Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Marchant de Lange

Marchant de Lange made a stunning Test match debut when he stood in for the injured Vernon Philander in the 2011/12 series against Sri Lanka and returned innings figures of 7/81. These were the third best debut figures for South Africa at the time behind Lance Klusener (8/64 against India in 1996) and Alf Hall (7/63 against England in 1923).

This was the high point of a stunning season for the 21-year-old who went from a provincial player with Easterns to South Africa A for whom he took five wicket in an innings against Australia and then to the highest level.

Such was Philander’s form that De Lange had to give way to him for the remaining Test of that series but there were further opportunities for him on the 2012 tour of New Zealand where he made his debut in both limited overs formats. That included a memorable final over in the series-deciding T20 when he took two wickets for two runs to get the Proteas home by three runs.

His upward mobility continued with an IPL contract with the champion Kolkata Knight Riders.

He missed most of the 2012/13 season through injury but came back strongly in helping the Nashua Titans reach the final of the RAM SLAM T20 Challenge.

Here’s a list of things you may have or may have not known about Marchant de Lange:

1. Marchant’s nickname is channa
2. He is a right-arm fast bowler and tail-end right-handed batsman and was called up to the South Africa squad from relative obscurity and little first-class experience for the series against Sri Lanka.
3. De Lange was drafted as a late replacement for Vernon Philander in the second test match against Sri Lanka and returned figures of 8/126 on Test debut, including 7/81 in the Sri Lankan first innings
4. Prior to his cricketing career, de Lange was a javelin thrower hence his ability to attain such impressive pace around 145-150 Km/hr from a short run-up.
5. Marchant de Lange, at the age of 19, made his first class debut in 2010 for Easterns against Free State and returned match figures of 4/99.
6. Marchant made his Twenty20 debut against New Zealand on 19 February 2012 at Hamilton. He took the wicket of Martin Guptill on his debut.
7. Marchant de Lange was a surprise buy in the 2012 Auction with Kolkata Knight Riders notching him up for his base price of $50,000. That season he played in three matches and picked up 3 wickets at an average of 35.66.
8. In players auction for IPL 2014, Mumbai Indian bought this talented bowler for Rs. 30 lakhs.
9. Marchant de Lange hails from the northern town of  Tzaneen, most famous for the being the home of Modjadji, the Rain Queen.
10. Marchant was discovered at his local academy by scouts from Northerns Provincial Union and was brought to their Centurion home, before making his first-class debut for Easterns in the 2010-11 season.