The day 23 wickets fell at Newlands

The Newlands Test has become an annual cricket trip for me, it’s usually the boxing day Test but I decided I would rather come down and watch our boys take on “the old enemy” Australia instead of Sri Lanka in the new year.

I caught the first day on T.V. from behind my desk at the office and then made my way down to Newlands all the way from Joburg. I arrived at the stadium just in time to see the wicket of Michael Clarke fall. Australia were all out for 284. Things were looking good…

It was fantastic to watch Jacques Rudolph open South Africa’s first innings, he’s traveled a long journey to rejoin the Test team and I’ve been supporting him for a long time. He got off to a great start but was soon bowled by a perfect delivery from Harris. Not to worry I thought, we had the might Hashim Amla in next.

Then Amla fell for 3, followed by Kallis for a duck, with the pressure mounting Smith lost his wicket to Harris and the next ball Prince was trapped lbw … South Africa were 73/5. By this stage I was getting grumpy, I had shelled out a bucket of cash to get down here, sacrificed sleep and this is what I got in return. It got worse.

We went from 73/5 to 77/6, 77/7 and were eventually all out for 96. Heartbreak. Australia had a first innings lead of 188, Shane Watson returning figures of 5-2-17-5, and 11 of those runs came from one over. How were we every going to compete from here, with three and a half days to play I thought it was all over, but Graeme Smith and the boys had other ideas.

Almost immediately we started the fight back, Steyn trapped Watson lbw in the first over, a few overs later Philander trapped Ponting lbw and was given out after a review by the batsman. In the next over Morkel struck twice in two balls removing Hughes and Hussey. Then Philander took another, the big wicket of Clarke who scored 151 in the first innings. Australia were in trouble, deep trouble at 15/5. The crowd was alive with anticipation of a wicket from every delivery.

By now I was trying to find out what Australia’s lowest Test score was, I was sure it would fall on this day, turns out their lowest total is 36 in 1902. The collapse continued, Haddin was out caught behind off Philander as he played a suicidal shot, 18/6, then Harris edged one to Smith at first slip, 21/7, the next over Johnson hit a delivery from Philander to Amla he was out caught, 21/8. Two balls later Philander trapped Marsh lbw giving him a five wicket haul on debut, Australia were 21/9. There was buzz around Newlands, we were watching history being written, records breaking and no one really knew how we had got to this point.

Luckily for Australia Siddle and Lyon strung a partnership together to save them from total embarrassment and were able to push the score past their lowest total to 47 before Steyn wrapped up the innings.

Australia were bowled out for 47 in 18 overs, the innings lasted only 95 minutes. A bowling display of note, one I will never forget.

By the end of the day, I was so glad I had made the mission down to Newlands, I got to witness a day of cricket that will be talked about for years to come, the day 23 wickets fell at Newlands.
At close South Africa were 81/1 needing 155 for victory.

The start of the international and domestic cricket season is upon us, I thought I would take a look and review what is on offer this season.

SuperSport Series:

First up the domestic season is already under way with the SuperSport series two rounds in. We’ve had an early indication of form; the might Hashim Amla opened the season with a double-century (218) and in the same game Alviro Petersen (186) fell fourteen short of his double-century. Other players that scored early centuries include Ryan McLaren (133*), Stephan Cook (131), Obus Pienaar (119), Jacques Rudolph (118), Neil McKenzie (110*), Dale Deeb (101*) and Temba Bavuma (100*).

There has also been some impressive bowling, five bowlers have taken five wicket hauls, Robbie Frylink and Johan van der Wath both took six wickets. More noticeably, the two spinners from the Titans Paul Harris and young Shaun von Berg both took five wickets against the Dolphins in Pietermaritzburg in a game that Imran Tahir missed due to an injury precaution.

Domestic Pro20:

For a while I’ve been saying that we need international players in our domestic competitions, I’m of the opinion that it will draw crowds as well as give young players the opportunity to learn from some of the experienced international stars. And at long last we seem to have attracted a few of big names; The Dolphins have signed Shaun Tait and Chris Gayle two players that should have a massive impact. The Lions managed to sign the Pakistan pair of all-rounders in Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq so there will be an international flavour to our domestic cricket can’t wait for the Pro20 to get under way!

Australia in South Africa:

Our new look Protea’s management and leadership open their journey together with the toughest possible start to their tenure with two T20’s of which both are already sold out, three ODI games and two Test matches against the Aussies. It’s a pity that there are only two Test matches which is due to the dispute between CSA and the Australian cricket board in which neither wanted to give up their December Test series. I would personally like to see the T20’s and ODI’s scrapped in place of a four or five match Test series, but that would mean our administrators would be putting their love for cricket above the will to make a profit.

I’ve got my tickets to the first ODI in centurion which should be awesome, I’ve also arranged my now annual trip down to Newlands for the first Test match and will not doubt be taking some extra days leave to attend as many days as possible of the second Test at SuperSport Centurion.

We also have a full series at home against Sri Lanka, a tour down to New Zealand early in the new-year and an end of year tour too England.

So as the old Benson & Hedges T.V. commercial coined; Come on summer, come on, come on! 

The worst kept secret in South African Cricket was officially announced this afternoon; Gary Kirsten has been appointed coach of The Proteas on a two year contract. Allan Donald will be the bowling coach and Russell Domingo the assistant coach.

It was further announced that AB de Villiers will captain the T20 and ODI teams with Hashim Amla as his vice-captain. Graeme Smith retains the Test captaincy.

Awesome, Cricket South Africa has got it spot on!

Spare a thought for Vincent Barnes, previously the Proteas bowling coach. Under Banes the South African bowling attack has matured to become one of the best in the world with bowlers like Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe all within the top ten international rakings.

For all the announcements the appointment of Kirsten and Donald are particularly pleasing for me. Both these guys are legends within South African Cricket. They both broke all sorts of South African records for batting and bowling respectively.

At the RAM breakfast with Gary Kirsten which I attended last week, Gary mentioned that “… it’s the performances of the past players that have contributed to the stereotype that the current players are labelled with”. Allan Donald has been a major contributor to the tag and now the past players have the opportunity to lead the current players away for the tag to new heights in world cricket.

Interesting times lay ahead for cricket in South Africa; money couldn’t buy us better leadership than what we have today.  Congratulations Gary, hope you’re around for a long time to come.

When we were knocked out of the World Cup by New Zealand, I too was very upset and frustrated with our team. They did let us down, and yes the run chase was very poor but please think about what you say or tweet before you slate your own team.

I’m not going to bore you with the details of the game or criticise the selection of the team or squad, but again what I ask is that you remain a supporter and not just a fan.

So much has been written about the ‘chokers’ tag in the media ad nauseam, regular readers of this blog will know I detest the term, and here is why. If you call the Proteas chokers, you are part of the problem within South African cricket, you re-enforce the stereotype and stereotypes are extremely powerful labels.

Dan Ariely a researcher in behavioural economics, in his book Predictably Irrational, defines what a stereotype is and notes what effect it has on people.

“Expectations also shape stereotypes. A stereotype, after all, is a way of categorizing information, in the hope of predicting experiences. The brain cannot start from scratch at every new situation. It must build on what is has seen before. For that reason, stereotypes are not intrinsically malevolent. They provide shortcuts in our never-ending attempt to make sense of complicated surroundings. This is why we have the expectation that an elderly person will need help using a computer or that a student at Harvard will be intelligent. But because a stereotype provides us with specific expectations about members of a group, it can also unfavourably  influence both our perceptions and our behaviour.

Research on stereotypes shows not only that we react differently when we have a stereotype of a certain group of people, but also that stereotyped people themselves react differently when they are aware of the label that they are forced to wear. (in psychological parlance, they are “primed” with this label.)”

