Ken Borland

The shock retirement of Lizelle Lee and the continued injury problems of Shabnim Ismail have left two big holes in the South African Women’s cricket team ahead of the first ODI against England in Northampton on Monday, but such misfortunes provide great opportunities for other players, captain Sune Luus said.

Opening batter Lee retired with immediate effect on Friday, with the ODI series against England mere days away, which can only have been disruptive to the Proteas’ plans.

Fast bowler Ismail, meanwhile, has still not fully recovered from the calf injury which ruled her out of the historic Test against England two weeks ago.

“Lizelle’s retirement came as a bit of a shock, but we all respect her decision, she has given eight years of service to her country and she has obviously got her reasons,” Luus said on Sunday.

“Shabnim is still recovering from her calf injury, but she will be ready to go soon. These are big losses, but they provide big opportunities. There are a lot of spots in the team coming up now.

“We will have a young top four, but they are all excited about what they can bring to the table. It’s a big opportunity for them, it’s the start of their careers and what they make of it is up to them.

“They have been phenomenal for us lately, putting crucial runs on the board. The work they’re doing behind the scenes is great to see. It’s the energy the team needs to go forward,” Luus said.

England, runners-up in the World Cup in the summer, are a top-class ODI outfit and Luus knows the batters will face a particularly tough test against an attack spearheaded by Sophie Ecclestone, the No.1 ranked bowler in women’s ODIs.

“Sophie is No.1 in the world for a reason, she can control the game and strike,” Luus said. “So we will just try to rotate off her, get as many runs as we can, without boosting her ego or giving her a sniff.

“If it’s a bad ball then we must put it away, but we don’t want to give her anything. England will come hard at us and we need to be consistent for longer periods.

“Our semi-final loss to them at the World Cup puts in perspective how much we want to win this series. We had a lot of opportunities in that semi-final which we just did not take, otherwise the game could have gone a whole other way.

“We want to make sure we take every chance this time and not give them that satisfaction again,” Luus said.

·Play starts at 3pm SA time.

Anrich Nortje is the rapidly improving fast bowler who won the Newcomer of the Year award last season for the Proteas, and now on Monday night he was crowned the overall Player of the Year. And the 27-year-old just wants to be the bowler who keeps hitting the top of off stump more than anyone else.

As well as being named the SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year,  Nortje took the titles of Test Cricketer of the Year and the Fans’ Player of the Year, and also shared the prestigious Players’ Player of the Year award with Aiden Markram.

“I was not thinking about winning four awards after such an up-and-down season with Covid and not playing a lot of games. I had a decent season but I’m just very happy to be part of the awards again. I’m quite happy with how I progressed, there were just moments here and there where I needed to lift. I’ve had a short career but there have been a lot of highlights in the Tests.

“I’m looking forward to building on that momentum and I’m very excited about going to the West Indies. I’ve heard a lot of good stories about the place, but I’m not sure if it will suit fast bowling. When you know the conditions aren’t going to suit you, then you just have to concentrate extra hard on the basics, try and hit the top of off stump as often as possible,” Nortje said.

Fellow fast bowler Shabnim Ismail was the SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year and she also sounded like someone who had passed their exams, acknowledging that the 2020/21 season had been a testing one. She was also voted the Players’ Player of the Year and the T20 Cricketer of the Year.

“I’m truly happy with the awards because they show all the hard work behind the scenes has paid off. I was really happy with my performances and I’m just really grateful and happy to win these awards. I put in the hard yards, I was getting career-bests and I’ve done well for the team. I was chuffed with my performances and happy overall.

“I have to give credit to my team-mates because I could not do it without them and our new strength and conditioning coach has helped with my loads and our whole management team is just so positive. We wanted to portray ourselves as a different South African team and I think we did that in the last two series against Pakistan and India. And now hopefully we can win the World Cup,” Ismail said.

Cricket South Africa acting CEO Pholetsi Moseki declared his delight on Monday night as fast bowlers Anrich Nortje and Shabnim Ismail were named as CSA’s men’s and women’s players of the year.

Ismail won the award for a second time, following her triumph in 2015, and joins Marizanne Kapp (twice) and Dane van Niekerk (three times) as the only multiple winners of the main women’s award.

Nortje claimed the Player of the Year honours just a season after being named Newcomer of the Year, the first player to achieve this feat.

“Genuine fast bowling remains one of the great and thrilling sights of our game and we are indeed blessed to continue to produce world leaders in this demanding skill. Anrich and Shabnim have set the highest standards that we expect from our icon Proteas players.

