South Africa Domestic Season 2011/12

[SeamUp]

Knights looking to improve fortunes - SuperSport - Cricket

Knights looking to improve fortunes

The Chevrolet Knights hope that last season’s success, when they clinched the MTN40 title, will prove to be just the lift they need as they search for an improvement in their four-day form, Knights coach Sarel Cilliers said on Wednesday.

The Knights may have won the MTN40 series last year but they finished a disappointing fifth in the four-day SuperSport Series with just one win from 10 matches although, in mitigation, it must be pointed out that their season was heavily affected by bad weather during the early part of 2011.

The new SuperSport Series starts on September 29 and the Knights will begin their campaign with a trip to SuperSport Park in Centurion to play the Nashua Titans.

Cilliers, who is entering his third season as head-coach of the Knights, said that winning the MTN40 was a nice start but there was room for improvement.

“If you win a trophy it always helps to settle things down a bit but we can still improve,” he told SuperCricket in Durban where his team was playing a four-day warm-up match against the Sunfoil Dolphins.

“One of the things that we are hoping to improve on is our four-day cricket, especially the way that we play it. We have been working on that and we have strategized around it and made some plans so hopefully we can improve our standings in the four-day format,” he explained.

The Knights’ hopes of making a serious tilt at the SuperSport title have been bolstered by the return to fitness of former Protea, Boeta Dippenaar.

Dippenaar’s presence at the top of the order was sorely missed by the Knights last year and he brings stability to a batting line-up which includes such talented stroke-makers as Rilee Rossouw, Reeza Hendricks, Obus Pienaar and Morne van Wyk.

“We all know the experience he brings,” Cilliers said of Dippenaar.

“He’s recovered very well from his injury and is playing well at the moment. He is one of those guys that can hold an innings together. Guys can play around him and we all know that he is a guy who likes to score big hundreds so he is vital, especially in the four-day format.”

NEW SIGNING

The Knights, in an effort to improve their fortunes in the longer format of the game, have also signed former Dolphins paceman Quinton Friend.

In the last two years Friend has captured 67 wickets in the SuperSport Series and he adds to an already formidable pace attack which includes Johan van der Wath, Ryan McLaren, Victor Mpitsang and Dillon du Preez.

“It’s (the signing of Friend) balanced our attack, given us a few more options as regards our fast bowlers and it adds a bit more sting,” said Cilliers.

“Quinton will obviously add some pace to the attack and it will add a new dimension to our game.”

The Knights’ bowling attack may look formidable but their batting line-up is even more impressive and in Rossouw, Hendricks and Dean Elgar the Knights posses three of the finest young talents in the country while Pienaar was one on the break-out stars of last season.

“We have an interesting set-up in our batting line-up. There are nine batsmen in the squad at the moment so there is going to be some tough competition to get in to the top six or seven places.

“Guys like Dean and Reeza have stepped up and there is also Rilee while Obus scored a hundred and a double-hundred in the last two (SuperSport) matches last season.

All-rounder Pienaar scored two centuries last season which included a 177-ball double-ton against the Titans.

Cilliers said that the 21-year-old Pienaar was a player to keep an eye on.

“When he gets going it’s difficult to contain him and he is definitely a guy that we are looking to use in the different formats. He’s a good prospect for us and is somebody who can give us a bit of an edge in the middle-order,” Cilliers enthused.

Despite all the positives Cilliers does acknowledge that his team lacks an experienced spinner after the decision not to renew Thandi Tshabalala’s contract at the end of last season.

But Cilliers is looking forward to a youngster staking a claim for the regular spinner’s berth.

“I don’t see too many weaknesses around (but) the one thing we lack in our system at the moment is a recognised spinner that has proven himself at the top level.

“We haven’t signed one which is actually a positive for us because there are six or seven youngsters that are on the brink of getting the opportunity of their lives. We are looking forward to introducing them and seeing how they put their hands up for the season. I’m quite excited to see who is going to step up and take that role,” he concluded.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

I like the Knights side. Don't know why they had to ditch the Eagles nickname (or, indeed, Tshabalalalalalalala).

Go Q.

 

[SeamUp]

Coach has high expectations for Lions - SuperSport - Cricket


Coach has high expectations for Lions


Highveld Lions coach Dave Nosworthy is harbouring high expectations for the coming season, saying that nothing less than ending their trophy drought will do.

