One of the great Test rivalries is upon us, India are in South Africa to play a three match Castle Test series at Centurion, Durban and Cape Town.

Recent Test series around the world have been played on flat wickets which have resulted in an absolute run fest, but have had a negative impact on the image of Test cricket. It’s with this in mind that the South African curators will go about their work in their preparations for this series – we expect to see wickets that offer bounce and movement for the seamers, which are conducive to a contest between bat and ball, while lasting the five days.

Much has been said in the media that South Africa lack the ability to bowl India out twice in an innings. I personally feel those statements are unfounded, if you look at the recent Test matches played, India, New ZeaLand, West Indies and Sri Lanka have all struggled to bowl out the opposition. To say that the Proteas’ bowling attack lack the ability to strike at home is unwarranted.

I do however feel that Paul Harris has a significant role to play as he recently did against England. Harris took 6 wickets against Australia at Newlands and more recently 5 against England at Centurion. Harris simply can not play the holding game, he needs to attack while being economical.

The Indian team will be relying on Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma in the bowling department. It’s up to these three bowlers to keep India in the series, if they let the likes of Amla, Smith, de Villiers or Kallis get a strong hold, especially early in the series, then they’ll struggle to come back. It’s also been noted that a few of the Indian players are carrying niggles, so they’ll have to keep them fit.

It’s been the batsmen that have let India down in the past, they’ve often come undone by the pace and bounce of the South African wickets. This series will be no different, the wickets will be fast and will offer assistance to the seamers.

Previous Indian teams only came out to South Africa ever four years or so, this time round many of the Indian players have been to South Africa a couple of times for the IPL and Champions League. Most of the South African team have also played alongside and against Indian players in the IPL and CLT20, so they know each others games. Add to that, they have Garry Kirsten with them this time round, their batsmen will be a different prospect.

This is not just another Test series for the Indian team , add to their experience in South Africa, India are looking to consolidate and justify their no. 1 position in Test cricket. They have occupied this position for a while now, but have never won a Test series in South Africa, not even come close. Sachin is in the twilight of his career, and a series win in South Africa must surely be a goal that he will go great lengths to tick off on his list of impressive achievements.

The Indian team have opted not to make use of the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS) in this Test series. The Indian team are of the opinion that the on field umpiring needs to be improved, rather than making use of technology.

This is going to be a great series with world class players with the likes of Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Graeme Smith, AB de Villiers, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn fighting it out, some to keep the unbeaten records in tact and others set on breaking the ho-doo of touring South Africa.

The Proteas’ bowlers showed their inexperience and lack of form against a resilient Zimbabwean batting attack as the Zimbabwean took the second International Pro20 to the last over of the match. In the first Pro20 the Proteas’ fielding and bowling was described as sloppy, this time out the bowling at the death was diabolical.

Winning the toss and electing to bat Johan Botha’s men posted a menacing total of 194/6. Again Smith got off to a flying start and played the Zimbabwean bolwers all round the park with ease, he missed out on the opportunity to post a massive score as he top-edged  one off Taylor to be out for 46.

Again Collin Ingram failed, but JP Duminy took his opportunity and scored a personal best of 96* (54b 10×4 4×6). Duminy peppered the parking lot with some massive shots to become the highest scoring International Pro20 player for South Africa – the previous best was Loots Bosman’s 94.

The batting from South Africa was exemplary, unfortunately the same can’t be said about the bowling. Both Theron and more so Parnell folded under pressure towards the end of the inning, Parnell coughed up 19 runs in the penultimate over leaving Zimbabwe with 15 needed from the last over.

Johan Botha had a poor outing with the ball conceding 30 runs from 3 overs, Duminy bowled Botha’s fourth over and went for 17. More worrying was Peterson’s 36 from 4, the problem is the way they bowled, they seemed to lack the ability to vary their bowling and deal with the pressure.

Let me take a moment to mention Chamu Chibhabha who again scored a half century and Brendan Taylor coming back to score 59 after his duck in the first Pro20. Taylor complemented his impressive batting with a good showing with the ball, returning figures of 4o 16r 1w 4.0rr.

There is plenty of work to be done ahead of the World Cup, this game really illustrates the value of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis all of whom missed the game due to injury.

