Telford Vice's Blog, page 8

For Markram, for Bavuma, for South Africa

“Something needs to hit me soon to get out all the emotions.” – Aiden Markram

Telford Vice / Lord’s

AIDEN Markram did the wrong thing during Friday’s play in the WTC final at Lord’s. With the match on the line, he took his eye off the ball.

“At about quarter-past-five, and the game had sort of slowed down,” Markram said on Saturday. “I had a bit of time to look around and see all the fans, the family, all the mates who are here, and to look at the changing room,” Markram said on Satur...

Not before time, South Africa’s moment comes

Here was a thing of consequence, a fact to hold up to the light not in triumph but as incontrovertible evidence of the ability to get this job done.

Telford Vice / Lord’s

TEN minutes before the start of what became the last day’s play in the WTC final between South Africa and Australia at Lord’s on Saturday, two smartly suited women strode purposefully towards a spot on the outfield near the Compton Stand.

There, on a black box the best part of a metre high, lay the ICC Test mace, its...

“Oh, Temba Bavuma …”

“Maybe I should answer that question after the game.” – Ashwell Prince on what Temba Bavuma’s fighting innings says about him.

Telford Vice / Lord’s

“OH, Temba Bavuma.” The singing started coming from the mostly South Africa fans in the Mound Stand at Lord’s on Friday long before Bavuma had reached 50. Sung in the style that people would use to serenade Jeremy Corbyn, it hardly stopped as the day wore on.

Unlike the former UK Labour Party leader, Bavuma is still in the spotlight. He w...

Magnificent Markram, battling Bavuma put South Africa on the brink

Markram’s hundred arrived seven balls before stumps with a clipped four through midwicket off Hazlewood. He removed his helmet, raised his bat, and wiped away tears.

Telford Vice / Lord’s

A plane falls out of the sky in Ahmedabad, killing hundreds. Israel attacks Iran, killing several and terrifying millions. It’s Friday the 13th and it feels unforgivably frivolous to concern ourselves with mere cricket.

Yet there we were, alive and well and at Lord’s for the third day of the WTC fina...

Arise Lazarus Ngidi, the Donald Trump of disruptor fast bowlers

“It’s been a long time since I’ve played Test cricket, but I know why I was selected. It doesn’t make a difference to me, opinions or whatever.” – Lungi Ngidi

Telford Vice / Lord’s

WHAT kind of crazy is this? At tea at Lord’s on Thursday, South Africa’s chances of winning the WTC final were melting like cream on a scone left in the sun. After tea, Lungi Ngidi, perhaps powered by a consoling steak and milkshake in the wake of his flaccid performance in the first innings, took three wicket...

To Lord’s, where England are strangely absent

“What in the hell is goin’ awwn?” – a gormless American can’t understand why the St John’s Wood tube station is busy.

Telford Vice / Lord’s

OH, to be at Lord’s now that England aren’t here. You would have been forgiven for thinking every South African who had yet been to a cricket match anywhere was on their way to the grandest of grounds on Wednesday morning. Australians, there were a few. But the biltong brigade were in the ascendency on St John’s Wood’s pavements.

Many, having take...

Kagiso at home, Rabada away

“Sometimes I ask myself if I’m giving you guys enough. You want to write a very interesting piece. But it’s honestly very simple. All that you do is try to improve and win games for South Africa.” – Kagiso Rabada

Telford Vice & Bharat Sundaresan / Lord’s

KAGISO Rabada walks into a bar. It’s heaving with teenyboppers celebrating finally having escaped the turgid tedium of their high school careers.

The boys are in tight T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. They’re trying too hard not to lo...

It ain’t heavy. It’s the mace …

“Everyone outside that team understands that they’re the underdogs.” – Graeme Smith

Telford Vice / London

IS it heavy? Graeme Smith cocked his head, thought about the question, and replied: “The problem with the mace is you can’t drink out of it.” Doubtless Smith, and the rest of his team, tried to do so anyway at Lord’s on August 20, 2012.

Doubtless, also, the experiment ended exponentially more messily than the events of what had put the mace in South Africa’s dressingroom — a five-...

Come in No. 3, your time is up

“You have to be able to handle a new ball, because most of the time at No. 3 you end up coming in pretty early.” – Hashim Amla

Telford Vice / London

WHEN is a Test No. 3 not a Test No. 3? When they are Wiaan Mulder and Cameron Green. Yet Mulder and Green have been picked to bat in the pivotal position for South Africa and Australia in the WTC final at Lord’s, which starts on Wednesday.

Mulder has had 29 Test innings, 23 of them at No. 7, three one place lower, and one above. At No. 3?...

Bowlers beating batters in WTC final focus

“The ribeye was good.” – Shukri Conrad on dinner with Stuart Broad.

Telford Vice / London

RABADA versus Hazlewood, Jansen versus Starc, Maharaj versus Lyon. If you didn’t know better you would have thought the WTC final between South Africa and Australia at Lord’s this week was a bowlers’ only affair.

Maybe, with five of the top 10 ranked bowlers in the world in the squads, most of the pre-final buzz was bound to be about the bowlers. But four of the leading 10 batters are also here, ...