The DP World Lions Ladies team produced an excellent display at the weekend to inflict a first defeat of the season on the HollywoodBets Dolphins in Durban, as they beat the log-leaders by 31 runs in their Pro20 Series match.
Having won the toss and elected to bat first, opener Nonkululeko Thabethe stuck around brilliantly until the penultimate over as her run-a-ball 55 provided the backbone of our innings on a slow pitch that provided a little turn.
Thabethe was well-supported by fellow opener Palesa Mapoo (22) in a fine opening stand of 49, and then she and Kirstie Thomson (24) added another 40 for the second wicket, providing the foundation for a competitive total of 126 for three in their 20 overs.
The DP World Lions were then outstanding with the ball and in the field as they bundled the high-flying Dolphins out for just 95 in 18.5 overs.
Former Border spinner Liyema Jubati had not played for #ThePrideOfJozi before, but she was not overawed even though she was given the new ball. She responded by dismissing the in-form Alexandra Candler (11) and then three overs later Jubati fielded superbly at wide mid-on and scored a direct hit at the bowler’s end to run out Nicole de Klerk (18).
Jubati’s slick fielding would see her effect another run out towards the end of the Dolphins innings, and although she did not take another wicket while bowling, the Dolphins batters were not able to score quickly off her either as she conceded just 17 runs in her four overs.
The Dolphins batters were not able to handle the spin of Raisibe Ntozakhe either, as she ripped through the middle-order with three for 24 in her four overs, and another slow bowler, Madison Landsman, took two for six.
In the HollywoodBets Pro50 Series match on the preceding day, #ThePrideOfJozi skipper Kgomotso Rapoo also won the toss, but this time selected to bowl first. A very good batting display by the Dolphins saw them post 286 for three, with Candler scoring 104 and De Klerk 96.
Sarah Nettleton was the best of the DP World Lions bowlers, her 10 overs of accurate spin going for just 33 runs.
In reply, the DP World Lions batters could probably have shown better shot-selection, as the crack Dolphins attack bowled them out for 171, inflicting a 115-run defeat.
Thomson was the best of the batters with a mature 53 off 70 balls, while Jenna Evans showed her talent as she cracked 43 not out off 56 deliveries.
Staying calm under pressure is probably the most necessary attribute needed to succeed at the highest level of sport and Marais Erasmus always gave the impression when he was umpiring out in the middle that he was in full possession of his faculties and emotions.
Getting 94% of your decisions correct – the general benchmark for being on the International Cricket Council’s Elite Panel of umpires – requires great composure and equanimity, as well as the ability to maintain credibility and authority in the highly-charged arena of the game at its pinnacle.
They are the qualities that Erasmus was most known for during his 16-and-a-half years as an international umpire. As renowned Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle says in the Foreword to the biography Telford Vice has written on the South African umpire – Marais Erasmus: The Rock ‘n Roll Years – “Apart from everything else, umpires, like doctors, must radiate confidence and a sense of calm. Marais Erasmus had that. When he walked out on to the field, you felt secure. You knew you were in safe hands.”
While the former Boland bowling all-rounder’s ‘bedside manner’ was imperturbable, Erasmus himself says it is a bit of an illusion.
“I didn’t set out to have a straight face all the time, and I did struggle sometimes not to show my emotions. But I couldn’t give away to the players that I was shitting myself, they do pick up that sort of thing.
“I just tried to apply the laws, even though sometimes a law is controversial. There are some grey areas in cricket, although less so than in rugby. I think it helps immensely to have been a former player, although it’s not a given that if you played good cricket you will become a good umpire – there are lots of other skills involved.
“Simon Taufel was one of the best umpires ever and he didn’t play first-class cricket, so potential umpires shouldn’t be discouraged if they didn’t play to a high level. But at the Elite level, on average 10 of the 12 on the ICC panel will have played first-class cricket, a lot of them have played international cricket. In South Africa, about 40% of our umpires are former first-class players. It means you’ve been in pressure situations before, the players will accept you more and that gives you confidence,” the former Boland flyhalf/fullback says.
The cricket world changed dramatically while Erasmus was progressing from a player who retired in 1996/97 to making his international debut as an umpire in 2006, standing in his first Test in 2010. In that time, the television umpire has become crucial, and the IPL arrived, making India the global superpower of the game. But, unfortunately, India have also not been shy to exert a “Might Is Right” philosophy on cricket and they are used to getting what they want. Which included not using DRS for their games until the absence of it had burned them too often.