The new look Proteas Pro20 team faced up to their first challenge of Zimbabwe of Friday night at the OutSurance Oval in Bloemfontein. The pre-match interviews were all about Zimbabwe being the underdog,  coach Allan Butch commented: “every dog has his day” – Zimbabwean cricket is rebuilding at the moment and that day will come soon.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that resembled the M1 South. The Zimbabwean batsmen seemed to struggle with the Protea bowlers, managing only 22 runs for 1 wicket in the first five overs.

By the time Zimbabwe had batted out their 20 overs the tag of underdogs was thrown away, Zimbabwe posted 168/4. The South African spin bowlers struggled on a pitch that offered no purchase. Opening batsman, Hamilton Masakadza played a masterful innings of 72 from 63 balls, consisting of six 4’s and two 6’s. Chamu Chibhabha in at three after Taylor was dismissed for a duck went on to score 52 from 32 balls.

The fielding display from the Proteas was poor and the dismal performance was compounded when Morne Morkel turned his ankle over badly, he left the field and would not return for the remainder of the match.

After a good performance with the Bat, the Zimbabweans fell to pieces with the ball, Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman plundered the bowlers knocking up 90 runs from 7 overs. On his way to 58 Smith hit nine 4’s and two 6’s from just 29 deliveries. Smith was out lbw to Cremer. Bosman soon followed as the was dismissed a few balls later trying to hit another big one, out for 33 from 15 deliveries.

Collin Ingram on debut didn’t last long getting out for 3 – JP Duminy and David miller collected the remaining runs to give South Africa the victory by 7 wickets, with 25 balls remaining.

Our boys were sloppy in the field, commanding with the bat, had the Bloemfontein wicket offered something for the spinners Zimbabwe could have come a lot closer. Onto Kimberly for the second Pro20 on Sunday.

I haven’t written at all about the recent spot-fixing controversy surrounding the Pakistan cricket players, purely because this blog is about SA Cricket and the shenanigans have had nothing to do with our players. Clive Rice on the other hand, has managed to attract the attention of the international cricket media with some paranoid schizophrenic statements.

In an interview with News of the World, yes – the same News of the World that broke the Pakistan spot-fixing story, Clive Rice said: “On the same day (as Woolmer’s death) Pakistan had just lost to Ireland in the World Cup, and you say ‘well, had Bob found something out’ because clearly if it’s carrying on now and it was going on then … Had he found something out? I’m pretty sure he had.”

Wow, what a revelation Clive, Pakistan lost to Ireland, we didn’t notice until now. Had he found something out? Come on it was three years ago, why do you only bring this up now?

Rice then went on to say that Hansie Cronje was also “taken out” because he was about to reveal  details of match-fixing in cricket. Never mind the investigation that was undertaken on the aeroplane crash that concluded that it was pilot error that resulted in the accident.

I find it repulsive that Clive Rice can draw the attention of the media to his speculative statements, you should be embarrassed Clive. How convenient the timing of his statements on the eve of the Champions League Twenty20?

Prior to the start of the ICC World Twenty20 I noted that England would be one of the form teams in the tournament, and boy have they delivered. England beat the Proteas in a warm up match, and then went on to beat Ireland, they lost to the West Indies on the Duckworth-Lewis method after posting 191 runs in their innings.

In the Super Eights stage England beat Pakistan and more significantly for us they beat the Proteas by 39 runs in Barbados. England have secured their place in the semi-final and will most probably play Sri Lanka. This leaves South Africa and New Zealand fighting it out for the other semi-final position in group E.

Currently New Zealand are in second place and have a better net run rate, by 0.350. South Africa will play Pakistan on Monday 10^th May, it’s a must win game. Not only will we need to beat Pakistan, we’ll have to do it convincingly. If New Zealand beat England in a game that will be played directly after the Proteas game, then it will come down to net run rate. We really need England to beat New Zealand.

The Proteas have played some poor cricket in this ICC World Twenty20, we’ve lost to India and England and have only beaten Afganistan. We’re going to have to pick up our game in a big way if we are to stand any chance of reaching the semi-finals.

At the moment, the form books will have the Australians up against England in the final.

