conditions that we are going to have to balance. And then there’s the good old-fashioned coach’s gut feeling.”

There’s also subjectivity, to which all of us are prone. It’s easy to look past the fact that 18 players in the SA20 and 22 in the T20 Challenge scored faster than Van der Dussen. And that while Ngidi was ruled out of the IPL with his own lumbar problem, he doesn’t offer Nortjé’s ability to bowl at 150 kilometres an hour. And that De Kock, even though he is out of sorts, has passed 50 three times in nine innings at the IPL.

Taking aim at individuals in a squad isn’t difficult. Making an alternative case that takes into account a side’s balance, the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents and the likely conditions is a stiffer challenge.

“I’ve chatted to probably 30-plus players in the last three days around selection and non-selection,” Walter said. “We do our best to communicate with those who we feel were in the mix and who were close to selection but didn’t quite get there. As much as it’s nice to make good phone calls, I really feel for the guys who miss out. You’ve got good people working hard on their games to live their dream of going to a World Cup. I’m the one who has to tell them that’s not going to happen. It’s not easy for me but it’s a lot harder for them to deal with that reality.”

The squad to play three T20Is against West Indies in the Caribbean before the World Cup was also named, pending changes that could depend on which South Africans are available after the league stage of the IPL. This squad includes Van der Dussen, Ngidi and Nqaba Peter, the 21-year-old leg spinner who lit up an otherwise dowdy T20 Challenge by taking 20 wickets in 10 games at an average of 9.50 and an economy rate of 5.84.

Walter is allowed to make changes to the World Cup squad until May 25. That seems unlikely, but those who have missed out and will be part of the Windies series wouldn’t be human if they didn’t hope something happens to change the coach’s mind.

More criticism is sure to come Walter’s way because the World Cup 15 includes only six players of colour, just one of them black — a situation exacerbated by the exposure of Temba Bavuma’s unsuitability to the demands of batting in the format. Bavuma, who is black, was South Africa’s captain during their disastrous 2022 T20 World Cup campaign.

Remedies are not easy to see. Rivaldo Moonsamy and Sibonelo Makhanya were among the top 10 runscorers in the T20 Challenge, but how do they win a place if Van der Dussen doesn’t? Simu Simetu was the leading wicket-taker in that competition, and like Keshav Maharaj and Bjorn Fortuin he is a left-arm orthodox spinner.

“My number one imperative is to create a winning Proteas team,” Walter said. “In order to do that, every time I pick a side I’ve got to pick the best team at the time that I think will give us a chance of doing that. That said, the [domestic] system needs to up the ante so that in six months, 12 months or two years’ time, and in particular when we reach the 2027 World Cup at home, the demographics of our team are different.

“Outside of the World Cup we’ll continue to use our bilateral series to do exactly that — to grow our base of players, to create international opportunity, to give opportunity for players to take their skills to a higher level, and make sure that we’ve bought into and are delivering on a process that’s going to change what our team looks like as we move forward.”

Walter is white, which in racially riven South Africa will increase scrutiny of his decisions. But even though the buck stops with him, it first has to get past CSA’s director of cricket, Enoch Nkwe, who is black. “No squad that I pick is selected without discussion with the director of cricket; it’s as simple as that,” Walter said.

It isn’t that simple, of course. South Africa’s World Cup squads in 1992, 1996 and 1999 each included one brown but no black players. Five black and brown players were picked for the 2003 ODI World Cup and the 2010 version of what is now called the T20 World Cup. The 2011 World Cup squad and the 2009, 2012 and 2016 T20 selections featured six black and brown players each. There were seven at the 2007 and 2015 World Cups, and at the 2007, 2021 and 2022 T20 versions. Eight made it to the 2014 T20 tournament, and to the 2019 and 2023 World Cups; the latter also chosen by Walter.

Not one of those squads, staffed by South Africa’s finest players, all of them — whatever their race — among the best in the global game, won a trophy. So maybe Walter should be taken seriously when he says he’s not a gambler. What is he?

A clue could be seen on the wall behind Walter’s right shoulder as he spoke to reporters from New Zealand, where he and his family live. It was a wooden sign, and it read: “Dream big.”

South Africa men’s squads:

T20 World Cup: Aiden Markram (capt), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortjé, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs. Travelling reserves: Nandré Burger, Lungi Ngidi.

