Day 31: A tale of two bowlers

It is never wise to compare players in men's and women's cricket or different formats. I'm not going to do that conventionally. I'm going to comment on the contrasting days that two cricketers had today.

South Africa's women have one of the best opening bowling partnerships. Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail complement each other. Kapp is a bowler who is difficult to score from, added with a stubborn streak you would be forgiven for thinking you'd have it a bit more comfortable from the other end.

You would be wrong of course because Ismail is a bowler who can rush even the best of batters. It is one of the factors that make South Africa such a difficult team to play. With over 100 T20i wickets to her name Ismail is leading the way in the format for South Africa.

Today she prevented Pakistan from levelling the T20i series with figures of five for 12. Not only did she skittle the top order out, but came back to dismiss Aliya Riaz and Ayesha Naseem when they looked like pushing South Africa close.

As a team, South Africa would be expecting to do better on all fronts. They are, however, finding a way of winning comfortably.

The other bowler I wanted to talk about was George Garton. A bowler of genuine pace, who has impressed those that have seen him play. He almost got a surprise Ashes call up not too long ago.

As can be the case injury and others ahead of him in Sussex's pecking order has stilted his progress.

One of the few people that can say that 2020 was a good year for him. He impressed in the T10 tournament with variations in pace and skills. He followed with a good season at Sussex, where he played a string of championship games.

In a format such as T10, there is always a bad day just around the corner for a bowler. If you get a batsman who is middling everything, then you are in trouble. Nicholas Pooran took a liking to Garton today on the way to a 26 ball 89.

Garton's two overs went for 48 runs. Even though it is just a T10 game, it will be interesting to see how Garton reacts. With the short turnaround in games, I would expect it has already been forgotten, and the next games' plans are the only focus.

When Stuart Broad was hit for 36, the only person who has left it in the past is Broad. Garton is still young and has many more overs to bowl. He will be back on track sooner rather than later.