South African Lessons

By Edward Hall
April 13 2002

After a successful tour of South Africa, Glamorgan return knowing that they are much better prepared than this time last year, when they lost every B&H zonal game.

The team won both of their one-day matches (the final match was rained off) and looked the stronger of the teams in their drawn 3-day match with the Boland Academy.  Some may argue about the point of these tours.  After all, the opponents were by no means the best in South Africa and the South African pitches will be very different to the one that the team will encounter in their opening Championship game on Friday.  These things are irrelevant though, when you consider that all the main players (bar Mike Kasprowicz) were given the chance to get some runs on the board or wickets under their belt.

Date Opponents Result
April 3 Cape Tech

Glamorgan 312/6 (Newell 83, Hemp 76, James 74, Powell 40*) beat Cape Tech 123 (Croft 3/27, Cosker 3/12) by 189 runs
April 5-7 Boland Academy Glamorgan 297/7 dec. (Croft 62, D Thomas 52*) & 175/6 dec. (James 56*) drew with Boland Academy 213/9 dec. (Jones 4/46, Croft 3/29) & 113/4
April 8 Western Province Academy Glamorgan 327/6 (Powell 86*, D Thomas 73*) beat WPA 236/9 (Croft 2/21) by 4 wickets
April 10 Hermanus XI Match abandoned
1. S James The Championship team for the match against Derbyshire should almost pick itself now.  If Glamorgan decide, as expected, to go with five specialist batsmen, they will be Steve James, David Hemp, Adrian Dale, Michael Powell and Matt Maynard.  Hemp, after a successful tour in which his lowest score was 38, will open the batting with James.  The identity of the three middle order batsmen are known, though it is unclear who will step up to bat at number 3.  Maynard and Powell were both given the chance in this position last season, though neither of them settled.  Dale may be given a chance in the early season.  With Croft and Wallace fitting in at 6 and 7, it continues to be the bowlers causing the Glamorgan selection team most problems.  Michael Kasprowicz ad Darren Thomas, following decent displays with bat and ball, will fill in two of the four bowling spots, but the remaining two could go a few ways.  With Alex Wharf still lacking match practice, and with the county unlikely to opt for two spinners early in the season, it seems likely that Simon Jones and Andrew Davies will get the nod come Friday morning.
2. D Hemp
3. A Dale
4. M Maynard
5. M Powell
6. R Croft
7. M Wallace +
8. D Thomas
9. M Kasprowicz
10. A Davies
11. S Jones

       

Bookmark or share this story with:

 

Glamorgan latest threads