Ken Borland

Jacques Snyman scored the fastest ever franchise four-day century and Matthew Kleinveldt, Raynard van Tonder, Pite van Biljon and Farhaan Behardien also went past fifty as the Knights thoroughly dominated the opening day of the first-class 4-Day Domestic Series match against the Warriors in Bloemfontein on Monday.

Snyman reached three figures off just 71 balls, beating the previous record for fastest four-day century of 73 deliveries set by team-mate Shaun von Berg when he was playing for the Titans. The 26-year-old Snyman also became the first batsman to score a century before lunch on the first day of a franchise four-day match since fellow Free Stater Rilee Rossouw did it in 2010 against the Titans at Centurion.

Rossouw went on to score 319 in that innings, but Snyman’s fun ended at 109 off just 78 balls when he was run out after a terrible mix-up with Kleinveldt.

But their opening stand of 164 in just 28 overs had put the Knights well on the way to their close of play total of 405 for five, against a Warriors side that was thoroughly disrupted by the withdrawal of six players due to two positive Covid tests and other players needing to self-isolate.

Kleinveldt went on to score 73, and Van Tonder (85) and Van Biljon (53) then added 94 for the third wicket, Behardien then ramming home the advantage late in the day with 67 not out.

The Titans have made a good start to the new season with the ball as they restricted the Cape Cobras to 264 for nine declared at Newlands, but the visitors have lost a key wicket as they went to stumps on four for one with Aiden Markram (2) rather bizarrely treading on his own wicket as he jumped back to turn spinner George Linde away on the leg-side.

Linde had earlier shared in the biggest partnership of the Cobras innings, scoring 43 as he and Kyle Verreynne (39) added 69 for the sixth wicket.

Opener Pieter Malan was the top-scorer for the home side with 51, but the Titans kept plugging away with the ball and would have been pleased with their efforts after losing the toss. Former Cobras paceman Lizaad Williams must have enjoyed having a good day against his previous team and took four for 51 on his Titans debut, while spinner Tabraiz Shamsi took three top-order wickets.

The defending champion Imperial Lions made a solid start to their rain-affected match against the Dolphins in Durban, posting 153 for three at stumps. Captain Temba Bavuma (30*) has Ryan Rickelton (15*) for company and they have already added 45 for the fourth wicket. Durban had solid rain over the weekend and play could only get underway after lunch, but Reeza Hendricks played some great strokes as he raced to 76 off 86 deliveries to immediately allow the visitors to settle in at the crease.

Dylan Frittelli is South Africa’s fastest rising golf star and a stellar 2017 has seen him zoom up the world golf rankings from number 152 at the start of the year to 55^th when he teed it up at the Joburg Open at Randpark Golf Club this week.

The 27-year-old can certainly hit a little white dimpled ball as cleanly and powerfully as anyone else in the country, courtesy of the natural ball skills that saw him earn junior provincial colours in baseball, soccer, hockey and golf, but Frittelli clearly has another great strength, one that is as priceless as a ming vase when it comes to a sport as mentally taxing as golf.

Frittelli is clearly a deep thinker on the game and much of that thinking can be classified as lateral judging by the unusual decisions he has made.

Golf started as a Sunday driving range occupation with his provincial hockey-playing father, with a few rounds with friends over the holidays, but at the age of 11, Frittelli went to a World of Golf camp where his considerable talent was first spotted by a coach.

“From then I took things seriously, but I still played a bunch of sports until I was 15,” Frittelli said.

It was when the Johannesburg-born youngster went to St Albans boarding school in Pretoria that he made his first eccentric decision that worked out wonderfully.

“At St Albans, I asked the headmaster if I could just play golf and he said no, because they needed me in the cricket and hockey teams. So I did home-schooling instead, it was a bit of a mad scientist idea and I just said ‘let’s see what happens’. I started matric in Grade 10 and was done a year earlier than if I’d stayed in school,” Frittelli explained.

The tall, dark-haired Frittelli continues to do things differently to this day, foregoing time-consuming and often energy-draining practice rounds on courses he has played before, and even taking a compass on to the tee with him to ensure he gets his angles dead right.

The extra year he gained through home-schooling allowed Frittelli to not only play more golf but also seriously consider trying to get into the American college golf programme.

“I had it in mind that I really wanted to go to the United States and when I won the Junior World Championships in San Diego when I was 17, that opened doors for me. It was between the University of Texas and Arkansas, and Texas offered me a full scholarship,” he said.

And, by a quirk of fate, a young Jordan Spieth soon also arrived at the University of Texas and he and Frittelli would earn the Longhorns their first national championship title in 40 years in 2012, the South African sinking a 30-foot putt on the 18^th to claim the win.

