The next gen
There are some exciting youngsters coming through
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JJ Basson bagged his first scalp almost immediately after taking the new ball, two deliveries, to be exact. Three balls later, he had his second. It is doubtful such a start had ever been seen in the history of the Jozi Cup: two wickets for one run, a wide, in the first over. But, as far as Basson was concerned that’s all it was, a start. He was about to unleash a whirlwind no one had ever witnessed before.
In his next over, Basson bagged a hattrick in a maiden over. His radar was so accurate that he uprooted the stumps in all three dismissals. To say the Swaneville U18 side was shell-shocked would be an understatement. They couldn’t deal with the 17-year-old’s pace and left-arm angles.
Basson seemed intent on ensuring that Swaneville lost wickets in an incremental order whenever he came in to bowl. Four batters fell in his third over. Unfortunately, one of the wickets was a run-out, sandwiched between Basson’s seventh and eighth wicket of the match.
One can assume that after watching Basson wreak havoc, splaying stumps, one of the Swaneville batters decided that the best way to survive was to be off-strike when the left-armer was bowling. Unfortunately for him, his nudge had not gone far enough to warrant him taking a single. Basson wrapped things up with the first ball of his fourth over.
June 15, 2024. 17-year-old JJ Basson took 9 wickets for one run in a 19-ball spell. That is the closest domestic cricket has come to a perfect bowling spell, cricket’s version of a baseball shutout. Also called a no-hitter, a shutout is when a pitcher allows no hits, no runs, and no opposing batter to reach first base. They are so rare that in over the 154 years of Major League Baseball history, and over 238,500 games played, there have been 24 official perfect games.
They are even rarer in cricket. In 1924, Lancashire’s Dick Tyldesley came the closest when he bagged five wickets in five overs for no runs. In Test cricket, Richie Benaud took three wickets for no runs in 3.4 overs against India in 1959. In T20Is, Indonesia's Rohmalia Rohmalia spun a web around Mongolian batters on her way to seven wickets for no runs in a 20-ball spell.
Only a single bowler, Akash Choudhary has produced a perfect innings in recorded matches. In 2017, the then 15-year-old ran through the Pearl Academy batting lineup bagging 10 wickets for no runs in a four-over spell for Disha Cricket Academy.
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The chances of JJ Basson repeating or surpassing his nine-wicket feat are slim. However, the Noordheuwel learner is a menace with the ball. He is close to unplayable a lot of the time. On the 29th of August 2024, Basson sent down seven overs in a match against Bishops and 34 of his 42 deliveries were dot balls. He finished the match with five wickets for 13 runs.
His ability with the ball in hand is the reason why Basson was selected for the Emerging SA U19 side set to tour Zimbabwe. The team will play against Zimbabwe’s U19 outfit with players two years older than them.
“This is going to be a big test for the boys, to play against an older side that has been together for a while in foreign conditions. This is our first step in our preparations for the 2026 U19 World Cup,” the team’s coach, Malibongwe Maketa shared.
However, Basson isn’t the only prospect to be excited about in the squad. There is also Dakalo Leketa from St Andrews School, Free State. On the 29th of August, Leketa bagged seven wickets for 79 runs in the first innings and six for 40 in the second innings for a 13-wicket haul in a 2-day time cricket match against St David’s Marist.
In the same encounter, Jason Rowles scored a brilliant second innings half-century, 79 off 67 to set St David’s up for victory. When he wasn’t opening the batting, Rowles tormented the opposition with his bowling, bagging six wickets for 37 runs in the first innings and then four for 44 in the second, for match figures of 10 for 87.
The Patrick Moroney-led selection committee picked players with two and a half skills, that is batters who can bowl and are relatively good in the field, bowlers who can bat and can field or batters who can keep wicket and might give you a decent over or two with the ball.
“Cricket is evolving, the game is now being dominated by players with multiple skills, one primary and then a secondary skill that adds value,” Maketa said.
Three of their batters, Bulbulia Mohammed, Ben Hockly, and Lethabo Phahlamohlaka are all proficient with the gloves. Jason Rowles and Jorich van Schalkwayk are top-order batters whose bowling skills are a standard above the part-timer level. They will compliment the team’s specialist spinners, Luke Kleinsmith and Dakalo Leketa.
“All the batters we have in the side can bat anywhere in the top four, and we are going to be flexible with them, trying them in different places. We know Adnaan (Lagadien) is a fantastic opener, but we want to equip him with the ability to bat anywhere in the top four,” Maketa explained.
Paul James and Daniel Bosman are the two all-rounders in the side, both can deliver 10 overs in a match if required. The pace bowling attack has JJ Basson, Dayalan Boyce, Ntando Soni, Buyanda Majola and Rowen Rajah.
Gauteng province, Lions and Titans, have four players in the side, KZN Inland has two, while their Coastal neighbours have three representatives. Western Province is the joint-most represented province with four players, while the Free State and North West have a single player each.
Emerging U19 squad:
JJ Basson, Dayalan Boyce, Daniel Bosman, Muhammed Bulbulia, Ben Hockly, Paul James, Luke Kleinsmith, Adnaan Lagadien, Dakalo Leketa, Buyanda Majola, Lethabo Phahlamohlaka, Rowen Rajah, Jason Rowles, Ntando Soni, Jorich van Schalkwayk.