Bavuma bats for water, not beer

“Once you’re in the game you’ve got to try and stay in the battle, and hopefully your body keeps up with everything.” – Temba Bavuma on playing in India’s heat.

Telford Vice | Cape Town

SOUTH Africans and sunshine are hardly strangers, but Delhi has dazzled, dehydrated and dessicated Temba Bavuma and his squad ahead of their series of five T20Is against India that starts in the capital on Thursday.

“We expected it to be hot, but not this hot,” Bavuma told a press conference on Wednesday, when the temperature reached 46 degrees Celsius. “We’re fortunate that the games are being played at night, when it’s bearable. During the day guys are trying to look after themselves as much as possible and drinking a lot more water than the normal beer they drink at home. [They’re trying] to just keep as mentally fresh as they can.”

The heat had already soared past 40 degrees when the South Africans arrived at 9.30am (IST) on Thursday. It rose to 47 in the hours that followed. Since then, the recorded high has not been lower than 45. The forecast says it will be 43 when the teams take the field at 7pm (IST) on Thursday, when 47 is the apex.

A smidgen of rain — 0.1 millimetres, or not enough to fill a thimble — is predicted for Saturday, but so is a high of 46. By then, the teams will have journeyed 1,260 kilometres to the east for Sunday’s match in Cuttack — where the temperature is set to peak at 40 degrees on match day, the lowest it’s been there this month. It is set to climb to 48 on Saturday, when the players will complete their preparations for the second T20I. And to think Bavuma and his players jetted out of Johannesburg with the mercury reading 19. Compared with Wednesday’s wave of warmth, that’s 27 degrees of separation.

“It’s not something we’re used to at home,” Bavuma said. “Cramping, hydration and fatiguing are big things. You can only get used to it by actually playing in this type of heat.” His advice to his players was to “hydrate yourself as much as you can, manage your energies as much as you can, try and recover as well as you can in and around the games.” Because, hot or not, there’s a match to be won: “Once you’re in the game you’ve got to try and stay in the battle, and hopefully your body keeps up with everything.”

But the visitors had familiarised themselves with other elements of the conditions: “We got to play a practice game on one of the side wickets. [The bounce] was a bit lower than what we’re used to back home, but it didn’t really spin more than it stopped. It felt like it got better to bat on as the night went on.”

The series will mark the first time the teams have met since January, when South Africa won a home ODI series 3-0 after rallying from losing the first of three intensely contested Tests to claim that rubber 2-1.

South Africa have won and drawn their two previous bilateral T20I series in India, and would seem to have a good chance of adding to their successes. They have arrived with a full strength squad, but India have rested Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, who played in all of their teams’ IPL fixtures. On Wednesday, KL Rahul — who was to have stood in for Sharma as captain — and Kuldeep Yadav were added to an injury list that had already featured Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav. Rishabh Pant will now lead the home side.

But Bavuma knew he wasn’t in Kansas anymore: “We were able to get the better of India a few months ago, but these are different looking guys. There’s a lot of younger, fresher faces in the team, guys who have a big point to prove, guys who would like to stake a claim for their position in the Indian team. We won’t be expecting anything easy. We’re not here thinking everything is going to happen the same way as it did in South Africa. We know we’re going to have to play good cricket.”

And drink plenty of water. Not beer.

First published by Cricbuzz.

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2nd ODI preview: Off to Kingsmead? Take an umbrella

South Africa have gone 10 games without consecutive wins.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE last time the weather didn’t kibosh an ODI involving England at Kingsmead, Nasser Hussain was their captain and Javagal Srinath suffered the last of his 11 first-ball dismissals in a blue India shirt. It was February 2003 and India won that World Cup clash by 82 runs. Since then both of England’s games in the format against South Africa in Durban have been washed out.

And, wouldn’t you know it, a 90% chance of rain has been forecast for Friday’s second ODI. That will hardly be news to South Africa. They’ve suffered no more than one washout at any of their other home venues, but four of the 38 ODIs they have played at Kingsmead have ended inconclusively because of the elements. When nature stays out of the way in Durban, South Africa are twice as likely to win: they’ve been victorious in 11 and lost 22 ODIs there.

On the evidence of the first game of the series, at Newlands on Tuesday, rain may be good news for the visitors. They were as flat as Table Mountain itself in all departments, blowing the advantage of an opening stand of 51 between Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow as well as a recovery partnership of 91 shared by Joe Denly and Chris Woakes to finish with a mediocre 258/8. And then failing utterly to put a dent in South Africa’s reply, which reached its target with only three wickets down and 14 balls remaining.

