Ken Borland

A young boy raised by a single mother in an impoverished Port Elizabeth community beset by drug and alcohol abuse is an unlikely candidate to become an opening batsman with five centuries for the world’s number one Test side, but that’s the story of Alviro Petersen.

And the 33-year-old is making sure that other young kids in Gelvandale now have the opportunity to enjoy the same success story through the Alviro Petersen Foundation, which celebrated its first birthday at a fundraising dinner at Randpark Golf Club this week.

It was an elite gathering of three excellent Test opening batsmen in Petersen, Barry Richards and Chris Gayle.

The West Indian has always shown an acute appreciation for the fact that his job as a sportsman is to entertain and he certainly did that in his own inimitable Caribbean style.

But beyond the often raucous humour lay the serious business of changing lives, which the Foundation is certainly already doing.

Their efforts have so far focused on four schools in the northern suburbs of Port Elizabeth – Fontein Primary School, Otto du Plessis and Gelvandale high schools and St Thomas School. Apart from donating cricket kit, the Foundation have also made arrangements for two-dozen children to have their school fees paid and they have contracted Second Chance to deliver substance abuse and life skills programmes.

Petersen himself spoke with great meaning and passion to the couple of hundred supporters and friends of his foundation at the dinner.

“I was a young boy growing up in a poor community, raised by a single mother after my parents split when I was two. It was a community rife with drugs, alcohol and gangsterism and it was never going to be likely that I was going to get to where I am today,” he said.

“But South Africa is a country of the unlikely and when I was eight I said I wanted to play for South Africa. When I was 18, I hopped on a bus for a 20-hour trip to Pretoria, where I had a small contract with a club,” Petersen recalled of his humble beginnings.

“It’s been one year since our launch and we’ve been very busy. We’ve done so much already, but there’s so much more to do. You can find potential in every person and we just want to make sure kids get an adequate education and it’s safe for them to play. Women and children must be safe from abuse and we’re going to focus on that in 2015.

“There are kids who drop out of school because of circumstances beyond their control and we hope we can make their dreams come true as well,” Petersen said.

Perhaps the pick of the stories told, however, was of Ashton Frodsham, a Grade 7 pupil at Beaulieu Prep School, who raised R15 000 in two weeks for KES lightning strike victim Mpheto Bidili and then donated R10 000 to the Alviro Petersen Foundation to buy cricket kit, having asked for donations rather than presents for his 13^th birthday.

It is rare that someone who is still active at international level – and is surely also focused on dealing with the pressure to keep his place – is already giving back to such an extent. Having survived all the early blows that life dished up to him, it is a further mark of Petersen’s character.

For cricketing wisdom, the dinner had Richards, who in his day was up there with Gayle when it came to destroying bowling attacks. The former opening batsman turned commentator said he was puzzled by AB de Villiers not batting higher up the order for South Africa and was concerned about the Proteas’ suspect death bowling.

Chris Morris produced the most economical four-over spell in T20 history as the impressive bizhub Highveld Lions attack was able to tie down the Nashua Cape Cobras batsmen as they defended a total of just 141 and won their RamSlam T20 Challenge match at the Wanderers on Friday night by 47 runs, earning an unlikely bonus point in the process.

The Cobras bowlers had also given an excellent all-round display as they restricted the Lions, who were sent in to bat, to 141 for seven in their 20 overs, but on a good pitch that nevertheless had some life in it for the bowlers, the visiting batsmen were all at sea as they ended on a meagre 94 for nine.

Morris had them on the back foot from the outset as his first two overs from the Golf Course End were maidens and included the key wicket of Richard Levi, who was on the charge having hit Lonwabo Tsotsobe for a six and two fours in the previous over. The 27-year-old then returned to bowl the 18^th and 20^th overs, collecting another maiden and conceding just two runs to finish with magnificent figures of 4-3-2-2.

It is the world record for the least runs conceded in a four-over spell, beating Pakistani Zulfiqar Babar’s 4-2-3-2 for Tigers v Quetta Bears in 2012, and equalled the record for most maidens (3) held by Manpreet Gony (Punjab), Samiullah Khan (Sui Gas) and Duvvarapu Shivkumar (Andhra).

Levi (20) top-edged a swipe to the leg-side straight up and Morris took the responsibility on himself to take the steepling catch and the Lions were on top in the field from then on.

Inspired by Morris, the Lions bowlers performed with an aggressive air throughout and the Cobras only had 42 on the board after seven overs when they lost their other opener, Andrew Puttick (4), when Eddie Leie plucked a drive out of the sky, on the second attempt, off Hardus Viljoen, having raced from deep mid-on to cow-corner.

The next over brought two more wickets as Dwaine Pretorius had Dane Vilas caught behind for a single. If Vilas had actually nicked the wide, full away-swinger or hit the ground, or even if the umpires were entitled to call for a review, were controversial matters, but there was little doubt four balls later when Justin Ontong (2) was strangled down the leg side, Thami Tsolekile taking a fine, low catch.

