Date-stamped : 09 Jul96 - 02:17 Tour Match Dersbyshire v South Africa 'A' Chesterfield 6,7,8 July 1996 ====> REPORT (Day 1, 6 Jul 1996) Adams will wait before joining the county set By Neil Hallam PAUL Adams, the South African leg-spinner whose uniquely bizarre bowling action makes him one of the most extraordinary talents to emerge in years, is looking forward to playing county cricket - but not just yet. Adams` contorted method of delivery has made him one of the game`s big draws and an obvious candidate for approaches from counties seeking a crowd-pulling overseas recruit. He insists, however, that he is out of bounds "for at least a couple of years" while he tries to establish himself as a fixture in the South African Test side for which he made such a startling impact with eight wickets in two games against England last winter. "I`d love to play county cricket eventually," he explained, while on 12th man duties for the South African A side against Derbyshire at Chesterfield. "I think that`s an ambition for most players in South Africa at some stage of their career and leg spinners like Mushtaq Ahmed and Anil Kumble have done really well in England. "But I`ve got too much to learn right now and this tour is very important in broadening my experience." With a moratorium on overseas players in England in 1999 that means it could be at least 2000 before he feels ready to make the move - and only then if his early experience of English pitches and weather on this A tour does not discourage him completely. "It`s a great education for us all," he said, "but the weather and cricket conditions have come as a bit of a shock to the sys- tem." Adams delivered this judgment while wearing a T-shirt, shirt and two sweaters - and that was just to sit in the dressing room. "I suppose it`s one of things you have to learn to cope with, one of the reasons we`ve come here," he added. "Another is to learn about English pitches, and I have to admit I found the one at Headingley for the game against Yorkshire this week dif- ferent to anything I`ve encountered before. "I found it hard to adjust because you have to bowl a dif- ferent pace and a different length here. Drop it on the sort of length you`d look for at home and it just sits up and begs to be hit so that`s something I`m going to have to work out." Tour coach Duncan Fletcher added: "I don`t think we`d ever stop Paul or anybody else who wanted to play county cricket but we are very conscious of the heavy physical demands involved here. "You are playing virtually non-stop for more than five months in England and with so much international cricket these days it`s important to protect our best talents from too much exposure. Paul Adams certainly falls into that category." Fletcher also nominated batsmen Jacques Kallis and Hylton Acker- man and seamer Brett Schultz as players with the potential to establish themselves as regulars in the South African Test side in the immediate future and added: "We reckon everybody on this tour has the scope to become a Test player within the next five years or so." The class of Kallis and Ackerman, son of the former Northants and South Africa batsman, was obvious yesterday as a Der- byshire side without seven first-choice players were given a long, hard day in the field. Kallis looked impressively composed in making 92 before falling lbw on the back foot to seamer Frankie Griffith. Ackerman`s 79 came off only 109 balls as their third-wicket stand added 135 in 33 overs and South Africa A cruised past 300 with only four wickets down. 5 A century by New Zealand opener Debbie Hockley failed to prevent the second women`s Test at Worcester ending in a draw after New Zealand reached 296 for six in reply to England`s 276 all out. In the rain-affected game, Hockley reached her fourth Test century off 226 balls and took her tour average to 77 when she was out for 115, caught by Suzie Redfern off Kathryn Leng`s bowling. The tourists` vice captain, Maia Lewis, hit a maiden Test half century. