Why the Proteas need to drop Morkel for the 5th bowler

I was listing to Ravi Shastri debate on SuperSport this evening about South African’s problem with big match temperament (BMT), Ravi noted a few very interesting points.

He firstly noted that South Africa stick to ‘the book’ too often in the crunch games, what he was referring to was the batting order. Ravi feels that the South African team should promote their ‘big hitter’ up the order, so that he can take the pressure off the established batsmen. This would change things up a bit and put some doubt in the mind of the bowling attack.

That’s an interesting theory, backed by many comments that I’ve heard recently. Having been critical of Albie Morkel’s batting and bowling, many have said that it’s an unfair comment as Morkel has not been given the opportunity to establish himself up the order before he has to play big shots.

The other option as a big hitter goes is Roelof van der Merwe, but his batting is not mature enough in my opinion, perhaps Boucher could fill that role at number 4.

Ravi further noted that South Africa often lose their way when they field first, specifically when the opposition knocks up a decent total. He said that South Africa lose 90% of their games when they field first in tournaments, so off I went to CricInfo the greatest cricket statistics site on the internet, and this is what I found.

Since 1992:

• South Africa has played in 5 matches in tournament semi-finals where we have fielded first, we’ve lost 4 of those matches and tied 1.
• South Africa has played in 3 matches in tournament quarter-finals where we have fielded first, we’ve won 2 of those matches and lost 1.
• South Africa has played in 1 match in tournament final where we have fielded first, we won that 1 match.

In summary South Africa has played 9 finals (semi/quarter/final) matches, lost 5, won 3 and tied 1. If we consider the tie a loss (because you know Allan should have run!), then we’ve lost 66% of the finals that we’ve played in, batting second.

I agree mostly with Ravi Shastri’s perspective on the issue, the only problem that I have is that South Africa lost their place in the Champions Trophy 2009, due to poor bowling rather than their batting.

The stats don’t lie

Our batting statistics over the three games: 724 runs, from 128.5 overs, at an average of 5.63 per over. To put that in perspective if you bat at 5.63 per overs for 50 overs your total would be 281 runs.

Bowling: 856 runs, 147.5 overs, average of 5.8 per over. (5.80 per over X 50 overs =  290 runs)

If you look at the games we lost against Sri Lanka and England, we conceded 642 runs, from 100 overs, at an average 6.42 which is not acceptable. (6.42 per over X 50 overs = 320 runs)

Looking at our pace attack, Wayne Parnell was very expensive over the three games: 28 overs, 196 runs at an average of 7.0 per over. The problem is compounded by Albie Morkel’s expensive figures: 13 overs, 97 runs at an average of 7.46 per over. If your 6^th bowler is consistently expensive it then puts pressure on the other 5 to perform, but if your 6^th bowler is effective and economical then it becomes a strength for the captain to use.

Albie Morkel’s poor bowling, compounded by Parnell’s expensive run rate is why I would drop Morkel. As the stats show above our batting over the past three games was excellent, it’s the bowling that cost us.

We can spare a part-time batsman for a 5^th specialist bowler while we use Kallis as the 6^th.

South Africa needs Albie Morkel to sort out his bowling, or South African need to find the real replacement to fill the void left by Shaun Pollock.

ODI Cricket: Australia claim 5th ODI

The final game of a long summer of cricket was played at the Wanderers on Friday night. South Africa had already secured the series victory with most players looking onwards to the IPL. Australia had only pride to play for.

Captain Graeme Smith won the toss and asked the Australians to bat first, which was a bit strange because the wicket looked a belter. Almost immediately the ball was flying to the boundary, Brad Haddin and Clarke butchered the bowlers scoring 127 runs off 115 balls. The fall of the openers did nothing to the run rate as they pushed on, at one point 340 was on the cards.

The seam bowlers had been smacked all over the Wanderers, so Graeme Smith turned to his spinners. JP Duminy stepped in for Johan Botha, taking the pace off the ball seemed to work. Van der Merwe and Duminy pulled the Aussies back from what was looking like a massive total. Duminy returned figures of 10 overs, 48 runs taking 3 wickets, Roelof van der Merwe picked up 2 wickets for 44 runs. Dale Steyn got plundered for 78, as did Ntini. An impressive 303 was the score set by Australians.