T20I series against West Indies: Ottniel Baartman, Matthew Breetzke, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Patrick Kruger, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton, Andile Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie van der Dussen.

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Stubbs’ 302* shakes up Test batting conversation

“I’d imagine Stubbs’ innings was far more entertaining than mine.” – Stephen Cook, fellow triple centurion.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

THINK of Tristan Stubbs and you probably picture a bright-eyed human cocker spaniel puppy bounding around a T20 somewhere. You would not be wrong. His 70 games in that format is more than four times as many as the first-class matches he has played and almost three times his total of list A games.

So the undefeated 302 Stubbs scored for the Warriors against the Tuskers in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday and Thursday is a game changer. He made four centuries in his other 26 first-class innings and replaced the injured Temba Bavuma to earn a Test debut against India at Newlands last month, but his latest performance makes him a serious contender for an extended run in the Test XI.

Stubbs batted for eight hours and 19 minutes and faced 372 balls for a rifling strike rate of 81.18. He hit 37 fours and six sixes — 60.93% of his runs — and shared 473 with Matthew Breetzke, who made a mere 188, for the third wicket.

Ten other triple centuries have been scored in South Africa, six of them from October 2009 — when Stephen Cook made 390 for the Lions against the Warriors in East London. That remains the record score in first-class cricket in the country.

“I’d imagine Stubbs’ innings was far more entertaining than mine, certainly in terms of balls faced and boundaries hit,” Cook, who batted for two minutes short of 14 hours and faced 648 balls — 276 more than Stubbs — told Cricbuzz on Friday. His strike rate of 60.16 was 21.02 points lower than Stubbs’ but he hit 17 more fours.

Not that it’s a competition. For one thing, Cook opened the batting and Stubbs took guard at No. 4. For another, Cook was circumspection in pads while Stubbs is a creature of the modern age. For still another, the realities of the respective matches were different.

Cook walked out after the Warriors had batted for 146.3 overs before being dismissed for 532 midway through the second session on day two. Stubbs was called to the crease when his team slipped to 20/2 after 10 overs.

“We had fielded for near on five sessions, so I was very tired physically when I started my innings,” Cook said. “At the end of day three, when I was [202 not out], we were going to declare and try and make a game of it. But the teams couldn’t come to an agreement over what the score should be, so we ended up batting on.”

Arduous though scoring triple hundreds becomes, they have their gentler moments. “The fielding team don’t give up, but your runs become a whole lot easier,” Cook said. “They push fielders back, and they’re quite happy to let you have one and get off strike.”

Making a pile of runs requires several facilitating factors. “It’s an incredibly long time to be batting, so the contexts of being able to get a triple hundred need to work in your favour,” Cook said. “You need to play incredibly well and probably have a bit of luck on your side. But also the game situation has to allow for it.

“I think there’d be many innings where guys would have got triple hundreds but the game situation only allowed them to get 250, or whatever the case was. In Stubbs’ case he was lucky that the Warriors lost two early wickets. So he had enough time. But a lot of things have to go right for it to happen.”

One of them, in Cook’s case, was that he and Thami Tsolekile, who scored 141, put on 365 in a key partnership for the sixth wicket. “You need a willing partner,” Cook said. If you look at a lot of the big scores, there was often a willing and able accomplice. In Stubbs’ case, Breetzke was probably equally driven to get a big score. Often there’s a partnership or a team element driving you on, otherwise the concentration goes and you get over-ambitious and give your wicket away. You need something to drive you. In my case it was that we were still so far behind the game, so you couldn’t give it away.”

Despite his feat Cook would labour for more than the next six years before he made his Test debut, against England in Centurion in January 2016. Getting past Graeme Smith, Alviro Petersen and Dean Elgar wasn’t easy. But Cook took his chance, scoring 115 in his first innings at the highest level.

Stubbs made his Test debut on an awful pitch and scored three and one. He deserves another crack, because even cocker spaniel puppies grow up.

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Breetzke’s sacred profanity

“Matthew comes with a lot of energy.” – Reeza Hendricks on Matthew Breetzke.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

MATTHEW Breetzke you beautiful thing. It’s one thing to be made to look stupid and run out, quite another to punctuate that fate with a flash of emotion so bright it melts everything in its ambit like the special effects in a scene from the nuclear tests in the Oppenheimer movie.

