Ken Borland

The DP World Lions men’s team will welcome back pace bowler Lutho Sipamla from international duty for their CSA 4-Day Series match against World Sports Betting Western Province in Johannesburg, starting on Thursday.

Having gathered 36.68 points from their two matches so far, the DP World Lions are in third place on the log, but very well-placed, just 2.70 points behind the leaders, the North-West Dragons, who have played an extra game.

The DP World Lions played the Dragons in their previous match, coming away from Potchefstroom with a draw due to weather interruptions and a flat pitch.

But #ThePrideOfJozi will now be back at the DP World Wanderers Stadium, where they convincingly beat the Northerns Titans in their opening game. Sipamla took four for 83 in the first innings of that match and the Bullring has been a happy hunting ground for the seamer, with 35 wickets in nine matches there, at an average of 25.25.

Although the DP World Lions were shaded by less than a point in the bonus point battle last week in Potchefstroom, coach Russell Domingo said there were a lot of positives to be drawn from the contest.

“I thought we played really well, the bowling in particular was excellent,” Domingo said, “I thought the discipline was fantastic and the energy in the field was also there. North-West have also been playing good cricket lately.”

One of the stars of both #ThePrideOfJozi’s opening games has been all-rounder Bjorn Fortuin, who has scored back-to-back centuries. Against both the Titans and North-West, the 30-year-old has come to the crease with his team in tough situations, but he has made it seem as if he was batting on the beach, scoring 116 off just 95 deliveries in the win over their Gauteng neighbours, as well as taking three wickets in the second innings as the Titans were bowled out for just 156; and then he made 120 off 140 balls in Potchefstroom.

“Bjorn has been our four-day player of the season for two seasons in a row and he’s a fantastic bowler and a batsman with great ability too,” Domingo said. “He’s a really dangerous cricketer and an amazing character, feisty and tough. Technically, he’s playing very well too and I’m ecstatic for him because he’s the guy you want in your team when you are in trouble. I would want him in every team I coach,” Domingo said.

Seam-bowling all-rounder Wiaan Mulder will not be available against Western Province as he will be heading to the coast for the Proteas’ two Tests against Sri Lanka in Durban and Gqeberha.

Sipamla will no doubt pick up his overs, while young Mohammed Manack will come in to replace Mulder the batsman.

“Western Province will also be losing players like Kyle Verreynne, David Bedingham, Dane Paterson and Tony de Zorzi to the Test team, so they will have a few changes. But they are always a highly talented team, they gave us an amazing game in the five-day final last season and they beat us in the T20 this season. So we know it’s going to be tough against them, they have become a side that knows how to win,” Domingo said.

Dirkie Chamberlain endured three-and-a-half tough years in the international hockey wilderness, but when the 37-year-old runs on to the park on Sunday for South Africa’s opening match of the Olympic Games, against perpetual gold medal contenders Australia, it will complete a remarkable comeback for the seasoned goal-scorer.

It is a personal triumph for Chamberlain, because she was overlooked for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, despite having 241 caps and having scored 65 goals for the South African women’s senior outdoor team. But suddenly last November she was back in the picture, called up by returning coach Giles Bonnet, who guided the team from 2010-2014, for two Tests against Germany. Having just turned 37, she ended a relatively lucrative career with HGC in Holland and returned to South Africa to push for her second Olympic Games, having played in 2012 in London.

“I’ve had a couple of setbacks in my career since the 2012 Olympics and I just really wanted to go there again, because it is the pinnacle of hockey and was always my dream,” Chamberlain told Rapport. “I had to give myself the opportunity again, otherwise I knew I would regret it once I’ve retired. So I’m really happy to be in Paris!

“And Giles Bonnet coming back to coach was one of the reasons I came back and worked really hard to get back in the national team. I had worked with Giles before and I knew the strength he would bring to the team. We couldn’t ask for a better coach, he has coached the China, Belgium and Canada national teams. And he has also worked with lots of other top coaches.

