Colin Bland

Personal information

Full name

Kenneth Colin Bland

Born

5 April 1938 (age 78)
Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia

Batting style

Right-hand bat

Bowling style

Right-arm medium

International information

National side

South African

Career statistics

Competition	Tests	First-class
Matches	21	131
Runs scored	1669	7249
Batting average	49.08	37.95
100s/50s	3/9	13/34
Top score	144*	197
Balls bowled	394	3508
Wickets	2	43
Bowling average	62.50	35.27
5 wickets in innings	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	0
Best bowling	2/16	4/40
Catches/stumpings	10/-	51/-

Source: [1]

Kenneth Colin Bland (born 5 April 1938 in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia) is a former Rhodesian cricketer who played in 21 Tests for South Africa in the 1960s.

Bland was educated at Milton High School. He made his first class debut for Rhodesia as a schoolboy against Peter May's MCC and went on to represent them 55 times from 1956 to 1968. He later played for the South African provincial sides Eastern Province and Orange Free State. A tall and elegant right-handed batsman, Bland broke into the South African Test team in 1961, and was a regular until 1966-67. As South Africa in the apartheid era played Test cricket only against England, Australia and New Zealand, his career was restricted to just 21 Tests, in which he scored 1,669 runs, including three centuries. His highest Test score came in the Second Test against England at Johannesburg in 1964-65; South Africa followed on 214 behind, and was 109 for 4 in the second innings when Bland came in and hit 144 not out in just over 4 hours to save the match.

Bland's chief fame, though, rested on his fielding. By common consent the finest cover fieldsman of his time, and rated by some as the finest ever, he was able to the turn the course of whole matches. His spectacular run out of Ken Barrington in the Lord's Test of 1965, followed by a similar dismissal of Jim Parks, may have prevented England from establishing a match-winning first innings lead, the match eventually being drawn.Brian Johnston recalled of the 1965 tour, "For the first time I heard people saying that they must go to a match especially to watch a fielder."

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