Pride at stake for Banyana
BANYANA Banyana will be playing for pride today after being condemned to the ranks of the also-rans following their shock defeat at the hands of lowly Malawi at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, in Gqeberha, on Thursday.
Rank poor defence was at the heart of the 3-2 Cosafa Cup semi-final defeat, and Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis summed up that aspect, saying: “Our defending was criminal. “Defensively, we were poor today.” Apart from defence, Banyana Banyana's performance at set-piece time was rank amateurish.
They enjoyed at least four close-in, second-half free-kicks, which were struck wide of the target or straight at the opposition goalkeeper. Not a single effort from dead-ball play tested Malawi's defence.
Banyana Banyana is 55th on the Fifa women’s world ranking, and Malawi is almost 100 places further back at 149.
These rankings suggest winning should have been a formality for Banyana Banyana. However, Malawi coach
Mcnelbert Kadzuwa said his team was patient and displayed the courage of a lion in setting up the win.
“We are a lion, and a lion has a heart to kill so that it can eat,” said Kadzuwa.
“We have killed the elephant. The big elephant which is Banyana, cannot be killed easily.
“It cannot be killed by cutting its neck, never. Because it is an elephant, you have to bite it bit by bit, and that is what we have done.”
Banyana Banyana will play Zambia at noon today in the curtain-raiser to the final between Malawi and Tanzania (3pm), one of the invited teams that are outside the Cosafa region. Tanzania are the champions of Cecafa (Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations).
The match will give Ellis a chance to restore some playing structures which went missing on Thursday.
“Normally, we talk about managing the game and, unfortunately, we did not manage the game well,” said Ellis.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score. I am disappointed with the result, but we must go back and look at ourselves and see what we could have done better.
“We lost our shape at the back by shooting out of the structures and then not picking up the runners coming into the box.”
Banyana Banyana midfielder Sibulele Holweni leads the leading goalscorers list with four goals. Stumai Athuman (Tanzania), Grace Chanda, Ochumba Lubandji (both of Zambia) and Sabinah Thom (Malawi) are closing in, with three goals.
MORE than the raw talent that the South African under-19 side has, it was the intent that they played with which was very pleasing.
They lost to the Eastern Storm, the Division Two side that plays out of Benoni, but the junior Proteas provided sufficient evidence on Friday, that the talent coming through in South Africa is of a very high calibre.
Ostensibly, by including the side in the T20 Provincial Knock Out competition, Cricket SA is looking to give them some match time, which has been limited in the past 12 months because of Covid-19, and getting the preparation for the under-19 World Cup, that will take place in the Caribbean next year, started.
What the side, captained by George van Heerden, who went to school at Grey High in Gqeberha, showed was – in a South African context – almost revolutionary attacking intent.
“This is the philosophy we’ve worked on as a team, to play with an aggressive mindset, with great intent, and to put the bowlers under pressure,” said Dewald Brevis, who top scored with 46 off only 25 balls, in the SA under-19 side’s total of 172/8.
Brevis certainly showed what all the fuss around him is about, with a thrilling innings that illustrated why comparisons have been made with another former Affies pupil, who also donned the No.17 shirt for the Proteas.
Like his hero AB de Villiers, Brevis put on a show; there was a crisply timed square drive, a delicious lofted drive for six over extra cover, and a slog sweep that crashed into the president’s suite at the Mangaung Oval, that ended with Brevis on one knee, his bat horizontal with the ground.
If you’d super-imposed an image of the other guy who once wore No.17 on his shirt over that image, you wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart.
The rest of the batting unit show the same level of aggression. They reached 50 faster than any other team has managed hitherto in the competition, which is a positive sign, and something that the coach Shukri Conrad will hope they can repeat in the remaining Pool matches against the Kwazulu-natal Dolphins and the North West Dragons.
Even in the field, Van Heerden showed positivity, keeping more fielders in the inner-ring than was needed once the power play ended. He was perhaps too aggressive later on, as the Eastern Storm batsmen dominated, but that mindset will serve him well, as he learns to balance offence and defence.
“These matches help us to prepare for the World Cup, and we’ll keep working on this aggressive brand that we’re trying to play,” Brevis added.
The Storm easily reached the target, with 12 balls to spare, but that was more down to a lack of variety with the ball, particularly a seam bowling option.
In the earlier Pool match on Friday, the Dolphins trounced the Dragons by eight wickets, thanks to a career-best T20 performance, with the ball from Ottniel Baartman, who claimed 4/20 and a ninth T20 half-century from Sarel Erwee, who scored 68.
The SA under-19s face the Dragons in Saturday’s first match, at 10am, with the Storm and the Dolphins meeting at 2.30pm.