“Anrich’s international career to date has been remarkable. In the space of a year he has gone from being named our International Newcomer of the Year to our overall Player of the Year – an incredible achievement. The pandemic has restricted him to just 10 Test matches to date in which he has taken 39 wickets, including three five-wicket hauls, and his strike rate of 48.50 is comfortably within the world’s leading bowlers.

“Shabnim is the fastest bowler on the women’s international circuit, and she has been the leader of our Proteas attack for a long time now. She is the only South African to have taken 100 wickets in the T20 International format and she recently passed the significant landmark of 150 wickets in ODI cricket. She has played a huge role in enabling our Proteas to break into the top group of countries,” Moseki said in a statement released after the virtual awards were announced on social media.

Nortje was also voted Test Cricketer of the Year, SA Fans’ Player of the Year and shared the Players’ Player of the Year honour with Aiden Markram, while another pace bowler, Wiaan Mulder, was given the Delivery of the Year award for his dismissal of Kusal Mendis, caught by Rassie van der Dussen (who was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year), in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

Ismail also enjoyed a feast of awards, claiming the T20 Cricketer of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year prizes.

Lizelle Lee (ODI Cricketer of the Year) and Tabraiz Shamsi (T20 Player of the Year) were also the cream of the crop in the white-ball formats after seasons filled with runs and wickets respectively.

Adrian Holdstock was once again the Umpire of the Year.

The domestic awards were asymmetrically lopsided in favour of the Dolphins, who claimed five of the eight honours with Keshav Maharaj named both Most Valuable Player and Players’ Player of the Year.

Award winners

SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year:                                                        Anrich Nortje

SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year:                                                Shabnim Ismail

Test Cricketer of the Year:                                                                 Anrich Nortje

One-Day International Cricketer of the Year:                  Rassie van der Dussen

T20 International Cricketer of the Year:                                       Tabraiz Shamsi

Momentum Proteas One-Day International Cricketer of the Year:  Lizelle Lee

Proteas T20 International Cricketer of the Year:                        Shabnim Ismail

SA Men Players’ Player of the Year:                Aiden Markram & Anrich Nortje

SA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year:                                      Shabnim Ismail

SA Fans’ Player of the Year:                                                              Anrich Nortje

KFC Streetwise Award:                           Lizelle Lee        (innings of 132 v India)

CSA Delivery of the Year: Wiaan Mulder (v Kusal Mendis, SA v SL, 2^nd Test)

International Newcomer of the Year:                                               George Linde

Women’s International Newcomer of the Year:                              Black Day kit

For the South African Women’s team, their first bit of post-Covid action may well only come in September, but their leading wicket-taker, Shabnim Ismail, says she is champing at the bit to get back on the field with her Proteas team-mates.

And the thing she misses most about playing for the Proteas is the family atmosphere.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) revealed earlier this week that they are making “positive progress” on scheduling a tri-series with India and South Africa and how they can best host it in the safest way possible. The Women’s Proteas were originally scheduled to play two T20s against England in the first week of September and then move on to a four-match ODI series also featuring India. The ECB have said they are committed to still having those fixtures and they may yet be able to play them in their original slot.

“Coming back from the T20 World Cup, where I still believe we would have made the final if the rain hadn’t come against Australia, we were looking forward to hosting the Aussies in our own backyard. Instead we had to spend three months at home, which is really tough as a cricketer. I miss our family, which is the Proteas women’s team. Soon hopefully we will be able to start training.

“Those fortunate enough to have a gym at home were able to still train and having Trisha Chetty with me, I have a wicketkeeper to at least bowl to every day, but it’s still not the same as nets. I really miss it and the team environment, for the last couple of years we have seen each other every month. It’s all very different from when I started playing for the Proteas in 2007 when I was still very young [18],” Ismail, who was named CSA’s Women’s T20 Cricketer of the Year at the weekend, said in a teleconference.

Ismail is one of the fastest bowlers in the global women’s game, getting into the 120s in terms of speed, and has a phenomenal record with 136 wickets in 98 ODIs and 99 scalps in 92 T20s. Now heading for her 32^nd birthday, she is confident that her career is far from done. As befits someone who always looks really ready for a scrap on the field, the Cape Town product says she modelled herself on Andre Nel’s aggression, if not the occasional red mist that used to descend on the fiery fast bowler from the East Rand.

“I chose the same No.89 on my Proteas shirt because I loved Andre Nel’s aggression and passion. Dale Steyn is also a role-model because he is a fighting character as I am. To be a fighter is just in a fast bowler’s character. I’m turning 32 but I still believe I have a good couple of years left, if I keep fit and nobody sees what you do behind the scenes. But I believe in my skill and ability,” Ismail said.