Success for South Africans and glory for Davis

Quite a few players with South African connections made their mark in the English season, which has just come to a close.

Kevin Pietersen, who played for KwaZulu-Natal in the 1999-2000 South African home seasons, made 1488 runs for Nottinghamshire at an average of 51.31. And Pietersen, who qualifies for England next year, also topped the runscorers' list in the one-day National League, with 776 runs at an average of 48.50.

The retiring Jonty Rhodes put the lie to long-held suggestions that he is a better one-day player than a four-day one, as he was the only other South African to pass 1000 first-class runs. He finished the season for Gloucestershire - with 1293 runs at 58.77. In the National League he only totalled 197 runs at an average of 19.70.

Sven Koenig, the former Gauteng opener, made 974 runs for Middlesex. He would have sailed past four figures if he had converted a couple of his seven half-centuries into hundreds.

Nic Pothas, another ex Gauteng player, and Jonathan Trott, the young Western Province allrounder, also had good county seasons for Hampshire and Warwickshire respectively.

For Mark Davis the move from Northerns to English cricket has paid off at last, as his county Sussex won the County Championship for the first time. Davis contributed 259 runs - most of them in a career-best 168 - and 14 wickets with his offspin for the new champions.

Meanwhile Nantie Hayward will be wandering what more he has to do to regain the favour of the South African selectors after taking 67 wickets at 22.88 as Worcestershire won promotion back to Division one of the Championship. He was once again left out of the team for the on-off South African tour of Pakistan. Perhaps he should think about moving to Western Province - the national team's coach, bowling coach, manager, physiotherapist and selection convenor all hail from Cape Town.

Greg Smith, once of Northerns, finished with 50 wickets for Notts, while Andre Nel disappointed slightly with only 36 wickets in his first season with Northants. However, Nel did lead the other South Africans home in the National League wicket stakes, with 20 wickets at 18.63.

Jon Kent played a big role in Scotland's debut season in the National League, finishing with 469 runs (36.07) and nine wickets. The Scots started well, but faded to bottom spot in the Second Division.

Shortened county seasons for Andrew Hall, Dewald Pretorius, Steve Elworthy and Justin Kemp will leave them with memories of a season that might have been promising, while Neil Carter, not a permanent member of the Warwickshire squad, had his moments.

In the Lancashire League Andre Seymore (1358 runs and 33 wickets), Johann Louw (1207 and 69), Pierre Joubert (1274 and 43) and Martin van Jaarsveld (1046 and 54) all had excellent seasons with bat and ball.

With the South African domestic season about to kick off it will be interesting to see how those players returning home are going to put the experience they have gained into practice.

Full county and National League statistics for South African players:

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County Championship Batting and Bowling Averages (by runs scored and wickets taken)

Batting
Name        Mat  I NO Runs  HS   Ave    SR  100 50 Ct S Team
KP Pietersen 15 29  0 1488 221  51.31  81.80  4 10 16 - NOTTS
JN Rhodes    15 27  5 1293 151* 58.77  58.61  5  7  7 - GLOUCS
SG Koenig    15 26  2  974  96  40.58  44.88  -  7  3 - MIDDX
N Pothas     13 20  2  809 146* 44.94  57.13  2  4 38 2 HANTS
IJL Trott     9 17  0  685 134  40.29  56.61  2  4  4 - WARWICKS
AI Gait      12 24  0  662 110  27.58  43.63  1  4 10 - DERBY
JDC Bryant   12 21  1  483  73  24.15  41.31  -  2  8 - SOMERSET
JM Kemp       6 11  0  290  90  26.36  53.70  -  1  9 - WORCS
GL Brophy     6 10  3  289 152* 41.28  59.58  1  1 11 - NORTHANTS
A Nel        13 13  3  258  42  25.80  80.37  -  -  4 - NORTHANTS
MJG Davis    10 12  2  259 168  25.90  41.24  1  -  4 - SUSSEX
AJ Hall       6  7  0  222 104  31.71  71.38  1  1  2 - WORCS
S Elworthy    4  7  0  159  52  22.71  70.98  -  1  3 - NOTTS
GJ Smith     12 20  3  168  42   9.88  42.42  -  -  4 - NOTTS
M Hayward    16 21  5  123  28   7.68  87.85  -  -  5 - WORCS
NM Carter     4  6  0  118  38  19.66 111.32  -  -  1 - WARWICKS
D Pretorius   4  7  3   32  16   8.00  42.66  -  -  3 - DURHAM
GM Gilder     2  3  2   19  12  19.00  54.28  -  -  - - SOMERSET