By then Breetzke had driven Arshdeep Singh through the covers so hard his momentum ripped his back foot off the ground, sending him spinning into a pirouette. It would have been a travesty had the ball been caught instead of exploding through the fielder’s hands and scurrying, scolded, for four.

Arshdeep’s next offering disappeared over backward square leg for six. Breetzke hit it flat, furious and fantastic. Another F-word captured the smoking heat of the stroke. It shall not be mentioned here, but we all know what it is. Too quick a runner for his own good, Breetzke took three off Arshdeep’s following ball with an off-drive that wouldn’t have been worth more than a single to less intensely ambitious batters.

Breetzke had scored 16 off seven when Ravindra Jadeja wheeled in to Reeza Hendricks, who bunted to midwicket, chugged through for one and held up a hand: no more than that. But Breetzke was on his way for a second, and had almost reached Hendricks’ end when he realised how deep in trouble he was.

Of course Breetzke went through the futile motions of trying to scramble back to safety. Of course he was never going to get there. Of course he was painfully, embarrassingly short of his ground when the bails came off.

Cue the start of the show. First Breetzke aimed a kick at the darkening sky above St George’s Park so high and so straight it might have earned him a place in a Moulin Rouge can-can line. Then came the swearing. We couldn’t hear it, but — like pornography — we know it when we see it. Breetzke’s hot, sharp words swarmed around him all the way to the boundary, like they do to Daddles the duck. Then, sat in the dressingroom and watching replays of his dismissal, he shook his head in violent disgust — at nothing and no-one else but himself.

Maybe players who score just more than 10% of a total shouldn’t be celebrated. Maybe they should be sat down and told to play properly. Maybe they should be reminded that, at 25 and in only their second international, what they did won’t earn them many more opportunities. Or maybe they should be offered a handshake and a hug, and instructed to calm that other F-word down and give themselves room to breathe.

Nobody needed to tell Breetzke he had got it wrong. Just as nobody could ignore his passion and commitment. Sometimes that’s not enough to make a difference big enough to change the outcome of a match, but it never goes unnoticed and it is never wasted.

“Matthew comes with a lot of energy, and he played really well,” Hendricks said. “It was quite loud out there and he wasn’t looking up, and it was unfortunate the way he got out. But the partnership we had [of 42 off 17] was really good. It set the tone.”

Happily for him, Breetzke went to bed on Tuesday pillowed by the truth that he had been part of a winning effort in the second men’s T20I. Rain halted India’s innings at 180/3 after Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh had scored 56 and 68 not out and shared 70 off 48. South Africa’s target was revised to 152 off 15 overs, which they reached with five wickets standing and seven balls to spare.

It was a raggedy, helter-skelter affair in which Tabraiz Shamsi’s economy rate of 4.50 — the only one under a run-a-ball in a match in which four of the 11 bowlers used soared to double figures — and Hendricks’ 27-ball 49 were the decisive performances.

Hendricks shared 54 off 30 with Aiden Markram before David Miller and Tristan Stubbs put on 31 off 22 to take South Africa to the brink of a victory that was achieved when Jadeja dragged a delivery down short and the nerveless Andile Phehlukwayo sent it arching over square leg for six.

In the bigger picture perhaps this match meant little, and it will be remembered less still if India square the series at the Wanderers on Thursday. But everybody present from captain Markram to coach Rob Walter, to the rest of the home side’s dressingroom and probably the Indians, too, to every member of the spirited crowd at the home of South African cricket, to every cricketminded South African watching on a screen somewhere will know something bigger and better.

That, to Matthew Breetzke, this match meant everything.

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Breetzke’s big break, briefly

“I don’t really look at it like that.” – Matthew Breetzke doesn’t agree that he’s replacing Quinton de Kock.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

WE know Matthew Breetzke doesn’t bat left-handed, and he confirmed on Friday he will not keep wicket in South Africa’s T20I series against India that starts at Kingsmead on Sunday. But does he fish? Is he happiest outdoors?

These questions remained unasked, nevermind answered, during Breetzke’s press nine-minute conference. That was a pity. Because if you’re replacing Quinton de Kock people will want to know how alike you are to the huntin’, fishin’ shootin’ outdoorsman who has a profitable sideline in batting left-handed and keeping wicket for franchise teams and South Africa’s T20I side. And who has been rested for the matches against the Indians. Especially as Rob Walter has said you will open the batting in the rubber, just like De Kock does.

