Andre Nel Profile

Andre Nel Profile

South African AllRounder

Personal Information

Date of Birth July 15, 1977
Nationality South African
Height 6 ft 4 in
Role Bowler / Right arm fast medium

Andre Nel Profile: A Brief Biography

Andre Nel Biography

Andre Nel is a former South African cricketer, born on 15 July, 1977 in Germiston, South Africa. He was a right handed fast bowler and played all the formats of cricket for his country for many years. He is still remembered for the aggression that he brought to the side and displayed on the field.

Background

Andre Nel came into the sight of the selectors quite early in his career. He first came into news in 2001 when one of his fierce bouncers forced his hero Allan Donald to leave the field in a domestic first-class match.

Debut

Nel had made his ODI debut on 12 May 2001 against West Indies at Queen’s Park Oval. He took three wickets in this match.

He made his test debut in August of the same year, at an age of 24 years against Zimbabwe in Harare. He went on to take five wickets on his debut.

These two performances were not bad at all for a debutant. but Nel couldn’t continue this as later that year.

Rise to glory

It was in the home series against West Indies during 2003-04 that he rose to prominence. In the series of four tests, Nel went on to take 22 wickets and in the process, also took his first five-wicket haul in the Cape Town test.

In the next year, Nel made a comeback into the side in the fifth test match against England and displayed another good performance as he picked 6 wickets for 81 runs.

On the tour to Australia a year later, he picked up fourteen wickets in three matches and also became the 11th South African to pick 100 test wickets.

Low points

After the tour to Australia during 2005-06, Nel failed to make a permanent spot in the side. When Australia visited SA, he was at the receiving end and even entered into a heated argument with former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist after conceding 22 runs.

Followed by this, he failed to make an impact in the tour to Sri Lanka as well in 2006. He was also at the receiving end against India as Sreesanth hit him for a six and created the highlight for both of their careers.

Club career

Nel played in many leagues during his cricketing career. He had a stint with Mumbai Indians as he was hired as a replacement of Dwayne Bravo in the Indian Premier League.

In the domestic league, he played for the Titans and then moved to the Lions in 2008-09 and after this, he signed a three-year deal with Surrey.

Records

One unique achievement that he has in Test cricket is that he could get the great Brian Lara out eight times and made him his bunny.

Retirement

Andre played his last test Match against England in 2008 and the next year, he retired from the game. He kept playing domestic cricket for some time and also became the coach of Easterns provincial side in the Africa Cup T20 tournament.