Cricket South Africa on Friday named Ryan McLaren and Heino Kuhn as new caps in their various limited overs squads for the series against Zimbabwe and England.

McLaren, has been included in the ODI squad for the two-match MTN series against Zimbabwe as well as the first three matches of the MTN series against England and the two Standard Bank Pro20 Internationals.

This is one of three changes to the Proteas’ Standard Bank ODI squad. McLaren takes the place of Robin Peterson while two long-serving Proteas’ players, Herschelle Gibbs and Makhaya Ntini, drop out to make room for Alviro Petersen and Charl Langeveldt. Loots Bosman also makes a comeback to the Proteas’ squad for the Pro20 series.

The omission of Herschelle Gibbs means that Jacques Kallis will be used as an opening batsman in the ODI’s, according to the convenor of selectors for the South African team, Mike Procter.

Kuhn, a wicketkeeper-batsman from the Nashua Titans franchise, gets his chance in the 20 overs format of the game for the two Standard Bank Pro20 Internationals against England. I’d suggest that Kuhn has been selected as the under study to Mark Boucher as approaches his 33^rd birthday on 3 December.

The selectors have also named the two South Africa A sides to play against England. There are interesting captaincy choices in Hashim Amla and Justin Ontong while Rilee Rossouw and CJ de Villiers have both been rewarded for their outstanding performances in the Champions’ League tournament.

Proteas Suads:

Proteas’ Standard Bank ODI squad: Graeme Smith (Nashua Cape Cobras, capt), Hashim Amla (Nashua Dolphins), Johan Botha (Chevrolet Warriors), Mark Boucher (Chevrolet Warriors), AB de Villiers (Nashua Titans), JP Duminy (Nashua Cape Cobras), Jacques Kallis (Chevrolet Warriors), Charl Langeveldt (Nashua Cape Cobras), Ryan McLaren (Diamond Eagles), Albie Morkel (Nashua Titans), Wayne Parnell (Chevrolet Warriors), Alviro Petersen (bizhub Highveld Lions), Dale Steyn (Nashua Titans), Lonwabo Tsotsobe (Chevrolet Warriors), Roelof van der Merwe (Nashua Titans).

Proteas’ Standard Bank Pro20 squad: Graeme Smith (Nashua Cape Cobras, capt), Yusuf Abdulla (Nashua Dolphins), Loots Bosman (Nashua Dolphins), Johan Botha (Chevrolet Warriors), Mark Boucher (Chevrolet Warriors), AB de Villiers (Nashua Titans), JP Duminy (Nashua Cape Cobras), Jacques Kallis (Chevrolet Warriors), Heino Kuhn (Nashua Titans), Charl Langeveldt (Nashua Cape Cobras), Ryan McLaren (Diamond Eagles), Albie Morkel (Nashua Titans), Wayne Parnell (Chevrolet Warriors), Dale Steyn (Nashua Titans), Roelof van der Merwe (Nashua Titans).

In the opening game of the Champions League T20, the Cape Cobras (winners of the Standard Bank Pro20 2009) took on the Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) (runners up of the second IPL).

RCB batted first posting a good total of 180 runs, the main contributors to the RCB Innings were Robin Uthappa with his 51 runs from 39 balls and New Zealander Ross Taylor with 53 not out off 23 balls. Jacques Kallis didn’t add many as he was out for 8 runs from the bowling of Charl Langeveldt.

Langeveldt later left the field injured with bowling figures of 3 overs, 12 runs and 1 wicket. This is a major loss for the Cape Cobras as Langeveldt is easily the best T20 bowler in world cricket, there was talk that he could be out of the game for a few weeks with a shoulder injury.

With a good total on the scoreboard and playing at home, RCB must have been favored to win when Herschelle Gibbs was dismissed for a golden duck in the first over. Shortly after Gibbs’ dismissal Andrew Puttick followed leaving the Cape Cobras at 14/2.

Enter JP Duminy; Duminy took control of the RCB bowlers very quickly, hitting Jacques Kallis for consecutive boundaries. Duminy hit the bowlers all over the park in a quality innings, knocking up 99* off just 52 balls, which included five 6’s and eight 4’s. Duminy was unlucky not to have reached what would have been his maiden T20 century. He hit a 6 followed by a single, which left the game tied and himself stranded on 99*,  Rory Kleinveldt finished off the game with two balls remaining.

Congratulations to JP Duminy for his 99* of 52 balls which earned him the man of the match award, and put the Cape Cobras in a good position.

South Africa has played two games in the Champions Trophy against Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Having lost one and won the next, South Africa’s destiny is in their hands. They face England at SuperSport Park Centurion this Sunday.

South Africa has chosen a team with four pace bowlers; Parnell, Steyn, Morkel and Kaills with two spinners; van der Merwe and Botha, Duminy has chipped in with the odd over here and there.

The South African selectors are going to change the team for the England contest, as Herschelle Gibbs will make his come back into the team after he sustained an injury in the warm up game against the West Indies. Who are they going to drop? I’d suggest that Morkel will get the boot, his bowling has been terrible and with Gibbs up the order we shouldn’t need Morkel’s batting lower down.

I have one major issue with Parnell at the moment; he’s simply far too expensive. Yes he’s the leading wicket taker at the moment, let’s be honest, the New Zealand batsmen pretty much got themselves out in the last game. Parnell has bowled a total of 18 overs for 136 runs, that’s 7.56 runs per over, those figures may be considered acceptable while he’s taking wickets, but what happens when he doesn’t take wickets and one of the other bowlers has an off day? Then we’ll get smashed like we did against Sri Lanka. Add to that when we drop Morkel the sixth bowler will be JP Duminy. Duminy can bowl a bit, but we can’t rely on three spinners in an ODI.