“So I’m just super-happy he’s coaching us, we’re lucky to have him. That’s what you need if you’re playing in the Olympics – the best. We don’t have the resources and sponsors that push other teams like the top four, but Giles is so passionate and he gives us a sense of calm and belief,” Chamberlain said.

The hurt of being rejected for so long, despite being one of the country’s best ever strikers, was channelled into improving her body and mentality; her ‘other’ career as a fitness instructor has certainly helped Chamberlain prolong her career and give her an unlikely second bite at the Olympics.

“I pride myself on my fitness and keep my body as healthy as I can,” Chamberlain said. “It’s about being the best you can be physically and mentally. Having the right mindset and work ethic definitely helps me keep playing. A lot of players get injured when they are past 30 and that’s when their career ended.

“I find it’s the small details that really help and I spend so much time in the gym to prevent injury. It’s also to maintain my strength and I also watch my nutrition. If you are going to stay at this level, then you have to keep up with the youngsters and the energy they have.

“So I have to put in extra work because mobility and stretching are so important if I’m going to still be able to compete with the strongest and the fastest,” Chamberlain said.

The Pretoria-born Chamberlain will also be helping the youngsters in the squad to get through the whole Olympic experience, which can be daunting, given the crowds will be the biggest they have ever played for.

“With my previous experience at the Olympics, I know what to expect. It’s going to be a packed stadium and you can hardly hear each other, it could be distracting. So we have to focus on that more in our preparation and I will help the others in the team who don’t know what it’s going to be like. We just need to stay calm and shut out the noise, and at least we know what’s coming,” Chamberlain said.

South Africa, ranked 18^th, have been placed in a pool with four teams who sit in the top-10 of the world rankings – Argentina, Australia, Great Britain and Spain.

“Any pool in the Olympics is going to be tough and we have prepared the best we can in Belgium, against the right opposition, like China. The focus was on our weaknesses and our strengths.

“At the Olympics, every team is so on form because this is what they have been planning for, but anything can happen. We’ve focused on what we can control, like working on our structure,” Chamberlain said.

South Africa’s men’s team may also find the going tough in their pool, but their tenacity was shown when they pushed the Netherlands, the world’s number one team, hard on Saturday before going down 5-3. Matches against Great Britain tonight, Germany, Spain and France follow this week, but ace defender Andrew Hobson is confident of their chances.

“We’re definitely not here just to participate, our goal is to get out of our pool and into the knockouts. The teams there have probably beaten us eight times out of 10, but we have beaten them a couple of times. So they know if they don’t turn up then they could be in for a rude awakening,” the Stellenbosch University product Hobson said.

“We have a wealth of experience in our team and lots of pace, so we can draw on that. We are almost known for our counter-attack, so teams give us a bit more respect these days and don’t dismiss us as lightly.

“The Olympics is of course a different challenge, it takes a little while to sink in, but we are confident we’re able to keep the ball and manipulate space as well, we are a more rounded team these days,” the Paul Roos Gymnasium educated Hobson said.

South African batting star Heinrich Klaasen hopes the impact sub rule used in the Indian Premier League never makes its way into international cricket, saying it negates the need for “smart batting”.

Klaasen steered the Proteas to victory in their opening T20 World Cup match in New York, a meagre target of 78 still requiring the batsmen to be at their sharpest on a treacherous pitch that saw the facilities at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium being criticised for producing a game that lacked entertainment value as the International Cricket Council seeks to reach new markets.

It was all a far cry from the recent IPL, in which strike-rates and totals reached all-time highs. Klaasen, the key finisher for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, had to play clever cricket against Sri Lanka on a pitch with inconsistent but often steep bounce, and plenty of seam movement, finishing with 19 not out off 22 balls.

It was the sort of match that would have been near-impossible in the IPL with the impact sub rule allowing teams to bolster their batting line-up while not weakening their bowling attack. Klaasen told SportsBoom that he would not like to see the international game adopt the gimmick.