The Lions have won just one title - the 2006/07 Standard Bank Pro20 - since the introduction of the franchise system in 2004, but Nosworthy says this season he will no longer be harping on about building a team.

"It's simple, our goal is to win trophies. We've had three really good years of positioning ourselves and now we are where we want to be. The core group is the same, so we have continuity, and we have real depth compared to the other franchises. So now it's just up to the guys to step up," Nosworthy told SuperCricket.

The Johannesburg-based team have been steadily climbing the mountain in domestic cricket, finishing third in last season's SuperSport Series and reaching the semifinals of the MTN40. And their success has been based on a tremendous batting arsenal.

Alviro Petersen, Stephen Cook and Jonathan Vandiar provide an excellent top-order, backed by the experienced Neil McKenzie and Zander de Bruyn, while there is a queue of young batting talents waiting to explode on to the scene in Chris Morris, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and Dominic Hendricks. The likes of Jean Symes and Gulam Bodi will also be in the mix, while Thami Tsolekile is a fine wicketkeeper and gutsy batsman in the lower-order.

Craig Alexander and Ethan O'Reilly, two marvellous prospects, will lead the quick bowling department, while the likes of Ettiene Gerber, Pumelela Matshikwe, Cliffe Deacon and Shane Burger will be competing for the back-up seamer's role.

Although Paul Harris has returned to the Easterns Titans, Dale Deeb and Aaron Phangiso are two fine young left-arm spinners.

"Craig and Ethan are exciting bowlers and are very much the front-runners to take the new ball, but it will be horses-for-courses and Pumelela Matshikwe, Cliffe Deacon, Chris Morris and Shane Burger are all in the picture as well.

"Apart from losing Paul, we also released Werner Coetsee, but it's time now for Dale Deeb to show what he can do. He turned 21 a couple of weeks ago and he will come through, he'll get better and better the more he plays. Aaron has quickly improved the more he's played the last few seasons, so we have two quality left-arm spinners, as well as Jean Symes," Nosworthy said.

The Lions' first appointment this season is a SuperSport Series match at the Wanderers next weekend against the KZN Dolphins, who have rather jaywalked their way through the last few seasons.

Nosworthy's team is also free of the injury curse that has plagued them in recent seasons, with the coach reporting a 100% fit squad to choose from for their opening encounter against a team who are liberally dipping into the fountain of youth again this season.

"The Dolphins are dangerous, they've gone through a bit of a building phase, but they still have lots of quality," Nosworthy said.

Several former Lions players (Devon Conway, Robbie Frylinck, Tabraiz Shamsi) are in the mix in Durban and Nosworthy says it helps to know their make-up.

"We've lost a few players to them, so we know them pretty well, we know what goes on in their heads, so that's a bonus."

And what will be the Lions' ingredients for success?

"We need to ensure that our strategies are well-thought-through and in place. We'll be going all out to nullify their strengths, but we're not focusing on individuals, but rather the Dolphins as a unit. Looking after the way we play is our priority and we want to manipulate the game to our strengths," Nosworthy said.

Their excellent batting line-up should once again make the Lions extremely hard to beat - they lost just once in last season's SuperSport Series - but they will need to get the best out of their inexperienced bowling attack to challenge for the four-day title

 

[SeamUp]

Titans to play like Sir Viv? - SuperSport - Cricket

Titans to play like Sir Viv?

Matthew Maynard's role-model was the great Sir Vivian Richards and the new Easterns Titans coach said on Monday that his charges would be encouraged to play with the same aggression and boldness as the legendary West Indian.

Richards was the scourge of county attacks when he played for Glamorgan from 1990 to 1993, at the same time as Maynard was the Welsh club's key home-grown batsman, and the ferocity and aggression of West Indian cricket certainly rubbed off on him.

"The person I learnt the most from was Viv Richards, he had incredible self-belief. He could also really motivate within a group out in the middle, and he wasn't even the captain.

"Bold and aggressive, I believe that's the way to play, but the players have to have the skills to execute that brand of cricket. There's no point trying to get a batsman like Chris Tavare [a famously plodding England opener who had a strike rate of 30.60 in his 31 tests] to play like Viv Richards. My job will be to get the Titans players to play as effectively and positively as they can, but in a way that suits their games," Maynard said at SuperSport Park on Monday.

