Hardus Viljoen
Personal information
Full name
GC Viljoen[A]
Born (1989-03-06) 6 March 1989 (age 35)
Witbank, Transvaal Province, South Africa
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast
RoleBowler
International information
National side
Only Test (cap 325)14 January 2016 v England
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
2008/09–2011/12Easterns
2009/10–2011/12Titans
2012/13–2017/18Lions
2016Kent
2017–2018Derbyshire
2018Multan Sultans
2019Chittagong Vikings
2019Lahore Qalandars
2019Kings XI Punjab
2019Kent (squad no. 17)
2019Paarl Rocks
Career statistics
Competition Test FC LA T20
Matches 1 113 92 109
Runs scored 26 2,099 629 447
Batting average 26.00 14.88 16.55 12.77
100s/50s 0/0 0/7 0/3 0/0
Top score 20* 72 54* 41*
Balls bowled 114 19,747 4,138 2,350
Wickets 1 438 127 128
Bowling average 94.00 26.83 32.25 24.28
5 wickets in innings 0 25 1 1
10 wickets in match 0 5 0 0
Best bowling 1/79 8/90 6/19 5/16
Catches/stumpings 0/– 31/– 21/– 21/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 9 September 2019

GC Viljoen[A] (born 6 March 1989), known as Hardus Viljoen,[2] is a South African professional cricketer. Viljoen played for Lions in domestic cricket and made one Test match appearance for the South Africa national team. He is a right-arm fast bowler.

Career

Viljoen was called up to the South African squad for the first time on the last day of 2015 as cover for Kyle Abbott.[3] He made his Test debut on 14 January 2016 against England,[4] taking the wicket of England captain Alastair Cook with his first ball in Test cricket, the 20th player to achieve this feat.[5]

Viljoen joined Kent County Cricket Club for a short spell in English county cricket in August 2016, playing in the final four matches of the 2016 County Championship season.[6] He made his County Championship debut on 23 August against Gloucestershire at Bristol, taking five wickets on the first day of the match.[7] At the end of the season Kent made a contract offer to Viljoen but were unwilling to match a more lucrative offer made by Derbyshire who signed the player on a three-year Kolpak contract in December 2016.[8] After playing for the county for two seasons the contract was terminated "by mutual consent"[9] in January 2019, with Viljoen signing in June to play for Kent in the 2019 t20 Blast.[10]

In December 2018, he was bought by the Kings XI Punjab in the player auction for the 2019 Indian Premier League.[11][12] In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Rotterdam Rhinos in the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament.[13][14] However, the following month the tournament was cancelled.[15]

In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the Paarl Rocks team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament.[16] In April 2021, he was named in Boland's squad, ahead of the 2021–22 cricket season in South Africa.[17] In July 2022, he was signed by the Jaffna Kings for the third edition of the Lanka Premier League.[18]

Personal life

In December 2019, he married Rhemi Rynners, the sister of South African international cricketer Faf du Plessis.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Viljoen's name is GC. These are not his initials.[1]

References

  1. ^ Hardus Viljoen, CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  2. ^ Borland K (2016) Viljoen desperate to earn a place in the national team Archived 21 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine, The Citizen, 4 July 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Viljoen called in as cover for injured Abbott". ESPNcricinfo. ESPNcricinfo. 31 December 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  4. ^ "England tour of South Africa, 3rd Test: South Africa v England at Johannesburg, Jan 14-18, 2016". ESPNcricinfo. ESPNcricinfo. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  5. ^ "Hardus Viljoen and other bowlers with wickets off their first ball in Test cricket". Cricket Country. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  6. ^ "Hardus Viljoen: Kent sign South Africa fast bowler". BBC Sport. BBC. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  7. ^ Ehantharajah V (2016) Viljoen makes immediate impact for Kent, ESPNcricinfo, 23 August 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  8. ^ Hardus Viljoen: Derbyshire sign South Africa bowler under Kolpak ruling, BBC Sport, 7 December 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  9. ^ Hardus Viljoen: Derbyshire fast bowler leaves by mutual consent, BBC Sport, 24 January 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  10. ^ Hardus Viljoen: Kent Spitfires re-sign South African paceman for T20 Blast, BBC Sport, 5 June 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  11. ^ "IPL 2019 auction: The list of sold and unsold players". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  12. ^ "IPL 2019 Auction: Who got whom". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  13. ^ "Eoin Morgan to represent Dublin franchise in inaugural Euro T20 Slam". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  14. ^ "Euro T20 Slam Player Draft completed". Cricket Europe. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  15. ^ "Inaugural Euro T20 Slam cancelled at two weeks' notice". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  16. ^ "MSL 2.0 announces its T20 squads". Cricket South Africa. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  17. ^ "CSA reveals Division One squads for 2021/22". Cricket South Africa. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  18. ^ "LPL 2022 draft: Kandy Falcons sign Hasaranga; Rajapaksa to turn out for Dambulla Giants". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  19. ^ "MSL 2019: Faf du Plessis' hilarious answer when asked about Hardus Viljoen's absence in the team". YouTube. 10 December 2019.

External links

Chittagong Vikings – current squad
Jaffna Kings – current squad
Categories