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.

In the previous MTN ODI at SuperSport Park the bowling from Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell lead to the demise of the Australians. At Sahara Park Newlands in Cape Town it was the batting of Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers that put the game beyond the reach of Ricky Ponting’s men. After finally winning a toss in the home series, Graeme Smith elected to bat first, knowing well that chasing a total at Newlands is an almost impossible task. The opening pair of Smith and Gibbs was ineffective; they gave way for Kaills and de Villiers to take control.

It must be said that the bowling from Mitchell Johnson built the pressure on the openers, Johnson finished with figures of 10 overs, 2 maidens, 32 runs taking 4 of the 6 wickets that fell in the Proteas innings.

Kaills and de Villiers both went to half centuries as they built their partnership, taking South Africa from 50/2 to 164/3. This partnership was the foundation that allowed the rest of the batsmen room to play shots. Duminy, Morkel and Boucher all scored at more than a run a ball. In the final over of the innings Roelof van der Merwe came to the wicket, with four balls remaining everyone was suggesting he take a single and let Boucher do the rest, but Roelof had other plans. He flashed at the first one, swung wildly at the second, and then knocked a massive six to square leg. This man has passion; he wears his inexperience on his sleeve. I can’t wait to see this young player mature into a regular in the Proteas side. South Africa posted 289/6 after their 50 overs.

With the knowledge that the highest successful run chase at Newlands was 229, the South Africans were confident. The spectacular bowling carried over from the previous game, with Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell restricting the run rate. On the back of the good work the pace bowlers had done, the new spin bowling partnership of Botha and van der Merwe came into play. Roelof van der Merwe, taking 3 wickets for just 37 runs from his 10 overs, was the pick of the bowling attack.

Australia batted well in the end to score 264/7, something the Proteas should keep an eye on. Looking forward to the fourth MTN ODI in Port Elizabeth on Monday the Proteas will be confident, both their bowling attack and middle order batting attack have performed well. It’s time for our openers to perform, leading 2-1; I’ll back them to win the series.

South Africa is in a dominant position at the close of play on the first day of the third and final Castle Test match at Sahara Park Newlands, Cape Town. Ricky Ponting won toss and elected to bat first, perhaps not the best decision. A poor start in the field saw South Africa drop two catches, while the Australians moved on to 58/0. Imraan Kahn dropped a sitter and JP Duminy dropped Hughes off Paul Harris. Harris stepped up and took the wicket of Hughes two balls later to open the wicket taking.

One run later and Ricky Ponting was walking back to the Pavilion with a duck next to his name. The highest scorer for Australia was Katich who was out for 55 off 160 balls.

Jacques Kallis captained the team well and had the Australians all out for 209, an hour before the end of the day. Enter Imraan Kahn and Ashwell Prince, the expectation to score was high after scoring a big century and a double century respectively. Prince led the partnership scoring freely to take play to a close with South Africa on 57/0. Prince had scored 37 runs from 36 balls in a powerful batting display.

South Africa are 157 runs behind, if Prince picks up where he left off the Australians are going to be in trouble by lunch on day two.

All the rumors of unhappiness in the team have been put to rest by an inspiring batting performance, now we need to keep or heads and add 300 runs on day two to setup a powerful first innings lead.

Bowling performances from South Africa:

Steyn: 16 overs, 56 runs, 4 wickets
Ntini: 17 overs, 38 runs, 2 wickets
Kallis: 10 overs, 31 runs, 0 wickets
A Morkel: 12 overs, 44 runs, 1 wicket
Harris: 17 overs, 34 runs, 3 wickets

Imraan Khan scored his fifth century of the season today, ensuring that he wasn’t out done by Ashwell Prince’s 254 for the Warriors. Khan’s century came from 175 balls, he ended the day on 135 not out. Both players were named in the squad to take on Australia in the third and final test match at Newlands. It seems that some players only need a sniff at a chance of playing for the Proteas to up their game.

It’s great to see South Africa has depth, we’ll be expecting big things from these to players that seem to be in fine form.

Unfortunately there hasn’t been much to write about when it comes to bowling in Super Sport series, the only noticeable performance came from Yusuf Abdullah, taking 5 wickets from 63 runs in 19 overs for the Dolphins.

Found in the heart of Cape Town, Newlands has oak trees covering grass embankments, a vibrant crowd which is all watched over by Table Mountain.

Newlands hosts the third and final test match in the three match Castle Test series between South Africa and Australia, Thursday 19th March. I decided to do some research and dig out some stat’s on the ground.

According to Howstat South Africa and Australia have played 10 test matches against each other at Newlands, 9 of those 10 were won by Australia. There is some history that South Africa will need to beat to ensure that this summers series end 3 a piece.

Jacques Kallis has played 15 test matches at his home ground, in those 15 matches he’s played 24 innings, scored a total of 1346 runs, at an average of 64.10, including 8 half centuries and 4 centuries, with a highest score of 149.

Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini share the title for most wickets taken at Newlands with 51. Polly has taken 5 wickets twice at an average of 19.53, far ahead of Ntini’s average at Newlands of 28.20. How would South Africa love to have the all round player Shaun Pollock playing in this test match?

Image from http://flickr.com/pro20cricket

In what was effectively a quarter-final the Titans met the Cape Cobras at Sahara Park, Newlands this afternoon. The Cobras won the toss and elected to bat. From the start luck seemed to be on the side of the Cobras, Martin van Jaarsveld dropped two catches before the fifth over was bowled. The Cobras run rate was pretty average, after 10 overs they were 64/3. The Titans spin bowlers had bowled well, taking the pace off the ball seems to be a tactic that works for them. The luck continued as wicket keeper Kuhn dropped an ice breaker in the 18th over. Justin Ontong top scored with 59 runs from 38 balls for the Cape Cobras as they notched up a respectable 157/4 after their allotted 20 overs. As often seen in this year’s Standard Bank Pro20, the opening batsmen set off to a good start. Before long though, both openers found themselves watching from the sideline as their team started to fall apart.

van der Merwe then played a ridiculous shot to leave two new batsmen at the crease that hadn’t yet faced a ball. From that point the Titans lost wickets at regular intervals, going from 70/4 to 102/6. Some superb bowling from Roger Telemachus with figures of 17 runs, 3 wickets off 4 overs restricted the Titans to 141/9.

The Cape Cobras won the game by 16 runs, effectively ending the Nashua Titans Pro20 campaign.