MI Cape Town batter sustained injury while fielding in SA20 on Wednesday
Firdose Moonda15-Jan-2025Rassie van der Dussen is willing to play some shots. Like the not-quite-a-ramp after he switched his stance, then changed it back and kept the bat face open but still managed to send Kwena Maphaka over deep third for six.”I hit him for a four the previous ball and nine times out of ten that will go for six, because I hit it nicely and it was a full toss,” van der Dussen explained. “The next ball, I thought he was going to be on the stumps but the key in those types of things is when you’re lapping a guy that’s bowling at pace you’ve just got to be willing to take it on the body if you miss it, so keep your head still.”He obviously saw me coming, pushed it wide and I just had to get bat on it. It was just the energy on the ball and the wind but it’s always nice when those come off. It’s obviously a large risk of going out but also of physical pain, soo it’s nice when you see it go like that.”That shot took van der Dussen to 15, and he went on to score an unbeaten 91 which was the highest but arguably not the best knock of the night. Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who smashed a 52-ball 83, took that honour and with successive half-centuries at his home ground and shades of Quinton de Kock in his approach, there are already questions about higher honours and players who he could displace in the national white-ball side.Van der Dussen was willing to play some shots in that direction too. “As a senior player, it pushes you to never be complacent but also it shows you the talent we have in our system coming through,” he said. “There’s a lot of people, especially from outside our borders, who are very critical of our system and the way our CSA handles it.”But it shows you the best players will always come through. It doesn’t matter what age they are.Obviously something is working. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due and we’re still producing world-class cricketers.”Related
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Best we remember that van der Dussen is one of those and still very much part of the national plans – at least in one format. He has been named in South Africa’s Champions Trophy squad and confirmed as its No. 3, though there may be some jitters about whether he will make the trip after he suffered a finger injury in the field.Van der Dussen was fielding close in at cover-point when Joe Root hit Trent Boult ball just over him. He jumped and got fingertips to the ball, which only helped it on its way for four, and then had to leave the field. He held an ice pack to the ring finger of his right hand, which was swollen but not blue after the match and was able to shake hands with several people without pain.Whether that is the end of the issue remains to be seen but South Africa will be sweating on it. They are already without Anrich Nortje, who was ruled out of the SA20 and the Champions Trophy with a back problem, and would not want to lose more experience – especially as van der Dussen looks in good touch.Van der Dussen top-scored with 91* for MI Cape Town•SportzpicsIn blustery conditions, facing 15 overs of spin, van der Dussen was industrious in his strokeplay, excellent with his running between wickets (he scored 25 singles and eight twos) and clinical in his intention about who to attack. He took 19 runs off Maphaka’s last over, and his takedown of the 18-year-old quick included 33 runs off the 14 balls he faced from him, in keeping with the way he has played the game over the last year: go after pace.In 2023, van der Dussen’s strike rate against seamers was 131.7 but by 2024 it was up to 160.4, and it’s part of an overall trend of him going harder. Last year, van der Dussen scored 1395 runs in 43 T20s at a strike rate of 142.34, which makes it his productive and successful year in the format. He has only once had a higher strike-rate, in 2016, when he played far fewer matches: 16, and it’s the result of a clear plan.”I’ve taken a conscious decision, especially if I’m opening the batting, to try and put the bowlers under pressure,” he said. “In the last few years, I’ve been looked at as that guy who bats through, and I’ve done that today to an extent. I’ve got the game to do what some of the other guys around the world are doing, regarding hitting boundaries, especially upfront.”Playing in the T10 leagues has helped me a lot with that. But yes, it was a conscious decision. I’m going into my latter years now and Faf [du Plessis, who is 40] is inspiring me. He’s saying he’s always adapting and trying to renew his game and so forth and that’s pretty much similar for me.”The desire to keep improving comes despite snubs in the other two formats. Van der Dussen was dropped from the Test squad when Shukri Conrad took over in February 2023 and, despite finishing sixth in last year’s SA20 run-charts, was left out of the T20 World Cup squad.He was also handed the worst of the consolation prizes and was asked to captain South Africa in a three-match series that preceded the T20 World Cup – for which the IPL players were not available – and then to return to the Caribbean for another three-match series after the tournament. They were blanked three-nil both times, and enduring that along with missing the main event hurt.Van der Dussen has expanded his T20 game•Sportzpics”It was a tough one,” he said. “I had a great year in T20 cricket, leading up to that World Cup and I’ve never said I should have been in place of anyone but I just felt like it was a tough one. Always with ICC events, if there’s only 15 guys, some guys are going to miss out that you feel deserve it. So it was tough, but it is what it is.”The guys did really well and made us proud. But that opened some opportunities for me to go to leagues and, going into the latter part of my career, that’s something I’ll look to do for a few years and see where I go. My first priority has always been to play for the Proteas. I don’t know when that stops, how long I’ll keep playing leagues.”For now, van der Dussen is committed to the MICT cause and to turning things around after last-place finishes in both previous editions of the tournament. “It feels different in the squad, there’s a different vibe,” he said. “When you do so badly you learn what not to do. We really took those lessons of the first two years to heart.”It’s always tough for an overseas captain [Rashid Khan] coming in, but we made a conscious decision – myself, Colin [Ingram], KG [Rabada], Dane Piedt and some of the senior players – to say, we’re going to assist this guy as much as we can. This year, there was a really clear plan of ours to get the communication better, to help Rash out and just be a lot better in actually all aspects than we were in the last few years.”