Breetzke balked, politely, at the comparison. “I don’t really look at it like that,” he said. “I’m just grateful to be afforded the opportunity. I’m coming in to win games for the team, and hopefully I can do my best.” There is, then, at least one trait Breetzke shares with De Kock: giving unusually short answers to questions at press conferences.

To be fair to Breetzke, being sat in front of a microphone and a camera in a room that contains only one journalist, and with faceless others asking their questions online in disembodied voices, can be unnerving. It wouldn’t have helped that, because of the inevitable technological glitches, he had to say three times that “I’m not going to be the man with the [wicketkeeping] gloves.”

That man is likely to be Heinrich Klaasen, although he might be Tristan Stubbs. South Africa will be less spoilt for choice in the seam section, what with Kagiso Rabada rested for the series, Lungi Ngidi ruled out with a sprained ankle, and Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen leaving the squad after the first two T20Is — and missing all three ODIs that follow — to prepare for the two Tests by playing first-class matches. Temba Bavuma has been given a break for the ODIs and will return to captain the Test team.

From one end of that equation it looks like the South Africans will leave a lot of bases uncovered. From the other it looms like a chance for players who don’t often get a look-in to step up to the plate and hit a homerun. Players like Breetzke, whose international career comprises a solitary T20I against Australia at Kingsmead in September.

“I only got one shot at it, in the last game of that series,” Breetzke said. “This time, hopefully I get all the shots.” That seems assured, going on what Walter said. What did that certainty do for Breetzke? “It frees me up to be the best that I can be.”

Breetzke has gone nine T20 innings since he reached a half-century; a 33-ball unbeaten 61 for Eastern Province against Boland in Potchefstroom in October last year. But he was twice marooned not out in the upper 40s in four trips to the crease for Durban’s Super Giants in the SA20 in January and February.

He has opened in 34 of his 46 innings in the format, scoring all but one of his eight 50s at the top of the order. That included a hattrick of half-centuries for Eastern Province made on three consecutive in Kimberley in October 2021 during the CSA Provincial T20 Cup.

At 25, and 144 matches of all formats into a senior career that started in February 2017, Breetzke wears a Proteas badge. How did that feel? “To be in the set-up and be surrounded by these players is a surreal moment. I can’t say much more about that except that I’m here to do the business and win games of cricket.”

Even Quinton de Kock couldn’t have said it better.

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Olivier goes onward and upward

Kolpak comeback has taken 28 wickets at 11.10 in four games.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

DUANNE Olivier bowled the Lions to their fourth consecutive first-class victory at the Wanderers on Sunday — and kept himself in contention for a place in South Africa’s squad for the Test series against India that is due to start next month, pandemic permitting.

Olivier claimed match figures of 8/66 in his team’s 10-wicket win over the Knights, which made the Lions the only side to win all of their matches this season. The Warriors needed less than two days to beat struggling Western Province by an innings and 114 runs at St George’s Park. North West and the Dolphins, and Boland and the Titans endured rain-plagued draws in Potchefstroom and Paarl. All four games were in division one, with none played in the second division.

Olivier took 5/53 and 3/13 in the Knights’ totals of 124 and 103, in which 13 of the 20 scores did not escape single figures. But with rain a constant threat bold captaincy was needed for the home side to make the most of that advantage, and Malusi Siboto — no slouch with the ball himself with his hauls of 3/28 and 4/17 — delivered the key decision by declaring with a lead of only 69 on the back of opener Joshua Richards’ 100 not out, Kagiso Rapulana’s 58, and their stand of 125. Having lost their last nine wickets for 57 runs in the first innings, the Knights saw eight tumble for 69 to leave the Lions a nominal target of 35. They knocked it off in 29 deliveries.

Having returned to the South African fold in the wake of the Kolpak era, Olivier is the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 28 at an average of 11.10. He played the most recent of his 10 Tests against Sri Lanka at St George’s Park in February 2019, and would seem set to add to that tally — especially as Lungi Ngidi last played a competitive match in July for reasons of selection, personal choice and his contraction of Covid-19.

