Sports
The only drives in Cape Town
by Rex Clementine
It’s a pity that not many young men and women choose the sports desk when they join journalism. Page one often deals with miseries of the world while the back page mostly celebrates the achievements of mankind. And if you are lucky, cricket takes you to some of world’s costliest tourist destinations like Barbados in West Indies, Queenstown in New Zealand and Cape Town in South Africa.
Cape Town of all these places is special as that’s where South Africa play their New Year Test and the whole city is colourful with fireworks in the night and braais (a South African word for barbecue) and other food festivals around the city with all meat items from impala to crocodile to feast upon in the day time.
For all its fun, cricket in Cape Town can be tough. The hosts leave a thick cover of grass and play an all-seam attack making life difficult for batters. Some teams have Hardik Pandya as their fourth seamer and some teams have Chamika Karunaratne coming in as second change. But guess whom South Africans have got? Someone by the name of Jacques Kallis, with 292 Test wickets to his name. There’s simply no escape.
The Sri Lankan teams are quite capable of surviving trusting their technique against the short ball. But in cricket, survival is only part of the game. Run making is equally paramount. The cut is a high risk shot because of the extra bounce. The pull is an option but then the bowler has to err. You hardly find any ball that can be driven.
The slip cordon constantly reminds the batter that the only drive you are getting today is from the hotel to the ground. The sledging is relentless and the chances of you ending with a broken bone are relatively high. Cape Town Tests are a good distraction for reporters. Often Tests here are over in three days, once Sri Lanka lost here by an innings and 259 runs, at one point their heaviest in the history. Day four and day five are spent traveling around this stunning city.
Table Mountain is a popular destination. When you are young you climb the mountain and it takes about one hour and 20 minutes. As you grow older, you prefer the cable car. Table Mountain from the top is absolutely breathtaking. The ocean by one side and the city next to that is spectacular viewing. You can see famous wineyards like Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl and Robertson from here. Then the flora and fauna found here are totally unique and never seen before.
You can also visit Robben Island, a short boat ride from Cape Town.
What’s so special about this place, well that’s where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned with 3000 other political prisoners during the white rule in South Africa. Mandela was allowed one visitor per year for about 30 minutes. It’s quite a moving experience. You can visit Mandela’s cell and spend a few quiet moments reflecting about life. It’s a surreal experience. In all, Sri Lanka have played eight games in Cape Town and lost all but one, a T20. That’s why the girls’ performance in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup in Cape Town has been quite stunning. While covering Sri Lankan men in Cape Town, you are left with lot of spare time, the girls have given you plenty to cheer about and very little breathing space having won two games inside three days. They are now just one win away from the semis. The women’s cricket team is on a cloud nine.
They started off with a giant killing performance beating hosts South Africa in the curtain- raiser of the tournament. Then they humbled Bangladesh on Sunday and have got lot of momentum behind them. The batters have been firing on all cylinders while the spinners have made life difficult with some disciplined bowling. The fielding though can make much improvement.
Sri Lanka now play Australia on Thursday in Port Elizabeth and New Zealand on Sunday in Paarl. If they win one of those games, they qualify for semis. Appropriately SLC yesterday announced a pay rise for women’s cricket. Accordingly, for each white ball game a player will get USD 750 whereas earlier they got only USD 250 each per game. There’s also a winning bonus of USD 250. However, much more needs to be done to develop women’s cricket.
If you take schools, while cricket is the number one sport in boys’ schools, girls’ schools give priority to netball, basketball and swimming and most schools don’t even play cricket. We’ve got a long way to go.
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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