ICC World T20 Results:

-Sri Lanka v New Zealnd – Group B – New Zealand won by 2 wickets

-West Indies v Ireland – Group D – West Indies won by 70 runs

-Afghanistan v India – Group C – India won by 7 wickets

-Bangladesh v Pakistan – Group A – Pakistan won by 21 runs

-India v South Africa – Group C – India won by 14 runs

-Australia v Pakistan – Group A – Australia won by 34 runs

-Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe – Group B – Sri Lanka won by 14 runs (D/L)

-West Indies v England – Group D – West Indies won by 8 wickets (D/L)

-New Zealand v Zimbabwe – Group B – New Zealand won by 7 runs (D/L)

-England v Ireland – Group D – No result due to rain

-Australia v Bangladesh – Group A – Australia won by 27 runs

-Afghanistan v South Africa – Group C – South Africa won by 59 runs

T20 Super 8 results:

-England v Pakistan – England won by 6 wickets

-South Africa v New Zealand – South Africa won by 13 runs

-Australia v India – Australia thumped India by 49 runs

-West Indies v Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka murdered the West Indies by 57 runs

-Pakistan v New Zealand – New Zealand won a last ball thriller by 1 run

-England v South Africa – England won by 39 runs

-West Indies v India – West Indies won by 14 runs

-Pakistan v South Africa – Pakistan won by 11 runs

-England v New Zealand – England won by 3 wickets

-Sri Lanka v India – Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets

-West Indies v Australia – Australia won by 6 wickets

-England v Sri Lanka – Semifinal – England won by 7 wickets

-Australia v Pakistan – Semifinal – Australia won by 3 wickets

-England v Australia – Final – England won by 7 wickets

New Zealand’s Scott Styris and Australian Mitchell Johnson literally butted heads when they played each other an ODI. Johnson was fined 60% of his match fee and Styris 15%.

This isn’t the first altercation that Mitchell Johnson has been involved in, remember the incident with Sulieman Benn?

Shahid Afridi, really what the hell were you thinking, he took a bite of the cricket ball in the 5th ODI against Australia. Watch the video, it takes a while to get to the interesting part… it’s unbelievable. Afridi received a two match ban for this moment of stupidity, I would have given him two months.

The Proteas cricket team left for India this past weekend for a series that consists of three ODI games and two Test matches. For the Proteas this series offers the opportunity to regain the number 1 ranking in Test cricket.

The recent news of the resignation of coach Mickey Arthur and the temporary appointment of Corrie van Zyl must have added pressure to the team. It’s going to take a massive step up from the senior players to pull this team together. Winning a test series on the sub-continent is not to be taken lightly. Our spin bowlers are going to have to perform if we have any chance. Paul Harris had a shocking series against England, the answer from Cricket South Africa to the spin conundrum is the call up of Johan Botha into the test team. I’ve mentioned before that Botha can not bowl the doorsa, which I believe makes him predictable.

Good news from a South African perspective is the injury concerns from the Indian squad. It’s reported that Rahul Dravid has recently had surgery to his cheek bone, and will more than likely not play in the series. Yuvraj Singh and Sreesanth have also been ruled out of the series due to injury.

Related articles:

South Africa India tour schedule

South African squads to tour India

It’s a little late, but rather late than never, here’s my quick wrap of the series. I love my stats so I went through some statistics from the South Africa / England test series and this is what I found:

So over the four test matches South Africa scored more runs and took more wickets than England. I’ll claim that as a victory.

The most exciting yet also the most disappointing aspects of the test series was the South African bowling attack. We’re all too aware how they couldn’t finish off England on two occasions, but the selectors acted, and the tough decisions were made. It’s the re-emergence of Morne Morkel which stands out the most to me. International bowlers are reliant on their bowling partners, and who better to have then the world no1, Dale Steyn. If the selectors keep these two bowlers together for a long time then we’re in for a return to a great pace bowling attack that we had when Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and more recently Ntini brought to world cricket.

It was great sitting at the wanderers watching South Africa truly dominate England, what a pity we couldn’t take those two wickets, and win the series 3-1 as I believe we deserved.

Below is a picture that I took at The Wanderers on the 3rd day, many people dressed up and were in a festive mood, South Africa’s biggest stadium was sold on the Saturday. To think that Cricket South Africa were going to cancel this test match…….

Joburg cricket fans out at The Wanderers