Former South Africa allrounder JJ Smuts, now representing Italy, put in a blistering all-round performance in a UK club match, scoring an unbeaten double century and taking three wickets.
Playing for Upminster CC against Chingford, Smuts came in at No.3 and dominated the rest of the innings. He combined with Gus Philpot in a 226-run partnership – of which Smuts scored 148 – to take Upminster from 17-1 to 328-3. Smuts briefly threatened a triple hundred, hitting 278* off 145 balls before he ran out of overs. In a 50-over innings, Upminster put up a total of 456-8, Philpot the next highest scorer to Smuts, with 78 off 67 balls.
Smuts match-winning efforts didn't stop there. When Chingford came into bat, their opening partnership put on 85 runs in the first 12.2 overs of the innings, before a hat-trick from Shafiq Rahman changed the innings on it's head. After Shafiq took his fourth to reduce CHingford to 136-4, Smuts got in on the action. He dismissed No.5 Shehzad Hussain in the following over, before delivering a double-wicket maiden to see Chingford fall to 159-7.
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Smuts finished the game with bowling figures of 3-27 off his 10 overs. Chingford were bowled out for 206, with Upminster securing victory by 250 runs.
JJ Smuts goes from South Africa, to Italy, to UK club
Smuts represented South Africa 19 times from 2017 to 2021. In January of this year, he qualified to play for Italy through his wife's heritage, and represented them at the 2026 T20 World Cup. He returned a high score of 26 in the tournament, in Italy's final group match against West Indies.
JJ Smuts, who played 19 international matches for South Africa between 2017 and 2021, will turn out for Italy in the T20 World Cup next month 🇮🇹#Cricket pic.twitter.com/QEpCym7s94
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) January 17, 2026
He took 2-18 in Italy's pre-T20 World Cup warm-up series against Ireland in Dubai.
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