Telford Vice's Blog, page 377

Steyn sparks SA resurrection

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

If the fiery phoenix needs to adopt a human form, Dale Steyn is its man. Not for the first time, the flames of his and SA’s resurrection were born in the ashes of the opposition’s ascendency on the third day of the first test against Sri Lanka in Galle yesterday.

Steyn claimed 3/8 in a superb spell after tea, giving him figures of 5/50 at stumps – which came with Sri Lanka on 283/9, or still 172 runs away from SA’s first innings of 455/9 declared.

With that, Steyn...

SA not pretty, but effective

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

Like the menace that broods in the harsh lines and unfriendly angles of Galle Fort, whose ramparts echo with the music of the cricket played in its shadows, SA’s performance on the second day of the first test against Sri Lanka yesterday was not pretty.

But, also like the fort, SA were rock-solid and imposing and their defences were not easily breached. They built their overnight score of 268/5 to 455/9 before declaring their first innings closed on 455/9 an hour...

Dog day afternoon wilts Elgar’s pomp and circumstance

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

At 4.22pm yesterday, a stray dog that had wandered onto Galle’s outfield snuffled at a spot near the cover boundary and proceeded to dig a hole.

Just then, AB de Villiers speared a delivery square through the off side. For a moment, ball might have bitten dog. Happily, it sped past, followed by a fielder. Only once the boundary had been scored did the dog bother to look up.

“This hole will need to be much deeper,” it seemed to say with a dismissive glance over its...

Pictures tell stories on Galle boundary

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

The picture that emerged on the boundary in Galle yesterday in SA’s last training session before the start of the first test against Sri Lanka today was not worth a thousand words.

But the few words it was worth were important: Quinton de Kock will likely play because AB de Villiers’ dodgy hamstring will probably limit his role to batting.

That was the logical conclusion to draw when, after the squad had warmed up with a game of football, De Kock donned his wicketk...

Is Amla excited? Yes. How much? Enough.

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

Most of us would have been advised to “just be yourself” and to “keep it real” by people who mean well but perhaps do not have a proper grasp of the challenges we face.

However, Hashim Amla is not like most of us, and we have not had the benefit of someone as perceptive as Gary Kirsten cast a light into our lives.

When SA’s former coach was asked how the Proteas’ new test captain – who begins his tenure against Sri Lanka in Galle today – should tailor himself to fi...

The unbearable shrug of the Sri Lankan cricket fan

http://www.GOcricket.com – http://www.gocricket.com/blogs/telford-vice/Sri-Lanka-v-South-Africa-2014-live-score-The-unbearable-shrug-of-the-Sri-Lankan-cricket-fan/articleshow/38466029.cms

TELFORD VICE, Galle

“Ah, we lose last match,” he said with the kind of shrug of resignation that comes easily to taxi drivers. All those kilometres and demanding passengers add up, and in the end the world around you must feel either like an apology or that it is deserving of an apology.

But, because he was a S...

De Villiers in hamstring scare

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Galle

SA have suffered a scare ahead of tomorrow’s first test against Sri Lanka in Galle with AB de Villiers experiencing tightness in his right hamstring

Consequently, De Villiers, SA’s wicketkeeper and a key batsman, did not keep wicket during yesterday’s training session.

De Villiers felt the effects of what could be a strain during his 108 in the third one-day international in Hambantota on Saturday, which SA won by 82 runs to clinch a series in that format for the f...

Victory in Sri Lanka would answer Amla questions

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Maldives

SA had more than one reason to celebrate at the weekend. The most important among them was winning a one-day series in Sri Lanka for the first time. Another was Faf du Plessis’ 30th birthday. Ryan McLaren, meanwhile, would have wanted have raised a toast to his sister’s wedding.

So, there might have been a few tender heads bobbing gingerly on the trip from Hambantota, where SA clinched the ODI rubber on Saturday, to Galle, where the test series starts tomorrow....

Hambantota history sees SA turn corner, says De Villiers

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

The World Cup is still seven months and more than 20 one-day internationals away for SA, but AB de Villiers believes his team turned a corner when they made history in Hambantota on Saturday.

De Villiers’ men won by 82 runs to clinch SA’s first ever ODI series in Sri Lanka. Better than that, he said, they exorcised some of the demons of SA’s past.

“You’ve got to get that confidence going within yourself before you can start proving people wrong or right,” De Vi...

Cometh the hour, cometh Amla

Sunday Times

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

The last time SA won a test in Sri Lanka, the island’s civil war was nine of its 26 lingering years away from over, the tsunami that would kill more than 200 000 people in 15 countries was more than three years away, and South Africans had elected a president who refused to believe HIV causes AIDS.

The world was a different place on August 2, 2000, when SA snuck to victory by seven runs in Kandy. Almost 14 years on, Sri Lanka is at peace but in the grip of a...