The Warriors beat WP emphatically despite their decent but hardly dominant first innings of 366, which was built on captain, opener and wicketkeeper Matthew Breetzke’s 100 — his second century in three innings. The visitors must have thought they had tilted the balance in their favour when they took the last four Warriors wickets for 25 runs, but they suffered collapses of 9/49 and 8/123 and were rattled out for 79 and 173 in 28.3 and 43.4 overs. No WP batter reached 20 in the first innings and seven didn’t make it to 10. No. 8 Basheer Walters’ 47-ball 52 in the second dig was easily their best effort. Curiously, none of the Warriors’ bowlers took more than three wickets in either innings, but slow left-armer Tsepo Ndwandwa was the standout performer with 3/7 in 7.3 overs in WP’s first innings.

Marques Ackerman’s 123 — his first double-figure score in five innings in the competition this season — and half-centuries by Keegan Petersen, Bryce Parsons and Ruan de Swardt took the Dolphins to a declaration of 400/9 despite medium pacer Delano Potgieter’s 5/85. Opener Lesego Senokwane’s 91 was part of a second-wicket stand of 169 he shared with Shaylen Pillay, who made an undefeated 156 and put on 135 with Christopher Britz — who scored 60 not out — to ease North West to 313/2. But, with rain getting in the way and preventing any play on the third day, that was as far as the contest was allowed to unfold.

The weather took the last day out of the equation for the Titans, who were 170 ahead with seven second-innings wickets standing at stumps on the third day. Neil Brand made 111 and Gihahn Cloete 56 — and shared 108 — in the visitors’ first innings of 308, in which Zakhele Qwabe took 4/40. Opener Isma-eel Gafieldien was last out for 97 in Boland’s reply of 234. The most pertinent feature of the match in terms of the bigger picture was that Dean Elgar, who is set to lead South Africa against India next month, scored five in each innings.

The Lions top the log with 92 points, 61.62 ahead of WP, who have lost two games and drawn the other two. The Capetonians are in last place, below even North West — who are also winless but have been beaten three times. Only the Lions and the second-placed Warriors, who have three victories, have won more than one match.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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Rickelton rocks, Whitehead rolls

11 centuries, 8 five-wicket hauls in latest round of four-day matches.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

RYAN Rickelton banked his sixth score of 50 or more in his last nine first-class innings at the weekend. The wicketkeeper-batter’s 117 for the Lions followed an effort of 159 for the same team last month, which came after scores of 92 and 109 for South Africa A in June, and 58 and 194 for the Lions in March.

Rickelton’s latest feat was central to the Lions’ division one victory over Boland by an innings and 30 runs at the Wanderers. In the same division, the Titans hammered Western Province by an innings and 139 runs at Newlands thanks to first-innings hundreds by Grant Mokoena, Dean Elgar, Jiveshan Pillay and Ayabulela Gqamane. The Warriors beat North West by 130 runs in Potchefstroom with the help of undefeated centuries by Matthew Breetzke and Rudi Second, and the Dolphins and Knights drew at Kingsmead despite Matthew Kleinveldt’s unbeaten 177 — the highest score of the round — for the visitors. The 141 overs lost to rain and bad light on the first three days in Durban proved the deciding factor.

After three rounds, the Lions, having won all their matches, lead the division one standings. They are 15.26 points ahead of the Knights, who lead the Warriors by 3.7 points.

Noteworthy history was made in division two, where left-arm spinner Sean Whitehead followed the 66 he scored in the first innings for South Western Districts against Easterns in Oudtshoorn by taking 5/64. He made 45 in the second innings — and then claimed all 10 of Easterns’ wickets for 36.

That made Whitehead only the second player in first-class cricket to take five wickets in one innings, 10 in the other and score 100 or more runs in the same match. The other was EM Grace — the most prominent of WG’s three brothers — who made 192 not out and took 5/77 and 10/69 for Gentlemen of MCC against Gentlemen of Kent in Canterbury in August 1862. Whitehead’s 10-for was the fourth in first-class cricket in South Africa and the first since fast bowler Mario Olivier claimed 10/65 for the Warriors against the Eagles in Bloemfontein in November 2007.

