Teenager Zack Momberg, who ascended to prominence last year after bowling a belter to Aussie star Steve Smith during a practice session, has asserted the importance of “not being too predictable” on the cricket field.
The 17-year-old made waves on social media last year when a viral video showed the then 16-year-old bowling a blistering delivery to Smith in the nets that found some bounce and went zinging through the Aussie’s swing after attempting a hook shot.
The video even went as far as being documented on the reputable Fox News and viewers around the world immediately marked Momberg, whose name wasn’t as famed as the video itself, as a possible future sensation within SA cricket.
Momberg, who is currently in matric at King Edward VII School (KES) in Johannesburg, recently represented the Lions Cubs at the CSA Cubs Week in Stellenbosch where his side won two of their five games and finished fourth overall.
On a personal level, the right-arm fast bowler didn’t perform to his standards. He took figures of 1/17 against the Warriors Cubs in the first game and 0/22 against the Knights Cubs in the third match.
He didn’t play against the Dolphins Cubs in their second outing, but took 2/51 against the Cobras Cubs in the fourth game, before taking 1/20 against the Dolphins in the 3rd/4th place play-off.
Overall, he scored an average of 27.50 for his whole week’s performances, but for him, that didn’t suffice.
Momberg has learned some valuable lessons as a cricketer, particularly since last year, and has adopted a slightly changed perspective of how to approach the game in light of the Cubs Week that took place at the beginning of February.
“One lesson I’ve learnt in particular was to not be too predictable,” Momberg told Cricket Fanatics Magazine.
“As a fast bowler in those conditions you have to be quite versatile and you have to be able to change-up what you’re doing. The length that you hit in Jo’burg doesn’t necessarily always work by the coast.”
Momberg said heading into the weeklong tournament that his team held high expectations for themselves and had “really high goals”, with strong ambitions of defending their title after winning it last year.
“We unfortunately weren’t able to deliver that,” he said. “We prepared really well and we trained very hard, but we weren’t able to turn those into results.
“Even for myself, I worked really hard but I wasn’t able to get the results I wanted. I think it was a good learning experience.
“I think we weren’t able to adapt as well as the other teams in terms of the different conditions between Jo’burg and Stellenbosch – Stellenbosch is a lot different.
“In the future we’ll know the wickets a bit better in order to sum up the conditions better and use it to our advantage.”
Momberg and his KES teammates were “fortunate enough” to bowl to both the English batsmen before their Test series against the Proteas in January last year, as well as the Aussies before their ODI series against SA in March.
He said he particularly enjoyed bowling to the Aussies, since they created a “very positive environment”.
Speaking of that acclaimed delivery to Smith, Momberg said he simply just backed his abilities.
“It’s difficult bowling to Steve Smith, because he plays very extravagant shots and it’s hard to not get beltered around by him.
“I just thought I had quite a good bumper and I’m not a slow bowler so I just kind of backed myself and my abilities and bowled it,” he said, adding that he bowled 12 balls to him in total and that Smith was encouraging and interactive with him between each delivery.
After school, Momberg hopes to perhaps study towards a law degree at Wits or UJ in Johannesburg so as to remain within the Lions system.
“It’s important for a cricketer to have a back-up plan,” he said. “I can see that I’m in the Lions’ plans for the future so I really want to stay in the set-up.”
He added that his long-term goals are to play for SA at the U19 World Cup in 2022 and perhaps for the Proteas in the more distant future.
Photo: Supplied
