Four individual performances caught my eye last week - and all from players born in Southern Africa. Somerset compiled one of the highest scores in county Twenty20 history against Middlesex, thanks to thunderous half-centuries by Craig Kieswetter and Roelof van der Merwe. The former has missed a number of matches for Somerset and England Lions through injury but in his first day back he belted 59 from 22 balls. Imagine what he might achieve when he gets his eye in! Van der Merwe's 51 came from only 21 deliveries, including five sixes. This was no lucky break, either, because two days earlier, he took 89 off 51 balls against Kent, making even Marcus Trescothick look pedestrian.
Last week, Jonathan Trott hit another double-century for England, yet got slagged off for being slow. I'm no fan of the policy of selecting South Africans for England but if they're good enough and qualified, then I can't really argue, and the Warwickshire batsman is clearly good enough. In fewer than two years as an England international, he has played 19 Tests and 25 ODIs, averaging a magnificent 67 and 56, respectively. Not even Tendulkar can match that. He's currently equal third in the ICC World rankings for Tests and seventh for ODIs, not bad for a player castigated for being slow. The thing is, he isn't particularly slow at all, just gives the impression of obduracy when in fact he is keeping the scoreboard ticking along without the need to slog boundaries. In short, the ideal Test batsman to have around as foil for more flamboyant strokeplayers like Pietersen. I'd rather have someone who can score 50 in 60 balls than 20 in 10, unless match circumstances dictate otherwise. Indeed, in his last five games at the World Cup, his lowest score was 47. ANyway, the 203 he made at Cardiff makes him one of my Players of the Week.
The other is 38 years old, an age when retirement must weigh heavy on the mind. No, I'm not talking about Sachin Tenduulkar. After all, the Little Master didn't score an unbeaten 274 last week; Murray Goodwin did. Goodwin has been a consistent runmaker for Sussex throughout the past decade, with more hefty aggregates at Western Australia. Born in what is now Zimbabwe, he learnt his craft in Oz but got his international chance in the land of his birth. His Test debut came in a heavy defeat to Muralitharan/Sri Lanka and his 19th and last at Trent Bridge two years later, in which he struck 148 not out in a game England could have lost but for the weather. He played more than 70 ODIs but with less success, but he was a gifted back-foot player and nimble fielder in a side which also boasted Andy Flower, the nation's best ever batsman.
Because his family failed to settle in Africa, he retired from internationals in favour of county and state cricket, and has been a great servant to the game since then. He is no stranger to massive scores, with triples to his name as well as this week's 274. His 20,000 first-class runs feature 65 centuries, and add to the total another 12,000 one-day and T20 runs. OK, so his first ever T20 innings lasted only one ball, courtesy of a Wasim Akram LBW, but he remains an effervescent evergreen on the South Coast and deserves the joint Mikes Spin on Cricket accolade for the first week in June.