Maynard himself was a renowned shot-player during his career, which included four tests and 14 ODIs, but the 45-year-old did not shy away from the fact that it is the bowlers who will end the Titans' frustrating trophy drought.

"Bowlers are the ones who control games, you just have to look at Australia's attack when they were number one in the world and England now, and South Africa aren't far behind. There's huge potential here at the Titans and we'll have Morne Morkel available for the first couple of games, while Ethy Mbhalati knows exactly where to put the ball. There's undoubted talent in the rest, but they need to learn about bowling plans and executing those plans," Maynard said.

Maynard, who was Duncan Fletcher's assistant coach during the rebirth of English cricket in the mid-2000s, replaces Chris van Noordwyk as the Titans head coach and is aware the post attracted plenty of attention from around the world.

"I finished as director of cricket at Glamorgan last November and I was looking at a variety of posts - Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Wellington franchise in New Zealand as well. But once I was offered the Titans post, I withdrew from the rest.

"I know quite a bit about this franchise - the standard of their players, the facilities and how stable the whole organisation is - and I fancied an overseas challenge, it was a good move for my coaching career to go abroad.

"I know I beat off some very strong candidates for the post and I know that the Titans' faith in me will be rewarded," Maynard said.

Titans chairman Andy O'Connor put his new coach under extreme pressure when he said he expected 10 trophies in the next five years at Monday's season launch at SuperSport Park.

"There are some excellent players here and a good number of them are used to success, which is identified by silverware. They've been in the hunt the last couple of years and it's my job to turn those near misses around. It's about the processes and decision-making under pressure. They scored 220 in last season's twenty20 final, so that's a game you'd expect to win.

"The mental side of the game is a big aspect, the players need clear game-plans, but that's something you work out with the players. They're not told that by the coach, it's a player-led thing," Maynard said.

 

[Briony]

Rudolph made 80 but Peterson is on 88* in the first innings of the opening to their domestic season.

 

[TT Boy]

Virus first 100 in South Africa for 2 years. Had a decent county season but you expect more from your overseas player than a 42 average and just 2 FC hundreds. Rudolph still might have the inside track over Virus, after having a good A tour of Zim and scoring more heavily in England.

Few runs from Kuhn today. Though he really needed a big score to convince the selectors that they shouldn't go back to Bouch in limited overs cricket and also put pressure on Bouch for the tests.

 

[TT Boy]

de Wet on debut for the Dolphins. Getting a bit of tap, as is Imran Tahir but he can be given a bit of a reprieve as its still September and hardly the sort of conditions suited for spin. Tahir picked a wicket up today with his second ball mind.

Nantie Wayward also back playing cricket after a 2 year absence and is as wayward as ever. Looks like he may have broken down after 5 overs as well.

 

[jan]

Guys, anybody could give a hint where to watch Super Sport Series? Live and online .)

 

[SeamUp]

Virus first 100 in South Africa for 2 years. Had a decent county season but you expect more from your overseas player than a 42 average and just 2 FC hundreds. Rudolph still might have the inside track over Virus, after having a good A tour of Zim and scoring more heavily in England.

Few runs from Kuhn today. Though he really needed a big score to convince the selectors that they shouldn't go back to Bouch in limited overs cricket and also put pressure on Bouch for the tests.

Petersen has always struggled in the longer version of the game in South Africa but so do many openers I guess. He really let the bat do the talking today. I am in favour of Rudolph but you cannot drop the incumbent who hasn't been poor in the few games he has had I guess, especially after getting a daddy hundred today.

Its going to be a good battle over the next few years for the opening position. Both Rudolph and Petersen were on our cricket programme the other night and they know they're battling it out for the same position and Rudolph also had very encouraging words about Dean Elgar pushing them as well eventhough he didn't score runs today but he has come off a hand injury himself and scored a fair few hundreds for SA 'A' as well. When Elgar goes big he tends to go very big as well

Heino is a good little player and is no doubt in the reckoning but prob will go back to Bouch for ODI's.

 

[SeamUp]

Guys, anybody could give a hint where to watch Super Sport Series? Live and online .)

The longer format of the game isn't shown on SuperSport in South Africa anymore. Its been like that for the last 5 years or so.

