Days one and
two of the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola cricket week have, for the past few years,
been given over to “time” cricket, which means good old-fashioned declaration
cricket, with a twist.
The
variation is the introduction of a club cricket practice that deems the taking
of five of the second innings wickets of the team chasing victory as “all out”,
giving the bowling team outright victory.
And, if the
team batting second falls short of the 1st innings target, or
alternatively passes it, then “match drawn, team A, or B, won on 1st
innings” is the official result.
If you
didn’t quite understand that, then don’t worry, no-one really does, not the
umpires, not the players, and certainly not us in the media who have to write
it all up in the form of summarised scores at the end of each day.
It’s all
part of Cricket South Africa’s practice, over the past few years of including
all three formats of the game – declaration, T20 and limited-overs – in their
interprovincial youth weeks.
The idea is
that the players need to experience all three formats in a pressurised
environment as part of their preparation for cricket at a higher level.
Day one
produced no outright results, and four 1st innings wins in the 8 games played. My impression – shared by many – is that the schoolboy captains
just don’t have enough experience of this type of cricket to make strategically
effective declarations, so these game are almost always going to end up as
draws.
If you want
my two cents worth, I would say that the boys need to experience this aspect of
the game, but maybe a two-day game would provide a better opportunity for them
to develop the skills required.
Gauteng came
into the week with three consecutive “main game” victories under their belts,
and the label of favourites. They
encountered a good KwaZulu-Natal attack, on a damp track and were 14/3 down in
a flash and looked set to relinquish that record.
Their SA
under-19 players, Wiaan Mulder and Mitchell Van Buuren then stepped up and produced
a gutsy, patient, fight-back to get their side back in the game. Then, when the
pitch became easier, they cut loose. Van Buuren got 106, Mulder 53, and then Muhammed
Mayet replaced Mulder and made 57 – effectively taking the game away from KZN.
Much is
expected of Mulder and Van Buuren, and they delivered. There are quite a few
other SA under-19 players in Bloem this week and they experienced mixed
fortunes on day one.
Free State’s
Raynard Van Tonder, Gauteng’s Wandile Makwethu and Ruan de Swardt of Northerns all
failed with the bat, but Keenan Smith of EP took the only five wicket haul of
the day, while Jesse Christensen of Western Province Matthew Breetzke of
Eastern Province were all among the runs.
I’ve been at
this tournament more times than I’m prepared to admit to and, after just one
day, I can safely say the Bloemfontein week is going to be as good as any.
It’s been
heart-breakingly dry in the Free State this summer, so it was always on the
cards that the cricket was going to bring the rain and, sure enough,
Bloemfontein experienced a massive thunderstorm on Thursday night.
That meant
some of the fields were wet on the opening morning, but plans were made and the
games went ahead. The flow of information to the media centre was seamless, the
people are friendly and the meals are excellent.
And, out in
the sun, the boys are already putting in the performances – one century and 12
half centuries on the 1st day.
I’m one of a
horde of people who give up the week before Christmas, every year, to attend
this event. Today showed, again, why we do it.
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