Women's cricket builds up steam

The Proteas Women were the stars of the week. And boy have we been waiting for them to show their true colours. They thumped a very strong New Zealand side to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match series. 

Marizanne Kapp, Lizelle Lee and Laura Wolvaardt starred for them and it was at the perfect time as they aim to build up steam for the World T20 which kicks off on the 21st of February in Australia. 

The Women have always showed amazing potential and team spirit, but have always fell just short of brilliance. 

The win against the White Ferns, albeit in a different format, will give them buckets of confidence heading into the tournament Down Under. 

The South Africa U19s are currently participating in the U19 World Cup in their home country and this past week they qualified for the Super League quarter finals. 

We also bring to you some of the best features and interviews that we have done in the last week.

For the love of the game, 

KHALID MOHIDIN

Editor

Cricket Fanatics Magazine 

by Ongama Gcwabe 

Former Proteas captain, now Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith, has pointed out that Quinton de Kock’s recent captaincy appointment is permanent and that he will need support to grow and develop as leader.

Cricket South Africa announced on Tuesday that Quinton de Kock is Faf du Plessis’ successor in the 50-over format starting with next month’s series against the World Champions England.

“It’s been a plan of ours to put a succession plan in place for 2023. Having sat with Faf, We see him playing a role as a player but from a leadership perspective we felt it was an opportunity to move forward in the one day arena and Faf is quite honest that he doesn’t see himself around in 2023.”

We all know Quinny as the shy character, who because of the experienced players he has played with over the years, has had the freedom to be himself and be young in his approach to batting in terms of being a free-flowing, all-or-nothing type of batsman.

Eight years later, he’s given the responsibility of captaining the South African ODI side against the World Champions, England.

“Leadership has been an issue of late in South African cricket and we effectively made the decision to give Quinny an opportunity, we feel tactically he’s good. There’s areas of his leadership that he knows and we all know needs to grow and develop but I think he’s the right guy at this stage to take that one-day side forward.”

Having captained a young T20I side a couple of months ago, De Kock will have an idea of what awaits him as a skipper but will still have a lot to learn as a leader.

“Anyone who takes over a job of that magnitude is going to have challenges. I think of myself at 22, I had a lot of elements that were good and a lot of elements that I needed to develop and grow,” Smith continued.

“Giving him the tools, giving him the support, understanding from him where he thinks he needs help. I think he’s got a strong leadership team around him in Enoch, Mark and the various other guys who’ll support him. He’s got a young side and as a captain on the field he’s going to have to carry a lot of the can, so we need to give him support.

“I think that there’s a lot of stuff he wouldn’t have dealt with by not being captain. There’s a range of things that comes with captaining your country, extra press conferences, selections meeting, having to be aware and maybe answering your phone more than you used to. It’s just a whole lot of stuff, and I think for us here to expect him to be a finished article today, I think we’d all be naive.”

The first of the three ODI matches is scheduled for the 4th of February 2020 at Newlands Stadium.

By Naeemah Benjamin

Rain had the final say in Bloemfontein as the Junior Proteas clinch a 23-run DLS method victory to end second in group D and qualify for the Super League Quarterfinals.

There really was no other way for the host nation was there? A tough start to their campaign, a possible scare that shook them awake and the realization of every game there on being a knock out stared them right in the face.

Both the hosts and the United Arab Emirates came into this clash under pressure but more so the team who dons the green and gold with the winner advancing to the knockout stages.

Jonathan Bird, this time partnered up with wicket-keeper batter Khanya Cotani in what isn’t a familiar position for him. They got their side off to a flyer. The former farmed the strike scoring a sparkling 43 from 36 deliveries with 7 fours and 1 six while Cotani (19) did the supportive role well.

The UAE skipper brought himself to the middle in the 10th over and the test against the spin was on but Bird fell victim off the first delivery as he tried to play across the line and was trapped lbw before Cotani was the next to be dismissed in the same over.

The series of the Parsons-Beaufort partnership continued as the duo notched up their third consecutive 50+ stand with a 152-run partnership. The highest in this tournament.

The pair once again consolidated and rescued the hosts negating the spin overs well with Parsons in particular being the aggressor with execellent foot work. Both fell agonizingly short of their respective tons but a brilliant 84 by Bryce Parsons who’s the tournaments leading run scorer with 245 runs. He overtook New Zealand’s Rhys Mariu. Acareer best 85 by Luke Beaufort ensured the Junior Proteas were on their way to a decent total.

UAE fought back during the latter overs picking up wickets at crucial stages of the game, not allowing the middle-lower order to get stuck in. Aryan Lakra 3/48 and Sanchit Sharma 3/57 were the key wicket takers. They picked up 5 wickets in the final 10 overs conceding only 74 runs.

Achille Cloete and Pheko Moletsane ran well in the final over to squeeze out 10 runs to get South Africa close to the 300-run mark which at one stage looked as if they’d easily get there. Nevertheless, 299/8 was all she wrote.

Chasing a mammoth 300 to win was always going to be tough but UAE have batsmen who were very capable of getting the job done. 17 runs came off the second over with Merrick Brett being hit to the boundary at ease.

Achille Cloete was unlucky as he found the edge of the UAE skipper Aryan Lakra (6) but a diving Parsons couldn’t pull off what would’ve been an outstanding catch but the very next ball, he found the edge again and the wicket-keeper did the rest. Vriitya Aravind played a stunning innings of 31 off 17 before Bryce Parsons found the leading edge sending him on his way.

With Jonathan Figy (29*) at the crease, UAE always stood a chance but the South African bowlers kept things reasonably tight and then rain came to ruin an exciting match with both teams’ hopes depending on it. The green and gold, the host nation, edged it by a tiny margin on the DLS method.

Heartbreak for UAE but a nation so richly in need of a glimmer of happiness, the South Africans go marching on…

Mark Nicholas, Shaun Pollock, Graeme Smith and Michael Atherton reminisce their past experiences at the Bull Ring and chat cricket development. 

Khalid Mohidin chats to Michael Holding who emphasised the importance of fine-tuning the basics to help players master their game in the longer format.

Opportunities like these don’t come around often.

But thanks to photographer and owner of 4 Degrees South Nikki Behrens, I was lucky enough to be granted the honour of interviewing West Indies legend Michael Holding for the first time.

He was relaxed and clam as expected, as we sat down to get things going.

What was the most remarkable takeaway from the conversation with Michael, was his smooth manner in which he delivered his points.

This was on top of his unbelievable insights and advice that he shared.

The major lesson that came out of my conversation with him is that no matter how much the game has changed because of the emphasis on the shorter formats, learning the basics is crucial to transcending one’s game.

Check out the full interview: