Ken Borland

Matshipi ‘Marcia’ Letsoalo’s radiant smile ripped through the blueness of a Highveld winter’s morning as she considered how women’s cricket in South Africa has changed since she made her international debut in 2007.

“When I started playing for South Africa, support was lacking and it wasn’t easy. When I first heard I was about to play for the Proteas, I pictured us being in the limelight like the men’s team. But it was totally different, nobody knew we had a women’s team,” Letsoalo recalls.

“But we’ve made such progress, we now get so much and the publicity and media attention is good too. We’re definitely headed in the right direction.”

The 30-year-old medium-pacer was heading for England in a few hours when she spoke to The Pretoria News at the High Performance Centre at Tuks on Monday, with Momentum, the sponsors who have made such a difference to women’s cricket in South Africa, giving the national team a send-off before their three-match T20 series against the World Cup runners-up and two games versus Ireland.

Momentum have certainly put their money where their mouth is by extending the six central contracts they paid for last year to all 14 members of the national squad, while yesterday the announcement was also made that SuperSport have come on board and will provide live coverage of all three matches against England on September 1, 3 and 7.

“Oh wow, the pressure!” Letsoalo joked. “No, it’s exciting, it’s what we’ve always wanted to happen. It’s my dream come true to be able to call myself a professional cricketer, from 2007 it’s what I’ve dreamt of. I’ve been working hard and finally got the reward, so it’s superb.

“My grandmother and other relatives have never seen me play cricket, so now that it’s on TV, it’s a great opportunity for them to do that,” the South African Air Force employee says.

Born in Phalaborwa, Letsoalo had to come down to Pretoria, enrolling at Tshwane North College for a management diploma, for her to make her cricket dreams come true. Women’s cricket in Limpopo in the early 2000s was very much at a fledgling level, so she spent her formative years playing with schoolboys in informal games.

“When I was 13, I saw a men’s game on TV, I had only seen cricket on TV. So I started played with the boys on the street and my passion grew for the game.

“I started playing for Foskor Cricket Club, but even then it was only with boys. But I never stopped because of my love for the sport,” Letsoalo says.

She finally experienced cricket without the boys when she started playing for the Limpopo U19 provincial team, but she admits she came to Pretoria both for study and cricketing purposes. Joining Atteridgeville Cricket Club, she was soon invited to Northerns trials and she was firmly on the road to the international stage.

Someone with Letsoalo’s sheer passion, determination and infectious enthusiasm is very difficult to keep down, and she soon won over her family, who were sceptical at first about her life choices.

“They weren’t very happy with me playing cricket, they used to say ‘It’s not safe with the boys!’ But they saw there was no stopping me and I just kept going. Eventually they realised that cricket is my passion in life,” she recalls.

A nagging medium-pacer who is more of a seam bowler than a swing merchant, Letsoalo says she is inspired by a pair of South African pace bowling legends – Makhaya Ntini and Shaun Pollock.

Both of them achieved a great deal of success in England and, although South Africa’s women have never beaten them, Letsoalo says the team is looking forward to testing themselves against top-class opposition.

“Conditions should be similar to here and we’re looking forward to the tour as a group. We want competitive cricket, we’re not going to stress too much about the results, but rather focus on implementing what we’ve learnt here at the academy, where we’ve been having a camp. We’re not going to play the names.”

A senior player now with 72 appearances across the three formats for the Proteas, Letsoalo is a bundle of good energy for a team that is definitely moving forward. She didn’t stand still in Phalaborwa, making the life-changing move to Pretoria, and she is eager that the national team do the same.

“I would love to see us in the top two women’s cricket nations in the world. We made the top four in the Women’s World T20 earlier this year, so we are preparing to see if we can make the top two in the 2017 World Cup,” the player who just loves cricket says.

Unlimited Titans coach Rob Walter said yesterday that batting second and getting within four runs of the Highveld Lions in the Momentum eKasi Challenge at Dobsonville Oval demanded a fine effort from his team in a positive start to their pre-season games.