At the Wanderers, Duanne Olivier and Sisanda Magala took four wickets each in Boland’s first innings of 170, of which Janneman Malan made 54. Rickelton’s ton and Kagiso Rapulana’s 65 — and their stand of 140 — steadied the Lions’ reply of 350. Rickelton was caught behind off fast bowler Ferisco Adams, who took 5/24 in a dozen overs. Olivier claimed 5/57 to finish with match figures of 9/95 as Boland shambled to 150 all out with No. 11 Siyabonga Mahima’s 32-ball 47 — 40 of them in boundaries — their top score.

WP chose to field first at Newlands, where the Titans batted for 172 overs before declaring at 647/7. As opening batters, Mokoena’s 154 and Elgar’s 117 — they shared 231 — didn’t raise eyebrows. But when No. 7 Pillay scored 113 not out and No. 9 Gqamane made an unbeaten 117 in an unbroken stand of 199, the annals were consulted. Turns out that’s not the highest eighth-wicket stand in first-class cricket in South Africa, but it’s only the sixth time four centuries have been scored in an innings in the country and just the second time in a game not involving at least one national or international team.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer snapped up 7/76 as WP crashed to 195 all out, their last nine wickets tumbling for 103. The home side followed on, and although Daniel Smith made 83 and Kyle Verreynne 50 in a decent total of 313, the damage had been done in the first innings. Harmer and slow left-armer Neil Brand shared six wickets, which gave Harmer match figures of 10/225.

Edward Moore’s 79, Lesiba Ngoepe’s 88 and Diego Rosier’s 52, and Alindile Mhletywa’s patient 46, which came off 131 balls, helped the Warriors reach 334 in Potch. The visitors lost their last four wickets for one run.

North West mustered 350 in reply, thanks to another three half-centuries — Wesley Marshall made 94, Delano Potgieter 74 and Nicky van der Bergh 64 not out. Medium pacer Mthiwekhaya Nabe and slow left-armer Tsepo Ndwandwa took seven wickets between them.

Breetzke and Moore — who scored 55 — shared 118 for the Warriors’ first wicket, and Breetzke and Second put on 170 for the unbroken third. Breetzke was 152 not out and Second scored an unbeaten 103.

The declaration of 364/2 left North West a target of 349, but they were dismissed for 218 inside 70 overs with Marshall making 65 and Van den Bergh 64. Nabe and left-arm wrist spinner Lizo Makhosi took three wickets each.

There were also three each at Kingsmead for Knights fast bowlers Gerald Coetzee, left-armer Mbulelo Budaza and Alfred Mothoa in the Dolphins’ first innings of 226. Kleinveldt’s sturdy performance and Jacques Snyman’s 94 — they put on 155 for the first wicket — allowed the visitors to declare at 397/4. The Dolphins began their second innings 171 behind, and were three ahead with five wickets standing when the draw was declared.

Whitehead’s heroics helped SWD beat Easterns by 120 runs — and that after the home side were 5/3 on their way to a total of 193 in a second innings in which the visitors used nine bowlers. Asked to chase 186, Easterns were shot out for 65 in 25.1 overs. Oddly, they lost more than one wicket in an over only once.

In another division two match, KwaZulu-Natal Inland beat Border by seven wickets in East London. Thomas Kaber’s 103 not out powered Border’s first innings of 384, but Tshepang Dithole made 162 to bolster the visitors’ reply of 384 in which left-arm wrist spinner Kaber took 5/109. The home side were rattled out for 106 in 51.5 overs with slow left-armer Luke Schlemmer snapping up 6/31. That left KZN Inland a target of just 107, which they reached in 21.4 overs.

Limpopo and Northern Cape drew their division two game in Polokwane. Off-spinner Aubrey Swanepoel took 7/56 in the home side’s first innings of 290. Northern Cape’s reply of 350 hinged on Rivaldo Moonsamy’s 101. Limpopo were dismissed for 185 with Swanepoel claiming 4/65 to complete a match haul of 11/121. The visitors chased 126 to win, and were only five runs away with three wickets in hand when the match ended.

KZN Inland and Border top the division two standings with 34.46 points each. Matches involving Limpopo and Mpumalanga are not first-class.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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All for Markram, none for De Bruyn

First win for the Lions, Cobras the only team without a win after three rounds.

TELFORD VICE | Cape Town

AIDEN Markram and Theunis de Bruyn had the most contrasting experiences possible for the Titans against the Warriors in franchise first-class matches this week.