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ====> REPORT (Day 2, 7 Jul 1996) Africa `A` Tour: Adams finally starting to realise his potential By Neil Hallam at Derby Second day of 3: S Africa A (322-4d & 128-0) lead Derbys (316-5d) by 134 runs CHRIS ADAMS`S reputation as a big-hitting under-achiever is being effectively dismantled, his 66 off 60 balls against a laggardly South African A attack making him the fourth batsman to reach 1,000 runs in first-class cricket this summer and enabling Der- byshire to declare only six runs in arrears. The hitting is a big as ever, witness a soaring six over long-on and 11 fours struck with powerful relish, but a technique modi- fied after counselling by Les Stillman, Derbyshire`s new coach, is producing more consistent yields for the Old Reptonian. In eight previous seasons Adams had scored 1,000 runs in a sea- son only twice with 1,109 in 1992 his best, though a change in his footwork has proved beneficial. He is now on course to achieve, or perhaps even surpass, his pre-season target of 1,500 in the championship alone. Since implementing Stillman`s advice he has scored a career-best 239 against Hampshire and centuries in each innings against Middlesex. His domination of a South Africa A attack contain- ing left-arm seamer Brett Schultz, who has already played Test cricket, was proof of his rising confidence. All this, Adams hopes, might be sufficient to earn him a place on the England A tour to Australia next winter, and with only Graham Thorpe and Mark Butcher, of English-qualified batsmen, quicker to four figures his claim has weight. Of the four batsmen to score half-centuries in Derbyshire`s 316 for five declared, Adams was much the most assertive in his treatment of a South African attack so dilatory that even 27 overs from Nicky Boje, the left-arm spinner, failed to raise the over-rate beyond a wretched 12.1 an hour. Happily, there was a good deal more bustle from the tourists` openers as they scored 128 without loss in the final 30 overs with Free State`s Gerhardus Liebenburg in punishing form, especially off seamer Frankie Griffith, whose three overs cost 30 runs. Quite how challenging a declaration might be considered on a pitch which has thus far offered only slow turn remains to be seen but the strength of Adams`s hitting may discourage gen- erosity. Derbyshire resumed at 50 without loss and added only 14 runs before John Owen carved head-high to deep point. Adams pulled his first delivery, a no-ball from Schultz, for four and contin- ued to treat him with such disdain that one wondered if some- thing had been said to upset him on his way to the middle. Tim O`Gorman, whose half-century came off 96 balls, fell cutting and Adams, dropped on 53 at mid on against Boje, was go- ing for another clubbing blow against the spinner when he miscued a soaring catch to the same place. Gul Khan was dislodged by a ball which bounced more than most but Colin Wells and Michael May added 111 in 30 overs to stabil- ise the innings. May, playing only his third first-class game, eschewed risk in making his maiden half-century before Liebenberg provided the aggression needed to renew the prospect of a positive fin- ish. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ====> REPORT (Day 3, 8 Jul 1996) Tour Match:Unlikely target angers Stillman By Neil Hallam at Chesterfield Derbyshire (316-5 dec & 175-3) drew with South Africa A (322-4 dec & 335-3 dec) SOUTH Africa A were bade an unfond farewell with unflattering words from Derbyshire`s coach Les Stillman after a long-delayed declaration had set an improbable victory target of 342 in only 56 overs. When the contest expired as a draw, Derbyshire were 175 for three and Stillman was expressing mystification at the "negativity" of arithmetic demanding a scoring rate of of 6.1 runs an over from a side lacking seven first-choice players. He commented: "If this is how they want to play, no county is going to give them a thing from now on. They`ll just look at what they set us and think `why bother?` "What more could we have done to keep it alive? We batted for 10 overs less than them in the first innings and while we bowled our overs at almost 17 an hour, they crawled along at around 12. "We`d have had a go at anything realistic but they were ask- ing us to score more in 56 overs than they managed in 70 against quite a bit of help-yourself bowling. "What amazes me is that they didn`t seem to want to test their bowlers in a real contest. Either they didn`t have much faith in them or they just weren`t interested in a proper game of cricket," Stillman said. However the tourists` coach, Duncan Fletcher, felt the target was "pretty realistic" in view of the blamelessness of a pitch on which 973 runs had been scored for the fall of only a dozen wickets. "We thought they could have declared 50 or 60 behind to give us more room to set a target which gave both sides a fair shake," he said. Free State opener Gerhardus Liebenberg scored South Africa A`s first century of the tour with a six and 18 fours in 123 off 150 balls and Tim O`Gorman settled in for his second half- century of the match. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)