De Lange On The March

Glamorgan fast bowler Marchant de Lange has toppled early leader Eoin Morgan in the hunt for this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy with a 62-ball hundred.

Batting at number 10, the 29-year-old South African blazed his way to a score of 113, including 6 fours and 9 sixes, but was unable to prevent his side losing to Northamptonshire in the Bob Willis Trophy match at Northampton on August 25.

De Lange, born in Limpopo, made his first-class debut for Easterns in the 2010-ll season and was called up for the South Africa A team after just 13 first-class games. He quickly earned a place in the Test side, making his debut against Sri Lanka in 2011, taking 7 for 81 in his first innings, but only played one more Test thereafter. He has also represented the national team in 4 One-Day Internationals and 6 T20 Internationals.

Following a stress fracture, which affected his participation in the 2012-13 season, de Lange was forced to remodel his bowling action and subsequently he slipped down the pecking order at international level. Nevertheless, he became a regular on the T20 world circuit, appearing for Barbados Tridents, Bengal Tigers, Durban Heat, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Knights, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians among others.

In 2017 de Lange joined Glamorgan on a three-year contract, where he became a home-grown player owing to his wife’s British passport. Prior to his cricketing career, de Lange excelled as a javelin thrower at school, which significantly helped his transition to a fast bowler who was able to extract pace and bounce from a short run-up.

Now in its 86th year, the Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season, is open to all domestic county competitions as well as One-Day Internationals, T20 Internationals and Test matches in England.

Northamptonshire v Glamorgan scorecard
Marchant de Lange’s career statistics