Ken Borland

The Titans bowling attack might have been figuratively armed with water pistols for most of last season, but Dayyaan Galiem and his swing bowling was the exception as the all-rounder brought an exciting new dimension to the team in his first season after moving from the Cape.

Galiem was their leading four-day wicket-taker last season with 21 scalps, while he also took 11 Momentum One-Day Cup wickets, second only to spinner Imraan Manack. Add in 310 four-day runs at an average of 25.83 with two half-centuries and the 23-year-old was a worthy recipient of the Titans’ First-Class Player of the Season, Newcomer, and Player of the Year awards on Thursday night.

“I was very surprised to be given the new ball and to become one of the leaders of the attack, but I loved the challenge. I prefer the new ball because it moves around a bit more, although there is pressure that comes with that. I learnt how to control the ball better and the more confidence you have, the more you can show your skill. I do regard myself as a swing bowler, but I would also like to improve my pace.

“I was working on getting more energy on the ball and trying to get it to swing later, and I found that once I got my speed up and hit the deck hard then I was getting late swing, which makes it more challenging for the batsmen. When you’re not confident and not sure where the ball is going, then you tend to just stick to one thing, but the more situations I’m in, the more I learn and the better I can deal with them,” Galiem told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Nobody can be sure who first coined the phrase that partnerships win matches, but in terms of his batting, Galiem is not satisfied to have merely contributed to some crucial lower-order stands and next season he wants to go big.

“Batting was more of a challenge, just adapting to the level of cricket because I played just the one four-day game for the Cobras before coming to the Titans. I had a lot of starts, some good partnerships, a couple of big ones. But I would like to kick on and get hundreds, going into next season I want to improve my batting a lot and score big hundreds.

“I’m happy with how my first season went, but I was not satisfied with my batting and I know I can do better. I want to be more consistent with the bat and score bigger runs. I was really happy with my bowling but I also want to have more consistency of intensity with the ball, bowl better spells and trouble the batsmen for longer periods,” Galiem said.

It is hard to believe that the youngster who arrived at Centurion as a highly-rated all-rounder but with little franchise experience behind him, is now the collector of three Titans awards including the biggest of the lot. But Galiem clearly has the talent and belief to make sure his move to the Titans continues to be a huge success.

“When I came into the side I was a bit worried about performing, I had the pressure of coming from a different province and wanting to do well. I felt I had a lot to prove, but the guys were very welcoming, they made it a lot easier and I felt part of the team immediately, so big thanks to them. Obviously it was still nervewracking though and hopefully I will just get better and better now.

“I feel like my game has improved a lot. But when I arrived I just hoped for an opportunity. I believed in myself and I learnt patience from playing three-day cricket. I was very nervous at the start and I felt nervous every game. But I just tried to keep things simple, do the basics for a long period of time and it worked out. Cricket seems so complicated but the team that does the simple things best usually comes out on top,” Galiem said.

Cricket will return to South Africa on Saturday as a new format of the game debuts at SuperSport Park in Centurion when 3TCricket is launched with a match between three teams featuring the best local talent available, and the Proteas’ No.1 limited-overs spinner Tabraiz Shamsi believes it will not only add a fun new dimension to the game but also broaden the thinking of cricketers.

3TCricket involves three teams of eight competing with each other at the same time, with each team batting for six overs against each opponent. A total of 36 overs – 12 overs per side – will be played after the action gets underway, broadcast live by SuperSport, from 11am.

The players had a practice game on Thursday and Shamsi said there was confusion at first but they had ultimately enjoyed the experience and he sees future prospects for the format.

“With all the different rules we didn’t know what to expect and it was confusing at first. But it’s exciting and none of the players had anything negative to say about it. I just see it basically as you bat and bowl twice, six overs an innings. It brings a different way of seeing things tactically, like with the team with the worst score after the first innings batting last second time round, so they are still in the game.

“The format gets us thinking in other ways which can only be good. When T20 started, people were thinking it was a joke, just go out there and hit the ball, but now we see there is so much strategy in T20 cricket. Having not played for four months, you can’t expect the players to be at the levels they would normally be at, but hopefully this format does see more matches because it is fun,” Shamsi told Saturday Citizen on Friday.

Even though spinners have subsequently become key weapons in T20 cricket, Shamsi said 3TCricket is going to be tough for all bowlers but especially his slow-bowling ilk.

“It’s going to be very difficult for bowlers, especially spinners, and especially at SuperSport Park where it has traditionally been very hard to defend. There are only six fielders so of course you are going to go for runs. In our practice match teams were scoring 80-90 runs per six overs, so as a spinner if you’re going for 15-runs-an over I think you’re doing okay.

“I think the best strategy is to try and take wickets because batsmen can only bat once between the two games, so they also have to be a bit careful. The best way is still to strike because you probably won’t be able to defend anyway because there are so many gaps in the field. And bowling only three overs makes it hard too because as a spinner you only get in your groove after an over or two,” Shamsi said.

Squads

Kites: Quinton de Kock (captain), Temba Bavuma, Jon-Jon Smuts, David Miller, Dwaine Pretorius, Anrich Nortje, Beuran Hendricks, Lutho Sipamla. Coach – Wandile Gwavu.

Kingfishers: Reeza Hendricks, Janneman Malan, Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen (captain), Gerald Coetzee, Thando Ntini, Glenton Stuurman, Tabraiz Shamsi. Coach – Mignon du Preez.