Sisanda Magala claimed the only five-wicket haul of the round for the Lions, whose victory over the Knights was sealed by a record stand by Joshua Richards and Dominic Hendricks.

Khaya Zondo scored a century for the Dolphins in their draw against the Cobras, which is now the only winless team in the competition.

Opener Markram scored 149 and 121 in Centurion, marking the first time in his first-class career of 69 matches that he has made centuries in both innings. He was the only Titans player to reach 50 in totals of 320 and 289. Teammate De Bruyn, who batted at Nos. 3 and 4, suffered his first pair in his 71st first-class game. Marco Jansen took match figures of 7/135 for the Warriors.

Yaseen Vallie’s 80, Sinethemba Qeshile’s 97 and half-centuries by Matthew Breetzke and Lesiba Ngoepe earned the Warriors a first-innings lead of 72. It chased 218 to win, and got there with three wickets standing thanks to Vallie’s 55 and sturdy 30s by Rudi Second and Ngoepe.

At the Wanderers, Magala took 6/60 in the Knights’ first innings of 300, in which no other bowler claimed more than two wickets. The Lions crashed to 47/5 in reply and were dismissed 98 runs behind with Mbulelo Budaza, Migael Pretorius and Gerald Coetzee sharing eight wickets.

Wiaan Mulder and Delano Potgieter claimed seven wickets between them in the Knights’ second innings of 235. That set the Lions a sizeable target of 334, which Richards and Hendricks — who scored nought and six in the first innings — whittled down patiently in their opening partnership of 256. Richards’ 136 was his first franchise century, and the partnership is the biggest for the first wicket for the Lions. The previous record, 226 by Stephen Cook and Reeza Hendricks against the Cobras in 2017/18, was set in Potchefstroom, a featherbed compared to the Wanderers’ lively surface. The Lions lost 4/33 after the openers were dismissed, but won by four wickets.

The Dolphins declared in both innings at Kingsmead, where Zondo made 105, Senuran Muthusamy 79 and Marques Ackerman 66 for the home side before the Cobras were dismissed 77 behind — Tony de Zorzi made 58 — with Muthusamy taking 4/58. Scores of 56 by each member of the Dolphins’ top order, Sarel Erwee, Muthusamy and Keegan Petersen, built the lead to 294 when the declaration came. The Cobras had slipped to 155/6 — key batter Zubayr Hamza fell first ball — when the draw was agreed. Muthusamy completed a solid allround performance by taking 4/56, giving him match figures of 8/114.

The Titans and the Knights have now won two matches each, while the Lions celebrated success for the first time. The Warriors is the only side to have lost two games, and the Cobras the only team with two draws.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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MSL catches fire in PE

As a window into what the MSL could be if major players in the sponsorship and broadcast world were able to have confidence that it was a good place to spend their money, it was bittersweet.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE Mzansi Super League (MSL) took the edge off its problems by delivering the closest game yet in this year’s competition at St George’s Park on Wednesday.

Plagued by inadequate sponsorship and broadcast revenue, ineffective marketing, little prospect of breaking even, and tiny crowds, the MSL doesn’t have much going for it.

But, for three or so hours while the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants and the Cape Town Blitz conjured a contest for the ages, none of that mattered as acutely.

The Blitz put up a decent 186/9 — the Warriors’ 189 against the Cobras in April is the only higher T20 first innings at this ground, and remains the record total — and the Giants reeled it in with five wickets standing and four balls to spare.

Janneman Malan and Quinton de Kock shared 72 for the first wicket for the second time in the tournament in scoring 31 and 39, and the rest of the visitors’ top five — Marques Ackerman, Liam Livingstone and Asif Ali — added another 87 to the total.

But the Giants fought back, taking 5/22 to limit the damage effectively.

Chris Morris, Junior Dala, Imran Tahir and Onke Nyaku claimed two wickets each with Tahir’s 2/26 and economy rate of 6.50 the standout showing.

The Giants seemed sunk without trace after only nine balls, what with openers Matthew Breetzke and Jason Roy gone with just three runs scored.

But captain Jon-Jon Smuts stood tall through partnerships of 53 with Ben Dunk, 46 with Heino Kuhn and 48 with Marco Marais before slashing a catch to backward point to go for a 51-ball 73.

