Castle Test Cricket: South Africa conceded series to Australia

South Africa conceded the second Castle Test match and the test series to Australia by 175 runs. This is the first test series that South Africa has lost in about 11 series.

The Australian team did everything right from ball one, Ricky Ponting has done it all. He’s beat every team in world cricket with both an experienced team and one of the most inexperienced teams. Phillip Huges became the youngest batsmen in history to score a century on both the first and second innings in a test match, this was Huges second test match. Huges scored a total of 275 runs in the game to earn him the man of the match award, 115 in the first and 160 in the second innings.

Following this emphatic victory by the Australians we start to wonder if we really beat them in the away series or if was the Australians that lost it by themselves. In all the years that I have watched cricket I haven’t seen a team turn around so quickly. I think the management of the South African team will be scratching their heads wondering what to do next.

If you look at the away and home series as one you’ll have the Australians at 3-2, with one more game to play in Capetown. Can the South African’s lift themselves to draw the summer against Australia? Without the captain Graeme Smith, and an expected few changes to the team it’s going to be a difficult task. The Australians have their tails up and will be going for the kill.

Fixtures Australian tour 2009

February
20 – 22	3-Day Tour	Australia vs South Africa “A”	Senwes Park, Potchefstroom
26 – 2 Mar	1st Castle Test	South Africa vs Australia	Liberty Life Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg
March
6 – 10	2nd Castle Test	South Africa vs Australia	Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban
19 – 23	3rd Castle Test	South Africa vs Australia	Sahara Park Newlands, Cape Town
27	1st Standard Bank Int Pro 20	South Africa vs Australia	Liberty Life Wanderers, Johannesburg
29	2nd Standard Bank Int Pro 20	South Africa vs Australia	SuperSport Park, Centurion
April
3	1st MTN ODI (D/N)	South Africa vs Australia	Sahara Stadium Kingsmead, Durban
5	2nd MTN ODI (D/N)	South Africa vs Australia	SuperSport Park, Centurion
9	3rd MTN ODI (D/N)	South Africa vs Australia	Sahara Park Newlands, Cape Town
13	4th MTN ODI (Day)	South Africa vs Australia	Sahara Oval St. George’s, Port Elizabeth
17	5th MTN ODI (D/N)	South Africa vs Australia	Liberty Life Wanderers, Johannesburg

New Zealand help SA hold onto no. 1

New Zealand helped South Africa hold onto the number 1 position in ODI cricket today by beating Australia in the first of five games in the Commonwealth Bank Series.

Playing at the WACA in Perth, the Australians never settled after their series defeat at the hands of the South Africans. They could only manage to put up a total of 181 all out after 46.4 overs. Both Ponting and Clarke were run out as the confidence of the Australians continued to nose dive.

But the never say die attitude of the Australians was on display as they came out to defend the below average total. New Zealand’s opening batsman Brendon McCullum was given out on the second ball of the innings lbw b Tait, in an absolute shocker of a decision by the umpire, the ball clearly hit his pads from and inside edge. Some tight bowling by Bracken and Johnson had the New Zelanders under pressure and by the 41st over the run rate required by above 6 per over.

New Zealand then took the batting power play in the 42nd over, which immediately resulted in Bracken going for 12 runs, followed in the next over with a massive 6 hit by New Zealand’s premier batsman Ross Taylor. The ability to score during the power play seemed to be the only difference between the teams. New Zealand won the game by 2 wickets by hitting a four off the last ball. Ross Taylor’s top scored with 64 from 97 balls.

Adding salt to the wound was Australia’s slow over rate, costing the caption 10% of his match fee per over that they were behind, the rest of the player con seed 5% of their match fee per over.

The next game in the Commonwealth Bank Series is on the 6th of February.

Can South Africa go to No.1

Following South Africa’s victory over Australia in the fourth ODI on Monday, everyone has been talking about going number 1 in the ODI ICC rankings.

The current ODI ICC rankings are as follows:

	Teams	Matches	Points	Rating
1	Austrialia	32	4040	126
2	South Africa	33	4069	123
3	India	41	4865	119
4	New Zealand	27	3041	113
5	Pakistan	31	3446	111
6	England	32	3469	108
7	Sri Lanka	38	4056	107
8	West Indies	27	2463	91
9	Bangladesh	38	1730	46
10	Ireland	10	190	19
11	Zimbabwe	27	469	17
12	Kenya	7	75	11

South Africa currently lead the five match ODI series 3-1, having already clinched the series we have to be favorites to win the fifth and final game. According to our calculations the following possibilities exist:

If South Africa wins 4-1, South Africa and Australia will be tied on 125 ratings points each but the Proteas will be placed higher by a fraction of a point.

If South Africa wins 3-2, Australia will end the series on 127 ratings points while South Africa will end on 122 ratings points.

So our boys need to come out firing on Friday 30th January, to ensure that they come home ranked number 1 in ODI’s.