I’ve won Manager of the Month again, which I graciously accept and put next to the Ikea trophy cabinet flat-pack we ordered but nobody has put together yet. Fortunately, Swansea slip up at Rochdale, and other results mean we stay top of the pile. We haven’t played badly, so I’m not too downbeat. The game finishes 1-1, and this is why we need to be better defensively – our forwards aren’t always going to be around to bail us out. I shout something about giving 110%, but it’s all too late.
Mustafa is having an uncharacteristic shocker and is dragged off to be replaced by Kah. However, we’re huffing and puffing and not really doing anything to change matters, so I do something: Mills has let me down and is replaced by Bubb. It’s 1-1, but we aren’t playing badly and I don’t feel like we should be drawing here. Immediately, Mansfield catch us out and equalise through the delicious Danny Bacon. Troubled but unperturbed, I make no changes and start the second half. I note that Gary Mills is stuck on a 6, and Karlheinz Pflipsen seems to be fiddling with what looks like a voodoo doll on the bench. Former Man Utd legend Kevin Pilkington is equal to everything we throw at him for the first 20 minutes, before Chris Brandon finds Farnerud in the box and our 17-year-old Swede hits a first-time shot to make it 1-0 at half time. The first half is tense and even, though we do have the better of it.
He can have a run next time assuming all goes well here. Pflipsen doesn’t make the bench, but he’s only just back from injury. I leave Gary Mills in the team following his superb form and bench Byron Bubb. Hopefully he’ll get it here so he can rest for the next game against mid-table Exeter. Billy McKinlay stays at DMC but after getting booked in almost every game so far, he’s only one yellow short of a suspension. Chris Plummer makes his debut, and Pa Modou Kah drops to the bench. They are no slouches, and we’ll need to be well up for this. However, their AMC Craig Disley is the second-best player in the league by Average Rating, just behind Sir Les. I’m delighted to report that he is injured, so we won’t have to worry about him. The team are third in the league and boast the division’s joint-top goalscorer, Chris Greenacre. I welcome my brand-new assistant manager Roar Hanset, signed almost entirely for his name, onto our hard-working team bus for the trip up to Mansfield. South Africa lost its first match in Group 1 to Australia.If you are late to this, you have seven episodes to catch up on first. Reeza Hendicks (39) proved to be a solid replacement for de Kock before Aiden Markram (51 not out) and Rassie van der Dussen (43 not out) led South Africa to 144-2 with 10 balls to spare for its first win in the tournament. The ageing Gayle scored only 12 before he was outdone by an off-cutter and edged a catch behind the wickets.Įvin Lewis looked to be the only threat to South Africa's pace and spin by top-scoring with 56 off 35 balls before he fell to the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj (2-24). The two-time champion West Indies, which was routed for only 55 in the first game by England, struggled before reaching 143-8 after being put in to bat.įast bowler Dwaine Pretrious, who bowled two of the last three overs, bagged 3-17, including the wicket of Chris Gayle off his first ball.
South Africa's Heinrich Klaasen (left) and West Indies' Evin Lewis take the knee prior to the start of the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between South Africa and the West Indies in Dubai, on Oct 26, 2021.