Eagles: Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, AB de Villiers (captain), Kyle Verreynne, Andile Phehlukwayo, Bjorn Fortuin, Junior Dala, Lungi Ngidi. Coach – Geoffrey Toyana.

Geoff Toyana will give his Eagles team his usual shrewd strategic input before the game but the veteran coach knows that the nature of 3TCricket is such that that will only be the tip of the iceberg and captain AB de Villiers will need to be at his sharpest and most flexible if they are to win Saturday’s inaugural unveiling of the new format.

The country’s best 24 available cricketers will return to action in a SuperSport Park bio-bubble and the beloved game will return to our television screens on Saturday in a fundraising match for the cricket industry’s hardship fund. But it will be a version of the sport never seen before as three eight-member teams will battle it out at the same time, each batting for 12 overs in six-over blocks against each of their opponents.

The Eagles, Kingfishers and Kites will get their first sip of 3TCricket on Thursday when they play a practice match, but Toyana is already certain that captains will play the leading role. He has full confidence in his skipper, former Proteas captain De Villiers, who will lock horns with current national limited-overs captain Quinton de Kock (Kites) and ace fast bowler Kagiso Rabada (Kingfishers).

“It’s something new for all of us and we are still finding our strategy, tomorrow [Thursday] is the perfect opportunity to test things out and also sharpen up on the rules. There’s not just one opponent to worry about now but two and you need to be smart in terms of who bowls against who, each bowler only gets three overs, so do you bowl say Lungi Ngidi for two overs against the first team or against the second side?

“There are going to be headaches like that and the last man stands rule in batting is also very exciting. I think the captain is going to be the big player and he needs to get his tactics spot-on. He’ll have to really think on his feet, but fortunately AB is really positive and passionate about this. And he’s hitting the ball extremely well, as good as I’ve ever seen him hit it in fact,” Toyana told The Citizen on Wednesday.

While the Covid-19 restrictions will rob the match of some of its joy, Toyana said the players are all delighted to be playing cricket again.

“It’s just a really good thing to be back on the field again, the sun’s shining and we had really good training. Rassie van der Dussen is also looking good although he keeps wanting to bowl, Andile Phehlukwayo had a good hit too and Bjorn Fortuin was in his element. Lungi Ngidi and Junior Dala have been hard at work here at the Titans for the last two weeks and they are very excited too.

“We will have to observe social distancing of course and there are some strange red lines on the field. Plus the players all use their own balls, which makes it tricky for the coach because you hit one to a player and he ignores it because it’s not his ball! But these are tough times, it’s a charitable cause and the guys all just want to help out,” Toyana said.

Originally, Proteas white-ball spinner Tabraiz Shamsi was the only slow bowler named in the squads, but Highveld Lions star Bjorn Fortuin has subsequently replaced Sisanda Magala, who has pulled out due to a family bereavement. Judging by how spinners were fatally under-rated when T20 first came along, not having a frontline spinner could hurt the chances of the Kites, although Jon-Jon Smuts is far from a part-timer.

“I think this game will be good for spinners as well and I’m glad we’ve got one. And Bjorn is one of the best in the country at controlling the field, we could even use him up front against certain batsmen,” Toyana said.

Lungi Ngidi is not just simply a fitter bowler these days, but a more skilful and canny one as well, and he said on Monday that he will go into the new season with confidence based on how he ended the 2019/20 campaign.

Having burst on to the scene in 2017, Ngidi has endured some frustrating injuries over the last couple of years. He has played just two Tests in the last two years and was only able to play four World Cup matches last year before breaking down again. But the 24-year-old came storming back in limited-overs cricket this year, taking 12 wickets in four ODIs and 13 wickets in six T20 Internationals, winning both the 50-over and 20-over Cricketer of the Year honours at the CSA Awards at the weekend.

“I put a lot of hard work in and I felt I had a point to prove. In ODI cricket I really backed myself and in white-ball cricket I was used as an impact player, trying to take wickets or defend runs, just be versatile and able to bowl in any situation. That has given me a lot of confidence. I know some guys are quicker than me, so I look to produce other skills at certain stages of the game.

“But I was very disappointed not to play more Test cricket and I definitely want to get back into that team. I believe I’ve improved my skills and the mental side of the game. I’m always striving to do well in all three formats, so doing well in Test cricket again is definitely a personal goal of mine. You have to be much more patient in Test cricket though,” Ngidi said in a teleconference on Monday.

While the towering, well-built Durbanite has always been an impressive physical specimen, there have been times when Ngidi has not exactly been a finely-honed athlete, which has also made him more injury-prone and more of a risk for five-day cricket. But he spent much of the second half of 2019 getting into peak physical shape and is certain that his conditioning will now stay at that level, the enforced Covid-19 break helping him to solidify that work over the last three months.

“I just need to continue the work we started last year, it’s about being consistent in training and eating healthily, it’s nothing extraordinary. Going forward, I feel like I’m now in a better position to do well in Test cricket. I feel now that with the conditioning block I’ve done, injury is something that’s now right at the back of the mind, it’s no longer a big deal. If I do happen to get injured again then so be it, I’ll just have to come back again,” Ngidi said.

In the meantime, Ngidi admits that it has been difficult to get his head around some of the protocols required for the return to training.

“It’s been different and difficult. You have to book sessions, train in small groups of no more than five and the bowlers have their own net and balls, gyms have to be sanitized before and after use. It feels weird as a team sport to be doing everything by yourself. We’re being tested regularly, temperatures taken, hand sanitizers everywhere and we have to fill out forms. It’s a whole process before you even bowl a ball but very necessary.”