*** Official *** South African Domestic Season 2019/20

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We used to play a form of cricket in our streets and parks called "individuals" where if we had like 8 people, one guy bats and gets to face a maximum of 7 overs. And the target was to get the highest individual score. Quite often it would be the responsibility of a player who has no hope of winning to try and win the game for you, if you have the highest score at that point and the last guy is batting. It is a fun format as you can get to play at a decent level with at least 5 or 6 fielders. You had to be run out only at the end you were running towards though, and we had this confusing middle of the wicket thingy to decide which end you can run a batsman out at. I have had some fun over the years confusing the hell out of the others on why the end they threw at was wrong when I was the batsman.

Yeah, this was quite popular when I was a kid. Secretly, I enjoyed it more than the team scoring rules TBH (where you'd feel guilty for being crap and letting the rest of the side down).

 

[SeamUp]

End of season awards.

COBRAS

Young Player of the Year: Thando Ntini

CSA 4 Day Series Player of the Year: George Linde

Momentum One Day Cup Player of the Year: Zubayr Hamza

Players’ Player of the Year: George Linde

Player of the Year: George Linde


WARRIORS

4-Day Domestic Series awards:


Batting award: Eddie Moore

Bowling award: Lutho Sipamla

4-Day player of the series: Eddie Moore


Momentum One-Day Cup awards:


Batting award: Lesiba Ngoepe

Bowling award: Stefan Tait

Player of the series: Lesiba Ngoepe

Newcomer of the year: Glenton Stuurman

Players’ player of the year: Eddie Moore

Cricketer of the year: Eddie Moore

 

[SeamUp]

Titans Awards Last night : https://www.titans.co.za/young-galiem-wins-big-at-titans-awards/

Galiem cleaned up. Maybe I over-estimated his batting but wasn't impressed with what I saw in that one-day cup game. No doubt his bowling has done well though.

 

[SeamUp]

Canny Warriors have many hidden Proteas gems, says Peterson

"They are definitely players who'll be difficult to replace. The blessing in disguise though has been that because they were called up to the Proteas last season, we've had to deal with their absences anyway. So we've gotten used to playing without them. We wish them the best."

Peterson though makes the key point that dealing with absences is very different to actually replacing departing players effectively.

And that's something the Warriors seem to gotten right.

Sipamla and Magala indeed leave sizeable holes, but you won't be despairing too much when you have Aya Gqamane, Marco Jansen and Stefan Tait as your new pace attack.

That extends to the rest of the squad, with gifted cricketers like Wihan Lubbe and Tshepo Ntuli both crying out for opportunities to become key players instead of just useful backups.

"What stands out for me about this squad is that there's a lot of ambition," said Peterson.

"These are players who not only want to compete for extended game-time, they also want to become seriously good cricketers. They want to rise in prominence.

"In fact, I believe there are at least six to seven players in our group who can become Proteas or regain their international spots. I won't name them individually, but I really believe in their ability. This is a strong group."

One can fully understand the former Proteas left-arm spinner's reluctance to nitpick names, yet his point is well-merited.

Matthew Breetzke, skipper Jon-Jon Smuts, Gihahn Cloete, Sine Qeshile, Lubbe, Marco Marais, Eddie Moore, Glenton Stuurman and Jansen are all players with the pedigree for top-level cricket.

At a more immediate level, the Warriors have the squad this year to shed the "competitive" tag in favour of something more, well, champion-like.

 

[SeamUp]

Jason Smith/Dayyaan Galiem will need to push forward this season. Wiaan Mulder too.

Dolphins new signing , Ruan de Swardt : https://www.sacricketmag.com/ruan-de-swardt-i-want-to-be-the-ben-stokes-of-the-south-african-team/

‘I want to be the Ben Stokes of SA’

One of the three out-of-province signings the Dolphins have made in this off-season is the exciting Ruan de Swardt from Northerns, with the youngster ready to make his mark on franchise cricket next season.

De Swardt was born and bred in Pretoria, schooled at the prestigious Afrikaans Seuns Ho?r (Affies) before playing his semi-professional cricket for Northerns. The change in scenery is a daunting challenge for the 22-year-old, however, he is relishing it.

‘I am very excited to start my life down in Durban even though it isn’t a place that I am too familiar with,’ De Swardt said.

‘I spent a bit of time down with the guys a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed the set-up. It was an environment where you work really hard but when you are away from cricket it is a very relaxed place. The guys were very welcoming and that’s always a good sign of a happy set-up.’

De Swardt’s statistics at a semi-professional level are more than impressive with a batting average of 55 in first-class cricket and 88 in List A cricket. Despite his obvious ability with the bat he wants to fill a bigger role in the team.

‘I want to take on that all-rounder role in the side. For me, I want to be the Ben Stokes of the South African team,’ he emphasised.

‘If I can pick up a yard of pace during the off-season then I will be in a better place to be a strong all-rounder and I am looking forward to working with Quinton Friend. Batting will be my main role and I would love to bat between four and six in the order and then bowl whenever needed.’

His move to the Dolphins was never one that he contemplated but having worked with Mduduzi Mbatha at Northerns the option of a move to KwaZulu-Natal then became available.

‘I never ever thought that I would be moving to the Dolphins to be honest but after I got a call from Duzi [Mbatha], who was our coach at the U19 provincial week, he asked me if I would consider the move,’ he added.

‘Imraan [Khan] then got in touch with me and made me the offer. It was then up to the Dolphins and the Titans to work it out from there. When it was confirmed I made the trip down to Durban and was encouraged by the set-up there and that got me excited.

‘I cannot wait to get going and I’m going to work as hard as I can when we get under way with our pre-season,’ he added in anticipation.

 

[SeamUp]

Enjoyed this with Grant Roelofsen. Once again Ryan and Jimmy Cook the mentors for teenage batsmen schooled in Joburg.

 

[SeamUp]

Sports Editor interview with Daryn Dupavillon.

 

[SeamUp]

Raynard van Tonder has left Gray-Nicolls to join Faf, Klaasen, Phehlukwayo with IXU. Another player not with the major international cricket brands. Slazenger , Duncan Fearnley, SS are all gone now basically. So just 3 left.

Kookaburra is massively dominant now.
P.Malan, J.Malan, Second, Breetzke, Qeshile, Makwetu, Muthusamy, Elgar + [Nortje, Jansen, Coetzee, Magala, Sipamla, Ngidi as bowlers]

Gray-Nicolls
Verreynne, JJ Smuts, de Bruyn, Rabada

GM
Ackerman, Roelofsen, Rickelton, D.Pretorius, Markram, de Kock

Others are like New Balance, Indian BAS, SS or SF + South African brands IXU, DP, B & S , Black Widow, Genesis