30 August 2023
In 2020, SA Schools Sports ran a poll that asked, who is the greatest school coach? The poll featured legendary names that have changed the lives of numerous young athletes and prepared them to be the best they could be.
Mike Bechet won the poll. In this piece, we look at his most successful cricket team.
He described the Maritzburg College 2002 cricket team as one of the best modern Maritzburg College sides, and one of the best units to grace Goldstones, Maritzburg College’s first XI cricket field.
That team featured the talents of: Tommy Hammond (future SA hockey international), Ian Geldenhuys, David Sharp, Clint Bowyer (KZN Inland Schools), Sherwin Govender, Brent Bragge, the late Brangan Hulley, Jamie Shaw (KZN Inland Schools), Travis Stedman, Tim Groenewald (KZN Inland Schools), Adrian Penzhorn, (KZN Inland and SA Schools) Peter “Bash” Grant (SA Schools rugby, future Springbok), and Keegan Nagan (KZN Inland Schools).
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A memorable match
Adrian Penzhorn, College’s captain, remembers the match well. Grey College won the toss and chose to bat first.
Throughout the season, Tim Groenewald, Keegan Nagan, Ian Geldenhuys, Brangan Hulley and Sherwin Govender had turned Goldstones into a fortress. Like the Andre van Vuuren-led 1996 Invincibles, they did not let visiting batters have their way on their home soil. But, Riel de Kock, the Grey College and SA under-19 batter, had other ideas. He made them chase leather and their tails as he hinted at a rare visitors’ century on Goldstones.
“We often had set plans for key opposition players which regularly paid off. Bech pressed us to be ruthless, never let the opposition in for a moment and to do it together as 11,” says Penzhorn.
The plans worked against other batters, but De Kock appeared immune. He occupied the crease for 40 overs. The longer he batted, the more Maritzburg College’s bowling and fielding disintegrated. Eventually, he was dismissed for a well-played 95. Another player had been denied a visitor’s ton on Goldstones. However, the damage had already been done. Grey College cruised to a competitive 258/8.
Steely resolve
That tally, though, was not beyond Penzhorn and his team. Earlier in the year, Maritzburg had scored three totals north of 250; 290 against Northwood, 261 against Westville, and their biggest total, 329 against a Pietermaritzburg Invitation XI for a 129-run win. What made the Grey College total daunting was the early wobble after Maritzburg College came out to bat. They found themselves on 54/2 after 10 overs.
Matters looked ominous when they slumped to 95/4 after 19 overs. But Hulley and Groenewald stepped up and stabilized the innings with a 68-run partnership. Hulley would go on to top
score for College with an outstanding 64.
Unfortunately, he was unable to see the team home. That responsibility fell on the tail. Geldenhuys, Bowyer and Sharp took control of the last six overs and Maritzburg won with five balls to spare.
“A few games needed all 11 players to stand up. That Grey game showed that, when chasing 250-plus after a top-order wobble. Bech always backed us, asked more from us, and shared the celebrations and tears in the changeroom afterwards,” says Penzhorn.
The qualities of an unbeaten team
“If I can sum up the 2002 team with a quote, it would be with one from the writings of Vince Lombardi: ‘Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with perfectly disciplined will, which refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind – you can call it character in action’,” says Bechet.
His praise is not hyperbole. The 2002 Adrian Penzhorn-led Maritzburg College made history, joining the 1916, 1952, 1989, and 1996 teams on the list of College teams who went a whole season unbeaten. They were the second team to remain unbeaten during Bechet’s time as head coach.
Bechet also coached the 1996 team. That side played 22 matches, won 18 and drew four. The 2002 team had 18 wins from 21 matches. All of their draws were due to rain, with one of them coming against an Affies side that boasted the talents of AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Heino Kuhn.
Though both the 1996 and 2002 teams won the same number of matches in a season, the 2002 team pips the 1996 team on win percentage. They won 86% of their games, while the 1996 team won 82%. The 2002 team was the most successful under Bechet’s tutelage.
