Hardus Viljoen

GC Viljoen[upper-alpha 1] (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.

Hardus Viljoen
Personal information
Full nameGC Viljoen[upper-alpha 1]
Born (1989-03-06) 6 March 1989
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: CricInfo, 9 September 2019

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 December 2019, he married Rhemi Rynners, the sister of South African international cricketer Faf du Plessis.[17]

Notes
  1. 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, 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, CricInfo, 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". ESPN Cricinfo. 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". ESPN Cricinfo. 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". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  16. "MSL 2.0 announces its T20 squads". Cricket South Africa. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  17. "MSL 2019: Faf du Plessis' hilarious answer when asked about Hardus Viljoen's absence in the team". YouTube. 10 December 2019.
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