21.3.09

Prince of the Cape

I was out and about in Somerset and Devon yesterday, but I got back in time to see Ashwell Prince come off with 150 under his belt and the cheers of the Newlands crowd ringing in his ears.

As he showed in England last summer, Prince is a classy operator, but to return with such a score, out of position, after losing his place in the side through a combination of injury and Duminy's brilliance, showed a special type of resilience.

With the South African selectors' experiment with Neil McKenzie at the top of the order apparently over, it may be that Prince has a future as Graeme Smith's opening partner. Prince is no more a specialist than McKenzie but he is a much better batsman.

I'd like to see it.
Posted by at 7:11 AM
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2 comments:

Rob said...

Do you really think they have finished with McKenzie? I cannot say I was a fan of his but he made some big scores.

10:07 AM
Brian Carpenter said...

Thanks, Rob. Of course, I'm not sure but I just get the feeling that's the way things are likely to go - McKenzie's 33 and was out of the side for several years prior to his run as opener. Smith will obviously return and they'll probably be looking for a more attacking option than McKenzie. That could be Prince, could be Imraan Khan, could be someone else we haven't heard of.

Nice to get a reasonable question as a comment - a quick look at Patrick Kidd's comments on 'Line and Length' show how many nutters there are out there!

10:06 AM

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