All-rounders are a special breed in any form of life but in cricket, they are worth their weight in gold as the impact that they can have on a game is massive. They can change the game with their batting even if their team is reeling or they can provide that vital breakthrough which supercharges the team to achieve greater things. The South African team have had a history of producing great all-rounders like Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener and following in their massive footsteps are cricketers on whom the Proteas have invested in for the ICC World T20 2016.
Chris Morris
Morris recently grabbed headlines when he landed a million dollar deal with the Delhi Daredevils team in the IPL auction. He justified that insane amount of bidding a couple of days later with a match winning 62 off just 38 balls that rescued South Africa from a precarious position and helped them defeat England by 1 wicket and keep the ODI series alive.
He is primarily a lively pace bowler often touching 140 kph and troubling the batsmen with slight movement off the deck. He also has a very good cutter which he used to a great effect on the slower pitches in India in the previous IPL while playing for the Chennai Super Kings. In 98 T20 matches he has scalped 123 wickets at an economy rate of around 7.5 while also smacking 596 runs at a healthy strike rate of over 150 runs per hundred balls.
Impact Rating – 7.5/10
David Wiese
I first saw David Wiese playing last year for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and he impressed me with his all-round skills. He made quite some meaningful contributions for them, always in the thick of the things, grabbing a wicket here, scoring quick runs there and fielding brilliantly.
He has played 2 ODI matches in the ongoing series against England and has not had much success having picked up just a solitary wicket while not being able to keep a check on the run flow as well. But his overall T20 record is very good, where having played in 108 matches, he has picked up 95 wickets and also scored close to a 1000 runs at a devastating strike rate of over 150 runs per hundred balls.
Impact Rating – 5/10
Farhaan Behardien and Rilee Rossouw
Behardien is a busy player who plays primarily as a batsmen slotting in the middle order and also very agile fielder in the field. He keeps the scoreboard ticking with quick running between the wickets while also having the ability to hit the big shots when required. He has nearly 2000 runs in 112 T20 matches which he has scored at a healthy strike rate of over 125 runs per hundred balls.
Rilee Rossouw is a player who is capable of playing the big shots from the word go coming in the slog overs. Like all left handed batsmen he is an elegant batsman with a pleasing cover drive. He has more than 2000 runs to his name in 81 T20 matches at a strike rate of more than 130 runs per hundred balls.
Combined Impact Rating – 6/10
The South African team will be hoping that whichever all-rounder they select in the playing 11 gives them the required results. These men may not be the most talked about or the most famous just yet, but they have enough talent to create an impact on their team’s performance just as Morris showed the other night against England.
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