Ken Borland

Albie Morkel shows his walloping power

Albie Morkel is back in the national team for the series against Australia and the ICC World T20 in Bangladesh, giving South Africa one of the most threatening batting line-ups in the competition.

The Unlimited Titans all-rounder is returning to the Green and Gold after an absence of two years, stretching back to the previous edition of the T20 world cup, in Sri Lanka.

Morkel is back to his best form, showing in the RamSlam T20 Challenge that he can still tan the hides of bowlers with 202 runs at a strike-rate of 127 and an average of 28. With the likes of AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and David Miller batting above him, South Africa can be bullish about the hitting power they will bring to Bangladesh.

“When you look at his experience, we all know what Albie has done in the past; the conditions we’ll be playing in, he’s played in the sub-continent for a long time and done well; and his domestic form, he’s a great finisher to bat behind David Miller at 7; then it was an easy decision,” selection convenor Andrew Hudson said yesterday.

Despite his international career seemingly being over, Morkel did not allow the disappointment to curdle his work ethic or ambition and he put in plenty of hard work to ensure he was one of the Titans’ stars as they claimed a couple of last-ditch victories to make the T20 Challenge playoffs, where they lost to the eventual champions, the Dolphins.

“I’m excited about being back, it’s something that wasn’t part of my plans at the start of the season. I put in the hard work, but that doesn’t always guarantee success. My mindset has changed and I’ve learnt to let go of the disappointment that comes with the territory in my role: You need to make a play and score quick runs under pressure, and the success rate of the best finishers is around 50/50. So you have to understand that you’re going to have more disappointments than successes,” Morkel told The Pretoria News.

Morkel has effectively taken the place of fellow Titans all-rounder David Wiese, who endured a wretched T20 Challenge, but there was also good news for Farhaan Behardien, who returns to the national squad after a great run in the domestic competition. The 30-year-old was the sixth highest run-scorer with 288 at a strike-rate of 129 and an average of 36.

Behardien is another man who has bounced back after being dished up disappointment by the national selectors following a dreadful ODI series in Sri Lanka in the middle of last year, when he scored just three runs in three innings.

“I was a little bit disappointed to not be in the mix against Pakistan because I felt I still had something to offer in the T20s. But I’ve learnt from my experiences in Sri Lanka and I’m enjoying the responsibility of generally batting anywhere between three and six for the Titans and trying to manage the innings,” Behardien said.

Those activists striving for a more representative national team will be pleased that two Black Africans have made the cut in Highveld Lions bowlers Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Aaron Phangiso, while Quinton de Kock and Imran Tahir were also chosen from the struggling Southern Gauteng franchise.

The Mumbai Indians were clearly not the only ones to be impressed by Cape Cobras speedster Beuran Hendricks, as he received his first call-up to the national squad days after receiving an IPL contract.

Captain Faf du Plessis said the Proteas were now blessed with plenty of bowling options, with another left-arm quick in Wayne Parnell joining the established duo of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

“Beuran is right up there in terms of skill and he brings a lot of variety. Our fast bowlers have been very successful in the sub-continent plus we have good options in our spinners, with JP bowling very well at the moment and I can also turn my arm over if need be,” Du Plessis said.

Hendricks forced his way into the squad by taking a record 28 wickets, at an economy rate of marginally over 7 in the T20 Challenge and Hudson said he had the ability to both strike up front and bowl at the death.

Morkel is going to be a key figure for South Africa at the death when it comes to batting and he said it was a daunting challenge he was looking forward to.

“There’s always pressure in that role whether you’re playing for Tukkies or the Titans, and I look forward to it. In those conditions, it’s very difficult to bat at the end of the innings, it’s easier against the new ball. You’re often up against lots of spin and slower balls, with the wicketkeeper up, so you can’t use the pace of the ball.

“I’ve been working on ways to get off strike otherwise the opposition can put you under pressure early on,” Morkel said.

Experienced 20/20 coach Dave Nosworthy said on Monday that South Africa’s failure to settle on a batting order had been a major factor in their disappointing early exit from the ICC World T20 competition in Sri Lanka.

South Africa lost all three of their Super 8s games to leave Sri Lanka as also-rans, despite being the number one ranked team in the world heading into the tournament.

The batting failed to fire, with the top-order having a dismal time and the likes of AB de Villiers floating around in the order and not getting enough time to stamp his mark on the innings.

