SWD deliver a bloody nose to the big boys
YASEEN Valli and Andre Malan might have been the only two players even close followers of South African cricket would have heard of if they scanned the South Western Districts team sheet.
Onke Nyaku’s had stints with the now defunct Cape Cobras, and the SA Under-19 side may have brought Jean du Plessis to some people’s attention. But Herschell America? Renaldo Meyer? Tshepo Moletsane? Heath Richards?
Not too many people would have heard of them. The same goes for Northern Cape fast bowler Johan van Dyk, while all-rounder Evan Jones, hits the ball a long way and can touch 140km/h on the speed gun is another who has gone under the radar. He drifted around the club circuit at Northerns before taking his talents to Kimberley. What he has done over the long weekend in Kimberley in Pool A of Cricket SA’s T20 Knock-Out competition, will have surprised himself probably, but also many viewers of SA cricket.
CSA will argue that this is precisely why it moved to change the domestic structure - besides the financial savings it will create for the sport’s mother body. There is plenty of talent running around in SA - not all of it coming through the big private schools that have provided most of the national team’s players either. America, the leading wicket-taker with seven scalps following the Pool A fixtures, went to Bridgton Senior Secondary in Bethal, Meyer has drifted around the club scene in Cape Town before settling in Oudtshoorn, while Richards, a cleanhitting 20-year-old, went to Grey High, but got a professional contract in Oudtshoorn.
They have been the stars in SWD’s fairytale journey to qualification for the playoffs in the T20 Knock-Out, winning comfortably against Northern Cape Heat, then showing grit to beat Western Province, before taking the Lions to the last over and thus securing a playoff spot based on net run-rate.
SWD certainly delivered a bloody nose to two of the historic cricket powerhouses in SA.
For the Lions, it was a poor weekend, filled with inconsistent play. “It’s the nature of the week,” their captain Ryan Rickelton said after they had beaten SWD with two balls to spare chasing a modest 131 yesterday morning.’’