Further to this, the Proteas coach, Corrie van Zyl said upon his return from the World Cup; “It’s important that everyone in South Africa sees the extra burden that is put on their team. The opposition see every opportunity to use the word ‘chokers’ on and off the field for one reason: to get at us mentally.

“But when our own fans keep reminding us of the past, it doesn’t provide motivation, it just brings extra pressure. We need to deal with this in a different way as a nation, we need to stick together. “ source.

It’s up to you to help change the perception of our cricket team, some journalists won’t be helping, they will simply add fuel to the fire and keep promoting the ‘chokers’ tag, it helps them sell papers and attract readers to their sites. They thrive on the failure of your team.

Yes the rest of the world will still use the ‘chokers’ tag against us … but it hurts the most when it comes from home. Support your team when they are down, don’t kick dirt in their faces, show some respect but most of all, show your support.

A year ago to the day, Mickey Arthur resigned as coach of the Proteas, how different would his World Cup squad have looked to the one that has been chosen?

Most selections are controversial, many people are asking where Mark Boucher is and why Wayne Parnell has been selected ahead of Rusty Theron …. It’s a lack of process that bothers me more than the selection or omission of any individual player.

I don’t profess to be a business strategy guru, but it’s common knowledge that long term success is built on the principle that you need to develop a process or system that works and then measure an individual’s performance against that system. If there is a problem with one of the steps in your process or system, you then review, change and review it again in a process of continual improvement.

I recently read an article on CricInfo by Firdose Moonda, “South Africa roll the dice”. In the article Firdose says :” Risk and South African cricket have not made a happy couple in the past…”. I agree with Firdose’s analogy that South Africa are rolling the dice, but disagree that they are just taking a ‘risk’; they are gambling.

Had the Board of Cricket South Africa followed a successful process would they have selected a player for a World Cup who hadn’t yet played an ODI? Would they have chosen a player who made his debut on the day the squad was announced? I think not.

Can we really expect Faf du Plessis to perform against India, in front of 40 000 Indian supporters at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground? When last did Faf play in India… has he played on the sub-continent?

The shortcomings of the selectors were further exposed by the addition of Albie Morkel in the ODI squad to play against the touring Indian team, this after he was dropped from the Proteas squad and left out of the World Cup squad. Albie was then removed from the squad two days later. Again that’s a reaction rather than a planned outcome.

It’s simply short-sighted  to hold Tahir back and say that we want to use him as a secret weapon. It’s utter nonsense, he was kept out the team because we were batting poorly and Tahir can’t bat to save his life. I hope we deal with the batting issues, if we don’t Tahir won’t even get a game.

The Board of Cricket South Africa and the selectors have gambled with our team, they are sending our boys to the World Cup with an interim coach, a captain on the way out, inexperienced players and with a political cloud hanging over their heads.

They have gambled, plain and simple… all we can do is hope Graeme Smith can roll a 7.

I was more disappointed with the reaction to the loss on Saturday evening than the actual result itself. Yes I paid my hard earned money to be at The Wanderers, and I held my head in my hands when Parnell hit that shot to Yuvraj Singh, it was heart breaking.

I however didn’t turn on our team like so many did, I was really disappointed to see so many people call our team out as chokers, absolute filth was pushed on Twitter. As Mspr1nt noted in her post, you can’t consider this a ‘choke’ as this was a game of little consequence; “To fail to perform effectively because of nervous agitation or tension, especially in an athletic contest”.

Let’s not get caught up in the negative perception of a few… Looking at the positives from the game, Graeme Smith’s innings has hopefully sparked a return to form, he grafted hard on a difficult pitch to bat on. Smith’s ODI performance over the past year hasn’t been great, he scored 328 at an average of 32.8, going past 50 only once. This is Smith’s last home ODI series as captain, here’s hoping he leaves his supporters with a power batting performance over the next three games.

