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! 

There was a lot of speculation about the team selection going into the first Cricket World Cup match against the West Indies, most of which revolved around the possibility of playing three spinners.

I was doubtful we would field three spinners, it seemed to much of a gamble against some of the big hitters of West Indian cricket in Chris Gayle and Kieran Pollard. The selection of the third spinner also then sacrificed a batsman,  which would mean that the top five would have to perform with the bat. I also thought that the third spinner would be made up by JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis.

I had it all wrong.

The Proteas did pick three spinners, and The Proteas even opened the bowling with Johan Botha, only the sixth time this has happened, and Botha achieve success with the wicket of Gayle from the second ball of the innings.

Imran Tahir bowled fantastically in his debut game for the Proteas, returning figures of 10 overs, 1 maiden, 41 runs, 4 wickets at 4.1 per over. Tahir’s bowling performance is a comforting factor, great things are expected of this man.

The Proteas needed a menial 223 runs for victory against a mediocre West Indies bowling attack that suffered the loss of one of their main bowlers, Dwayne Bravo early in the innings with an injury to his knee.

The might Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis departed early, leaving captain Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers with the responsibility of getting the team home. The chase seemed easy for de Villiers as he went onto score his second World Cup century and the fastest by a South African at the World Cup. This is again an important performance for the Proteas, de Villiers struggled in the series against India this innings of 107* (105), but more importantly the middle order performance including JP Duminy’s  42* (54) will continue to allow the national selectors to pick the extra bowler in the team.

The Proteas are off to the perfect start, now onto Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh to play Netherlands.

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.

The ICC Cricket World Cup starts on Saturday 19th February 2011 and will run until 2nd of April. South Africa announced the Protea’s World Cup Squad that will try win the World Cup trophy for the first time.:

Protea’s Cricket World Cup squad:

Graeme Smith (Captain)

Hashim Amla

Johan Botha

AB de Villiers

JP Duminy

Faf du Plessis

Colin Ingram

Jacques Kallis

Morne Morkel

Wayne Parnell

Robbin Peterson

Dale Steyn

Imran Tahir

Lonwabo Tsotsobe

Morne van Wyk

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Groups:

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?

Titans batsmen Faf du Plessis, and the Dolphins Imran Tahir were included in the ODI squad to play India starting this Thursday at Kingsmead, Durban. Jacques Kallis was not considered due to injury.

Faf du Plessis has had a powerful MTN40 series, he top runs scorer with 567 runs, 128 runs more than the second placed Rossouw. du Plessis scored three centuries in the season with a top score of 120*, with an average of 81 runs at a strike rate of 98.60.

The surprise exclusion from this squad has to be Rusty Theron, Theron has achieved great success bowling at the death. The inclusion of Parnell ahead of Theron doesn’t bode well for his World Cup aspirations.

Another player that will be worried about his international future is Roelof van der Merwe, the recent inclusions of Robin Peterson and Tahir coupled with the fact that he didn’t get an IPL contract must have the Titans bower in a bit of doubt over his future.

The full squad is: Graeme Smith (captain), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Francois (Faf) du Plessis, Colin Ingram, David Millar, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe

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.

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.

Cricket South Africa have released the Proteas ODI and Pro2 squads to play Zimbabwe and Pakistan in October and November respectively. I would consider the selections in the ODI squad significant as we build towards the World Cup 2011.

When discussing the selections for the ODI squad, Andrew Hudson, the convener of selectors noted that the Proteas would field their ‘strongest combination’. Notable omissions from the team sheet were Mark Boucher, who was dropped during the tour of the West Indies, Alviro Petersen and Roelof van der Merwe. van der Merwe has been replaced by Robin Peterson who returns to the Proteas squad after a year in the wilderness.

My initial reaction to the inclusion of Peterson was, ‘why drop van der Merwe, and replace him with a player who has been out of the mix for so long?’ but upon investigation into the statistics from the past MTN40 series, the reasoning became clear. Peterson has the ability to deliver with both the ball (left arm orthodox) and the bat. Peterson had a batting average of 39.57, with a strike rate of 125.90 compared to van der Merwe’s menial average of 11.20. It’s clear that the selectors are looking for more depth in the batting department.

The other omission that has gone unnoticed is that of Alviro Petersen, admittedly Alviro Petersen didn’t have the best MTN 40 series or tour of the West Indies. I think it’s two faced of the selectors to back JP Duminy after a long run of poor form, and then drop another player after a few months in the team.

Oh and don’t get me started about Albie Morkel, how he continues to be included in the ODI team astounds me, his bowling has been poor and this batting worse.

On the whole it’s an experienced team with the mix of youth in David Miller and Colin Ingram, I’m sure we can expect another white wash of both Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Standard Bank ODI squad (to play Zimbabwe and Pakistan): Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Charl Langeveldt, David Miller, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Standard Bank Pro20 squads: (de Villiers will not be fit for the Pro20’s against Zimbabwe and so Heino Kuhn get’s anther start, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn are being rested for the Pro20 series)