Telford Vice's Blog, page 19

From the Test couch to the Test crease

“I remember me and my father watching Test cricket together, just for five days straight sat on the couch watching the best players in the world bat all day.” – Maia Bouchier

Telford Vice / Mangaung Oval

FOR three hours and 42 minutes at Mangaung Oval on Sunday, Maia Bouchier might have felt like she was back on the couch of her growing up and her father wasn’t far away. 

The latter was true. Her father, Anthony Bouchier, was indeed in the stands to see her make her Test debut for Eng...

England on top before South Africa fight back

“My first two overs were kak.” – Nonkululeko Mlaba, who took 4/77.

Telford Vice / Mangaung Oval

SUN hats blew off heads five times inside the first 15 minutes at Mangaung Oval on Sunday. The north-westerly gusted at up to 57 kilometres an hour, which made bowling from the Willows End a debilitating ordeal.

Luckily for her, Marizanne Kapp steamed in from the Loch Logan End with the wind in her wings to bowl the first over of the Test between South Africa and England.

The first deliv...

Suits drop the ball on DRS

“While the development of the red-ball format is important, resources are currently being directed at the white-ball formats.” – Enoch Nkwe on the failure to provide DRS for the women’s Test.    

Telford Vice / Bloemfontein

HEATHER Knight said “parity” three times and “equality” once during her press conference in Bloemfontein on Saturday, mostly in relation to the variance in the money paid to women and men players in The Hundred.

But a different disparity loomed. Cricbuzz understand...

Women in white see red

“Men have a red-ball career before they make their debut for the Proteas in the format. So it’s backwards.” – Laura Wolvaardt

Telford Vice / Bloemfontein

LAURA Wolvaardt isn’t alone in considering her cover drive her favourite stroke. Millions of people around the world would concur. But they don’t have to remember not to play it.

“My cover drive is my favourite shot, and now it’s the one shot I’m not allowed to play early on with all those slips behind me,” Wolvaardt told a press con...

Test time: women and cricket’s longest format

“They’re short-sighted and they don’t understand the game.” – Karen Smithies on people who say women shouldn’t play Test cricket.

Telford Vice / Cape Town

YOU’RE among the finest cricketers your country has produced in any generation and you have the stats to prove it. There are few players in the world as good as you and even fewer better. Yet you have played almost no Tests, first-class or even two-innings or declaration matches.

Why? Because you are a woman.

Mignon du Preez, Mar...

George Linde is not done

“As I came out of the team hotel I saw the bus leaving, and that feeling was not great.” – George Linde

Telford Vice / Cape Town

GEORGE Linde spent three years, three months and two days between games for South Africa. Then he was 15 minutes overdue to resume his international career. Until, that is, the police got him to the team bus better late than never.

“For some reason my phone was 15 minutes behind time,” Linde told a press conference at Kingsmead on Tuesday. “I had thought to ...

Temba Bavuma’s golden silence

“I guess the silence being there is a good thing. Maybe it’s not so much of a good thing for the people who want something to write about.” – Temba Bavuma

Telford Vice / St George’s Park

TEMBA Bavuma is enjoying the silence. You might think his world would be filled with roars of adulation for the century and three 50s he scored in his four innings against Sri Lanka — ratcheting his average for the series to 81.75 — for captaining South Africa to a 2-0 win, and for taking them to the top...

A proper win for a proper team in a proper match against proper opponents on a proper pitch

South Africa soar to top of WTC standings

Telford Vice / St George’s Park

FIVE more wickets to take. One-hundred-and-forty-three more runs to score. An unbroken partnership already worth 83. Twenty-eight more overs before a new ball becomes available. And another thing: a rare fifth day.

If you’re after a script for the perfect crescendo to a Test, the scenario at St George’s Park on Monday fits the bill. Sadly, the drama was not delivered as South Africa hurtled to victory, by 109 ru...

Was Sri Lanka’s 68 minutes of madness the difference?

“We chatted a lot to the senior group. If they had put in a better effort this could have been a different story.” – Sanath Jayasuriya

Telford Vice / St George’s Park

BUT for 68 minutes of madness, Sri Lanka’s men’s Test series in South Africa might have turned out starkly differently.

Indeed, it wouldn’t be stretching a point to say the Lankans could have been going home still in hot pursuit of a place in the WTC final at Lord’s in June.

Instead, the South Africans are one win awa...

Makhaya makes a mint as sharp end looms at St George’s Park

“Hopefully tomorrow we’ll go back to old-fashioned Test cricket. We earned the right to go searching, but probably not for as long as we did.” – Keshav Maharaj

Telford Vice / St George’s Park

MAKHAYA Ntini is a big fella these days. As in broad and muscular, and in a way that would have been a bad idea while he was the most indefatigable fast bowler in the game. His eyes are softer, his high-rise hair is flecked with a gentling grey, and there is an easiness about him that has been a lon...