All last night’s Proteas, Kiwis action
So much for that ‘new world’
MANCHESTER CITY defender Kyle Walker has signed a two-year extension to his current contract which will keep him at the club until the end of the 2023-24 season, the Premier League champions announced yesterday.
Walker, who was signed from Tottenham Hotspur in 2017 for a reported fee of £50million, has won two league titles with the club after establishing himself as manager Pep Guardiola’s firstchoice right-back.
“I’m thrilled to have signed a new deal,” England international Walker said in a statement on City’s website. “Playing for City has been everything I’d hoped it would be and more.
“It was an easy decision. I want to be competing for trophies, playing at the highest level, and I feel I have improved hugely as a player during my time here.”
The 29-year-old made 52 appearances in the last campaign as City won an unprecedented domestic treble, taking his personal trophy haul at the club to five in two seasons. “His strength, speed and ability have been vital to our accomplishments,” City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain said. “He’s a key member of the squad. | Reuters ABBUBAKER MOBARA on Wednesday completed his move from Orlando Pirates to Cape Town City on a four-year deal.
The utility player is originally from Mitchell’s Plain and, by putting pen to paper to join the ambitious Cape club, it’s a return home for the 25-year-old.
On Wednesday, City tweeted: “Cape Town City is delighted to announce the signing of Abbubaker Mobara on a 4-year deal.
We look forward to working with him for the upcoming season and many more to come.”
Mobara’s junior career was spent in the Ajax Cape Town youth development academy.
He progressed to the Ajax PSL squad and was later signed by Pirates.
Things, though, haven’t quite worked out at the Buccaneers for Mobara, which is why he sees the switch to City as an opportunity to get his career back on track.
Capable of playing in the centre of defence, at right-back, in central midfield, or even as a winger, Mobara has made eight appearances for Bafana Bafana.
| African News Agency (ANA) South Africa: 241/6 (Van der Dussen 67*, Amla 55, Ferguson 3/59)
New Zealand: 245/6 (Williamson 106*, De Grandhomme 60, Morris 3/49)
New Zealand won by four wickets
SOUTH AFRICA’S World Cup campaign is over. There will be some that will cling to a mathematical miracle, but on the basis of their tepid performances the past three weeks in the United Kingdom they simply don’t deserve to dine at the table of the “Fabulous Four”.
Now New Zealand, they are a class side, and led by an even classier captain in Kane Williamson, whose match-winning century yesterday ranks alongside the finest ever at a World Cup.
The Black Caps bowl and bat – maybe not catch – like a championship contender.
They exude energy in the field and will have to implode spectacularly in their remaining games not to join the likes of Australia, India and hosts England when the semi-finals come around.
SA in contrast are a team that possesses individuals that try their damndest, and they certainly did in another epic contest at Edgbaston yesterday, but collectively don’t have the class or skills to compete at this level. They were simply off the pace, particularly with the bat where ageing veterans are playing a style of cricket that would possibly have been relevant when the World Cup was held 20 years ago.
The game has moved on and unfortunately it has left SA far behind. This certainly is a slight on the players, as much as the management team headed by coach Ottis Gibson.
Mandated with securing at least a World Cup final place upon his appointment just short of two years ago now, Gibson has fallen horribly short.
While that was always viewed to be highly optimistic, it is more the regression, and brand of cricket particularly, played by the national team that has been most alarming.
Gibson promised a new world. In this universe, players were liberated and strode to the crease without any inhibitions. Instead, the Proteas have been consumed by the fear of failure and thus they have failed by losing four matches out of six at the World Cup.
It is the senior players’ performances, especially, that have been most distressing. Whereas New Zealand’s maestro Williamson played an innings for the ages to see his team home, SA’s “manne” left their team floundering at crucial moments yet again.
Aiden Markram may have played an ill-judged shot to get out, but it is not rookies that win their teams such high-pressure games. That’s the responsibility of grizzled veterans.
For the fifth consecutive time, SA lost to New Zealand at the World Cup. It is a damning statistic, considering the disparity in terms of resources and players available to the respective teams.
At the interval, SA were challenging to change the narrative.
New Zealand had bowled splendidly on a sluggish Edgbaston pitch, but SA had hung in just long enough through half-centuries from Hashim Amla and Rassie van der Dussen to post a competitive 241/6 in 49 overs.
And then the bowlers, along with the fielders, scrapped to create a tension-filled atmosphere at the same venue that witnessed the greatest ODI ever 20 years ago.
Chris Morris was a bundle of energy and chutzpah. Imran Tahir was his exuberant self. But just like that fateful day back in 1999, it was the men in green who had their World Cup dreams left strewn on the Edgbaston outfield