“The impact sub rule allowed batsmen to play with much more freedom and the execution was at a different level on pitches that were good. In the IPL, you are measured by the number of sixes you hit and your strike-rate, that’s your bread-and-butter and no-one worries about your average,” Klaasen said.

“But I hope the impact sub does not come into international cricket. It frees up the batting side too much and you can have a batsman at number nine with it, so there’s no need for anyone to hang around.

“It takes away the creativity of batting, it takes away smart batting. Like when Jos Buttler scored a superb century off 60 balls for Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders to chase down 224, having scored just 25 off his first 18 deliveries. The impact sub will take away that sort of brilliance to sum up conditions and hang around a bit, against just bombing the ball over small boundaries.

“It will allow teams to not play the situation so well. We also don’t get a lot of difficult pitches in the IPL, which is why the way teams go extremely hard in the powerplay is the big trend, and then the middle-order adjusts depending on whether you’re in trouble or flying,” Klaasen said.

While South Africa started their T20 World Cup campaign in impressive fashion against Sri Lanka, Lady Luck has not always been on their side in ICC events and they are yet to win one of the main trophies. Klaasen says the number of players they have with experience in the high-pressure IPL arena has helped them perform better in recent World Cups.

“We’ve got off to a very good start which means we can relax a bit and just keep building on that confidence. We need to focus on what we do best and keep that intensity.

“But the Netherlands have beaten us twice and Bangladesh can beat any team on their day, so we need to play the big moments well in those games.

“We’ve matured and gelled nicely as a team and a lot of the guys have played in the IPL, where there is a lot of pressure and expectation. We have been playing good World Cup cricket lately. Of the last three World Cups, we’ve only had one bad one, the 2022 T20 in Australia when we didn’t play well.

“But in Abu Dhabi in the 2021 T20 we only lost one out of five matches but missed out on the semi-finals on nett run-rate, and last year in India in the ODI World Cup, we played some unbelievable cricket to reach the semi-finals,” Klaasen said.

Ability and Humility 

Lungi Ngidi (2014, Newnham) 

There were no baby steps for the richly talented Lungi Ngidi as he bounded from the playing fields of Hilton College to the international stage. 

The tall, imposing Ngidi quickly became one of the world’s premier fast bowlers, making his T20 debut as a 20-year-old and then his Test debut a year later. 

And, at the tender age of 24, he went where most would hesitate to venture, quietly and courageously backing the Black Lives Matter movement and helping the Proteas down the path of racial harmony.  

Ngidi’s endeavours have been remarkable considering that, in his own words, he has “a very humble background”.  

His parents worked at Kloof Primary School, Bongi as a domestic worker and Jerome in maintenance, but it was their son’s sporting talent which secured his future and won him scholarships first to Highbury and then Hilton College.   

Signed by the Titans on leaving Hilton, Ngidi was man-of-the-match on his T20 debut against Sri Lanka in 2017. A year later, on Test debut, he picked up the award again, taking six for 39 in India’s second innings as the Proteas won the series.

The cricket world sat up and Ngidi has continued to be a regular mainstay of the Proteas team, representing them well over 100 times across the three formats.

Ngidi’s career has been crammed with awards and accolades, and, all the while, those closest to him have admired both his ability and humility.

His first national captain, Faf du Plessis, said “it is obvious that Lungi is a very special, humble human being”. Ngidi himself pays tribute to Hilton College for forming and shaping the exceptional cricketer and person he has become.

“I would never have been able to do what I’ve done were it not for the amazing opportunities I received at school. It’s a great honour for me to have attended Hilton College and I’m very grateful that they saw value in me. Thanks to them, I was able to meet lots of people from different walks of life, which has meant a lot to me.

“In terms of my cricket, the school gave me lots of opportunities and I was fortunate to have someone like Shane Gaffney, who really helped me to believe in my ability, and amazing coaches like Neil Johnson, who helped kickstart my career because he knew what it took to play international cricket,” Ngidi says.