Telford Vice's Blog, page 22

South Africa’s dwindling status worries Klaasen …

… and Varma goes where Markram would love to tread.

Telford Vice / Johannesburg

TILAK Varma shouldered arms. Not while he was smoking a pyrotechnic 107 not out to power India to an unbeatable 2-0 lead in their T20I series against South Africa, but at the press conference that followed.

The question that becalmed him seemed straightforward enough — India can’t lose the rubber anymore and South Africa can no longer win it. Wouldn’t the visitors have preferred a deciding match rather tha...

Is it a train? No. It’s Tilak Varma …

Eleven other players have made 20 T20I centuries for India, but only Yashasvi Jaiswal has been younger than Varma. None have had to fight off Centurion’s flying ants to do so.

Telford Vice / Centurion

IF you take the sane option to travel from Johannesburg to Centurion — the Gautrain, rather than sit trapped in just another rubberised lump of metal and glass in the slow-moving traffic sewer misnamed the highway — try to find a seat that puts you on the right-hand side of the carriage and...

Need some batting done? Ask a bowler …

“As long as the wicket is flat and the bowlers are medium paced, I love it. And I love a half volley from a spinner.” – Arshdeep Singh’s conditions for enjoying batting.

Telford Vice / Centurion

SHOULD CSA receive a bill from Centurion in the coming weeks, it could be for repairs that needed to be carried out to the ceiling of the indoor nets in the wake of Keshav Maharaj’s assault on the infrastructure on Tuesday. 

Maharaj hammered ball after ball upward in down-the-ground fashion. T...

Context crackles in South Africa, India T20I series

“Everyone in the team hates losing.” — Marco Jansen

Telford Vice / Centurion

INDIA were clear winners at Kingsmead on Friday. South Africa hung tough in a tight game at St George’s Park on Sunday to level matters. What might Wednesday in Centurion bring? And Friday at the Wanderers?

For a men’s T20I series that was short on context at the outset, the prospect of two more games is suddenly appealing. To avert a drawn rubber, another three would have been better. Indeed, CSA did ask the...

Suddenly, South Africa are cleared for take-off

“When I hit my head.” – the 2.06-metre tall Marco Jansen on how we know he’s reached his full height standing inside an aircraft.

Telford Vice / Johannesburg

THE strapping young man in seat 8D on a flight from Gqeberha to Johannesburg on Monday morning was fooling no-one. His baseball cap was pulled low over his eyes, his headphones were lodged deep in his ears, and the photograph behind the icons on the tablet he held on his lap was of his smiling wife — not of something he had done on ...

Architect Chakaravarthy redesigns action

“The last three years were tough. The only thing I could do was play lots of cricket. That helped me understand my game better.” – Varun Chakaravarthy 

Telford Vice / Johannesburg

TO Varun Chakaravarthy goes the unhappy distinction of having taken his career-best figures in a losing cause. His 5/17 at St George’s Park on Sunday was a thing of wrist spinning beauty, a marvel of control and creativity under pressure, an exemplar of excellence.

But it wasn’t enough to stop South Africa w...

Take a bow, St George’s Park

“You can really feel that the crowd are here, in the SA20 and whenever the Proteas are here. The atmosphere is always amazing.” – Tristan Stubbs

Telford Vice / St George’s Park

MORE than two hours before the first ball would be bowled in the second men’s T20I between South Africa and India on Sunday, St George’s Park’s gates remained firmly shut to civilians. But already around a thousand or so ticket-touting fans had lined up at the turnstiles.

Most were wrapped up against the chill ...

Stirring Samson shakes the game

“When you go through failure, you doubt yourself. ‘Sanju, are you not made for international level? You are doing well in IPL. Why are you not doing well internationally?’ I have a lot of such thoughts.” – Sanju Samson

Telford Vice / Durban

SANJU Samson had every reason to be chuffed. He had, after all, hit his second consecutive T20I hundred in the preceding few hours before he arrived for a press conference staged amid the relics of Kingsmead’s museum on Friday.

We do mean hit, not ...

Samson’s lightning strikes dry Durban

“It looks like we might just get a window.” – Heinrich Strydom, KZN Cricket chief executive, accurately predicts Kingsmead’s weather.

Telford Vice / Kingsmead

NOT even a taxi filled to the gunwales with the saccharine saxophone that Kenny G dares to label jazz can take the edge off Durban’s weather. It’s wild out there, and it’s less than three hours before the scheduled start of the first men’s T20I between South Africa and India at Kingsmead. 

The clouds hang low, heavy and dirty wi...

It’s the IPL auction, stupid

“With things like an auction and especially for a big tournament like the IPL, a lot of things can fall into place for players.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Cape Town

IT isn’t often that a men’s T20I series is a dress rehearsal for a mere franchise tournament’s player auction, but there is nothing mere about the IPL. With the auction for next year’s tournament looming on November 24 and 25, several of those involved in the rubber between South Africa and India will feel the heat of th...