Batting depth
The 2002 Maritzburg College cricket team’s success was, in part, built on batting depth. That season, the team was never bowled out and batted to number 11. More than once, the lower order chipped in with handy runs to give the bowlers a decent score to defend. They also attacked as much as the top order.
The team scored at a rate of 4.67 runs an over, which was really good at the time. For context, the Proteas scored at 5.03 runs an over in the same year.
Hulley (537) had the best batting average of 41.3. Only one other player, Grant (41.0) averaged over 40. A few players were in the mid-30s and then a decent number averaged in the 20s. Grant led the run-scoring with 656 runs. Shaw (639) and Penzhorn (636) were a close second and third behind him.
The only disappointment for Bechet was that just two of the 26 innings of 50 or more scored during the season were converted to three figures: Hulley’s unbeaten 107 against Hilton College and Penzhorn’s 106 against the Pietermaritzburg Invitational XI.
Penzhorn and Shaw came close to adding more centuries only to fall in the nervous nineties. Hulley and Bragge came close but lost their wickets in the upper 80s.
Bowling consistency
The second piece of the puzzle to the 2002 team’s success was its bowling consistency. When speaking of his side’s excellence with the ball, Penzhorn points to the last match of the season as an example, “Our final game of the year against Michaelhouse, for us to end unbeaten, had us defend a modest target with a dogfight that became part of who we were.” It was a battle between the province’s top two sides, and it was played at Michaelhouse.
The home team did well to restrict Maritzburg College to 191, after asking them to bat first on a wicket that had been under covers for most of the week due to rain. It was not an easy surface and Michaelhouse took full advantage of the conditions. They bowled well and did not offer much by way of loose deliveries. Shaw top-scored for College with 43 runs.
Then, an in-form Ryan Reeves threatened to take the match away from Maritzburg College from the moment he arrived at the crease. The number three batter scored 10 runs, a two and two fours, off the first three deliveries he faced.
His attacking stroke-play took College by surprise, but they regrouped and settled into a rhythm of bowling tight lines, offering no width, backed by great fielding. After 25 overs, the game was in the balance with Michaelhouse on 75/3.
“Penzhorn was an outstanding captain. He knew how to motivate the team,” says Bechet. After the tea break, he did just that. Within three overs, Govender had made a breakthrough. Sensing an opportunity to make history, the Maritzburg College bowlers redoubled their efforts. Reeves’ valiant 63 was not enough to turn the tide, and Michaelhouse was bundled out for 139 in 44.5 overs.
Wickets shared
During the 2002 season, five Maritzburg College bowlers took 20 or more wickets. Groenewald and Hulley led the way with 30 each. Govender (24), Bowyer (24), Nagan (23), and Geldenhuys (13) supported them well.
Four bowlers conceded less than three runs an over: Hulley (2.5), Govender (2.7), Geldenhuys (2.8), and Bowyer (2.9).
As a unit, the Maritzburg College bowlers conceded runs at a rate of 3.11 runs an over, which was outstanding. For context, the best bowling attack in ODIs in 2002, Australia, conceded runs at a rate of 4.42 runs an over.
Success has many fathers. Yet, interestingly, when asked about the third piece of the puzzle to the 2002 side’s success, neither Bechet nor Penzhorn chooses to claim it. Each points to the other.
High praise
Bechet insists, “Penzhorn was without peer in the province. He was a clear thinker. His shrewd tactical acumen, coupled with his fierce passion for success, saw to it that his team followed his every move. The way he led the team was, to a large degree, the reason why the team was so successful. He instilled confidence in his team at all times.”
Penzhorn, on the other hand, attributes the success to Bechet’s methods, “Bech was one of the most passionate and driven coaches I ever played under. There were no grey areas with him. He challenged every part of your game and questioned your thinking – as infuriating as that was at times, it built tremendous fortitude and mental strength.
“As a captain, it drove me to be better in the role. He was big on gameplans and strategy, fairly progressive for schoolboy cricket at the time, and taught us to be scholars of the game, too.”
The truth lies in the middle, the coach and captain understood and complemented each other. Bechet knew how to get the best out of Penzhorn and Penzhorn knew how to get the best out of the rest of the team. Together, they made history.
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