“Jordan was still a junior then, but I stayed in the same dorm as him at the Spirit International and helped persuade him to come to Texas. We were pretty much playing at the same level back then and to make the putt to win Nationals was huge, especially since we hadn’t won for so long,” Frittelli said.

Frittelli has won twice on the European Tour this year and, although his chances of adding to that tally at the Joburg Open are slim as he ended his second round 10 shots off the pace, he looks set to break into the top-50 in the world rankings in the near future.

And then he will be going to the majors, from which he hopes to get into the U.S. PGA Tour, especially since he still has a house in Austin, Texas.

He also badly wants to win in South Africa, to show local fans, who have not had much chance to get to know him, what he’s made of.

“I’ve only gained spots through qualifying school on the European and Sunshine tours but I would love to play in the U.S. as well. I also haven’t had any big victories in South Africa, which I would love to do because that would definitely cement my standing here.

“But I pride myself on being able to play well away from home and I won in Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico as an amateur, and now in Europe and Mauritius as a pro. Every good result you get breeds confidence and I felt really calm winning in Mauritius last week, which is how you want to be. No stress,” the laid-back surfing fan said.

https://citizen.co.za/sport/1753864/sas-fastest-rising-golf-star/

AB de Villiers batted as if he had a prior engagement in blazing his way to the fastest ODI century ever at the Wanderers on Sunday, and then said it was just one of those days when everything clicked.

De Villiers smashed 149 off 44 balls, reaching three figures off just 31 deliveries, in the most outrageous innings every played in ODI cricket, but it did ring true when he said it had not been his best ball-striking day.

“I have hit the ball better before, believe it or not, but it was just one of those exceptional days when you get a couple out of the middle of the bat and then everything just clicks. Today it just happened for me.

“On this ground, if you’re in decent form, you swing hard and have a bit of luck, then amazing things can happen and it’s very difficult to stop you, like Ricky Ponting and Herschelle Gibbs have shown in the past,” De Villiers said.

It was a top-class display of innovation and imagination from De Villiers, who fashioned 25 boundaries – nine fours and 16 sixes – from the 44 balls he faced, often playing strokes that bordered on the impossible.

“In today’s cricket you have to read the game and most batsmen do premeditate what they’re going to do. You can’t just let the bowlers bowl at you, you have to put them under pressure, so there were definitely quite a few premeditated shots by me today,” De Villiers admitted, making his superhuman efforts sound almost mundane.

It sounded even more corny when De Villiers said he had practically begged coach Russell Domingo to let David Miller go in ahead of him because he felt the left-hander could have added “even more fuel” to the brilliant opening stand of 247 in 38.3 overs between Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw.

While never considering themselves dead certs for the World Cup, De Villiers said Sunday’s overwhelming victory over the West Indies was a step in the right direction for the team as they look to go to Australasia believing they are the best team there.

“There’s no doubt a performance like this is a tremendous help for the confidence, which is 80 to 90% of sport. I believe we’re getting better, getting confidence is what this series is all about, and we want to go to the World Cup believing we are the best. No team has ever won the World Cup not thinking they’re the best team in the tournament,” South Africa’s ODI captain said.

Denesh Ramdin has been around the international circuit for nearly 10 years and he described De Villiers’ knock as one of the best he had ever seen; the rookie Rossouw said the number one ranked ODI batsman was playing the game at a different level to everyone else.

“I was just speechless watching AB, it was out of this world. He’s a freak, on a level of his own. It’s just not right scoring a hundred off 31 balls!

“Those who didn’t watch the innings really missed out because seeing is believing,” Rossouw said of his skipper’s extraordinary exploits.

AB de Villiers’ extraordinary innings as he lashed the fastest century in ODI history was always going to be the death of the West Indies and South Africa duly won the second Momentum One-Day International at the Wanderers by 148 runs on Sunday.

De Villiers flayed the West Indies for 149 runs off just 44 balls to take the Proteas to 439 for two,South Africa’s highest ever ODI total, improving on their famous 438 to beat Australia at the same venue in 2005/06, but they missed a golden opportunity to reclaim the world record, falling just four runs short of Sri Lanka’s 443 for nine against the Netherlands in Amstelveen in 2006.

The West Indies could only muster 291 for seven in their 50 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Dwayne Smith (64) and Denesh Ramdin (57) and a pair of 40s from Marlon Samuels and Jonathan Carter.

Although the visitors were often ahead of the South African total at a comparative stage of their innings, reaching 148 in 25 overs compared to the Proteas’ 142, they lost wickets at regular intervals.