Hostile crowds are matched by over-stimulated players like Virat Kohli, who occasionally lose their impulse control. One of India’s greatest captains infamously shouted into the stump-mics at Newlands in January 2022, accusing broadcasters SuperSport and the umpires of bias. Erasmus was standing in that match alongside compatriot Adrian Holdstock due to the Covid pandemic and the difficulties it caused in terms of international travel.
Erasmus had to give Sachin Tendulkar out lbw in his debut Test, thankfully not in India, where international cricket’s leading run-scorer is literally considered to be a god. These are also the days of social media allowing millions of people to dissect and criticise every decision. The officials can be crucified in the court of public opinion should they get the wrong decision wrong at the wrong time. Just think of how we South Africans curse referee Bryce Lawrence to this day for giving David Pocock free rein in the breakdowns during the 2011 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal.
So Erasmus experienced pressure right from the outset and his ability to handle it saw him appointed to the middle for seven World Cup finals across the formats, including the greatest of them all, the 2019 finale’ at Lord’s when England and New Zealand tied and England won the super over.
“Virat was like some of the kids when I was teaching. You give him Ritalin in the morning and you’ll have a good day. But sometimes by second break it’s gone … But we had a good relationship. David Warner is a dangerous man because he doesn’t understand when he’s being stupid and Ricky Ponting always wanted to fight with umpires,” Erasmus says.
Nathan Lyon is someone Erasmus singles out as a favourite, the Australian off-spinner saying on a live television interview that “Marais is a great man and an even better umpire,” when former captain Mark Taylor asked pointed questions about decisions that did not go their way.
Ben Stokes is another who Erasmus found to be likeable and the recently-retired England captain was, of course, pivotal in that 2019 World Cup final.
“Ben is one of my favourites. When you go to a team’s practice, some of the players ignore you but others come up to you. Ben would always ask how the last few months have been, how’s your family? He’s a good human being, although he has got himself in trouble and been through some fires on occasion.”
The details of the drama of the overthrows off Stokes’s arm and the full explanation as to why England were credited with an extra run they shouldn’t have been, are all in the book. Typically, Erasmus does not shy away from accountability.
“The overthrow incident was just a mistake. Kumar Dharmasena and I looked at each other and said ‘Six? Yeah’. Rod Tucker, the TV umpire, asked over the comms whether it was six and Peter Manuel, who was our umpires coach, was trying to explain that where the ball was released was crucial. But that was impossible for me to see.
“Part of the romance of our sport is that the umpires are not without blemish. The only way to survive as an umpire is not to dwell on your wrong decisions. Our coaches used to tell us to park them; my one New Zealand colleague then said ‘but my parking lot is full’.”
In Marais Erasmus: The Rock ‘n Roll Years, the subject brings that same voice of reason and gentle humour to corruption in cricket, the rise of technology and the many memorable Ashes clashes he was involved with.
Beyers Swanepoel during his Lions days. (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images)
Northerns Titans CEO Jacques Faul likes to spring a surprise on the opposition and, on face value, the franchise’s decision to sign Beyers Swanepoel for the coming season will be a shock to some, given the controversial fashion in which the all-rounder’s stint down the road at the Central Gauteng Lions ended.
The final match of last season was the One-Day Cup final between the two Gauteng archrivals and a tightly-contested thriller went the Titans’ way, thanks mostly to the heroics of Keegan Petersen and Duan Jansen.
But Swanepoel’s bizarre decision to leave the field of play in the 43rd over of the Titans chase, having bowled his ration of 10 overs, also played a major part in the visitors to the Wanderers shifting the momentum of the game. Because Swanepoel had not suffered any injury, the Lions were not allowed to substitute him and were left with 10 fielders for the tense finale’, which they lost by three wickets on the penultimate ball of the match.
Swanepoel had chosen to leave early so he could catch a flight to England, where he was due to join Worcestershire for the county season. Astonishingly, he also did not have a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from his local franchise or Cricket South Africa to play overseas, an incredible oversight by his agents, Tridon Sports Management.
His team-mates were left in a strange state of heartbreak and fury after the game and it did not take long, less than two weeks later, for the Lions to terminate his contract. That did, however, make Swanepoel a free agent and CSA agreed to give him an NOC to play for Worcestershire. The mother body did, however, lay a Level 4 charge of bringing the game into disrepute against him.
That can carry a ban of 10 matches, which would be a sizeable part of next season. The CSA disciplinary hearing has still not been held, however, due to the unavailability of the disciplinary commissioner.