Smuts’ gutsy effort included a reprieve for a no-ball dismissal by Wahab Riaz and surviving a lengthy review for a catch by George Linde at short fine leg off Sisanda Magala.

His exit, forced by a near no-ball from Wahab, left Marais — the cleanest, crispest, hardest hitter in South African cricket since Rassie van der Dussen — and Morris to get the job done, which they did by clattering 37 off 18 balls.

Morris clinched it in soap opera style with a mighty heave off Magala, which Linde, diving for all his worth on the midwicket fence, almost caught.

Instead the ball was deflected onto the boundary cushion, which cost the Blitz six runs, the match, and their position at the top of the standings — a spot now occupied by the Giants.

As a game of cricket it was the stuff of dreams: dramatic and intensely competitive with a fair sprinkling of quality individual performances.

As a window into what the tournament could be if major players in the sponsorship and broadcast world were able to have confidence that the MSL was a good place to spend their money, it was bittersweet.

Reality resumed, and with it an interview Hashim Amla gave to Pakistani website PakPassion.

“I find it very amusing whenever this whole subject of Kolpak and its effects on South African cricket are brought up,” Amla was quoted as saying.

“Kolpak has been around for a long time, and so it’s surprising to me that it is been touted as the reason for all evils only because we lost the recent Test series to India [3-0 in October].

“I do not want this idea to become a convenient excuse for what basically were bad performances against India.

“When I was playing domestic cricket, we had quite a number of Kolpak players in our domestic teams also but then there was no talk of this subject.

“Let’s be honest about it, India are a really good side and they will probably beat all teams at home and the fact is that we did not play that well during the tour.

“Now one may argue that I am saying this because I have signed to play for Surrey next year as a Kolpak player but my story is slightly different as I have a few years of international cricket under my belt.

“The fact remains that this whole issue has gained importance just due to recent bad performances.”

Amla spoke from the United Arab Emirates, where he is playing for the Karnataka Tuskers in the Abu Dhabi T10 — a fact that on its own is indicative of some of South African cricket’s problems beyond Kolpak.

Having served as the Blitz’ batting consultant, free of charge, Amla has done his bit for the MSL.

But, if the game was in better shape at home, wouldn’t he prefer playing in the MSL to some gimmick far away?

You didn’t need to be at St George’s Park on Wednesday to answer that question.

First published by TMG Digital.

Markram, Breetzke upstage De Villiers, Duminy

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IF you were keen on seeing how AB de Villiers and JP Duminy got on for the SA Invitation XI in their one-day tour match against the Bangladeshis in Bloemfontein on Thursday, you should stop living in the past.

Instead invest yourself in the future in the shape of Aiden Markram and Matthew Breetzke — combined age 41 — who between them scored 153 of the 256 runs the home side needed to win by six wickets with 3.3 overs to spare.

Markram, who turned 23 last Wednesday, clipped 82 off 68 balls with eight fours and a six. Breetzke, who won’t be 19 until November 3, hit nine fours in his 71, which came off 100 deliveries. Together they put on 147 for the first wicket.

Neither Markram nor Breetzke are in the squad that will play the first of three one-day internationals against Bangladesh in Kimberley on Sunday. But they should have plenty of opportunities in future.

For now, South Africans will have to be satisfied with oldsters like De Villiers and Duminy — combined age 66 — who knocked off 77 of the remaining target.

Duminy was stumped for 34 to end a stand of 62 with De Villiers, who was caught behind for 43. Mahmudullah claimed both scalps.

The result would seem to suggest Bangladesh are in for the kind of hidings inflicted on them in the test series, where South Africa won by 333 runs and an innings and 254 runs.

But there were signs of better times ahead for the visitors, with Shakib Al Hasan celebrating his return from a break with 68 off 67 balls and Sabbir Rahman facing 54 balls for his 52 in the Bangladeshis’ total of 255.

Happily, Mushfiqur Rahim, who was hospitalised after being clanged on the helmet by Duanne Olivier in the second test in Bloem at the weekend, got back on the horse to score 22.

Robbie Frylinck — who was on a hattrick — Malusi Siboto, Mbulelo Budaza and Aaron Phangiso took two wickets each.

Like Markram and Breetzke, none of them are in South Africa’s ODI squad.

In fact, of the XI who played on Thursday, only De Villiers and Duminy are in the mix for Sunday.

No pressure, fellas.