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Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town – Jonathan Trott is in ominous form for England in the lead-up to their World Cup red-letter day in Group B against South Africa at Chennai on Sunday.
VIDEO: Dale Steyn on the subcontinent wickets
The Proteas have other fish to fry first, against the second-tier Netherlands on Thursday, but the Cape Town-born batsman already shapes up as a big threat to them for a match-up between two of the more strongly-fancied teams in the tournament.
Trott blasted a run-a-ball 92 against Ireland in Bangalore on Wednesday as England went well past 300 for the second time in succession, taking his World Cup tally to 170 from three innings at an average of 56.
When he reached 64 he also earned the distinction of joining another South African-born player, Kevin Pietersen, and West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards in becoming the fastest (21 innings) to 1 000 runs in one-day internationals.
A quirky little statistic is that Trott achieved the milestone despite starting his ODI career against the very same opponents in Belfast in August 2009 – with a duck.
In three ODI appearances against South Africa, among his productive 21 knocks thus far, he has shown a fair relish for the Proteas attack by scoring 87 (Centurion), nine (Cape Town) and 52 not out (Port Elizabeth).
The fastest batsman to 2000 runs, at least, is a South African who actually plays for his land of birth – Hashim Amla, who got there from 40 innings.
In tribute to Trott as he got to his 1000-run landmark, television commentator Mark Nicholas observed: “If you’d said about 18 months ago that Jonathan Trott would become one of England’s key one-day international cricketers, you would have had some doubters ...”
Cape Town – Jonathan Trott is in ominous form for England in the lead-up to their World Cup red-letter day in Group B against South Africa at Chennai on Sunday.
VIDEO: Dale Steyn on the subcontinent wickets
The Proteas have other fish to fry first, against the second-tier Netherlands on Thursday, but the Cape Town-born batsman already shapes up as a big threat to them for a match-up between two of the more strongly-fancied teams in the tournament.
Trott blasted a run-a-ball 92 against Ireland in Bangalore on Wednesday as England went well past 300 for the second time in succession, taking his World Cup tally to 170 from three innings at an average of 56.
When he reached 64 he also earned the distinction of joining another South African-born player, Kevin Pietersen, and West Indies legend Sir Vivian Richards in becoming the fastest (21 innings) to 1 000 runs in one-day internationals.
A quirky little statistic is that Trott achieved the milestone despite starting his ODI career against the very same opponents in Belfast in August 2009 – with a duck.
In three ODI appearances against South Africa, among his productive 21 knocks thus far, he has shown a fair relish for the Proteas attack by scoring 87 (Centurion), nine (Cape Town) and 52 not out (Port Elizabeth).
The fastest batsman to 2000 runs, at least, is a South African who actually plays for his land of birth – Hashim Amla, who got there from 40 innings.
In tribute to Trott as he got to his 1000-run landmark, television commentator Mark Nicholas observed: “If you’d said about 18 months ago that Jonathan Trott would become one of England’s key one-day international cricketers, you would have had some doubters ...”
