Rain has the final say at Wanderers, as Proteas await injury update on Coetzee

The Proteas may have to absorb more bad news about one of their fast bowlers after Gerald Coetzee missed Thursday night’s SA20 encounter for the Joburg Super Kings at the Wanderers. 

Mystery surrounded Coetzee’s absence from the starting side, after he’d played his first match in five weeks on Monday in Durban, where he bowled a full spell of four overs. Coetzee wasn’t even included among the squad’s reserves, with the Super Kings management initially only willing to state that his progress was being monitored. 

It is understood the injury is to his hamstring and that it may force the 24 year old quick bowler to miss the remainder of the SA20. If that is the case, it will be another harsh blow for the Proteas, who were likely to call up Coetzee as a replacement for Anrich Nortjé for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan next month. 

Nortje was forced to withdraw from both the SA20 and the Champions Trophy, after scans on Monday revealed a back injury. The extent of Coetzee’s ailment is yet to be determined, but after picking up a groin injury in the first Test against Sri Lanka at the end of November, he missed the remainder of SA’s international season. 

Meanwhile, for the second time in five days, Gauteng’s dreadful weather, ensured an SA20 match would not be completed, with the Joburg Super Kings and Pretoria Capitals forced to share the spoils as a biblical downpour ended proceedings at DP World Wanderers on Thursday evening. 

Unlike last Sunday in Centurion when no play was possible, at least the ‘Gauteng derby’ got to the halfway stage, with the Capitals, who were asked to bat, posting 138/8. 

The innings was an unusual one for this venue, where fast bowlers normally dominate in the red ball format and batters in the limited overs matches, but Thursday it was the spinners of the home team who held sway. 

Tabraiz Shamsi wasn’t one of them, left out for family reasons, with former England international Moeen Ali roped into JSK’s starting line-up as one of four changes to the side that won in Durban on Tuesday night. 

Spin did damage immediately with Donovan Ferreira, who bowled a full ration of four overs in Durban, taking the new ball, and earning a wicket with the third ball of the match when Rahmanullah Gurbaz, sliced an attempted drive to backward point. 

There followed a 47-run partnership off 28 balls between Kyle Verreynne, who made 39, and Will Jacks, who scored 15 for the second wicket, but importantly most of that partnership came against JSK’s pace bowlers. One of those was 35 year old Hardus Viljoen, who showed he was still capable of hitting 140km/h, but conceded nine runs in that first over. 

Evan Jones struck an important blow when he dismissed Jacks in the final over of the power play, and while the Capitals total of 51/2 after six overs was a good one, the fact that a new batter in Rilee Rossouw had to face the spin of Moeen and Imran Tahir, proved crucial in how the visiting team’s innings unfolded. 

From 48/1 at the end of the fifth over, the Capitals lost four wickets for 21 in the next six overs, all to spin.

In total the Super Kings bowled 11 overs of spin between three bowlers, who finished with combined figures of 5/55, with Moeen and Ferreira, taking two wickets apiece. 

Whether it would have proved match winning, no-one will ever know. But the SA20’s organisers will hope that the rain, which has seemingly fallen non-stop since the middle of December, abates soon. The final is scheduled to be held here in three weeks time.