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Australia 254/5 – play stopped by bad light

Once again we started with Ricky Ponting winning the toss and Australia batting. Once again we had some early wickets by South Africa and then an Australian fightback, as we have seen right through this summer of cricket.

South Africa could not have hoped for a better start, getting a wicket in the first over and then a second not much later to a pearler of a catch from McKenzie. At that stage we had them on the ropes. But full credit for Ponting, for as much as I really really dislike him, he is a man for the big occassions and is holding the Aussie batting lineup together. He is not faultless, he often gives chances (like on 40 when we should have had him caught. It was very unlike Smith to put him down). As a bowling team, you have to take those half chances. But what he does is disregard what is happening at the other end, plays aggressively and very quickly he can get his team out of trouble by scoring quickly and putting pressure on the opposition. If we can;t get him out we really have to shut him down and stop him scoring, because then he will try and make things happen and offer chances.

We had a bit of a stutter and then got Hussey to a good delivery. At that stage they were about 50/3 and we were in the box seat after an hour. Similiar to Perth, we needed to make it count. Similar to Perth we did not. Similiar to Perth we did not attack enough, and similar to Perth we lost the momentum.

I still feel we do not bowl the right line and length. It’s often to far outside off stump, and then we drift to far towards leg stump and get picked off, so the opposition score on both sides of the wicket. As i’ve mentioned, i’d like to see us attack the stumps more, make the batters play more and then bring in more modes of dismissal. At the end of the day you simply have to put 6 balls in the right spot and aim for the top of off stump. You can’t comofrtably drive or pull that length.

We had another brief glimmer when we got Ponting and Clarke to have them 184/5 but again we could not make it count. For Australia to end on 254/5, they will be very happy. For us to let them score 200 for the loss of 2 wickets on a first day pitch at the Wanderers, is very disappointing.

I’m sure we will come out firing tomorrow, but for me the horse has bolted. from this position, Australia are looking at 300+ which puts them in a great position. I think we are lucky there is plenty of rain about Joburg at the moment and I am certain this test will end in a draw, but then you never know…

To the Wanderers we go for the next segment in what will hopefully be South Africa’s crowning as the best test side in the world.
Whilst the Proteas have had a few weeks to freshen up, and many have taken time away from the cricket field, the Aussies have had a few weeks of tough competition against the Kiwis, and a tour game.

If I was Graeme Smith i’d choose to bowl first if I won the toss. The Wanderers wicket usually has something in it for the first day or so, and with their lack of cricket recently, bowling first will allow them to get back into the swing of things with less pressure. If we can bowl the Aussies out cheaply, and then make a decent total, their inexperience might tell.

I do think the Aussies will change tactics a bit when bowling. I think they’ll test Duminy with the shorter ball like they got him out in Perth, but they may lack the firepower to really make it count. Duminy will be happy to let the ball go and his class will get him through without any problems. I also think they’ll try the same against Amla, but Amla also has a fantastic temperment and will do the same. This time we need to cash in with more centuries. I’m sure Smith and Duminy will get another one, but this time Kallis and Amla need to come to the party, and McKenzie needs some deent scores too. With the inexperience of the Aussie attack, if we see off the new ball we can really cash in.

Our bowlers should be refeshed and raring to go. Steyn has been out playing with crocodiles! He’ll be looking to charge in and should get more swing than he did in Australia. But he’ll need better support from Ntini and Morkel this time around. If we have them on the ropes we have to make it count. It will put tremendous pressure on Ponting, Hussey and Clarke.

I’m expecting a result wicket at the Wanderers and for South Africa to go 1-0 up. Bring it on…

The Aussies and New Zealand played out a competitive one day series. Whilst it is great to see the Aussies get beaten, for New Zealand to beat them would not make South Africa’s series win as special. So a drawn series was the ideal result for me as again Australia didn’t win at home, but then New Zealand can’t claim to have beaten them either.

The series for me was marred by the Brad Haddin cheating affair. I am sure it will not be spoken about very often, as the Aussies have a habit of sweeping dirty issues under the carpet. eg the Shane Warne/Mark Waugh “weather reports”, Shane Warnes drug cheating, Brett Lee’s use of the beamer when under pressure etc etc
This tour will use the “video referral” system too, which will stop the Aussies cheating again. I am looking forward to see how it goes.