The Titans, chasing 259 for victory, finished on 254 for seven in their 50 overs, which was a fine recovery from 28 for three and with Heino Kuhn retired hurt. Farhaan Behardien (60) and David Wiese (94) added 113 off 131 balls for the fourth wicket to haul the visitors back into contention, and young Heinrich Klaasen scored a valiant 43 not out but just could not get his team across the line as the experienced Hardus Viljoen and Dwaine Pretorius bowled cleverly at the death.

“I thought we did brilliantly to get close because the pitch got worse and 259 was probably a bit too much on that wicket. It was turning throughout, it was slow, the ball began to go through the top and it was very difficult to get the ball away. So to finish just four short meant it was a very good game, with a lot of positives for us,” Walter told The Pretoria News yesterday.

Perhaps the greatest of these positives was the innings of Wiese which marked the all-rounder out as a batsman of serious ability and not just a lower-order power hitter. Despite coming in after just 10.4 overs with the top-order blown away, Wiese was able to adapt, rebuilding the innings with Behardien while still scoring at a decent rate. He reached his 50 off 62 balls and needed just 40 more deliveries to score his next 44 runs.

“David has worked very hard on his batting after a lean season with the bat and to score 94 on a very tough pitch was a superb effort. He showed really good development in moving away from what he’s been tagged as, what he’s expected to be. To come in with three wickets down early and a man retired hurt is as tough as it gets, but he was able to grind it out until he found his rhythm,” Walter said.

Having shown such great judgement in the 101 balls he faced previously, it came as a surprise when, in a moment of folly, Wiese was run out attempting a second run to deep backward point on 199 for four in the 41^st over.

“David turned poorly and didn’t seem to realise he was in trouble. Winning or losing games often hinges on one decision like that and he and Farhaan probably should have gone through to win the game for us. But we speak about losing wickets in the powerplay and Farhaan also got out trying to hit over the top,” Walter said.

While Klaasen was disappointed not to be able to steer the Titans home, his presence adds greatly to the batting depth available to the Titans in the coming season.

“Heinrich has certainly got serious batting capability and he’s already delivered at all levels below franchise level. He was batting in a very tough phase of the game and he didn’t throw it away. His thinking stayed clear, but the Lions were very smart at the death, they bowled back-of-a-length with no pace and I don’t think there would have been a different result even with a more experienced batsman there,” Walter said.

The coach conceded that allowing the Lions to score 258 for seven after winning the toss was too many runs, but he said they wanted to give fringe bowlers the chance of performing in the closing overs. Unfortunately the execution of their skills was poor and the home side, led by Devon Conway, hammered 61 runs in the last five overs.

“We could have wrapped up the innings with spin after Eden Links [4-35] bowled brilliantly and Roelof van der Merwe was turning the ball square, but we wanted to do things differently than we would in an official game and give guys the opportunity of bowling in that phase. A guy like Vincent Moore normally has good skills at the death,” Walter explained.

David Wiese and Farhaan Behardien showed that they are in the right mental space to play for their country again, but their efforts were not enough as the Unlimited Titans lost by four runs in a thrilling Momentum eKasi Challenge against the bizhub Highveld Lions at Dobsonville Oval yesterday.

Both players have tasted life in the green and gold in the last 12 months and will have their eyes on making the World Cup squad early next year, so they will be delighted with the positive way in which they started their season.

The Titans were chasing a testing 259 for victory and the pair were brought together after the Lions had gobbled up three wickets for just 28 runs.

Behardien scored a well-judged 60 off 76 balls as he added 113 off 131 deliveries with Wiese for the fourth wicket to set the Titans up for a late charge to victory.

The captain fell in the 32^nd over when he mis-hit a lofted drive off Dwaine Pretorius to wide mid-on, but Wiese continued to feast on the bowling as he stroked 94 off 102 balls, helping himself to eight fours.

The Titans went into the last 10 overs on 197 for four, needing just 62 runs, but they suffered a mortal blow in the 41^st over as Wiese was run out, the all-rounder misjudging a second run to Eddie Leie at deep backward point.

