Part Four

Greetings again from me, Albie Morkel’s increasingly restless bat, proudly part-sponsored during the Indian Premier League by Sport24.

I say restless because I feel a bit like the spare tyre in the boot, pining for an opportunity to get to grips with the windy road!

I’ve had plenty of time on my hands this week, so I did my maths and calculated that Albie’s faced just 36 balls in the IPL thus far. That’s right, 36 balls.

So no wonder it may seem my partner’s had a “poor” tournament batting-wise: truth be told, he hasn’t.

It’s just that with guys higher up the order like Matthew Hayden and MS Dhoni going so well – Matty is easily the leading IPL run-scorer as we speak – Albie hasn’t had much opportunity to get stuck in himself.

Of his seven knocks thus far, let’s not forget that four have been “not outs” – often very brief ones at that.

The good news, of course, is that we’ve been winning matches (five on the trot now), so there’s been no need, really, to tamper with the batting status quo.

And you can’t accuse either Albie or myself of not doing the unselfish thing over the past few days -- giving the strike to the “in” Mr Dhoni!

In our seven-wicket Kimberley win over the Rajasthan Royals on Saturday, neither Albie nor “MS” was even required to bat, but at Centurion on Thursday Albie got two not out off two balls in giving Dhoni the opportunity to reach his 50 against Kings XI Punjab.

Exactly the same scenario happened against Deccan Chargers in East London – though this time I was “fortunate” enough to face five deliveries for Albie’s four not out!

Of course Albie would love more middle time, but he’s a team man through and through and as long as Chennai look good for a semis spot, who’s complaining?

He’s also continuing his interesting little habit of striking incredibly early with the new ball: he did it again in Kimberley, bowling the Royals’ Naman Ojha for a third-ball-of-the-innings duck.

Against Kings XI he hit the jackpot with his second ball (Sunny Sohal), while against Deccan Chargers it was with his first – the great scalp of Adam Gilchrist.

The other positive about spending a lot of time in the dugout has been the ringside view for Albie and I of Hayden’s batting at the top of our order: the big man just can’t seem to fail.

Albie told me he sensed that Matt’s been a lot more relaxed at this year’s IPL, considering his international retirement a few months back, and it’s been illustrated by his run of scores. Here they are from the beginning of the tournament: 44, 65, 57, 49, 1, 30, 43, 89 and 48.

Whenever we’ve been at the coast, the Australian has been doing much of his training in the sea – he’s as keen a surfer as ever. Don’t laugh, this sort of “chilled” approach has really worked for him.

Albie doesn’t surf himself, being a highveld fellow and preferring a fishing rod anyway, but he knows it’s pretty good for your conditioning!

We both reckon the rest of the world got lucky by the knowledge that Hayden won’t be in Aussie colours at the World Twenty20 soon – there’s little doubt he could still cut it.

Albie warns, by the way, that the Australians will nevertheless be a force to be reckoned with at the event in England: he reminded me that they have a few old faces like Messrs Lee, Watson and Symonds slipping back into their mix.

But that doesn’t mean South Africa won’t be “thereabouts”, either …

*Albie’s bat was talking to Sport24 chief writer Rob Houwing. Watch out for Part Five next week …