Below is the list of fixtures for the 2011 Australian tour of South Africa which consists of two T20 Internationals, three One Day International and a two match Castle Larger Test series.

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! 

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.

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.

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:

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.