CricketZA

It was a long and at times torturous season for Theunis de Bruyn as he lost his national contract, got dropped from the national team and had his future Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith basically undress him on global television for his dismissal on the fifth day against India. His domestic form was not poor, it just wasn't very long. Injury reduced his participation to three First-Class games were he scored 183 runs at an average of 36.7. Still, despite this he was still very upbeat about his chances for representing the national team in the future. as he told The Citizen  It was just one of those seasons and I have no answers to the questions why? But we need to put the situation in perspective with what is currently going on: we can’t even play cricket now, businesses are closing and it’s a crazy time. We can only hope this pandemic unites the nation and then we can stand up and rebuild. So, we need to take all that on board for perspective,’ De Bruyn told the  Citizen...

ZA cricket : Thank you for joining us, Enoch. Enoch Nkwe : Ja no, it is great to be hear and thank you for having me. ZAC : Alright, for those who don’t know who you are, or didn’t follow you as a player, could you explain your first exposure to the game, and how you came up through the ranks. EN : I could almost write a book (laughs/). I started playing cricket at eleven years of age. I took part in mini cricket. It was called Bakers mini cricket back in the day, and obviously today it is called KFC mini cricket. I was based in Dobsonville (Soweto). I played that (mini cricket) for about two weeks and then graduated into hard-ball cricket for the under elevens. Ja things happened quite quickly. So ja, then I had to learn my trade in this new sport, which wasn’t so popular back in the days, in the nineties. My background was football, as is the case for most kids, especially in South Africa. I had to invest a lot of time and I had a very good coach as well as a good supp...

In a recent interview, former New Zealand cricketer Kruger van Wyk noted how teams that do their planning should not go through transitions, and all teams should do their planning. But of course, that is not always the case, and teams most certainly do go through transitions. But this is most certainly a transition. At the moment, South Africa have lost four Tests in a row. Dating back to the dramatic Australian series, South Africa have lost three of their last four series, including this one. Of those three, two of them have been whitewashes with one Test left in this series to avoid back-to-back whitewashes. It isn't just the results that indicates struggle and difficulty. The batting line-up is not settled. Theunis de Bruyn has played over 10 Test matches, and his average seems to somehow be sinking, which is saying something, considering the fact that it was pretty low to start off with. The search for Temba Bavuma's ideal batting position seems to be never ending, but...

It's something of a meme, but Faf du Plessis has a reputation for being the most alpha human being to ever don a Protea jersey. You can see why too. His first Test match: Scored an unbeaten hundred to see out an unlikely draw in Adelaide. His First World Cup: Nearly gets into a fist fight with Darryl Tuffey. Nearly gets suspended after Mintgate, and has to bat in a Day/Night Test: Boom a Test match hundred. du Plessis has a reputation for being something of a tough guy in cricketing circles. Not in that "thuggish brute" sense, where you're basically calling someone dirty; more in the sense that when the going gets Faf, the Faf get going. He's cricket's Chuck Norris is what I am trying to say. On a different, but very related note, the gold standard for an elite batsman is an average of 50. South Africa's number 3 and 4 combined average 50. Once South Africa lose an early wicket, it becomes very apparent that they will very quickly be losing two more beca...

Some players are earmarked for greatness from a young age. For whatever reason, the powers-that-be in a given cricket association decide that player is unique, an outlier, and as such must be given every possible chance to succeed. One can see this internationally with Mitchell Marsh, who despite being a middling bowler and statistically the worst number six batsman of all time, is not only a regular in the Australian side, but was even made vice-captain a year ago. He was then dropped soon after because, surprisingly, being made captain did not improve his poor batting. While not quite as historically poor as Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram has had a similar career trajectory, being promoted to roles he might not have been ready for because he was a prodigious talent. Lest we forget that he was promoted to ODI captain in Faf du Plessis' absence for the ODI series vs India, despite having played a grand total of one(!) One day Internationals up to that point. This is not to say...

Standing at 4 feet 9 inches tall, Kruger van Wyk is officially the shortest cricketer in the history of the international game. But what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in determination, intelligence and a never-say-die spirit. Van Wyk left South Africa to pursue dreams of a career in international cricket, moving to New Zealand as a young adult. A successful career which included nine Tests for New Zealand was to follow. Following his retirement from the international game, van Wyk took up coaching, as the head coach for the Assupol TuksCricket academy (University of Pretoria). He recently tasted success with the team, winning the latest edition of the Varsity Cup (South Africa’s premier inter university tournament). ZA cricket : Mr. van Wyk, let’s start with the latest news, congratulations on the Varsity Cup victory. Kruger van Wyk : Thanks a lot. It was an exciting week for the lads, and they performed beautifully. ZAC : Could you take us through the d...