“The big worry for me, looking from the outside, was that we didn’t seem to know what our best combination was. I think that we had the right players there, so I’m not blaming selection, but there wasn’t enough consistency or continuity in the batting order, but also in the bowling roles,” Nosworthy told Business Day on Monday.

“The guys didn’t seem to know what role they should play because they were in different positions all the time, they hadn’t spent long enough in specific roles.”

Nosworthy, who led the Highveld Lions to Champions League T20 qualification but is coaching Sri Lankan champions Uva in the tournament starting this week in Gauteng and has also had stints  with Canterbury, the Titans and the Punjab Kings XI, said that the confusion badly impacted on the performances of De Villiers and Kallis, probably South Africa’s two best batsmen.

“AB has to bat in the top three, he opened the batting as a youngster under me and kept wicket. He played freely then and, although he does an important job in the middle-order, someone else can do that and he can dominate from the outset.

“Kallis should not be batting three, he should have opened as he does in the IPL with very great success in similar conditions. We know he’s good enough and he’s better batting up front, the IPL proved that,” Nosworthy said.

The well-travelled coach was also highly critical of the death bowling issue, which he said receives a lot of airtime in South Africa, but nothing seems to be done about it.

“For 10 years we’ve been saying we don’t have any death bowlers, but you can talk until you’re blue in the face, nothing gets done about it. They’re not going to fall out of heaven. Death bowlers need to be identified and told ‘that’s your job, now stick with it’.

“I know he’s injured at the moment, but a year ago, Rusty Theron should of been told that he’s a death bowler and make him a specialist at it. Charl Langeveldt used to just bowl at boots all day and became a very good death bowler for South Africa.

“Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn can do it, but their job is more as strike bowlers, to take wickets. I point fingers at the players, because someone should identify that death bowling is a weak area in South African cricket and say ‘I can do it’.

“You’ve got to train yourself for the job, that’s what being a professional is about. That’s how Lasith Malinga became great, he trained himself for that role,” Nosworthy said.

On the positive side, Nosworthy said the spirit in the team appeared to be good.

“There looked to be a good sense in the side and for that Gary Kirsten deserves credit for gelling them together. They weren’t necessarily a unit in terms of role-definition, but they looked happy and they were always competitive.

“The performances of Robbie Peterson, who played really well, and Dale Steyn, who was brilliant, were the real positives.”

The experienced Nosworthy added, however, that the outlook was mostly positive for South African cricket.

“It’s easy to be critical when they’ve lost, but there’s a good crop of youngsters there with Morne Morkel, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis and I think Robin Peterson will play a few more years too. They should all be around for the next few world cups, we just need to keep the group together and let them get to know their roles,” Nosworthy said.

New Zealand, with a batting order more suited to drudgery than chasing down a daunting target, slumped to a 13-run defeat at the hands of Pakistan in their ICC World T20 match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

: http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1594491

The Black Caps were chasing 178 for victory, but with off-spinner Saeed Ajmal producing all his fancy toys and taking 4-30, they finished on 164 for nine.

New Zealand were undone by their decision to bat Ross Taylor as low as number six and, even though he blasted 26 off 11 balls, by the time he came in he had been left with too much to do.

Brendon McCullum could not find the fluency of his previous innings – the highest ever in T20 internationals – and scored 32 off 31 balls, with four fours and a six.

As expected, it was Pakistan’s spinners who undermined the New Zealand batting by taking wickets and restricting the run-rate. Apart from Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez was outstanding, conceding just 15 runs in four overs and Shahid Afridi broke the opening stand and took 1-30.

New Zealand made a solid start to their chase with openers Rob Nicol (33) and Kane Williamson (15) adding 53 in 6.4 overs before Nicol was bowled by Afridi due to poor shot selection.

An impatient Williamson was run out in the next over and New Zealand then promoted Daniel Vettori to number four in the order. The left-hander may have added 48 for the third wicket with McCullum, but they took until the 15th over to do it, admittedly in the face of some top-class spin bowling.

A brief flurry from Taylor, who hit three fours and a six, gave New Zealand a chance but their hopes died when the captain was run out trying to steal a second run to long-on, brothers Umar and Kamran Akmal pulling off a brilliant double-play.

Pakistan’s batsmen also continued their impressive form this year as they posted a convincing 177 for six in their 20 overs after being sent in to bat.

