Opinion
Here’s another odd little article to soak up some of your precious time over the festive period.
Here is a team of South African Test players whose position in the Test batting order, on at least one occasion, matched the total number of tests that they played for their country.
1. Imraan Khan – Khan was a left hand bat and occasional off-spinner who ended up with a pretty impressive first class record, scoring over 9,000 runs including 20 centuries and 49 half centuries.
His only Test opportunity came in the third test against Australia in 2009, a match comfortably won by South Africa.
2. Stanley Coen – Better known as Shunter, Coen was a right hander who could open the innings or bat in the middle order.
He found himself batting at 7 in his first test innings against the touring English team in December 1927, and then came in at 10 after injuring himself in the match, scoring 41 not out.
He wasn’t called upon for the next three tests but found himself back in the side for the 5th test of the series, this time opening the innings, and he finished with a test average of 50.50.
3. John Commins – Commins was a solid middle order bat who got his test opportunity at the age of 29 in the second test against NZ in Durban in 1994, scoring 30 and 45 while batting at number 3. He scored just 27 and 10 in the third test, and lost his place in the team the following year after being injured in the one-off test against Pakistan.
4. Hylton Deon Ackerman – Better known as HD, Ackerman had an impressive first class career, scoring 14,625 runs at 43.65, and notching up 40 centuries and 75 half centuries in the process.
He scored 57 batting at four in his test debut against Pakistan in February 1998, but failed to impress in his next three starts and found himself out of the side a month later.
5. Paul Winslow – Winslow was a hard-hitting right hander who batted anywhere between 5 and 8 in his brief Test career, but will be remembered for his innings against England at Old Trafford in 1955, where he thrashed the English attack of Alec Bedser, Frank Tyson, Tony Lock, Fred Titmus and Trevor Bailey, scoring 108 runs in just over three hours, and bringing up his century with a straight six into the practice grounds.
6. Dane Vilas (W/K) – Vilas was on the Test selection fringe for a number of years, competing with AB De Villiers and Quinton de Kock for the gloves, but managed six Test appearances between July 2015 and January 2016, before signing a Kolpak deal with Lancashire thus ruling him out of South African team selection.
He averaged just 10.44 with the bat in his six test appearances, a far cry from his first class record of 10,000 plus runs at 40.75.
7. Mike Procter – Procter was one of the game’s greatest all-rounders, with nearly 22,000 runs at 36.01 at first class level, and 1,417 wickets at 19.53. Procter’s Test career began in 1967 and was all over at the age of 23 in 1970 thanks to the apartheid sporting boycott.
8. David Pithey – Pithey was an off-spinner who could bat a bit, and he was in and out of the test side between December 1963 and January 1967. He played five Tests against Australia, finishing with 0-353, but had better luck against NZ, once taking 6-58 in Dunedin.
9. Bob Crisp – Crisp was a right arm fast bowler, who led a very interesting life having been at various times, an adventurer, cricketer, WW2 tank commander, author, and a recluse.
He took 276 first class wickets at 19.88, including 4 wickets in 4 balls on two occasions, with his best Test figures coming in the fourth Test against England in 1935, when he took 5/99.
10. Claude Carter – Carter was a diminutive left arm orthodox bowler who had a long career, debuting at age 31 and playing his ten tests over a WW1 interrupted 12 year period between 1912 and 1924, and first class cricket for 27 years. He took just 28 wickets in his 12 test outings and was never in a test winning side.
11. Joe Partridge – Partridge was an outstanding right arm swing bowler who unusually bowled while wearing glasses. He was in competition with Peter Heine and Neil Adcock for a place in the South African team in his early career, so had to wait until the age of 31 to make his test debut against Australia in the first test in Brisbane in 1963, finishing with just one wicket in the drawn match.
He had more success on the rest of the tour though, and finished joint leading wicket taker for the series with Peter Pollock with 25 wickets each.
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