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.

Superman Returns? Very possibly




In possibly the least surprising about turn of all time, especially considering he tried a very similar change of plan a season ago, AB de Villiers has once again raised the possibility of a return to international cricket. de Villiers, who is in Australia for the Big Bash League, confirmed in a press conference that he is in discussion with the new hierarchy in charge of South African cricket to possibly play in the T20 world cup.

"There's a lot that needs to happen before that becomes reality, I would love to," de Villers said after making a fine 32-ball 40 in Brisbane's win over Adelaide Strikers. "I've been talking to Bouch, Graeme Smith and Faf back home. We are all keen to make it happen, it's a long way away still and plenty can happen - there's the IPL coming, I've still got to be in form at that time. I'm thinking of throwing my name in the hat and hoping everything will work out.

"It's not a guarantee, I don't want to disappoint myself or other people, so for now I'm just going to try and keep a low profile, play the best possible cricket I can and we'll see what happens towards the end of the year."

As the man himself says, it is not a guarantee. AB has not played international cricket since March 2018, which is a long to spend feasting on the substandard bowling which largely makes up the T20 cricket circuit. Even so, it is a fact that he has been in red hot form in these leagues. He racked up an impressive 325 runs at a strike rate of 152.5 in the Mzansi Super League at an average of 46.42. Similarly, he was imperious in the IPL with 442 runs at an average of 44.2 and a strike rate of 154. Finally in the T20 Blast, he was simply unplayable, with 348 runs at a scarcely believable average fo 69.6 with his strike rate at a whopping 183.

Comments

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.   

The all-rounder conundrum

On the surface, it appears that South Africa is basically all the way there with regards to creating and playing a good T20 team. They have a batting line-up with match-winners all the way down, and if this season's IPL is any indicator, they may have the best fast bowling pairing in the world in Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje. Throw in the first change talent of Lungi Ngidi along with (possibly) the ageless spinning talent of Imran Tahir, and, as they say in the South, baby you got a stew going. The one issue which the national team does have, however - and this was somewhat accentuated by the retirement of JP Duminy - is a reliable fifth bowler who doubles up as the all-rounder. It's not so much that we don't have options in the fifth bowler set up, we do, it's more that each of them has something that other would ideally have more of, and yet neither of them quite represent the full package in a way which would really be ideal. Now, it should be noted that South Afr

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 a go