Parnell simply has to sort his economy rate out, we can’t afford to have a bowler going at 7.5 runs per over when you only have five specialist bowlers in the team. If Parnell continues with his expensive run rate, then the selectors will have to retain Morkel as the sixth bowler, which will see Hashim Amla missing out.

DURBAN: Deccan Chargers sustained their winning run with a six-wicket victory against last year’s finalists Chennai Super Kings in a gripping game that went down to the final over at Kingsmead here on Monday. With four victories from as many games, Deccan Chargers took top spot in the table while Chennai Super Kings stays with three points from five games.

Aware that he had made a mistake in under-bowling Pragyan Ojha, Adam Gilchrist launched a stunning assaul on the Chennai Super Kings as if to make up for that. He made 44 off 19 balls (five fours, three sixes) and set his team on the way, creating a platform for the patient Herschelle Gibbs to steer the side home with three balls to spare. Gibbs responded with an unbeaten 69 not out (56 balls, six fours, two sixes) that won him the man of the match award. But more importantly, his knock held the innings from coming unstuck against some crafty bowling by Suresh Raina and Muttiah Muralitharan who finished with combined figures of three wickets for 35 runs in eight overs. There was a rash of wickets with VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma and Dwayne Smith following Gilchrist to the pavilion but Gibbs stayed calm through the crisis and stuck a six off the first ball of L Balaji’s final over to ensure the team would get home and dry.

Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni was left with few options after Manpreet Singh Gony and Joginder Sharma together conceded 34 runs in one over each. He was left hoping for some firepower upfront to stop Deccan Chargers, who themselves had Fidel Edwards in top form.

He was also left wondering why his team was unable to build on the 64-run stand that Matthew Hayden and Suresh Raina strung together after Parthiv Patel’s dismissal to the second ball of the match. He could zero in on himself as one of those who could have got the team to a bigger score. Pragyan Ojha scalped him and Hayden in one over to pull his side back into the game.

Gilchrist admitted he got his calculations wrong, allowing his best bowler Pragyan Ojha just two overs and pulling him out of the attack when Jacob Oram and Albie Morkel were at the crease. That allowed Chennai Super Kings to pick up 20 runs off young fast bowler SM Shoaib to lift their score to 168 off 20 overs and give their bowlers something to bowl with.

Source

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.

Asked and answered. Herschelle Gibbs was under pressure to score runs to retain his spot in the Proteas side and boy did he do it in style, scoring 110 runs from 116 deliveries. The century from Gibbs and the 84 runs from AB de Villiers lead South Africa to a massive 317/6 and a series victory. The Australian team was unsure of themselves going into the fourth MTN ODI at Sahara Oval St. George’s in Port Elizabeth on the back of two comprehensive losses. The Aussies showed their hand before the game by including Shane Harwood (35) making his debut as the third oldest Australian to make the ODI team.

A further sign of the lack of confidence came when Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and choose to field first, unsure of what a good total was.

Smith and Gibbs started the innings in a nervous and unsure manner, both played at balls that should have been left alone with Gibbs chasing the ball on almost every occasion. Luck was on Gibbs’ side as he made it through the first ten overs though, Smith unfortunately departed early for just 20 runs. The further departure of Kaills (17) brought AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs together.

The pure class of Gibbs started to show, with AB putting in a fine performance at the other end. The Australian bowlers had no answer to the onslaught during the pairs 136-run third-wicket partnership. Gibbs, Morkel, de Villiers lost their wickets between the 38th and 42nd overs, JP Duminy and Mark Boucher ensured that they lower order played a significant role with Duminy scoring 40 runs from 25 balls.

Chasing a total of 318 for victory it was always going to be a huge task, but as usual the Aussies were up for a fight. Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin put in an opening stand of 129; Ricky Ponting was also on a mission with the bat, knocking four fours off Dale Steyn in one over before he was caught by Albie Morkel for 53. The bowling of Roelof van der Merwe must again be applauded for turning the game as he took the wickets of Clarke, Ferguson and Michael Hussey within five overs. Dale Steyn took the key wickets of Ponting and David Hussey, ending the innings with four wickets. Australia was all out in the 46th over for 256.

Over the home and away ODI series South Africa have won 7 and lost 2, with the ODI No. 1 ranking changing a few times. South Africa has now won three ODI series in a row against Australia and retains the ODI No. 1 ranking. Onwards to the ICC World T20… Forever  Proteas.

Standard Bank Pro20

South Africa has gone cricket mad in the past few days, with the announcement that the IPL will be hosted in South Africa. We’ll also be hosting the ICC Champions Trophy, but before we get into all of that we have two Standard Bank Pro20 games and a five match MTN ODI series to play again Australia. The first Standard Bank Pro20 game gets under way at the Liberty Life Wanderers Stadium this Friday evening with the second match being played on Sunday evening at SuperSport Park. I’ll be at both these games. Remember to follow us on Twitter from some live updates.

Graeme Smith is still side lined with his injured finger, but it seems that he’ll be ready for action against Australia in the first MTN ODI at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead next Friday.

The squad for the first game:

Proteas’ team for first Pro20: Johan Botha (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Mark Boucher, Albie Morkel, Robbie Peterson, Wayne Parnell, Dale Steyn. 12th man: Justin Ontong.