Like most games all over the world, the best place is to just follow on cricinfo.

 

[SeamUp]

de Wet on debut for the Dolphins. Getting a bit of tap, as is Imran Tahir but he can be given a bit of a reprieve as its still September and hardly the sort of conditions suited for spin. Tahir picked a wicket up today with his second ball mind.

Nantie Wayward also back playing cricket after a 2 year absence and is as wayward as ever. Looks like he may have broken down after 5 overs as well.

I cannot believe Nantie has popped up again. Seriously

Marchant De Lange has been pretty tidy in the game against the Knights. Matt Maynard must rate him because Viljoen has been ahead of him for Titans up till now and he got a five-for in the semi-pro game for Easterns today did Viljoen.

Brendan Young who is playing for WP has serious pace and is very raw. Hoping Pybus can work with him like he did with Steyn who was also very raw at the same age. Just bowls too many boundary balls and his pace can be used...in between the boundaries he bowls a lot of dot balls so he needs to cut out 1 or 2 of the bad deliveries per over. A note in that game is the hundred from Hulett, he is a good talent and contracted with Dolphins.

 

[jan]

The longer format of the game isn't shown on SuperSport in South Africa anymore. Its been like that for the last 5 years or so.
Like most games all over the world, the best place is to just follow on cricinfo.

Too boring for tv viewers compared to other sports or just too much sport that cricket had to be cut?
Thanks Seamup .)

 

[SeamUp]

Too boring for tv viewers compared to other sports or just too much sport that cricket had to be cut?
Thanks Seamup .)

Its a combination of things really, SuperSport show every international cricket game from around the world and they also show a lot of domestic limited overs stuff as well so its just a balancing out of costs.

Considering all the rugby and football played in our country and a lot of domestic football from the major European leagues is also shown live.

Also tennis and golf so its just a balancing of costs and where they can cut costs where necessary and our domestic 4-day stuff was one of them I guess.

 

[TT Boy]

Far effort from Virus. Scored over half the Lions runs and recorded his best score for the franchise. Before this game he had never hit over 140 runs in franchise cricket and only passed 150+ for Glamorgan and in amateur cricket.

Also, 6 wickets and a career best for medium pacer Robert Frylinck. Only Frylinck's 10th FC game in 2 and a bit years after turning into a limited overs specialist.

 

[Briony]

I noticed that Obus Pienaar has an unbeaten ton at a 75 strike-rate. Know people here don't rate him as highly as some of their other youngsters but he seems to turn out some impressive performances. Deeb and Rudolph have also scored tons this round.

 

[Briony]

Rudolph had a better round than Petersen. It may influence selection for the first test. Pienaar starred again in the second innings - definitely scores quickly. Deeb made a ton too but I think is meant to be more of a bowler.

 

[Walter]

I cannot believe Nantie has popped up again. Seriously

Ha, me too. Didn't know he was back until I saw this post.

Still, he's the third-best ginger Test fast-bowler SA have produced since readmission

 

[popepouri]

David Weise scores a run a ball hundred and takes 7 wickets.

 

[Woodster]

Don't think Jaques Rudolph can do any more than he has done in the opening rounds to secure a place in the Test side ahead Alviro Petersen, with scores of 80, 54, 118, 19, 210 and 87 (568 runs at 94.66), pretty awesome form indeed. The guy in second place in the leading runscorers in the Supersport Series is - Alviro Petersen, he's made 323 at 53.83, so his form is not too shabby either! If they have serious thoughts about opening with Rudolph at some point in the future for SA, then he's unlikely to ever be in better runscoring form than he currently is.

 

[popepouri]

Don't think Jaques Rudolph can do any more than he has done in the opening rounds to secure a place in the Test side ahead Alviro Petersen, with scores of 80, 54, 118, 19, 210 and 87 (568 runs at 94.66), pretty awesome form indeed. The guy in second place in the leading runscorers in the Supersport Series is - Alviro Petersen, he's made 323 at 53.83, so his form is not too shabby either! If they have serious thoughts about opening with Rudolph at some point in the future for SA, then he's unlikely to ever be in better runscoring form than he currently is.

Rudolph was always in and there abouts with the NAT. The problem was his inability to step up to the next level. That was 6-7 years ago so who knows now.