Their top-order flakiness seems to have been lost a long time ago as captain Hafeez and Imran Nazir (25 off 16) put on 47 in 5.4 overs.

Hafeez went on to score 43 from 38 balls, but the innings of the day came from Nasir Jamshed, who used smart footwork and wonderful wrists to blaze 56 off 35 balls, with two fours and four sixes.

The top-order had powered Pakistan to 105 for one after 11 overs and New Zealand did well to restrict them to just 72 more runs in the last nine overs.

Left-arm spinner Vettori did the most to peg Pakistan back, inducing Jamshed to hole out to a tumbling Nathan McCullum at long-on and bowling his last two overs for just nine runs to finish with1-23.

Tim Southee and Jacob Oram each took two wickets to further restrict the 2009 champions, but Umar Akmal (23 off 15) and Afridi (12 off six) provided a late boost to give Pakistan a match-winning score.

South Africa went hard at Sri Lanka and hammered them by 32 runs in their rain-reduced ICC World T20 match at Hambantota on Saturday.

: http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1593311

With rain delaying the start of play for two-and-a-half hours, the match was reduced to a faintly ridiculous seven overs a side, but it didn’t stop South Africa from playing with the same intensity as in their overwhelming opening victory over Zimbabwe.

Captain AB de Villiers led the way with the bat, plundering 30 off 13 balls as he lifted them to 78 for four after they had lost the toss and been sent in to bat.

South Africa’s much-vaunted new-ball pair of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel then had Sri Lanka’s batsmen in immediate submission. There was no question of them treating the batsmen with kid gloves as they bowled with aggression and control to leave the hosts on 13 for two after three overs and out of the contest.

South Africa have some weighty decisions to make at the top of their batting order, but Hashim Amla again did a good job opening the batting, scoring 16 off nine balls, with three fours.

Richard Levi scored 4 off four balls but, after a diet of normal seamers from Nuwan Kulasekara, he was then deceived by a back-of-the-hand slower ball and Dilshan Munaweera covered the ground well from midwicket to wide mid-on to take a fine catch.

The loss of Amla, beautifully stumped down the leg side by Kumar Sangakkara off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, at the end of the third over brought De Villiers to the crease and he was quickly away, hitting a four and two sixes, but also using the size of the outfield well with cleverly-placed shots that saw him collect two runs on five occasions. He and Faf du Plessis, and then JP Duminy, also kept the pressure on the Sri Lankan fielders with excellent running between the wickets.

Du Plessis found batting more of a challenge and could score just 13 runs off 11 balls, but Duminy went to 12 not out off five balls with ease, suggesting he should have batted number three instead of the out-of-form Titan.

The left-hander also gave the innings a wonderful finish as he scooped Thisara Perera for four and then drove the last ball straight back over the bowler’s head for a magnificent six.

With Ajantha Mendis allegedly resting a side strain (the mystery spinner is more likely just being kept hidden from the Proteas until the knockout stages), Lasith Malinga was Sri Lanka’s only truly top-class bowler, but he had a difficult time, conceding 27 runs in his two overs.

Morkel and Steyn then came tearing in with the ball as Sri Lanka made a sorry start to their run-chase, with Tillakaratne Dilshan suffering the agony of being run out without facing a ball.

The match situation was tailor-made for the hard-hitting opener, but he was back on his heels as Mahela Jayawardena called for a quick single and De Villiers was able to turn a wayward throw into a run out with some brilliant work behind the stumps.

Jayawardena struggled to four off six balls before flicking Steyn high to deep square-leg and Sangakkara came to the crease with the required run-rate already 14.20 runs per over.

Sangakkara tried some wild sallies but his only boundary in scoring 13 off 11 balls was via a classic cover drive off Johan Botha.

One of the world’s greatest batsman was removed by the grand old man of the South African team, Jacques Kallis, who bowled a marvellous over that could easily have gained him two more wickets.

The pace of Steyn then accounted for Thisara Perera (1) and Munaweera, who looked out of his depth in scoring 13 off 14 balls, fell in the final over, bowled by Albie Morkel.

Sri Lanka ended their seven overs on 46 for five and suffered a massive defeat for such a truncated game.

Steyn finished with magnificent figures of 2-10 in his two overs and Morne Morkel conceded just nine runs in his pair of overs up front, and they are giving South Africa an edge in helpful conditions that gives them penetration and makes run-scoring difficult.