England are currently 52/2 in their World Cup cricket match against South Africa.
What is funny is that currently there isn’t a single Englishman on the field. Both English batsmen, AJ Strauss and KP Pietersen, are South Africans by birth.
Makes for fierce slagging though with bowlers, fielders and batsmen all trying to outdo each other for national pride.
To say I am relieved after yesterday’s win against the West Indies is to put it mildly. After the thrashing at the hands of Bangladesh, the near-loss against Sri Lanka and other lack-lustre performances I was feeling dispirited about South African cricket.
“We felt we were a little bit tentative against Bangladesh and we wanted to really come out and express ourselves this time,” Smith said. “We got ourselves to the top ranking by playing our natural game, and we discussed how we just occasionally put ourselves under pressure by not sticking to what we do best. We wanted to relax and go back to that today and play with freedom, and a bit of brain.”
That quote expresses exactly what I was feeling. We were going into games fearing the ball and bat, scared to dare. And yet when we stride out onto the pitch and play the game our way, we do so well. Not only do we do well but the game is enjoyable to watch, not the cringe worthy efforts of other games were I literally felt disgusted at the apparent attitude of our team.
The next game is against New Zealand, a team in the ascendancy. If we go into the game brimming with the joy of wanting to play good cricket then we will do well. We may not win but we will be good to watch and can say we are worthy.
My nerves are shot.
It is the 44th over, 5th ball, South Africa are 206/5 and need just 4 runs from 32 balls. At the crease, facing, is Shaun Pollock backed up by Kallis on the other end. Pollock is fresh, just 13 runs, but Kallis is in his 80s and looking solid.
Two good batsman, 4 runs needed, 32 balls and 5 wickets remaining.
Sri Lanka are beaten but somebody forgot to tell Malinga as he comes in and pops a slower ball at Pollock who misses and the ball takes a stump.
Nice ball Malinga. But no worries, we have 4 wickets remaining and need just 4 runs. At this point the South African commentator says “4 runs for 4 wickets, I think I’ll back South Africa” to which the Sri Lankan commentator in all seriousness says “Oh I don’t know, we’ll see.” Ho ho, funny.
Malinga comes in to bowl at Hall, the new batsman. He fires a yorker at Hall who reaches far forward and knocks the ball high into the air and straight into a safe pair of hands. Out.
Another nice ball, Malinga. Still OK for South Africa, 3 wickets for 4 runs.
Malinga is on a hat-trick but has to wait for Vaas to bowl an over. Vaas does a good over conceding just one run and Malinga comes back.
Kallis is facing, Malinga bowls and OUT! Malinga gets his hat-trick and South Africa are 207 for 8 having been 206 for 5 just a short over ago. Still, we only need 3 runs and Ntini comes into bat. He is not a great batsman but he can make a run or two when needed.
Malinga comes in to Ntini and sweet mother of god… OUT! Ntini misses by a mile and Malinga gets four wickets in four balls. Apparently that has never been done before in international cricket. Wow.
I’m sitting on the edge of my couch in Ireland tearing a pillow to pieces. One more wicket and South Africa loose. They need just 3 runs. Three bleeding effing runs!
Malinga into the new batsman, Laangeveldt, and… not out. Safe. Thank god.
I then takes South Africa from 46.4 overs to 48.2 overs to score three runs. The whole time the Sri Lankans look like they can win, their bowling is scary and our batsman are cowering behind bats. Peterson’s bat and stumps are shaved many times, a gust of wind would have made the ball touch and he would have been out.
Very, very poor from the South Africans and well done to the Sri Lankans. Nerve wracking stuff.
I go for a lie down.
Herschelle Gibbs just hit six sixes off six balls in one over.
That is the first time anyone has done that in international cricket. Absolutely amazing.
Mark Boucher also scored the fastest 50 in a World Cup game and SA scored the most number, 18, of sixes in a WC game.
And “Kallis and Boucher’s partnership was an incredible 134 runs from just 9.1 overs.”
Wow! Just wow!
Perusing the Oscar nominations list I realised how living in Waterford has pole-axed my cinema habits. Back home in Cape Town I had the choice of 7 or so cinema complexes all of which were good quality. Here in Waterford we have one dingy complex that I have been to two times too many. I saw more films at the cinema during my months holiday to South Africa than I have seen in over a year here in Waterford. Supposedly Dungarvan has a nice cinema but driving 45 minutes for a cinema is crazy.
Waiting for DVD is now my habit.
Of the Oscar list I have seen just 8; The Devil Wears Prada (good), Cars (entertaining), Pan’s Labyrinth (brilliant), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (entertaining), Children of Men (very good), United 93 (good), An Inconvenient Truth (very good) and Superman Returns (disappointing.)
I thought my trip to South Africa earlier this year was a bit of a mad dash but it has nothing on the traveling I will be doing this December. Here it is in short-form, starting on the 1st of December and ending on the 30th of December:
Waterford (Ireland) - Cork (Ireland) - Hong Kong (China) - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Yogyakarta (Indonesia) - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Hong Kong (China) - Cork (Ireland) - Waterford (Ireland) - Dublin (Ireland) - Cape Town (South Africa) - Johannesburg (South Africa) - Windhoek (Namibia) - Johannesburg (South Africa) - Cape Town (South Africa) - Dublin (Ireland) - Waterford (Ireland)
That is 8 cities and 4 countries across a handful of airlines. The craziest bit will be arriving back from Indonesia on the 7th of December and flying to South Africa the next day.
Good thing I like flying.
There are only two things I can say about this past Saturday’s Ireland vs. South Africa Rugby match; I am embarrassed by my team and well done to the Irish for playing so well.
Was that Springbok Rugby?
I lived 20 years in South Africa, one of the most violent countries on Earth, and never saw a single street fight.
I have lived 1 year in Ireland and seen two people have their heads kicked in on the street.
Tonight I walked past a man beaten till he was unconcious. I watched his head get wedged under a car tire, his torso pushed under a bumper by the force of the kicks. He went limp as two men kicked him. He was corpulent and it took many kicks to move him. They kicked him, he got to his knees and they kicked him back down.
This was in the center of Waterford, the 3rd biggest city in Ireland. The victim was Lithuanian and the attackers Russian. My girlfriend, Irish, tried to intervene and the Russians, herding her away, simply told her that the Lithuanian hadn’t paid his dues. They mentioned 20 thousand Euro and 60 thousand Euro. While one Russian was talking to her I saw the unconcious man stagger to his feet, walk around the corner and then pull a knife on two other Russians following him. They beat him back to the ground. He got up again and walked down to the quays and around a corner.
My only concern was getting my girlfriend and another friend back to our apartment just a few hundred meters away. Tomorrow we will report it. Hopefully the growing statistics on foreign-national crime will kick start the Gardae (Irish police) into cracking down on them. Till then I can only think of moving out of the city center. I don’t want to run away but there is no chance I or the few others in the area can stand up to this. These are hardened thugs from eastern Europe, they won’t think twice about silencing a few people.
A strange night really. Earlier our friend’s jacket had been stolen from Muldoons (a pub) while my girlfriends coat was close to being stolen. She had to grab the coat back from a young woman who was walking out the door. Only a few minutes later did we realise she had taken the other friend’s jacket.
It is horrible that I get to experience this in Ireland. It is sad to see the difference between poverty driven crime as we have back home in South Africa and this greedy, brutal and organised crime I see in Ireland. I have no sympathy here, there is no excuse for it.
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