Natal Cricket Update (26 October 1998)

26 October 1998

Natal Cricket Update

Ken Borland

Shaun Pollock, out of action since leading South Africa to the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, will begin bowling again this week and has an excellent chance of being fit for Natal's next game, their opening SuperSport Series encounter against Griquas at Kingsmead from November 6. Pollock was unable to play last week when Natal were upset by North-West in a Standard Bank League match at Kingsmead, and with fellow South African paceman Lance Klusener likely to be bowling again too, the team will receive a boost for the first four-dayer of the season.

Both Pollock and Klusener were included in a Natal B squad named yesterday for this weekend's clash with Eastern Province B, and coach Frans Cronje said "there is an outside chance they will play in the limited-overs game on Monday".

Anthony Botha, Wade Wingfield and Jannie Dreyer, who all played in the loss to North-West, are also in a strong Natal B squad.

After going through their first three day/night matches unbeaten, Natal were upset in their first home fixture and, although Cronje paid due praise to North-West, the coach criticised his team for showing little of the fizz that had characterised their earlier matches.

"You could see that we were lacking the sparkle from the previous games, but all credit to North-West, they played top-class cricket." Cronje also suggested that a tardy display in the field was not the sole reason for the defeat.

"We also would have liked to have batted first, because it's easier to get charged up in the field at night at Kingsmead, but I don't believe the size of the target was too much. In fact, we thought the North-West total should have been 30 runs more.

"But first we didn't do the basics in the field and then we made basic mistakes when batting."

Cronje also tipped North-West to produce more upsets. "They can give anyone in the competition a beating when they get fired up. Just look at Arno Jacobs (man of the match for his innings of 80 off 61 balls), he's got some big shots and he's going to go a long way in cricket."

Natal B squad: Jon Buxton-Forman, Anthony Botha, Wade Wingfield, Ashraf Mall, Jon Kent, Mehmood Badat, Bruce Hughes, Desigan Reddy, Keith Storey, Jannie Dreyer, Craig Tatton, Kevin Pieterson, Linda Zondi, Jonathan Bastow, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener.

Source :: Ken Borland, Natal Cricket