Bowling Name Mat O M R W Ave Best 5 SR Econ Team M Hayward 16 427.3 83 1533 67 22.88 5-46 2 38.2 3.58 WORCS GJ Smith 12 346.1 75 1205 50 24.10 5-42 3 41.5 3.48 NOTTS A Nel 13 422.3 99 1292 36 35.88 5-47 1 70.4 3.05 NORTHANTS AJ Hall 6 110 29 297 17 17.47 3-10 - 38.8 2.70 WORCS D Pretorius 4 79 13 317 16 19.81 4-15 - 29.6 4.01 DURHAM S Elworthy 4 134.1 17 534 16 33.37 5-71 1 50.3 3.98 NOTTS JM Kemp 6 102.1 17 319 14 22.78 5-48 1 43.7 3.12 WORCS MJG Davis 10 220 42 703 14 50.21 3-44 - 94.2 3.19 SUSSEX NM Carter 4 103 13 443 8 55.37 5-75 1 77.2 4.30 WARWICKS IJL Trott 9 37.1 3 168 7 24.00 7-39 1 31.8 4.52 WARWICKS KP Pietersen 15 86.3 10 383 6 63.83 3-95 - 86.5 4.42 NOTTS SG Koenig 15 5 0 19 1 19.00 1-19 - 30.0 3.80 MIDDX GM Gilder 2 4 0 32 0 - - - - 8.00 SOMERSET JDC Bryant 12 1 0 8 0 - - - - 8.00 SOMERSET National League Batting and Bowling Averages (by runs scored and wickets taken)

Batting
Name        Mat  I NO Run  HS    Ave    SR  100 50 Ct S Team
KP Pietersen 18 18  2 776 141*  48.50 111.81  2  5  9 - NOTTS
JC Kent      16 15  2 469 115*  36.07  86.85  1  3  5 - SCOT
N Pothas     11  8  4 284  78   71.00  71.53  -  2 10 2 HANTS
IJL Trott     8  8  2 284  59  47.33   74.34  -  4  4 - WARWICKS
NM Carter    14 13  1 228  75  19.00  121.92  -  1  - - WARWICKS
JN Rhodes    12 11  1 197  45  19.70   76.95  -  -  3 - GLOUCS
MJG Davis    18 13  5 185  37  23.12   57.63  -  -  4 - SUSSEX
JM Kemp       7  7  2 182  50  36.40   65.70  -  1  4 - WORCS
GL Brophy     9  8  1 134  35* 19.14   83.75  -  -  9 3 NORTHANTS
AJ Hall       5  5  1 115  47* 28.75   87.12  -  -  - - WORCS
AI Gait       7  7  1 112  37  18.66   60.21  -  -  4 - DERBY
JDC Bryant    6  6  1  84  56* 16.80   85.71  -  1  - - SOMERSET
A Nel        15  7  3  33  15*   8.25  73.33  -  -  4 - NORTHANTS
M Hayward     8  3  2  14  11  14.00  100.00  -  -  - - WORCS
S Elworthy    3  3  0  10   5   3.33   90.90  -  -  - - NOTTS
GJ Smith     12  4  1   9   5   3.00   45.00  -  -  1 - NOTTS
GM Gilder     3  2  2   9   8*   -    112.50  -  -  1 - SOMERSET
D Pretorius   3  1  1   7   7*   -    140.00  -  -  1 - DURHAM

Bowling Name Mat O M R W Ave Best 5 SR Econ Team A Nel 15 115.3 14 410 22 18.63 3-20 - 31.5 3.54 NORTHANTS MJG Davis 18 133.5 6 621 20 31.05 4-14 1 40.1 4.64 SUSSEX GJ Smith 12 96.5 6 421 15 28.06 3-16 - 38.7 4.34 NOTTS NM Carter 14 105.3 4 512 14 36.57 2-19 - 45.2 4.85 WARWICKS M Hayward 8 58 2 289 12 24.08 3-32 - 29.0 4.98 WORCS JC Kent 16 80.2 1 496 9 55.11 3-38 - 53.5 6.17 SCOT D Pretorius 3 21.2 4 65 8 8.12 4-31 1 16.0 3.04 DURHAM S Elworthy 3 23.3 0 134 7 19.14 4-41 1 20.1 5.70 NOTTS GM Gilder 3 24 1 145 5 29.00 2-31 - 28.8 6.04 SOMERSET JM Kemp 7 29.2 0 177 2 88.50 2-13 - 88.0 6.03 WORCS KP Pietersen 18 36.3 0 220 2 110.00 2-11 - 109.5 6.02 NOTTS AJ Hall 5 33 1 160 1 160.00 1-13 - 198.0 4.84 WORCS IJL Trott 8 3 0 19 0 - - - - 6.33 WARWICKS Lancashire League Professional Batting and Bowling Averages (by runs scored and wickets taken)

Batting
Name                 Mat NO  HS  Runs  Ave 50 100 Team
Andre Seymore         28  3 141  1358 54.3 11   3 Accrington
Pierre Joubert        28  6 112* 1274 57.9  7   2 Burnley
Johann Louw           28  3 148  1207 50.3  4   4 East Lancs
Martin van Jaarsveld  19  4 150* 1046 69.7  4   4 Enfield

Bowling Name O M R W Ave Best 5w Team Johann Louw 389.1 70 1140 69 16.5 6-54 3 East Lancs Martin van Jaarsveld 272.5 56 830 54 15.4 8-38 4 Enfield Pierre Joubert 334 79 841 43 19.6 4-27 - Burnley Andre Seymore 245.2 19 924 33 28.0 5-45 1 Accrington