SA largely dodged Dean Jones’ hitting ire

Dean Jones of Australia in action during an ODI against South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 23, 1994 (Getty Images).

• Dean Jones missed for one year the opportunity to play SA at the test level, as he was cruelly cut off from Australian plans.
• He was involved in six wins and seven losses against our country at the ODI level, and he averaged a modest (for him) 30.
• Jones was deprived by just two runs of scoring a century against SA, being castled by Dave Rundle for 98 at Brisbane.

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Dean Jones, a handsome character primarily in the fold, was hardly lacking in admirers, even across the “great ditch” of the Indian Ocean in the key rival nation of South Africa.

Just a good example, perhaps, of the esteem in which he was held in these places came in a tribute tweet on Friday, following the death of Jones at age 59 from a heart attack in Mumbai a day earlier, of a former player. of Proteas, Rory Kleinveldt.

“Dean Jones on the track and on top! One of my favorite hitters along with Viv (Richards) as a kid in the late 80s and early 90s. Adequate entertainer. RIP Deano”, It was the tribute to the burly off-roader (@ RoryK_9).

Kleinveldt also correctly identified Jones’ heyday … one that, as a result, largely prevented activity against the still apartheid South Africa.

The Melbourne-born right-hander was highly controversial on the sidelines of Australia’s testing plans despite being notably in his prime and only 31 years old when he played his last of 52 tests (since 1984, and an average of 46.55). against Sri Lanka in Moratuwa in September 1992.

That was a few months after SA made its own comeback in that format, against the West Indies in Bridgetown, Barbados, but just over a year before the first post-isolation clash between the great adversaries of the South at the headquarters of Jones from the MCG in late December 1993.

It meant Jones was only able to face South Africa at the international level for one day – in 13 of his 164 total appearances, which involved 6,068 runs at 44.61.

Of those 13 cases, Jones was on the winning side six times and lost the other seven, something that reflects on him rarely, indeed, leading SA’s attack on clean-up the way he did with so many others in all the world.

The charismatic Victorian managed for three half centuries against us, with a high score of 98 and a modest average of 30.00 (including an even lower 21.57 in South Africa itself).

Against Sri Lanka, for example, he averaged a staggering 109.87 out of 17 ODI, while his career average against England was 53.05 and against India 42.52.

But he had a very “mixed” time against South Africa, whom he tackled in three major tournaments: once at the 1992 Australian World Cup, five times in a Benson & Hedges tri-series that also involved New Zealand ( in Australia), and then seven more times in an eight-game bilateral series off our shores in early 1994.

The unforgettable World Cup clash, of course, was South Africa’s impressive debut at that level under the leadership of Kepler Wessels at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where they defeated the host nation by nine wickets.

Jones dropped to 24 runs, fired by Brian McMillan, on that occasion.

In the January 1994 triangle series, he started off with a bang in Brisbane, earning the aforementioned high score against the country of 98, although he was beaten by Dave Rundle while chasing the toning mark.

More scores of 10 (Perth), 3 (Melbourne) followed, before adding 79 and 25 in the key second and third leg final in Sydney, where the Australians recovered a 0-1 deficit in the final to seize the trophy with a 2 -1 win in the masterpiece matches.

But the fast-track and strictly bilateral follow-up series in South Africa would also become Jones’s last.
An unusually long eight-game series, it was shared 4-4 and it wouldn’t be the batter’s happiest.

Jones recorded 42 (Johannesburg), 5 (Centurion), 67 (Port Elizabeth), 8 (Durban), 8 again (East London), 13 (PE) and 8 (Cape Town), before being eliminated for the decider in Bloemfontein. (the Australians won, to square the tense fight) and promptly announcing their retirement from ODI.

South African fast middle bowlers Eric Simons and Craig Matthews could claim to have had their number that summer – they each fired him three times, to go with a run.

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