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 ...

South Africa ended the third day of their first Test vs India 385/8, still 117 runs behind India's first innings total of 502/7. The stars of the day were undoubtedly Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock, with both batsmen reaching hundreds. Following the nightmare that was the 2015 Test series in India, you could have been forgiven for expecting the worst when The Proteas came out to bat. You could also have been forgiven for assuming that the worst had come to pass when the Proteas ended day two on 39/3, a harrowing reminder of the last time the boys were in India. But today went against script. Led first by Dean Elgar, the Proteas showed a value for their wickets which should stand them in good stead. It's almost a cliche to call Dean Elgar a nuggety cricketer. He values his wicket, is willing to put his body on the line during his innings, is the first to arrive at the gym and the last to leave, etc etc. The real star of the show though, entertainment wise at least, was Quin...

Rivalries are an interesting thing in world sport. Sometimes they develop for no reason other than geography, as is the case with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, where there is a massive chasm in success rates between the two historically. For the majority of their existences, success-wise, their rivalry has been a rivalry in the way the hammer and the nail has been a rivalry. Ie because we are told it was a rivalry, and no other reason. Other rivalries develop because of a history of competition. The Ashes is a great example. Of course, the element of the antipodes being a former colony and helps, but the United Kingdom colonised half the world, and yet only the Ashes has truly captured imagination. In a similar vein, South Africa vs New Zealand (historically anyway) has been the granddaddy of rugby clashes, despite a complete lack of historical context. This is largely because traditionally, these two present the two best rugby nations on the face of the earth, and the Boks are the...

First things first, South African cricket is going through something of a metamorphosis. Hashim Amla's retirement from the game as well as Dale Steyn's retirement from Test cricket has lost South Africa about 220 Tests worth of experience. It would have been a lot to expect the absolute best version of the South African cricket team to go to India, who have only lost one home Test, not series, Test, in 7 years and win. To expect a team undergoing change to compete with serious hopes of winning is probably a little much. But, we are South Africans. Expecting too much is what we do. Always has been. On that note, it's time to speak about the elephant in the batting room. Not Quinton de Kock wasting away at 7, only coming in when the game is gone. No, the other elephant in the room. In case you missed it, Temba Bavuma has been named the team's vice captain, and with Faf du Plessis a not young 35-years old, it does stand to reason that Bavuma is the next in line to ho...

Since the day Martin Crowe nicknamed the the quartet of Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Virat Kohli the "Fab Four", these four gentlemen have basically dominated the landscape of cricket to rarely before seen levels. Steve Smith has been fantastic in Test cricket, and could arguably be called the Best Since Bradman. Virat Kohli though, he's been incredible in all three formats of the game. He is the only member of the recently invented 40-50-60 club. That is, an average exceeding 40 in one format, 50 in another format, and 60 in another format. He isn't just a member of the club, he's the founding member and to date the only member.  His Test numbers are pretty impressive. In 79 Tests, he has scored 6749 runs at an average of 53. If you think that is impressive, his stats as captain are otherworldly. In 48 Tests, he has scored 18 centuries and over 4600 runs at an average of 61. The man is good. He's scored over 1000 Test runs in 3 consecuti...

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...

When South Africa toured India in 2015, something peculiar happened. It wasn't that we lost 3-0, having gone over a decade undefeated in overseas tours. That was sad, but all good things come to an end. What I am referring to is the fact that we went into the majority of a series with two spinners. This was not just rare, it literally has never happened before. Not even in our previous tours to India. This may seem instinctively counter-intuitive, but South Africa has had the good fortune of having elite subcontinental fast bowlers in the tank . Shaun Pollock averaged a respectable 27 in India, and 22 in Pakistan. Allan Donald averaged 16 in India, and of course, Dale Steyn's average of 21 in the subcontinent is legendary. Even an accessory talent like Morne Morkel had a respectable enough average of 32 in India. When your guns are that big, there is simply no need to have a second spinner. Especially when your first spinner is Nicky Boje or Paul Harris. Honest, hard worki...