That means there is still a lot of uncertainty over Swanepoel: Not only in terms of his mental state but how much of next season he is going to be missing due to a ban. For Faul and the Titans, however, it is not an outside-the-box signing and the CEO confirmed that he did not even need Board approval to offer the talented 28-year-old a contract.
“Professional sport is cut-throat and we have to sign people who can help us to win. Our information was that four franchises wanted to sign him. He’s 28 years old, so he probably has seven years left as a top cricketer, and he has no track record of this sort of behaviour before,” Faul told kenborland.com.
“I think he just got the date of his flight wrong and to not allow him to play here would be a severe punishment. Everyone’s entitled to one mistake, he has apologised and he has been sanctioned by the Lions.
“He is still a very capable player and it would be wrong to scapegoat a quality cricketer like him. We had to sign him before the CSA disciplinary because the contracting window was closing. But hopefully emotions have died down a bit and he’s not painted into a corner.
“He thought no-one else would want him, but I hope he can redeem himself, I think he will. To be remembered for that one incident would be the saddest thing. And he is the right profile cricketer for us – at this stage he doesn’t play for SA A or the Proteas. And he was schooled here in Titans territory at Garsfontein,” Faul said.
It is believed that the Lions players and coaches did not want to lose a cricketer of Swanepoel’s ability and were willing to forgive him, but the Lions board were adamant that he had to go.
The whole incident will be even more galling for the Wanderers-based team now that Swanepoel has gone across the Hennops River to their great rivals, the same team that snatched the one-day trophy from them after his inexplicable departure. A swing bowler who can be quite phenomenal on his day, both with the red and the white ball, Swanepoel is also a very handy batsman down the order, capable of scoring very quickly.
Our domestic cricket would be the loser without Swanepoel playing and hopefully CSA can sort out his disciplinary hearing soon and therefore finally draw a line under a most unfortunate incident.
The DP World Lions Ladies team has had a month off from HollywoodBets ProSeries action, but it’s not as if they have been enjoying tubs of ice-cream and refreshing swimming pools during this festive period: the focus has been squarely on preparing for this weekend’s crucial visit to Durban to take on the Dolphins.
It’s a vital weekend for the DP World Lions with their hosts enjoying an unbeaten season in both the Pro50 and T20 competitions. World Sports Betting Western Province are also unbeaten in the shortest format, so victory for #ThePrideOfJozi in Sunday’s T20 match will keep them in touch with the leaders.
In the 50-over competition, victory for the DP World Lions will bring them within one win of the HollywoodBets Dolphins, with a game in hand.
“INTENT” is the message coach Shaun Pretorius has been thumping home in the DP World Lions’ build-up to this crunch weekend.
“After playing Western Province, we had a week off and then we did some nice team-building and played some golf. But we started three weeks ago with our prep for the visit to Kingsmead, just to make sure the players keep their loads up. It’s been good to have a bit of a break, but if there’s any sort of holiday mindset then we won’t achieve success,” Pretorius says.
“We need to be switched on all the time, that’s when things tend to go your way. Against the unbeaten Dolphins, it’s going to be all about intent and I keep reminding the ladies of that and the way we finished last season. We didn’t beat the Dolphins in the 50-over match, but in the T20 we really took them on and the results were phenomenal.
“So we need the same mindset this weekend and we can’t allow their bowlers to settle. As #ThePrideOfJozi, we are happy to take on that challenge. We need to take away their ability to dictate terms by manipulating the field, we must determine the pace of the game,” Pretorius says.
Shorn of the batting abilities of Tazmin Brits, Karabo Meso, Diara Ramlakan and Sinalo Jafta (who are all away with the Proteas or the SA U19 team in India), there is obviously some pressure on the experienced duo of Kirstie Thomson and Sunette Viljoen-Louw to lead the charge of the DP World Lions batting line-up.
So far the contributions of the top-order have been dwarfed by the middle and lower-order, but Pretorius is hoping the run of good starts not being converted comes to an end this weekend.
“Once our top-order comes through then we will really be a major force to be reckoned with. We’re just missing those valuable partnerships up front at the moment.
“Kirstie and Sunette are obviously vital for us. It’s been really good to see Sunette take responsibility in the middle-order and she is the leading run-scorer in the Pro50. Sunette just wants to embrace every moment that’s left in her career, and that’s why, after we signed Tazmin Brits, we wanted to keep her in the squad. We asked her to move to the middle-order and she has worked really hard on her skills there,” Pretorius says.
The absence of Proteas pace bowler Tumi Sekhukhune and SA U19 all-rounder Fay Cowling has been offset by the availability of Ayabonga Khaka, who continues to perform impressively in white-ball cricket for the national team.