Heinrich Klaasen (43*) produced a commendable effort to try and see his team through to victory on his franchise debut, but he didn’t have the experience to deal with the tricky mixture of slower balls dished up by Pretorius at the death or the aggressive fast bowling of Hardus Viljoen.

The result could have gone either way with the Titans needing 22 off the last three overs, but Viljoen and Pretorius sent the crowd – comprising largely school children from surrounding schools – away happy as they sealed a hard-fought victory.

Viljoen had tormented the Titans top-order and was a handful throughout, finishing with one for 29 in his 10 overs.

The Titans also had the misfortune to lose Heino Kuhn, retired hurt for just two, after he was struck on the hand by Viljoen, having gone into the game with stitches.

The Lions total was set up by Devon Conway, the left-hander scoring freely while most other batsmen struggled on the two-paced pitch.

The introduction of Eden Links saw the Lions slump from 80 for one after 19 overs to 123 for five, the off-spinner turning the ball sharply and varying his pace well as he took four for 35.
Felllow spinner Roelof van der Merwe produced the delivery of the day to bowl the in-form Temba Bavuma, the darling of Soweto, for just three, the ball pitching outside leg and hitting the off stump.

But the Lions’ resurgence started with Conway and Pretorius (32) as they added 51 off 64 balls for the sixth wicket and the innings was given a tremendous late surge as Conway finished on 78 not out off just 73 balls.

The unfortunate Vincent Moore went for 20 runs in the final over as Conway hammered him for three fours and a six.

Devon Conway made a free-scoring 78 not out, whilst most other batsmen struggled, to see the bizhub Highveld Lions to 258 for seven and victory by four runs over the Unlimited Titans in a thrilling Momentum eKasi Challenge at Dobsonville Oval on Friday.

The Lions had elected to bat first and had started solidly, Gulam Bodi (44) and Rassie van der Dussen (21) taking them to 80 for one after 19 overs. But the introduction of off-spinner Eden Links would see a collapse as the hosts slipped to 123 for five.

Conway and Dwaine Pretorius (32) revitalised the innings as they added 51 for the sixth wicket off 64 balls, before Links returned to trap Pretorius lbw in the first over of his second spell.

The left-handed Conway completed the recovery, however, batting through to the end of the 50^th over as he faced just 73 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Nicky van den Bergh (17) also proved a reliable partner as he helped Conway add 51 off 52 balls for the seventh wicket.

Crucially, Conway scored 20 runs in the final over, hammering left-arm seamer Vincent Moore for three fours and a six.

Links was outstanding, obtaining sharp turn and varying his pace well as he took four for 35 in 10 overs, while fellow spinner Roelof van der Merwe bowled the in-form Temba Bavuma, playing in front of an expectant crowd made up largely of children from half-a-dozen local schools, with a superb delivery that pitched outside leg and hit off, while conceding just 30 runs in his 10 overs.

The Titans were in awful early trouble as they slumped to 28 for three and opener Heino Kuhn had to retire hurt with a hand injury.

But Farhaan Behardien (60 off 76 balls) and David Wiese (94 off 102 balls) added 113 off 131 balls for the fourth wicket and it looked as if the crowd would go home disappointed.

But Pretorius, coming off a poor 2013/14 season, changed the complexion of the game by having Behardien caught at wide mid-on.

The Titans went into the last 10 overs on 197 for four, needing just 62 runs, but they suffered a mortal blow in the 41^st over as Wiese was run out trying to take a second run to Eddie Leie at deep backward point.

Heinrich Klaasen, who had played second fiddle to Wiese during their stand of 58 off 56 balls, went on to score 43 not out off 47 balls on his franchise debut, but he was unable to find the boundary during the tight closing overs from Hardus Viljoen and Pretorius.

The Titans needed 22 to win from the last three overs, but the 48^th over, bowled by Pretorius, went for just four runs and Viljoen conceded only five in the penultimate over.

Fast bowler Viljoen was the best of the Lions bowlers, taking one for 29 in his 10 overs and proving a handful throughout.