New Proteas player Piter Malan ‘leaves’ it late
Everyone gets excited when a young player debuts for the national team. He brings a fresh energy into the dressing room and often plays with the exuberance of never having failed before.
But just sometimes there’s an “old pro” that gets a late call-up.
A player that has taken all the hard knocks that first-class cricket can hand out.
Someone that has tucked away the flashy cover drive in favour of the leave.
Pieter Malan is the embodiment of such a batsman.
At 30-years-old and having played a decade of first-class cricket before debuting for the Proteas at Newlands this week, he also showed he is adept at leaving the ball.
In fact, he left many balls during his 288-ball stay at the crease in South Africa’s second innings. In an age where T20 cricket has made the “leave” almost redundant, Malan’s innings was a throwback to a bygone era.
“The last three to four years I have worked hard on it (the leave), eliminating dismissals that I thought was soft especially as a new-ball player. You want them to bowl at you. In South Africa it is tough facing the new ball, there is nip and bounce, so you want to leave as much as you can,” Malan said.
But why did it take Malan so long to graduate to the highest level despite once being a talented prodigy who played for South Africa * -19 in the Junior World Cup in 2008 alongside Proteas Wayne Parnell and Reeza Hendricks?
Read the full story on: IOL.