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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CSA miss own deadline on Cobras transformation issue

“I can’t comment on what goes on right at the top but I can certainly say there’s great talent in South Africa.” – Robin Peterson focuses on the positive.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CRICKET South Africa (CSA) seem set to miss their self-imposed deadline for getting to the bottom of a transformation target transgression last month.

The Cobras’ XI for their first-class fixture against the Warriors at Newlands included seven black players — one more than the stipulated number.

But only two of them, fast bowlers Thando Ntini and Tladi Bokako, were black African — one fewer than the target.

“CSA has noted the submission by Western Cape Cricket [WCC] in lieu of a request for a deviation from the administrative conditions,” a CSA spokesperson said at the time.

But, according to Cobras coach Ashwell Prince, there was nothing “in lieu” about how he had approached the issue.

“I followed the protocol,” Prince told TMG Digital.

CSA also said they would “launch a further enquiry into this incident and will consider all the related and relevant information in order to arrive at a decision about the strength and the validity of the argument by WCC”, and that, “It is anticipated that the investigation may take up to 14 days.”

That was on October 29 — the 14 days expires on Tuesday.

Asked on Monday night whether CSA had reached a decision, a spokesperson said only, “We will announce the outcome once we have concluded the matter.”

Pressed for a better answer, he became defensive.

The Cobras squad contains four other black Africans — batters Aviwe Mgijima and Simon Khomari, and fast bowlers Akhona Mnyaka and Mthiwekhaya Nabe — while another, spinner Tsepo Ndwandwa, has played for them this season.

None were injured when the game against the Cobras started at Newlands on October 28.

Mgijima has scored just 39 runs in five first-class innings this season while Khomari made two and four in his only match of the campaign.

Mnyaka took 1/30 in the nine overs he bowled on his debut in January, his only first-class match to date.

Nabe also last played for the Cobras in January, and has taken 47 wickets in 31 first-class games at an average of 43.27.

Ndwandwa has claimed three wickets in the two first-class games he has played for the Cobras this season.

In cricket terms, none of those players are banging down the door for a place in the Cobras team.

Who might have been left out to make room for another black African is another consideration.

Five members of the top six who played average more than 30 this summer, with Kyle Verreynne topping the list at 70.66 and Matthew Kleinveldt weighing in at 56.00.

The only merely black — not black African — fast bowler in the side, Dane Paterson, has taken 18 wickets at 21.55 in four games.

The other three members of the team, Zubayr Hamza, George Linde and Dane Piedt, the captain, were all freshly back from South Africa’s poor Test series in India.

It was thus in the national interest that they played. 

And in the Cobras’ interest: before that match they had lost to the Lions and drawn with the Titans and Dolphins.

The game against the Warriors was also drawn, leaving the Cobras second from bottom in the standings.

There was, therefore, no good cricket case to be made for forcing an out-of-form player into a side that needed a win at the expense of someone better equipped for their role.

But, as the Springboks proved emphatically at the men’s World Cup in Japan, quotas can lead to triumph because they open eyes that were previously closed.

There’s a good argument to be made that the Boks would not have done as well as they did had teams not been forced to pick black players.

Decades of selection bias — consciously or not — robbed black players of their opportunities.

With their presence guaranteed, they could not be unfairly sidelined.

And, what do you know, they turned out to be among the best players South Africa had.

That Siya Kolisi, Makazole Mapimpi and Cheslin Kolbe merit their places is beyond question.

As is the likelihood that, without quotas, they would never have been given the chance to prove it.  

It’s a happy ending cricket is still chasing, and the dwindling confidence in CSA’s current leadership won’t bring it any closer. 

Perhaps that vital task should be left to people who know what they’ve doing, like Warriors coach Robin Peterson.

“I can’t comment on what goes on right at the top but I can certainly say there’s great talent in South Africa,” Peterson told TMG Digital during the now controversial Newlands match.

He is about 18 months from completing a Masters in sport directorship at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Peterson hasn’t yet decided what his dissertation topic will be, but he has an idea.

“Maybe I’ll do it on ethical transformation,” he said. “Is there such a thing as ethical transformation?

“I’m living in a situation I can write about, so why not.”

Given South Africa’s past and present, Peterson won’t want for research material.

“It’s very difficult to heal wounds, but if this is your only skill in life it’s very difficult to kill people’s dreams.

“You have to give them opportunities if they’re good enough to play.”

It seems a simple statement, but South Africans will know just how complex it is.

First published by TMG Digital.