There was only one man that could have taken South Africa to victory, Herschelle Gibbs. When Herschelle scores big South Africa wins, it’s simple. He opened the batting in style scoring freely, but at the other end Smith again failed to score runs, out for 20. Herchelle continued without his opening partner eventually getting trapped LBW top scoring with 82 runs. Kallis and AB de Villiers pushed on and maintained what Gibbs had started, but once they left the crease there was simply no resistance. The ‘new ball’ was introduced and it helped Australia claim 8 wickets for 68 runs, a dramatic collapse. The South Africans need to think about the introduction of this ‘reconditioned ball’, there’s more to the game then simply going out to score runs.

The Australian fielding was superb; Ben Laughlin’s amazing catch on the boundary to dismiss Albie Morkel sealed the game for Australians. Australia won the game by 47 runs, and moved up to number 2 in the ODI rankings, South Africa end the summer ranked number in ODI cricket.

South Africa wins a nail-biter at the bull ring

Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel put on a world class batting performance to help South Africa to victory by four wickets with four balls to spare in the first Standard Bank Pro20 international against Australia at Liberty Life Wanderers in Johannesburg on Friday. Earlier in the evening, the Australians posted 166/7 with more than half those runs coming from the bat of David Hussey. Australia were in deep trouble in the 10th over; they were 71/5 as a result of the failure of four of the top six Australian batsmen not reaching double figures.

Hussey was in total control as he raced to 88 runs off 44 balls while the rest of the Australian team crumbled. Hussey got hold of Dale Steyn in the 18th and 20th over, smashing him for 32 runs.

South Africa started slow with Amla and Gibbs opening the batting, the pressure of a climbing run rate took its toll as the batsmen tried to engineer run scoring shots. The regular fall of wickets put South Africa in a spot of trouble and by the 15th over  they needed 62 runs with five batsmen already back in the dugout.

At one point The Proteas needed 12 runs per over and it didn’t look like a victory for South Africa was on the cards; enter the explosive Albie Morkel and the ever cool Mark Boucher. The experience of Mark Boucher ensured the run rate picked up, with the now established ODI and Pro20 player Albie Morkel at the other end hitting a match winning 37 off 19 balls.

Liberty Life Wanderers was packed to capacity; the expectant crowd as vocal as ever as in every encounter between the home side and the Australians at the bull ring. The spectacular turn out was a fantastic advertisement for local cricket and the upcoming IPL to be hosted in South Africa. Not even a short interruption from the lights going out could put a dampener on the event.

We look forward to another great game at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Sunday afternoon.

Castle Test Cricket: Brutal batting

The South African batsmen have shown what they can do when they decide to come out and play cricket. In the South African innings of 651 there were three centurions in one innings, Ashwell Prince 150, Jacques Kallis 102 and AB de Villiers 163.

Ashwell Prince was promoted to opening batsman; He came out to bat in the last hour of the first day and played like a man on a serious mission scoring 37 runs from 36 balls in the last hour of playon day one. Returning to the crease on day two Prince scored his 11th test century from 152 balls. Ashwell Prince was eventually out having scored 150 off 249 balls with 19 fours and two sixes.

Stand-in captain Jacques Kallis scored his 31st test century, Kallis had to put up with some fearsome bowling from the Australian pace attack at the start of his innings.

AB de Villiers, having scored a century in the first Castel Test Match repeated his heroics in Cape Town top scoring in the South African innings with an impressive 163. De Villiers, began day three on 39, he got stuck into the Australian bowling attack as he earned his ninth test century, and his third against Australia, off 149 balls with ten fours and one six.

De Villiers then needed just 32 balls as he raced to 150 off 181 balls with 11 fours and seven sixes before he was eventually caught by Andrew McDonald off the bowling of Katich.

Not to be forgotten was the half century scored by Albie Morkel on debut from 59 balls, shared a fantastic seventh-wicket partnership of 124 off 120 balls with De Villiers before Morkel got out.

This brutal batting attack left one seriously wounded Australian bowler Bryce McGain. McGain is a leg spinner who made his debut in this Castle test match. McGain got hammered by all the South African batsmen ending his first bowling effort in test cricket with the following bowling figures:

18 overs, 149 runs, 0 wickets at an average of 8.27 per over