Jansen takes his bow, but South Africa falter
Duan Jansen had his moments on debut but South Africa ended up on the losing side against Namibia in the tri-series opener
For a long while in the opening match of a T20I triseries at the Namibia Cricket Ground in Windhoek on Friday, Duan Jansen would have been forgiven for wondering whether playing international cricket was worth the bother.
His fifth and sixth deliveries in a South Africa shirt disappeared through the covers and midwicket for four, courtesy of Jan Frylinck. Namibia’s beefy left-hander also faced Jansen’s ninth ball, which was shovelled to mid-off — where Jordan Hermann made a hash of a catch he should have taken. Louren Steenkamp lashed the last two balls of that over through midwicket for two more boundaries.
Eighteen runs off his first two overs wouldn’t have been what Jansen wanted. Not after waiting for this moment for most of his 26 years. And especially not after watching his younger brother, by 15 minutes, establish himself as an international since he made his debut almost five years ago.
Duan Jansen looks almost exactly like Marco Jansen. A scant five centimetres separates the beanpole pair, who are both left-arm pace merchants. But many differences between them seemed apparent on Friday. Or were there?
In his first over in international cricket, in a Test against India at Centurion in December 2021, Marco was carted for three fours by Mayank Agarwal. He bounced back from that in the second innings, when he dismissed Agarwal, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in his haul of 4/55.
Would Duan also fight back to prove he is a chip off the Jansen block? It didn’t look like it when he returned to bowl the 14th, which went for a marginally improved seven runs. Then Alex Busing-Volschenk tried to drive his first effort of the 19th through cover and sent an edge scurrying to deep third for four. Twenty-nine runs off 19 balls is an economy rate of 9.35. Things weren’t going well, and continued in that fashion when Jansen sprayed his next delivery, a yorker, wide enough to fall foul of the umpire.
Maybe he would have been relieved to know that SuperSport’s streamed broadcast of the match had been bedevilled by technical issues. When the footage wasn’t frozen it was pixelated beyond comprehension. With a bit of luck, not many would have been able to glean an accurate idea of Jansen’s struggles.
The broadcast was later cut short. CSA said in a statement they had been told by SuperSport that the decision had been taken “due to poor incoming picture quality from the venue”. Then how come the match could be watched in uninterrupted smooth splendour on Indian streaming service Fancode? SuperSport have been asked for comment, but have yet to respond.
Jansen wouldn’t have been thinking about that as he ran in to bowl the third delivery of his last over. The ball arrived from around the wicket and was headed for leg stump before Ruben Trumpelmann put his pads in its path. Bernard Scholtz backed away furiously to leg to Jansen’s next delivery and had his off and middle stumps sent flying into the afternoon air. Considering what had gone before, final figures of 2/32 weren’t bad. Duan was a Jansen after all.
He strode back into the fray in the 14th, with South Africa reduced to 86/5 and needing another 78 off 40 balls to win. It took him eight balls to find the boundary for the first time with a back-foot punch through the covers off Jack Brassell. Jansen scored seven runs, in ones and twos, off the next six balls he faced before he launched JJ Smit over long-on for six. But before that stroke sailed into the lively crowd, South Africa required 26 off five, an ask even taller than the Jansen twins stood on top of each other.
Only another single — a sideswiped full toss to long-on by Jansen — was scored while Nqobani Mokoena and Prenelan Subrayen fell to fine catches in the deep.
Jansen finished 25 not out off 17, a handy enough contribution. But it will be relegated firmly into the shadows of what the Namibians achieved. There was a touch of a Cinderella fairytale about their victory on the same ground in October in the inaugural match between the teams in any format. The home side earned that win, but surely it couldn’t happen again? It could. It did. And it could well happen even again: the teams will face off once more next Friday.
“It shows we belong and that [last year’s win] wasn’t a once-off,” Gerhard Erasmus told the host broadcaster. “We’ve shown on home turf that we can be a consistent team and compete with the best.”
Duan Jansen showed he is among South Africa’s best. But he will need his team to have better days for him to be able to celebrate that truth. Maybe that will happen on Saturday, when South Africa take on Zimbabwe. It couldn’t get much worse, could it?
