Langeveldt

Georgetown: Former prison guard Charl Langeveldt may not have the pace of his South Africa teammates Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini, but he’s second to none when it comes to delivering in crunch situations.

South Africa were fortunate to find Langeveldt in superb form in their opening World Cup Super Eight match against Sri Lanka, just when they needed it most.

Sri Lanka were poised to launch a closing-overs onslaught when they ran into Langeveldt, who grabbed three wickets in his second spell to restrict them to 209.

He finished with a career-best five for 39.

He shared the Man-of-the-Match award with Sri Lanka paceman Lasith Malinga, who became the first bowler in the one-day history to take four wickets off successive balls.

South Africa Captain Graeme Smith was all praise for Langeveldt.

“Charl has been bowling well for a while. He is a superbly-skilled bowler and he showed that,” he said, whose team completed a thrilling one-wicket victory.

“He got the ball to swing and he bowled very well at the death for us.”

Langeveldt came in to bat in pressure situation after Malinga had rocked South Africa with four wickets in his second spell.

“When I was batting there at the end, my heart was in my... I didn’t know where it was. I was just thinking to get bat on ball but I never expected that I would have to bat,” he said.

When asked whether he would like to open the bowling, Langeveldt said: “No, I prefer first change. I like it when the ball’s swinging and it was moving around against Sri Lanka in overcast conditions but I prefer first-change.”

The Caribbean seems to be a happy hunting ground for Langeveldt, who took a hattrick to script his team’s sensational one-run victory over the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados in 2005.

The West Indies were strongly placed at 281 for six chasing South Africa’s total of 284 before Langeveldt changed the course of the match with his maiden five-wicket haul.

Langeveldt has given his skipper more options with his variations as he has the ability to strike at crucial moments. He has so far bag-ged 56 wickets in 42 one-dayers.