And Dale Steyn was their biggest obstacle, just 19 runs coming from his first eight overs as the run-rate grew out of reach in the second half of the innings.

Steyn received good support from Morne Morkel, with two for 43 from his 10 overs.

Opener Smith was the biggest threat to the South Africans – and the biggest contributor amongst the West Indian batsmen towards the fundraising for the fight against cancer – with nine fours and a six in his run-a-ball 64, and Samuels was also looking promising before he did not quite get enough elevation on a lofted drive off Vernon Philander and a leaping Farhaan Behardien took the catch at extra cover.

Ramdin and Carter added 83 off 73 balls for the fifth wicket before Steyn, bowling with tremendous pace and accuracy had Carter caught at mid-on.

Carter impressed in just his second ODI innings with three fours and a six.

Morkel made a messy start to the innings, opening with a leg-side delivery that was helped to the fine leg boundary by Smith, followed by a wide way outside the off stump.

The tall fast bowler then induced a catch at third man by Smith, but a television replay showed that Morkel had bowled a no-ball, with Chris Gayle pulling a four off the free hit.

Gayle rushed to 19 off 13 balls, whacking two fours and a six, before sending a pull off Morkel steepling towards the midwicket boundary, Behardien running in and taking a great catch.

Leon Johnson has struggled in this ODI series, making a six-ball duck in Durban and battling to one run off 15 deliveries at the Wanderers before being trapped lbw by Philander.

Smith has flattered to deceive on tour, but on Sunday he was really starting to look threatening before lofting Behardien straight back over his head, but failing to clear JP Duminy, who ran from long-off to take a good catch.

Philander claimed two wickets but was expensive, conceding 69 runs in his 10 overs.

South Africa’s massive innings had been set up by a record opening stand of 247 between Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw, but that was overshadowed in scarcely believable fashion by De Villiers, who blazed to 50 in 16 balls (also a world record) and to his hundred off just 31 deliveries. That smashed New Zealander Corey Anderson’s previous record of 36 balls, also against the West Indies, in Queenstown a year ago.

De Villiers fell in the final over for 149 off just 44 balls, showcasing his enormous natural ability with nine fours and 16 sixes – equalling the world record of Rohit Sharma for India against Australia in Bangalore in 2013. Having produced the most outrageous innings in ODI history, it would have been most apt if De Villiers had taken South Africa to the world record score, but he drove the fourth ball of Andre Russell’s excellent final over to deep cover to end the carnage, with Amla missing the last two deliveries of the innings.

Through the years since his international debut in 2004, De Villiers has honed his natural talent, become the master of his game and at reading match situations. At the Wanderers on Sunday he just came out and had fun, toying with the West Indian bowlers. Most of his strokes were seemingly premeditated and sent all over the ground, no matter where the ball was delivered. The South African captain had a particular fondness for the scoop back over his shoulder, but also hit the ball sweetly down the ground, finding or going over the boundary off 25 of the 44 deliveries he faced.

After winning the toss and sending the Proteas in to bat in cloudy, breezy, cool conditions, the West Indians had no idea of the furnace that was about to envelop them.

Amla was quickly away but Rossouw, after making his fifth duck in 10 innings in the previous ODI in Durban, started scratchily, often miscuing his attacking strokes.

But he put his lean times and early struggles behind him, grinding his way back into form and then enjoying rich pickings as he notched his first international century off just 102 balls, collecting eight fours and a six along the way.

Amla cruised to his century two deliveries later, off 103 balls, and the West Indies were already in a daze as the opening duo added 247 off 235 balls, the sixth highest first-wicket partnership in ODI history and South Africa’s best.

Rossouw began the 39^th over with two brilliant boundaries off Jerome Taylor, over midwicket and straight back over the bowler’s head, but then chipped the third delivery to mid-off to fall for a brilliant 128 off 115 balls that will go a long way to ensuring he feels at home in international cricket.

But Amla batted on through the innings, sensibly feeding De Villiers the strike, as he finished with a splendid 153 not out off 142 balls, with 14 fours.

It became the first time three centuries have been scored in an ODI innings, as De Villiers rained down blows on the West Indian bowlers and hapless fielders. He and Amla added a magnificent 192 for the second wicket off an incredible 68 balls, beating that memorable partnership of 187 between Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs in the 438 game as the ground record.

It became embarrassing and it all seemed just too easy for international sport.

But that is what genius can do and De Villiers can certainly be placed at the top of that list.

 – http://citizen.co.za/309061/ab-de-villiers-impresses-momentum-odi/