I tend to often reflect back to my childhood growing up in
East London, Eastern Cape. My friends and I would occasionally climb over the
neighbour’s fence for a sweet treat of some guavas or berries –the fruits you’d
rarely find stored neatly in your household’s refrigerator. Not that this was
acceptable, but those fruits tasted much sweeter than the ones bought for me by
my mom –and because of that, my friends and are would be in the neighbour's tree on a regular.
This is the same mentality the Proteas have to install in
themselves going down to Australia, striving for success in November. The
Proteas had previous won Test Series they had played down under in 2008/09 with
a very convincing display of individualism cricketing performances. We
witnessed the introduction of young flamboyant batsman, JP Duminy, scoring a
50* on debut and a massive 166 in the following Test match –securing the Test
Series for South Africa. Not that he was
underrated, we all knew what he was capable of as he was scoring runs on the
regular for the Nashua Cape Cobra, but the media was very sceptical having him
ahead of Ashwell Prince. The selectors were very fortunate to have had Prince
injured in the nets off Makhaya Ntini’s bowling because then this initially
gave Duminy a chance to prove himself in the big stage against then the best
team in world Test cricket.
The Proteas now have a similar situation with their
vice-captain, AB De Villiers being injured with a back injury. Many people in
the public are very sceptical in having Thami Tsolekile to step in the wicket-keeping
batting role in place of De Villiers (in case he’s still battling with his back
injury). Similar to recently retired-veteran South African Wicket-keeper, Mark
Boucher, Tsolekile is not the most gifted batsman in the world, but he tends to
have very big partnerships with his fellow batting partners –often when needed
the most. But what’s so useful about Tsolekile is that his glove work is
unquestionably one of the best in the country. That shall be something we
eagerly need –consistency behind the stumps. Many critics must also understand
that this is definitely not the young, radical Tsolekile that was then making
his Test match debut in Kanpur, India. Everyone deserves a second chance to
prove their worth to represent their country –especially when you have proven
in the domestic scene that you much capable of doing an outstanding job.
Not that we should really focus much on the Australian camp,
but much controversial selections have been made for the Test Series. The major
one would be the exclusion of wicket-keeper batsman, Brad Haddin, for the young
24-year-old Tasmanian glove-man, Matthew Wade. I sincerely feel that Haddin
would’ve been the best option to opt for as he’s a fighter to core, despite the
team being in any trouble or situation in a match. The Australians shall need
those fighter-characteristic players in their changing rooms throughout the
series against the fearsome bowling attack South Africa have in their disposal.
Not that it’s a big threat for the Proteas –but let us
forgot that Mickey Arthur is the Australian cricket coach. Arthur had been the
Proteas coach for five years before heading to Australia. He knows much about
the Proteas cricketing culture and how the Proteas go about their ways. South
Africa’s top six’s strengths and weaknesses shall definitely be emailed to the
bowlers the night before each Test match for homework.
#ACB #CSA #Test Match Cricket #Second Chances #Repeat of
Success
-Mandilulame Manjezi
No comments:
Post a Comment