So the South Africans won’t be best pleased if Friday’s game doesn’t go the distance. Having crashed to a hattrick of defeats in the Test series against England, Tuesday’s win was welcomed as a sign of better things to come. It was Quinton de Kock’s first match as South Africa’s appointed captain, and he responded to that challenge by scoring 107. With him in a stand of 170 was Temba Bavuma, who uncorked a hitherto hidden gift for white-ball batting at international level with a scintillating 98. That followed Tabraiz Shamsi returning from proving his fitness at a conditioning camp to take 3/38.

It’s only one game and it’s only an ODI at that, but considering what went before it’s not difficult to understand why South Africans want to consider Tuesday’s triumph a turning point. They won’t be keen to remember that their team also won the first Test before their form plummetted, but that only means they will be even more intent on seeing how De Kock’s side go in Durban on Friday. Consecutive victories? Imagine that.

South Africa have gone 10 games without winning two in a row, a streak of inconsistency that started after they beat Sri Lanka and Australia at last year’s World Cup — by which time they had already been eliminated from the running for the knockout rounds.

So South Africa will want to keep doing what they did in Cape Town, which would earn them series honours. England will be bent on putting that game behind them. But if the weather has its way, all hopes will be on hold util the last match of the rubber at the Wanderers on Sunday. 

When: Friday February 7, 2020. 1pm Local Time  

Where: Kingsmead, Durban

What to expect: This is one of South Africa’s slowest pitches, but all four five-wicket hauls in ODIs have been claimed by seamers. Runs flow faster — 4.85 an over — than at Newlands — 4.70 — although not as fluidly as at the Wanderers — 5.16, not least because Kingsmead’s outfield isn’t the fastest. Teams have put up 300 or more than 300 six times in Durban, but only once in the second innings. In the 46 ODIs played here, teams have been dismissed 27 times.   

Team news

South Africa

Why fix what ain’t broke? But, having handed Jon-Jon Smuts and Lutho Sipamla ODI debuts in Cape Town, South Africa might be tempted to blood one or more of left-arm spinner Bjorn Fortuin, opening batter Janneman Malan and altogether uncapped wicketkeeper-batter Kyle Verreynne. Malan, in particular, looks like cracking the nod after Reeza Hendricks’ lacklustre showing — caught behind for six off 14 balls — at Newlands.    

Possible XI: Quinton de Kock, Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Jon-Jon Smuts, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Beuran Hendricks, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Tabraiz Shamsi.   

England

Opener Dawid Malan’s exclusion at Newlands didn’t make much sense, so he should win what would be his second cap in the format. Fast bowler Saqib Mahmood could make an ODI debut. Truth be told, England looked so out if it in Cape Town that coach Chris Silverwood would be forgiven for emptying his bench.

Possible XI: Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton, Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Matt Parkinson, Saqib Mahmood.

“It looks a little bit dry, but Kingsmead always has that extra bounce and I enjoy that. I don’t feel like I need the ball to spin. Most spinner enjoy the extra bounce.” – Tabraiz Shamsi on the Durban pitch.

“We’ve lost games of cricket before and come back to win the series, so I don’t think it’s a massive confidence knock. The boys are going to be training hard trying to level the series tomorrow.” – Tom Curran talks a good practice session.  

First published by Cricbuzz.  

Whatever you do, don’t mention the World Cup weather

“In 2018 there was just two millimetres of rain in June but the last 24 hours alone has seen around 100 millimetres fall in the south-east of England.” – ICC boss Dave Richardson  

Times Select

TELFORD VICE in Cardiff

STEVE Rhodes and Dave Richardson were both wicketkeepers, a good option if you’re looking for the unvarnished truth; straight no chaser. But one is a Yorkshireman and the other a lawyer, and we know which of those we think talks more sense.

So here’s ‘Bumpy’ Rhodes, also the son of a wicketkeeper — Nottinghamshire’s Billy Rhodes — and now Bangladesh’s coach, on whether the World Cup league stage match schedule should have made provision for reserve days:

“If you know the English weather, sadly, we’re going to get a lot of rain. We never know when the rain’s going to come.

“People from all over the world keep asking me whether it’s going to rain; I don’t know. But at the moment, we’re seeing some problems.

“And I know, logistically, it would have been a big headache for the tournament organisers, and I know that it would have been difficult, but we have got quite a lot of time in between games, and if we have got to travel a day later, then so be it.

“We put men on the moon so why can’t we have a reserve day, when actually this tournament is a long tournament. They are spread out, the games.

“I would say that it’s disappointing for the crowd, as well. They have got tickets to see a game of cricket, and you know, it would be up to them if they can get there the day after.”

