Sports
Rabada six-for leads South Africa to victory over West Indies
West Indies threatened to turn the tables on South Africa by rolling them over for 116 on the third morning at SuperSport Park, but their own batters collapsed in similar spectacular fashion, chasing 247. Kagiso Rabada was chiefly responsible for that collapse, bagging 6 for 50 to dismiss them for 159 and seal South Africa’s victory inside three days on a track that offered variable bounce.
Jermaine Blackwood’s thrilling counterattack – 79 off 93 balls – raised West Indies’ hopes, but Rabada found a little extra kick off the pitch to take him out and ensure the new era under captain Temba Bavuma and coach Shukri Conrad began with a victory in Centurion, where the South Africa women’s team that reached the T20 World Cup final five days ago was also in attendance.
It was Roach who had set the scene for the day with his 11th five-for in Test cricket – and first away from home since 2017. He also surpassed Joel Garner’s tally of 259 to become West Indies’ fifth-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Just before lunch, Roach was warmly welcomed back by his team-mates, Jimmy Adams, West Indies’ director of cricket, and Brian Lara, the team mentor.
However, the mood and tempo of the match changed quickly when Rabada struck either side of the lunch break. After having captain Kraigg Brathwaite caught down the leg side for a duck, he drew an outside edge from No. 3 Raymon Reifer.
Tagenarine Chanderpaul kept playing and missing at full balls, but wasn’t particularly flustered against that length. It was the short ball that bothered him. He fell on his backside twice while trying to deal with them and then when he dared to hook a head-high bouncer from Marco Jansen, he could only top-edge it to midwicket for 10.
Roston Chase misjudged an inswinger from Jansen and was castled after offering no shot. Then, when debutant Gerald Coetzee produced extra bounce to get rid of Kyle Mayers, West Indies were 33 for 5 in the 15th over.
Blackwood came in and hoicked the seventh ball he faced, off Rabada, over square leg for four. He continued to regularly pump the ball over the top, running away to a 51-ball half-century. At the other end, Joshua Da Silva was more circumspect and contributed 17 to a 58-run sixth-wicket partnership before he fell to Rabada
Blackwood, though, went after South Africa’s premier seamer and shanked him over his head for an imposing four. When Anrich Nortje shifted his angle to around the wicket, he ramped him over deep third for four. Jason Holder also operated at almost a run-a-ball in a 37-run seventh-wicket stand with Blackwood before Rabada had him nicking behind with a perfectly-pitched delivery. Though Rabada looked like wasn’t at his best earlier in the day, floating some balls in the lower 130-kph range, his seven-over spell post tea, in which he dismissed both Holder and Blackwood, was perhaps the most decisive passage of play.
The day had started on a more promising note for West Indies. Roach struck with his first ball to cut Aiden Markram’s innings short at 47 off 58. He went wide of the crease, tricked Markram into playing for the inward angle from over the wicket but got it to straighten late off the seam and graze the outside edge. Marais Erasmus, the on-field umpire, didn’t rule Markram out initially, but he opted to walk back to the dressing room. In his next over, Roach went wide of the crease again, but this time he beat Jansen’s outside edge and hit the top of the off stump.
Roach also helped snip the South African tail, but Coetzee’s spunky cameo (20 off 15 balls) pushed their lead closer to 250. Markram aside, Coetzee was the only South Africa batter to score more than 10 runs in their second innings. He then combined and Rabada, Jansen and Norje with the ball to compensate for their batting collapse and wrap the game up before drinks on the third afternoon.
Brief scores:
South Africa 342 (Aiden Markram 115, Dean Elgar 71, Alzzari Joseph 5-81) and 116 (Aiden Markram 47, Kemar Roach 5-47) beat West Indies 212 (Raymon Reifer 62, Anrich Nortje 5-36) and 159 (Jeramaine Blackwood 79, Kagiso Rabada 6-50) by 87 runs
(Cricinfo)
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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