INDIA TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA, 2018

Jansen twins get the Kohli nod of approval

by Kaushik Rangarajan • Last updated on

Duan and Marco Jansen were recalled by Indian team management for the second day to help India's batsmen prepare ahead of third Test. © Cricbuzz

There are days when we're all Wasim Akram. For 17-year-old Marco Jansen, Monday (January 22) was that day. He and his twin brother Duan were asked for by Ravi Shastri and his support staff for a second successive day to bowl at the Indian batsmen in the nets. Their first day had ended with pats on the back and a congratulatory message. The second day began with a special prize - a new ball. India seldom offer those to net bowlers in a fast-bowling net also featuring their five Test-level quicks plus two first-class cricketers - Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur - summoned for the very reason.

Far away to the left of the nets, under the shade of the trees, waited Koos Jansen, the father of the two left-arm quicks. The net, that unheralded stalwart of the sport, was to provide a tale of magnificence for his sons. While he shifted eagerly in his spot, Duan - the elder of the two lanky brothers by 15 minutes - began proceedings with a good length delivery to India's superstar captain Virat Kohli. A textbook defence.

Self-admittedly, Duan had been the better of the two brothers yesterday, but a request to bowl from around the wicket by the management had reduced his efficacy today. His right foot had landed on an uneven surface and caused a sprain.

Today was Marco's day. He bowled a delivery that pitched on middle stump and whizzed past Kohli's outside edge. The Indian captain, who had foregone his customary throwdowns warm-up on a request from Murali Vijay, gave a little nod of approval. Then Marco beat him with an identical delivery with his next ball. While Kohli shifted around his crease to find his comfort zone, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma had bowled two quick deliveries climbing up to his bat stickers.

Then Marco was ready for his third, momentarily and miraculously possessed by the spirits of Akram and Mitchell Starc. He landed the ball on an identical postcode and whizzed it past Kohli's attempted defence. A clearly affected Kohli then shouldered arms to a straight delivery from Umesh next up and lost his off-stump.

"It's an incredible feeling to know that you're bowling to the best batsman in the world," Marco told Cricbuzz, his smile occupying the full distance betweeen his two ear lobes at the end of the session. "He [Kohli] only said after the third ball, 'Good ball'."

More validation came from his twin. "Yes, Marco beat him more today than yesterday. I think yesterday, he noticed some of his - not weaknesses - but where to put the ball more in his area. I think he bowled nicely today," Duan innocently added. It was the beauty of the net. In this technological era of bowling machines and throwdowns, there was something reassuring about the fact that the primary practice tool for cricketers remains a few square metres of netting. Today it brought together a modern great and a tyro, and levelled the field for a few precious minutes.

Marco and his brother weren't supposed to be here if the stars hadn't aligned for them. The two brothers play for the Northwest Dragons, an age-group club side based out of Potchefstroom. "The week before, one of our teammates told us that our coach had asked us to come and bowl here, because the Gauteng guys had a Sunday league game that they had to play. So our coach, Claude April, called us up to come and bowl here."

The academic city of Potchefstroom is roughly 120km to the south west of Johannesburg. But an opportunity to bowl to members of the No.1 Test team was too good to miss. On Sunday, the Union bus brought the boys to Wanderers but once the Indian management had asked for the boys to return for the nets on Monday morning, father Koos, a former Rugby player with the Free State Cheetahs and now a manager in a Trucks company, decided to take a day off from work to drive his prodigious sons to and from the Wanderers stadium. It was a decision that left him with a smile as big when his two boys sought counsel with Bhuvneshwar Kumar to learn the tricks of swing bowling. "Virat Kohli?, No I didn't ask him any questions," Marco said sheepishly.

This was not Jansen twins' first brush with stars of Indian cricket. When the A side were in Potchefstroom for a four-day unofficial Test against South Africa A, the two brothers were called in to bowl to Karun Nair, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. "I bowled to them. It's the same like these guys, all of them are great at what they do. It's just incredible. Even if it was just the India A side, it felt out of this world to be bowling to them that day. It was a blessing just to go there and watch them, not even to bowl to those guys," Duan said.

"I tried to bounce them! There were one or two balls that I got right, but other balls flew (off the bat). One of them hit one so hard, it almost went through the net," Duan added with pride.

The ultimate reward from that day's effort came from the India A coach and cricket legend Rahul Dravid, who was thoroughly impressed by the two young boys and went over to offer words of encouragement. "They had profile pictures with Dravid for I don't know how long," father Koos said. "They would keep showing it to everyone and it is obviously a matter of great pride for me because Dravid is a legend and when he tells my boys to keep up the good work, it means a lot"

The interaction with Dravid had takeaways besides an update to social profiles. "He was very humble and it's something that I looked up to. For me, I'm a player who always gets on top of everybody, or of a player who thinks he's very good and all that stuff. For me, it taught me to stay humble and not think I'm the best in the world, or I'm better than the game or something," Marco said.

Coming from a sporting family - younger sister specialises in athletics - the Jansen brothers are hopeful that days like these can help fast-track their dream of representing South Africa in cricket, a sport they picked over "daddy's sport" rugby at the age of seven. They have their father's full support, even if that means driving to other venues, taking off from work and waiting under a tree.

"He asked us at a certain time what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives. We told him we really wanted to play cricket, because we are too skinny to play rugby. When we told him we wanted to play cricket, he supported us all the way, 100%.

"We talk a lot about playing together for South Africa. But the more we talk about it, the more we realise that it's not going to be easy. We must work very hard and be very dedicated to come here and play for South Africa, if we get the chance one day."

© Cricbuzz

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