CricketZA

Jozi Stars The defending champions have managed to retain some of their best players from last season. Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen were in incredible form and we can expect more of the same this season. Temba Bavuma, who recently made his T20I debut for the Proteas, has been named captain. Chris Gayle will feature for the Stars in the early stages of the tournament and will then be replaced by another veteran – Shoaib Malik. Two of South Africa’s most highly rated young batsmen – Ryan Rickleton and Sinethemba Qeshile are also part of the squad. Qeshile is the main wicket-keeping option available to them and is likely to play in all their matches.   He has already made his T20I debut and has an opportunity here to make a case for the WT20 next year Nono Pongolo’s story was one of the highlights of the inaugural MSL tournament. He was initially only selected as a back-up and was involved with SABC’s commentary team. Pongolo went on to pick 10 wickets in the tour...

The second season of the Mzansi Super League is upon us, amid an ongoing crisis regarding payments from last season. Broadcasting the matches on SABC instead of Supersport was not Cricket South Africa’s first choice, but it has worked out well for the fans. Many people tuned in last year and the same is expected this season. With the World T20 in Australia just under a year away, the local players will be looking to make an impact. Rassie van der Dussen, for example, had a great season last time that saw him receive a call up to the one-day side, where he has performed well. Cape Town Blitz The Blitz reached the final last season but were beaten by van der Dussen’s Jozi Stars. Quinton de Kock finished as their highest run-scorer and was second on the list overall. He finished with 412 runs, averaging 58.85 at an incredible strike-rate of 169.54. He has had some captaincy opportunities with the Proteas lately and was named as the captain for the Blitz earlier this week. He ...

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...

Cricket South Africa's director of cricket, Corrie van Zyl noted that while South Africa have been comprehensively outplayed, he believed they were doing a great job. The Proteas, who are currently 2-0 down in India, having lost the most recent Test by an innings, are in the midst of a four game losing streak. That seems to be of no concern to van Zyl, who noted the quality of the Indian side as well as how long they have spent together gelling as a side. This comes hot in the heels of CSA CEO, Thabang Moroe, who noted that the Proteas had recently lost nearly 450 Test caps worth of experience with the recent retirements AB de Villiers, Morne Morkel, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn.  'We need to appreciate the quality that is in this Indian side. This is an Indian team that has been together for some time now and is well accustomed to playing in their home conditions,’ said Van Zyl. ‘I strongly believe we, as the Proteas, have the players to win games and the youngsters will...

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...