The Cobras were 47 for four after nine overs, needing 95 runs off 66 balls and if they were going to achieve that, then Kieron Pollard had to do the bulk of the scoring.

Omphile Ramela (30) and Pollard added 29 for the fifth wicket, but they took 5.2 overs to do it and the Lions had an even firmer grip on the game when they removed the pair in successive overs.

Alviro Petersen dashed in with purpose from long-on to catch Ramela off Tsotsobe and Pollard was found wanting against the unorthodox spin of Leie, struggling to 13 off 16 balls before being castled as he tried to loft the bowler back over his head.

That left the Cobras on 82 for six, wanting miracles from the tail with 60 runs required off 27 balls.

Morris returned to write his name into the record books, picking up his second wicket when George Linde (6) stepped across his stumps and was bowled.

While the glory went to Morris, enormous credit also needs to go to the other bowlers: Tsotsobe (4-0-28-1, including 17 off his second over), Pretorius (4-0-24-2), Viljoen (an outstanding 4-1-12-2) and Leie (4-0-22-1).

The Lions managed to get off to a solid start, despite the absence of Chris Gayle, laid low by a sore back, thanks to his replacement, Rassie van der Dussen.

He and Petersen took the Lions to 43 in the seventh over before left-arm wrist-spinner Linde produced a beauty to have Petersen stumped for 18.

The ball was only sporadically coming out of the middle of Van der Dussen’s bat – and he survived the simplest of chances to Mthokozisi Shezi at third man off Dane Paterson on four. But the determination of the opener and the experience of Neil McKenzie (also badly dropped by Shezi off Linde on 3) saw the Lions reach 95 for two in the 14^th over and able to gather some quick runs at the death.

McKenzie (22) and Temba Bavuma (14) both fell to the wiles of Pollard and Shezi, impressive with the ball, bowled Van der Dussen for 52 off 40 balls, with three fours and two sixes. It was the best innings of the night, the late inclusion sticking to his guns.

The end of the Lions innings was marked by the brilliant fielding of Sybrand Engelbrecht, who took three excellent catches in four balls to dismiss Jean Symes (11) off Shezi, and then Morris (0) and Pretorius (9) in the final over bowled by Ferisco Adams.

The Cobras bowlers all conceded less than 27 runs, with Shezi (4-1-23-2), Pollard (4-0-26-2) and Linde (4-1-23-2) particularly impressive and the consensus was that the Lions had a below-par total.

Just as well they have such a brilliant bowling attack with Morris making history.

*New Protea Reeza Hendricks made a brilliant 76 not out off 48 balls to take the Knights to an eight-wicket win with 22 balls remaining against the Titans in Bloemfontein.

The Titans made a paltry 135 for six in their 20 overs, collapsing from 94 for one after 13 overs as three batsmen were run out. Fast bowler Quinton Friend (4-1-15-1) and seamer Shadley van Schalkwyk (4-0-26-2) made life particularly difficult for the batsmen.

*A top-class innings of 64 not out off 54 balls by Colin Ingram carried the Warriors to a seven-wicket victory off the last ball against the Dolphins in Port Elizabeth.

The Warriors, with off-spinner Simon Harmer (4-0-22-2) to the fore, produced an excellent bowling display to limit the Dolphins to 142 for six.

A partnership of 97 in 13.2 overs between Jon-Jon Smuts (54) and Ingram then broke the back of the run-chase to give the Warriors a morale-boosting win.

 http://citizen.co.za/275482/275482/

A magnificent century by Morne van Wyk led the Sunfoil Dolphins to an unlikely five-wicket win with five balls to spare in their Momentum One-Day Cup opener against the Unlimited Titans at SuperSport Park last night.

The Titans had posted a franchise record 340 for six in their 50 overs, thanks to a century on List A debut by Theunis de Bruyn and a blazing 105 not out off just 67 balls by Farhaan Behardien.

A 35-minute rain delay after the dinner break meant the Dolphins’ target was adjusted to 301 in 42 overs and Van Wyk played a top-class innings, finishing on 121 not out off just 112 balls with 14 fours and two sixes to see them home.

Van Wyk played with a zen-like calm even though the required run-rate began to climb steeply after Vaughn van Jaarsveld was dismissed for a fine 62 off 55 balls.

The promising Khaya Zondo helped his skipper add the finishing touches with his composed 32 off 18 balls as the Titans bowled awfully and fell apart in the field, much as the Dolphins had earlier after winning the toss.

De Bruyn took advantage of the three chances given to him to stroke 108 off 90 balls, while Behardien’s 64-ball century was the fastest ever for the Titans, but both innings were in vain thanks to the profligacy of the bowlers.