In the bowling department Lonwabo Tsostobe has continued to impress, he again took four wickets, following his four in the first ODI, to return his career best figures of 10 overs, 2 maidens, 22 runs, 4 wickets. I read on the SuperSport website; “He [Tsotsobe]is only the second South African to achieve this – the other being Pollock, who accomplished the feat in 2002 against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh”

It is obvious to me that the Proteas have made a conscious decision to play positive attacking cricket, their approach to this new style was exposed at The Wanderers on Saturday evening. When we got into trouble, the young guys failed to change the game plan, a valuable lesson was learnt.

I’d prefer the Proteas play positive cricket than take the boring conservative approach of yesteryear.

We all demand consistent performances from our team, I think we should show them the same respect and offer them consistent support, rather than turn on them when they lose a tight game…. So are you a fan or are you a real supporter?

South Africa hasn’t won a home Test series since the Bangladesh tour in 2008, this trend continued against India. We have not been able to affect a series win at home against Australia, England and now India in the past three years.

The result wasn’t what we were all hoping, the cricket that has been played on this Indian tour can only be described as classic and history making. Here are some statistics and my highlights from the tour:

I have to start with Jacques Kallis, he scored the most runs in the Test series, 498, with the highest average, 166.00 and top scored with 201* in the first Test at SuperSport Park Centurion. That is total domination, then factor in that he only got out three times, and one of his dismissals as a freak run out as the ball was hit back to Sharma and it ricocheted onto the stumps at the non-strikers end. Add to that he scored a second innings century, injured, when his team desperately needed him and you start to under stand why he is considered to be a playing ledged of the game. CricInfo’s S Rajesh’s column ‘Jacques Kallis, take a bow’, sums up his career to date beautifully: http://mzan.si/bpGC

The first day of the Test series saw an inspiring display of seam bowling, and I was privileged to have been there. The start to first day was preceded by some heavy rain in the Centurion area, the Hennops River burst its banks, and the Centurion lake hotel was flooded.

Much had been written about the Indian batsmen’s inability to deal with the pace and bounce of the South African wickets, this was vindicated as Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn ripped through the Indian batting line up, leaving the Indians on 136/9. I’ll remember that afternoon for a long time.

My third highlight is the 75 ball century scored by AB de Villiers. It was the quickest Test century by a South African and the 10^th fastest in all Tests. de Villiers put on 129 runs from just 112 balls to take the game away from India. CricInfo’s statistics on the fastest Test centuries.

A major highlight from this series was the continued improvement of Lonwabo Tsotsobe. The first Test in Centurion was his first home Test, he previously made his debut in the West Indies.

Tsotsobe, a left arm quick, took some heat in the first innings going at 5.55 per over, and was not able to take a wicket while the Indian batting line-up was collapsing. Tsotsobe affectionately known as Lopsy improved his performance in the second inning, conceding runs at 4.08 and managing to take his first wicket on home soil.

Tsotsobe continued to improve in the second Test in Durban; he brought down his economy rate further to 3.63, and took the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Pujara. In the second innings he again improved his economy rate to 3.30 and took the wickets of Sehwag, Dravid and captain MS Dhoni.

Speculation grew that Tsotsobe would be dropped for the third Test at Newlands, but the selectors showed their faith and again Tsotsobe continued his improvement. He was even more economical in both innings and was very unlucky to walk away with only one wicket when he could easily have bagged four or five if the rub of the green had gone his way.

Every Test series develops its own character, and after the run-in between Graeme Smith and Sreesanth during the second Test in Durban the heat was on. The climax of the Sreesanth vs South Africa banter came to a head on day three of the Newlands Test when a spectator chirped Sreesanth after he kicked the boundary rope in frustration. Sreesanth then had a word with the umpire and brought the game to a stand still for ten minutes, the Newlands faithful poured on the pressure with all 25 000 spectators clapping in unison while Sreesanth threw his toys out the cot.

