The Canadian Sports Minister was apparently interested in knowing how Canada was performing in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in the world of twitters and tweets. According to Cricket South Africa\u2019s official website, Canada has a new conqueror to replace the British and the French in the form of Yaseen Valli. “Rampant Valli conquers Canada” was the headline proclamation following Valli\u2019s “unbeaten 102 runs” and four wickets that “lead the Coca-Cola South Africa under-19s to a 45-run victory over Canada in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.”<\/p>\n
Valli was gracious a conqueror. He was quoted as saying “Today was a very tough day, Canada played really good cricket and we (South Africa) fought for every run and every wicket, they are definitely not a side to underestimate.”
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\nValli had top scored in South Africa\u2019s opening win of the tournament against the West Indies. Cricket South Africa reported….\u2019Valli was once again happy to have been able to contribute runs for his team. “Scoring runs is always great, but this is not about me, we\u2019re here to win a World Cup.”
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\nCricket South Africa was pleased to report “The young Proteas presented a stronger batting display today, with Kirwin Christoffels (58) and Bradley Dial (47) adding valuable runs that led to the side\u2019s 293\/6 total after they were asked to bat by the Canadians. Valli\u2019s performance was particularly impressive as his score came off 92 balls at a strike rate of 110.86.”<\/p>\n
This followed what had been a disappointing team effort by South Africa with the bat against the West Indies, who in turn pulled off a dreadful start losing three wickets for one run. A position from which the Windies never recovered. Christoffels was bought into the South African team at number three against, replacing the lowest scoring of the numbers three through five against the Windies. He responded with a half-century.<\/p>\n
Cricket South Africa\u2019s website report provided the following synopsis of Canada\u2019s innings:<\/p>\n
“Canada\u2019s top order made a solid start in their reply. Openers Sudeepta Aurka and Yug Rao shared a 51-run partnership before the latter was bowled by Valli for 23 at the end of the 11th over. Wickets continued to dry up as Aurka (69) and Nitish Kumar (53) added 101 runs for the second wicket before their innings was disrupted by Sibonelo Makhanya who removed Kumar.”<\/p>\n
“Valli dismissed Arman Kapoor (13) and Keenen Tinto (1) in the 42nd over to rejuvenate the bowling side. From there, Makhanya dispatched Nikhil Dutta (38) and Trevor Manoosingh (3) to finish his 10-over spell with 3\/42.”<\/p>\n
“The bowlers did well to limit the flow of runs although Ngazibini Sigwili was the only other bowler to capture a wicket (Tahla Shaikh for 7).”<\/p>\n
“Canada were restricted to 248\/8 when they ran out of overs after putting up a good fight.”<\/p>\n
It is good to see appreciation from the opposition camp, in my opinion, but others might prefer one-eyed or half-squinted opinions of self-praise or glorification in victory and the “we woz robbed” (even if no evidence of us being robbed existed) in defeat.<\/p>\n
Probably the Canadian Minister of Sport will not be telling Prime Minister Harper that a rampant Yaseen Valli conquered Canada on February 16, 2014. But I cannot be certain of that.<\/p>\n
Canada now concludes Group C with a game against the West Indies on Tuesday when Canada will need to win by the equivalent of around 160 runs in a full allocation of 50 overs per side in order to have a chance of placing second in the group. The West Indies bowling attack includes a couple of left-arm pacers, but perhaps Canada needs to win the toss and skittle the Windies early batting in similar matter to the young Proteas efforts in game one. But the Windies batting came to life on Sunday, and the bowlers did well.<\/p>\n
Cricket South Africa\u2019s report about Group C action included a look ahead: “South Africa\u2019s next assignment is against Zimbabwe on Tuesday. The latter have just suffered a massive, 167-run defeat to the West Indies.”<\/p>\n
It does not sound as if the writer has any great expectation of an upset win by Zimbabwe. It might be interesting to check out the Cricket South Africa website should the young Proteas stumble to the array of spinners that Zimbabwe have brought to the tournament. The Canadian camp will be hoping for a South African win over Zimbabwe as Canada could place third in Group C with a win over the West Indies. A big or huge win by Canada against the young Windies could bring a spot in the battle for the 2014 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup championship.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Cricket South Africa for the thoughts, quotes and perspective on the current competition.<\/p>\n
I held the hope when I retreated for an hour or so of rest around 2.45am on Sunday morning that the young Canadians would make some inroads into the South African batting in the last 15 overs. It didn’t happen, thanks to Yaseen Valli, but it was good to see Canada had made a solid start with the bat. Then Valli and his fellow bowlers had success in overs 35 through 45 of the Canadian innings. Perhaps the Canadians learning curve could conclude Group C action with a win – perhaps even a rousing win – against the West Indies? <\/p>\n
Eddie Norfolk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Canadian Sports Minister was apparently interested in knowing how Canada was performing in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in the world of twitters and tweets. According to Cricket South Africa\u2019s official website, Canada has a new conqueror to replace the British and the French in the form of Yaseen Valli. “Rampant Valli conquers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5786,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5785\/revisions\/5786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}