Ginger Gloveman & Canny Offie

Watching with Tapas and a Cerveza

    New Zealand’s stunning victory in India will be remembered for a very long time having managed just two drawn series and endured 10 losses in 12 previous Test series dating back to 1955. The fact that it was so unexpected makes all the sweeter, a New Zealand ‘classic’ with the perennial underdog punching way above its weight division.

    Mitchell Santner had claimed just a single five-wicket haul in his entire first-class career before the second Test match in Pune with a Test best of just 3-51 in 37 matches and yet he returned a match haul of 13-157 with his left arm spin. Truly, these are the stories we thrive on.

    Not only has the series given fresh life to New Zealand’s hopes of qualifying for the final of the World Test Championship, but it has badly dented India’s and given a huge boost to the prospects of South Africa and even Sri Lanka of reaching the showpiece event at Lord’s in June net year.

    New Zealand will almost certainly have to beat England 3-0 in their final series at home in December while India will need a consolation victory against the Black Caps in Mumbai and will almost certainly have to beat Australia in The Border/Gavaskar series in Australia. If neither manages to do so, the winner of South Africa’s series against Sri Lanka in December will be well-placed to push for a place in the final. Provided the Proteas also beat Pakistan at home in December and January.

    As I ranted a while ago, the structure of the WTC is appalling and hilarious in equal measure, utterly compromising the fate of the teams which play most Tests – India, England and Australia – so that’s at least one upside. It doesn’t bother the Ashes combatants that their route to becoming Test champions is so much harder, but if India feel begrudged then everybody will suffer.

    If Santner was the ‘personal story’ of the week then allow me to indulge in two more from Dhaka where South Africa completed an emphatic win by seven-wickets against Bangladesh. Kyle Verreynne and Dane Piedt are two of my favourite, current cricketers, for various reasons.

    Verreynne was a precocious talent from his early school days excelling at soccer and hockey which he played at Premier club league and provincial level respectively. He opened the batting and guarded his wicket with his life honing the unusual technique which has remained largely the same ever since, relying more on good hands and a very good eye rather than conventional foot movement.

    But it was as a ‘keeper that he really caught the eye standing up to everyone, including the opening bowlers, and regularly stunning the opposition boys with unexpected stumpings.

    Life wasn’t easy or straightforward at home and his place at Wynberg Boys High school would not have been possible without a scholarship from the Jacques Kallis Foundation which has always focussed on providing life opportunities rather than merely sporting ones. But young Kyle made the very best of his chance and the school’s facilities.

    His second Test century in demanding conditions has locked in his place for the foreseeable future and may just have quietened the Jukskei doubters who believed that Heinrich Klaasen was the better ‘keeper/batsman and was forced into Test retirement by Shukri Conrad’s preference for the WP man.

    Piedt has the perfect, phlegmatic personality to handle the most difficult and often thankless job in the game – apart from umpiring. His off-spin kept him amongst the top-wicket takers in the domestic game for three years and he was the top dog before earning his first Test cap in 2014 against Zimbabwe in Harare against whom he claimed a match haul of 8-152.

    Apart from a hard-earned 5-153 against England in Durban two years later there were few other highlights in his nine Tests across five years which culminated in a savage thrashing at the hands of Rohit Sharma in 2019 which included innings figures of 1-107, 0-102 and 1-101. He conceded 20 sixes in the series, an unwelcome world record.

    But instead of sulking and retreating back to domestic cricket he sought fresh adventure and, at the age of 29, signed up for Minor League Cricket in the USA with what seemed like an optimistic promise of Major League Cricket to come. He ended his domestic career in South Africa with, apparently, absolutely no prospect of any further international appearances. How life changes!

    On his return to the Test team he took another eight wickets for Conrad’s collection of ‘the forgotten, unwanted and leftover’ against New Zealand and has subsequently played significant roles – with bat and ball – in the victories in Guyana and Dhaka. Any off-spinner who bowls a carrom ball is worth a second look, and a third look if their temperament and sense of humour are as resilient as Dane Piedt’s.    

    (The photographs? Costa del Sol. Next week I will be commentating on England’s ODI series against the West Indies from TalkSport’s studios in London. This week Ryanair transported me and my father to Malaga for seven days in the sun - and charged me an extra £35 to bring may laptop, which is just about what the original ticket cost!)