Marchant de Lange

Marchant de Lange (born 13 October 1990) is a South African cricketer who plays for Gloucestershire.

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. 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. The figures are the best for any bowler in Test cricket in 2011.

He is qualified to play in the English county cricket due to his British spouse.

Marchant de Lange
1 36 Marchant de Lange.jpg

de Lange for Somerset in 2021
Personal information
Full name
Marchant de Lange
Born 13 October 1990 (age 32)
Tzaneen, Transvaal Province, South Africa
Nickname Langy, Chant, Chana
Height 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in)
Batting Right-handed
Bowling Right-arm fast
Role Bowler
International information
National side
  • South Africa (2011–2016)
Test debut (cap 312) 26 December 2011 v Sri Lanka
Last Test 23 March 2012 v New Zealand
ODI debut (cap 103) 3 March 2012 v New Zealand
Last ODI 3 February 2016 v England
Domestic team information
Years Team
2010/11–2015/16 Easterns
2010/11–2015/16 Titans
2012 Kolkata Knight Riders
2014–2015 Mumbai Indians
2015 Guyana Amazon Warriors
2016 Barbados Tridents
2016/17–2018/19 Knights
2016/17 Free State
2017–2020 Glamorgan
2018 Durban Heat
2021–2022 Somerset
2021 Trent Rockets
2021 Dambulla Giants
2022 Islamabad United
2023 Gloucestershire
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 2 4 99 98
Runs scored 9 1,900 776
Batting average 4.50 16.52 15.52
100s/50s 0/0 –/– 1/5 0/2
Top score 9 113 58*
Balls bowled 448 209 17,615 4,792
Wickets 9 10 342 170
Bowling average 30.78 19.80 30.24 26.03
5 wickets in innings 1 0 11 4
10 wickets in match 0 0 2 0
Best bowling 7/81 4/46 7/23 5/49
Catches/stumpings 1/– 0/– 41/– 25/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 9 April 2023

Playing style

de Lange is a tall right-arm fast bowler with an ability to gain swing and accuracy. 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.

International career

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. He was called up to the South Africa squad from relative obscurity and little first-class experience for the series against Sri Lanka and impressed in the second test with pace and bounce claiming 7–81 in the Sri Lankan first-innings and capturing 1–56 in the second. He suffered an injury during an unofficial T20 series in Zimbabwe in early 2012 and was forced to remodel his action to prevent further recurrences of the injury happening again.

He made his Twenty20 debut against New Zealand on 19 February 2012 at Hamilton. He took the wicket of Martin Guptill on his debut.

T20 franchise cricket

Marchant de Lange was a surprise buy in the 2012 Indian Premier League 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.

In players auction for IPL 2014, Mumbai Indians bought this talented bowler for Rs. 30 lakhs. He debuted for them in their second match against Delhi Daredevils replacing their best bowler Lasith Malinga. It was an important match as Mumbai needed to win all their in order to qualify for the playoffs. He went for 10 in his first over but impressed everyone with a great comeback, bowling Dinesh Karthik out in the first ball he bowled to him and later getting the important wicket of Manoj Tiwary. He finished with figures 2/31 and received the Kanna Keep Calm award for keeping his cool and turning the game around for his team.

In October 2018, he was named in Durban Heat’s squad for the first edition of the Mzansi Super League T20 tournament.

In 2021, he took the first 5 Wicket Haul in the inaugural edition of The Hundred while playing for the Trent Rockets. He finished the season as a joint leading taker with 12 wickets in total. In December 2021, he was signed by Islamabad United following the players’ draft for the 2022 Pakistan Super League. In April 2022, he was bought by the Trent Rockets for the 2022 season of The Hundred.