Telford Vice's Blog, page 373

Leading Edge: Why SA could drive us to drink

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Harare

IT had all become too much for a bloke sat of an evening this week at the bar that offers generous views of matches played at Harare Sports Club.

He had turned his back on the field, and by the look of him as he leaned on the counter – backside firmly on barstool – he had done so hours before.

His head was down, defeated. His shoulders sagged with resignation. He was motionless. He had, in fact, passed out. Goneski. Sleeping the sleep of the spectacularly sloshed...

Bob’s your uncle when a World Cup looms

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Harare

FOR three years out of every four, a one-day series between SA and Zimbabwe would capture about as much attention as Robert Mugabe beating up on the British from a podium on the outer edge of relevance.

This is that other, fourth year, when a World Cup is on the horizon. Consequently, the three-match series that started in Bulawayo on Sunday matters disproportionately more.

Still, with AB de Villiers’ team scheduled to play as many as 21 ODIs from Sunday until th...

Gap narrows, but SA still have edge over Zimbabwe

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Harare

Harare and Bulawayo are 366 kilometres apart as the crow flies. In test terms, the gap between SA and Zimbabwe is wider than that. But, as one-day rivals, it is narrower.

Hashim Amla’s team proved the first half of that assertion true when they did not need to get out of third gear to win the one-off test by nine wickets with a day to spare in Harare on Tuesday.

But AB de Villiers’ men are less likely to be able to canter to victory in the first of three one-day i...

Amla, Domingo have reasons to be cheerful

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Harare

SMUGNESS does not come naturally to Hashim Amla or Russell Domingo, but they would be forgiven for succumbing to a touch of self-satisfaction after three tests as SA’s coach and captain combination.

Two of those matches have been won, the other drawn. Along the way, Amla and Domingo have earned SA’s first series victory in Sri Lanka since 1993.

In Zimbabwe, they presided over the debut of Dane Piedt – whose match haul of 8/152 are the best ever figures by a SA spi...

SA surge to Cinderella win

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Harare

SA’s win over Zimbabwe in the one-off test in Harare on Tuesday was one of Cinderella’s ugly sisters before midnight: made to look prettier than it was.

It was also comprehensive. Victory was wrapped up by nine wickets with more than a day to spare.

The home side, who resumed 113 runs shy of making SA bat again, were dismissed for 181 in the ninth over after tea. SA knocked of the nominal target of 41 with 13.2 of the scheduled overs not required.

Dane Piedt revell...

Win, lose, draw or cheat, players are only human after all

http://www.GOcricket.com – http://www.gocricket.com/Players-are-only-human-after-all/Telford-Vice/columnshow/40122054.cms

TELFORD VICE, Harare

“YOU must understand,” the answer to my question began, “when this man speaks, India listens.” We were in the indoor nets at the Wanderers. Outside, the kind of violent storm that scares the life out of anyone who is not from Johannesburg was clearing its throat across the afternoon sky. It was December, 2006.

The man in question was Sourav Ganguly, who w...

SA plod on towards unpretty win

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Harare

SO, it has come to this in the one-off test between Zimbabwe and SA in Harare: a fourth day. Who would have thought?

On Monday, as they did on Sunday, SA’s batsmen did not to stamp their authority on proceedings. Instead, they eked out a lead that reached 141 before they were dismissed for 397 in reply to Zimbabwe’s first innings of 256. In the 13 overs of their second innings Zimbabwe faced before stumps, they wobbled to 28/1 – still 113 runs in the red.

If SA bo...

SA take wrong approach, but still likely to win

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Harare

RIDGEBACKS are good at rolling over and playing dead, but not this Zimbabwe team. SA have been learning that lesson for two days now in the one-off test in Harare.

At stumps on Sunday, SA were 201/4 in reply to the home side’s first innings of 256. Having gone into the match with predictions of victory inside three days and by a crushing margin ringing in their ears, the visitors face the once impossible possibility of not earning a commanding lead.

Zimbabwe’s wil...

Piedt makes ‘statement’ as bream survive tigerfish

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Harare

WITHthe ball snared snugly between the splayed fingers of his right hand, Dane Piedt skipped in to bowl his first delivery in test cricket at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.

Some 108 years ago, Bert Vogler shambled in for his maiden delivery in test cricket at the Old Wanderers – and held the return catch offered by England’s Ernie Hayes.

Although many times removed from Vogler, Piedt knew just how he felt. Once unleashed on Saturday, the hissing orb zigged throu...

Pollock predicament highlights lingering animosity in SA cricket

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Harare

GRAEMEPollock, owner of the second-highest batting average in test cricket history and officially South Africa’s Cricketer of the [20th] Century is, at 70, a physically and financially fragile facsimile of the brawny left-hander whose bruising cover drives once inspired oohs in onlookers, fear in fielders and stress among scorers.

Pollock is battling colon cancer and Parkinson’s disease and is recovering from a minor stroke — factors that limit his ability to ea...