Telford Vice's Blog, page 372

August 25, 2014

Leading Edge: Finally, not only one side has all the guns in Zimbabwe

Sunday Times


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


“THE problem with Zimbabwe,” a proper journalist, the kind who has spent the odd night in jail for daring to do his job properly, told me a year or 10 ago, “is that one side has all the guns.”


Quite. And, of course, that side is the wrong side. So you have to feel for the Zimbos for again ending up on the wrong end of the arms equation in their test match and one-day games against SA.


Truth be told, not only were their arms about as threatening as a pacifist o...

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Published on August 25, 2014 01:58

August 22, 2014

SA steamroller Zim. Come on Aussie …

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


BRING on the Aussies. The Proteas’ romp to a 3-0 whitewash over Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Thursday will make South Africans bullish about AB de Villiers’ team’s chances in the triangular series that starts in Harare on Monday.


SA, who won the first two games by 93 and 61 runs, surged to victory by seven wickets with 32.4 overs to spare on Thursday. The result was never in doubt after they dismissed Zimbabwe for 165, of which Elton Chigumbura owned 90, in 39.5 ov...

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Published on August 22, 2014 04:15

Abbott, Shezi keep SA places

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


VERNON Philander’s and Beuran Hendricks’ loss will be Kyle Abbott’s and Mthokozisi Shezi’s gain in SA’s triangular one-day series against Zimbabwe and Australia, which starts in Harare on Monday.


Philander and Hendricks have been ruled out with hamstring and back injuries. Abbott and Shezi, who were part of the squad that completed a 3-0 ODI series whitewash of the Zimbabweans in Bulawayo on Thursday, have cracked the nod instead.


Also still in the mix is Rilee...

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Published on August 22, 2014 04:13

August 21, 2014

Time for SA to take their eye off the ball

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


SA would be forgiven for taking their eye off the ball in the third one-day international against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on Thursday. In fact, it would be irresponsible to stay focused on a mission that is already accomplished.


With the rubber won, SA’s thoughts must turn to bigger things like the triangular series in Harare that starts on Monday with a game between the home side and Australia.


AB de Villiers’ team will take on the Aussies on Wednesday in what sh...

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Published on August 21, 2014 00:54

August 20, 2014

Unfortunate events can’t stop SA winning series

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


FOR a while in Bulawayo on Tuesday, SA must have thought the script for the second one-day international had been written by Lemony Snicket – he of “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.


Then realities were checked and AB de Villiers’ team swept to victory by 61 runs to wrap up the rubber with a match to spare. But first there was fun and games, at least from a Zimbabwean perspective.


John Nyumbu bowled a sweeping Hashim Amla via his gloves – yes, really – before de...

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Published on August 20, 2014 04:49

Du Plessis not faffing about

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


TO faff, the Oxford English Dictionary tells us, is to “spend time in ineffectual activity”. Patently, that is not what Faf du Plessis does when he walks out to bat after the first wicket falls in SA’s one-day matches. But, just as clearly, he feels compelled to mount a case in his own defence.


“I’ve played most of my cricket at No. 5, 6 and 7, but if it was up to me I would definitely choose the No. 3 position,” Du Plessis said. “It allows me to plan my gamep...

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Published on August 20, 2014 04:43

August 19, 2014

Cheer up, India – things could have been worse

http://www.GOcricket.comhttp://www.gocricket.com/Cheer-up-India-Things-could-have-been-worse/Telford-Vice/columnshow/40386961.cms


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


DO not fuss, India, this too shall pass. Besides, it could have been worse – imagine if you were Zimbabwe, the land of nope and gory.


Or New Zealand, where cricket is meaningful only between rugby matches, of which there are enough to clog the consciousness for months on end.


Or South Africa, where everything on all sides of every divide is r...

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Published on August 19, 2014 03:00

Sacred and profane opening partnership already among SA’s best

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


SHANE Warne and Adam Gilchrist. Jonty Rhodes and Kepler Wessels. Muttiah Muralitharan and everyone who bowled with him. Cricket is not short on players who seem connected only by contrast but find a way to win together.


Warne and Gilchrist hardly shared a word off the field, not least because Gilchrist breakfasted at about the same time Warne went to bed. Rhodes was a Duracell bunny. Wessels was the epitome of stoicism. Anyone who tried to bowl like ‘Murali’...

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Published on August 19, 2014 02:56

August 18, 2014

Amla uber alles in SA win

Times Media


TELFORD VICE, Cape Town


HASHIM Amla is the only right-hander in cricket who plays with a left-hander’s elegance, and even if he had batted from the sinister side of the crease in the first one-day international against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo yesterday he would have made a significant impact for SA.


Amla’s undefeated 122, his 15th century in the format and his fourth in six ODI innings, was him at his peerless best. It was also the fulcrum around which SA’s total of 309/3 turned and the...

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Published on August 18, 2014 04:07

Promoting No. 3s not an open and shut case

Sunday Times


TELFORD VICE, Harare


CRICKET has Dereck Dowling to thank for the fact that Barry Richards became one of the finest opening batsmen yet to grace the game.


“You keep going in at 3/1, so what’s point of batting at No. 3,” was the blunt advice of former Natal batsman Dowling, by then an administrator, in 1965-66, Richards’ second first-class season.


With that, a player who had not been born an opener was made into one. Richards took first strike in all seven of his test innings and opene...

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Published on August 18, 2014 04:04

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