Overall the Test series was great to watch, here’s hoping the One Day International series delivers the same intrigue and excitement.

Mini Cricket has played a major role in South African cricket for a very long time, the sponsorship has recently changed hands, and now KFC is behind the initiative.

KFC has appointed three players to be the ambassadors of KFC Mini Cricket, ICC ODI player of the year AB de Villiers, veteran South African fast bowler Makhaya Ntini and the 2009 Cricket South Africa (CSA) Women’s  Cricketer of the Year, Trisha Chetty.

Both Makhaya and Trisha came through the mini cricket programme as youngsters, and are keen to give back to the youngsters in the programme.

According to KFC Marketing Director Lizanne Bartlett, “the ambassadors will wear the KFC Mini Cricket badge and give a face to the programme, their support will be invaluable in growing the programme and their personal stories of success will inspire the children to reach for their dreams.  It is also an indication of KFC’s commitment to the mini cricket programme, ensuring opportunities for South Africa’s next generation of Proteas.”

The players were great sports at the launch, we even managed to convince Makhaya Ntini to join Twitter, check him out, how about the bio of his?

The MTN40 is well under way, and as you’ve read on this blog I’m not a fan of the update to the MTN40 player substitution rules. Some of my readers have asked me to elaborate on the updates to the rules, so here they are:

The updated rule states: two substitutes are available, allowing teams to name 13-member squads. Unlike the last time substitutes were used, the starting eleven does not have to be named before the toss. Only the squad of 13 has to be named.

An additional change to the format is around the power plays, the MTN40 has dropped the additional power play which was a ridiculous addition in the first place, the bowlers got pasted last year. The updated rules now state that there will only be two Power plays; the first one is applied to the first ten overs, and the second, is a five-over power-play which can be taken any time before the 31st over on the request of the batting side.

The structure of the competition has also been changed, the six teams have been divided into two groups of three teams each. Each team will play the other two teams in its own group twice and play the three teams in the other group once. The semi-finals will be played on the best of three method.

Not sure these new rules are having their desired affect on the game. The attendance at the opening matches has been very poor, often the security staff out numbering the spectators. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the MTN40 needs to attract international cricket players to the competition if they want to pull the crowds.

“We thought if they don’t want to tour here, we will also say we don’t want to tour there during that time so we can host our own Tests.” – Gerald Majola.

Right, did Gerald ask his 6 year old son to write that statement for him? How pathetic is that? South Africa and Australia will not play a full Test tour of Australia until 2021 because we’re crap at negotiating.

CricInfo reported: “Following a breakdown in discussions over tours over the holiday period, CSA managed to convince the International Cricket Council that, like Australia, it should host Test matches over the festive season every season from 2012 to 2020.” [http://www.cricinfo.com/southafrica/content/story/485443.html]

This decision is based purely  on the hunger for money, as the December Test series are usually well attended as it’s the holidays – come on Gerald cricket is not just about money. Some of us actually enjoy turning into nocturnal critters, watching cricket until all hours of the morning. December is the only time we can do this, because we don’t have to go to work the next day. Cricket South Africa have effectively ensured that very few Protea supporters will be able to watch and support their team when they do play down under…

It’s also not the smartest strategy every planned, where are these home test matches  going to be played? Most fans around the Gauteng area will be migrating south to the coast, so yes Cape Town will be a great option…. But they have always been hosts in any Test series. Where else will they play, Durban? Durban hasn’t sold out a stadium in ages, not even Robbie Williams can sell out a stadium in Durbs. So that leaves Port Elizabeth … awesome five days of the band will drive me to drink too much of the sponsors brew.

Don’t worry about us Gerlad, it’s cool, we’ll follow you blindly wherever you may wish. Please could you ensure that the riches earned from these home Test series is ploughed back into the domestic structures so we can find some all-rounders.