Skip to main content

Watch: David Miller scores the fastest T20 international hundred

In the second of out feel good series. We look back on David Miller scoring a 35-ball hundred against Bangladesh. A look back on better times.
Post a Comment

Mzanzi Super League profiles: Paarl Rocks


Paarl Rocks
Home ground: Boland Park
Home City: Paarl
Cool factor: B-
Established: Like one day ago

Squad: Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Tabraiz Shamsi, Dane Paterson, Aiden Markram, Mangaliso Mosehle, Bjorn Fortuin, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Grant Thomson, Paul Stirling, Tshepo Moreki, Henry Davids, Cameron Delport, Eathan Bosch, Patrick Kruger, Kerwin Mungroo
First things first: It should really be noted that Paarl Rocks is quite possibly the worst name in the history of cricket franchises. Yes, even worse than Rising Pune Super Giants, which was literally only so named as a marketing ploy for its owners, RP-Sanjiv Goenka group, aka RPSG. But no, the team is not named Paarl Rocks as an ode to the idea that Paarl is a nice place to be. Paarl sleeps, yes. Paarl makes wine, yes. But Paarl most definitely does not rock. It is in fact so named after the Paarl Rock,  a rock- climbing mecca of some sort for rock climbers. Apparently on a clear day, one can see Table Mountain from Paarl Rock. Cool.

Yep. That's Paarl Rock. Not exactly the greatest thing I've ever seen, but that's Paarl.

Onto the squad itself, well a squad which includes Faf du Plessis, Cameron Delport, Dwyane Bravo and Aiden Markram, certainly looks like it will be able to contend strongly with the bat. Questions will be raised about their abilities with the ball, with Dane Paterson being the only express pace bowler. In this case, express pace is a rather kind term. Dwayne Bravo is of course one of the great T20 franchise players of all time, but, I’m not sure this will be enough, especially up north where the pitches are faster and firmer. More especially when their spinner is Tabraiz Shamsi, and he is in, to put it mildly, horrid form.  On the bright side, they do have two all-rounders in Cameron Delport and Dwayne Bravo who are likely to fill the stat sheet with both bat and ball. Given that this is the first edition of this  tournament, all teams should expect to do well, but given a not particularly intimidating stadium (Boland Park seats 10 000), a light pace attack, and the absence of a true master blaster, it would not surprise us to see them near the bottom of the standings.

Captain: Faf du Plessis.
International Marquee: Dwayne Bravo
Foreign player: Paul Stirling
Kolpak player: Cameron Delport
Rookie: Eathan Bosch.
Age: 20 years. T20 record: 5 games.  60 runs. Strike rate 157.89. Highest score: 50. 6 wickets. Economy rate 8.75.
Likely XI
Markram
Davids
Du Plessis*
Van Jaarsveld
Mosehle(W/K)
Bravo
Delport
Moreki
Paterson
Shamsi

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: Hansie Cronje slaps Shane Warne all around the Wanderers

As one of the greatest cricketers in history, Shane Warne has generally had the upper hand when it came to most battles, but on this fateful day at the Wanderers, it didn't matter what he bowled, he had to fetch it in Row Z.   
4 comments
Read more

Theunis de Bruyn might not be very good

The last time Theunis de Bruyn was in the subcontinent, he scored a fourth innings hundred in Sri Lanka. A fourth innings ton in the subcontinent buys you a lot of time, especially in tours to the sub-continent. The reason is pretty simple, the fourth innings of a game is when the pitch is at it's most decrepit, Asian pitches generally take turn sooner than non-subcontinental pitches, so it does reason that if you score a ton in the fourth innings in Asia, you must by definition be some sort of genius level player of spin.  That is the only reason Theunis de Bruyn is on this tour. We would not be in favour of dropping him after just the one Test, but his dismissal in the first innings, a big booming cover drive against Ravindra Jadeja, with light fading and the day nearly done, was both reckless and unnecessary. Yes, batting is about scoring runs, and as such if balls are in slots which  players identify as their strong zones, they should feel within their rights to have ...
2 comments
Read more

We are keeping Quinton down

Quinton de Kock is good at cricket. Everyone who plays cricket at an international level is good at cricket, but even in that hallowed territory, one can see that Quinton de Kock is exceptionally good at cricket. He boasts no obvious weakness, and there are very few good balls which he can't turn into boundary balls. He also happens to be, both on form and reputation, South Africa's best batsman, especially now that the great Hashim Amla has retired. This presents a quandary of sorts, because while de Kock's prodigious ability to take a game away from the opposition batting at 7 is not in question, the reality is more often than not, he has had to come in and repair some very creaky holes in the ship. In the history of cricket, only one team has ever had their best batsman keep wicket. Andy Flower, the Zimabwean great, was the only man who managed this feat of endurance and focus. You could arguably place AB de Villiers on this shortlist, but he only kept for 23 Tests an...
1 comment
Read more