And here’s Richardson, the floppy-hatted stumper in 42 Tests South Africa played immediately after they were let back into the international arena in 1991, and these days chief executive of the International Cricket Council (ICC), on the same subject:

“Factoring in a reserve day for every match at the [World Cup] would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver.

“It would impact pitch preparation, team recovery and travel days, accommodation and venue availability, tournament staffing, volunteer and match officials availability, broadcast logistics and very importantly the spectators who in some instances have travelled hours to be at the game. There is also no guarantee that the reserve day would be free from rain either.

“Up to 1 200 people are on site to deliver a match and everything associated with it including getting it broadcast and a proportion of them are moving around the country, so reserve days in the group stage would require a significant uplift in the number of staff. We have reserve days factored in for the knock-out stages, knowing that over the course of 45 group games we should play the large majority.

“This is extremely unseasonable weather. In the last couple of days we have experienced more than twice the average monthly rainfall for June which is usually the third driest month in the UK. In 2018 there was just two millimetres of rain in June but the last 24 hours alone has seen around 100 millimetres fall in the south-east of England.  

“When a match is affected by weather conditions, the venue team work closely with match officials and groundstaff to ensure that we have the best possible opportunity to play cricket, even if it is a reduced overs game. We also work to keep fans in the stadium, or those travelling to the game, as up to date as possible with any information we have, either through public announcements or on our social media channels.”

Rhodes said what he said in the wake of rain denying Bangladesh denied a crack at vulnerable Sri Lanka in Bristol on Tuesday. Not long afterwards, Richardson’s comments fluttered into view in the form of an ICC release.   

It wasn’t difficult to see why the suits felt the need to say something. The Bangladesh-Sri Lanka game was the third in five days to be left unsatisfyingly unwon and unlost. Two of them — both in Bristol, and both involving Sri Lanka — didn’t even start. The other, between West Indies and South Africa in Southampton on Monday, lasted 45 balls before the rain arrived. And stayed.

The focus on the weather only sharpened on Thursday, when the match between India and New Zealand at Trent Bridge was also, in scorer speak, abandoned without a ball bowled. That’s four of the first 18 games left hanging — too many.

“We don’t want to win our points freely,” Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne said. “We want to play cricket and win games and gain the points.”

But he didn’t seem overly unhappy at his team having earned both of their points simply by turning up, especially as a win is worth only two. Sri Lanka were properly beaten in their warm-up games, by South Africa and Australia, and went into the tournament proper looking like a side who should get used to coming second.

Bangladesh had one of their warm-ups, against Pakistan in Cardiff, washed out and they lost the other by 95 runs — to India, one of the favourites.

But they showed how seriously opponents would have to take them by handing down a masterclass in making the most of limited player resources against South Africa at the Oval. They scored their record total in a one-day international, 330/6, and bowled cannily to complete the job and win by 21 runs.

New Zealand and the other fancied side, England, have since put dents in the Bangladeshis’ ambitions of reaching the semi-finals, but they would have been confident — and deserved to be — of putting one over the Lankans. The same goes, in varying degrees, for all of their remaining opponents.

Not so the South Africans, who staggered to a hattrick of losses before finally breaking the duck in the standings in Southampton’s fine weather for ducks. They should have the beating of Afghanistan in Cardiff on Saturday. That’s if the forecasted rain doesn’t get in the way. Much more of the wet stuff has been predicted for England’s south-east until Sunday.

That, potentially, puts five matches in danger — including India’s clash against Pakistan at Edgbaston on Sunday. Birmingham isn’t in the south-east, and thus play shouldn’t be affected. But, considering this fixture is in some ways a bigger deal than the World Cup final itself, prayers for no rain will go up.

Little wonder the England Cricket Board (ECB) are talking to a firm called, ominously, X, who are owned by Alphabet — Google’s parent company — and who make their money by putting solar-powered balloons 19 kilometres into the sky over rural parts of Africa to provide wifi.

The ECB want to know whether X can use their approach to float balloons draping a net of fine mesh over rain-hit grounds. The mesh would float high above the field and be anchored to outer points of the stands, and catch the rain to allow play to continue.

But that’s part of a weird and wonderful future. For now cricket is trying to keep dry the integrity of a World Cup that could be woefully wet.

Perhaps three points for a win would have been a better idea. But that would disadvantage teams in weather-affected games significantly more than the current arrangement.

A better way to decide the issue would be to use the Duckworth/Lewis system, or a variation thereof, to decide the spoils in rained out games.

The team closer to winning when the match is called off could earn 1.5 points, for instance, and their opponents 0.5.

Simple. Fair. Sensible. Wicketkeepers would approve. No lawyers required.