The Aussies can be assured that when they arrive in South Africa for their tour of South Africa, there is only going to be more pressure and more pain. It will be interesting to see what they are made of, as South Africa and its fans play damn hard, but fair. I suspect the Aussies could struggle with their squad, and things could get ugly for them. I am not sure they will leave with any dignity either, as I don’t think they have any

Around the same time, India go to New Zealand. Dhoni has had a fairytale run, but now he will experience just how hard international cricket is when you have to go do climates and conditions which are foreign to you. The Indians have always struggled with a ball that seams around and I think they may even lose the series. It will be interesting to see what the critics think then, will they still see India as the best team in the world (which clearly they are not because South Africa are!)?

Meanwhile in the West Indies we have an interesting tussle. The Windies won the first game and played well. But to see England skittled out for 51 was a joke. That is the problem when you rely so heavily on 1-2 individuals. I still expect them to show a bit more fight than that however.

Then they went to Antigua for the farcial test match at the Sir Viv Richards ground. Someone’s head should roll for that (but of course it never does). Surely someone should inspect the ground prior to play, and why did the players not say anything prior to play, after all they do their warm ups on the ground. I feel sorry for Viv Richards, having his name associated with such shenanigans. Until cricket in the West Indies gets more professional I don’t see their national team getting back to the top of world cricket.

And so we moved on to the St Johns oval. Obviously because of the late notice it was never going to be fully prepared. but what were they thinking staging a test match with the soccer halfway line going down the middle of the pitch? Regardless of whether it influenced the pitch or not, it has to be extremely disconcerting and off-putting for the batsmen. Full credit to the Windies for managing to squeeze out a draw when England had the game in the bag to still lead the series 1-0.

Whilst the NZ v Aus series is of little interest to me, it has been extremely interesting to follow what has been happening. Firstly to see the Aussies lose has been great, they have now lost 5 in a row! For any major international team that is a disaster, to see it happen to Australia is awesome!

The Brad Haddin/Michael Clarke dismissal has shown Australia’s true colours once more. This is nothing new. The underarm incident (the most disgraceful act ever in cricket), the Sneddon catch that was disallowed, Darrell Hair no balling Murali, Darrell Hair alleging the Pakis tampered the ball, the list goes on and on…

I really think Australia should go back to their previous colour because there is only one green and gold, and time and time again the Aussies have shown themselves to be yellow.

The dismissal of Neil Broom was definitely not out. Brad Haddin definitely cheated. On replay it is quite clear that the ball did not hit, and was not going to hit the stumps.

To view the incident click here

Brad Haddin had to be aware where his gloves were. No international wicketkeeper is that stupid. At the very least he had to be unsure. But the way he acted left no doubt that he cheated, and got away with it. Had Australia been cruising to victory there is no doubt in my mind he would not have appealed and acted the way he did. The fact that he acted as he did when under pressure showed his canary yellow colours.

The reaction after the game, and the support shown by Ponting is a disgrace. But then I’ve never had any respect for Ponting, the biggest cheat of them all.

2 Months of intense cricket in Australia has come to and end and we get a chance to have a breather whilst the players freshen up for round 2.
At the beginning of the tour I had expectations and hopes for a test and ODI series victory but I expected it to be closer than it ended up finishing. Although we won comprehensively, we did not dominate. The decisive factor being that we won more of the important moments when they counted.

Whilst we can be extremely happy with a tour victory, I hope we don’t rest on our laurels as there are still many areas we can improve on.

The test side shows a lot of confidence and has established a great winning culture. Whilst we hunted down our targets and batted sensibly, my concerns are that we never posted a really big score (although we might’ve in the second innings in Perth). In all 3 tests, a first innings of 500+ would have really set us up well. That was highlighted by the lack of centuries all tour. Apart from the second innings in Perth, and JP Duminy in Melbourne, no one else got a hundred. But no one batted badly except for McKenzie.

Smith, Amla, Kallis, De Villiers and Boucher did their jobs but not more than that. The opportunity was there for one of them to really cash in, lift their averages and set their team up. Considering that since readmission our top batters have all average in the 30’s against Australia, it was pleasing that as a group, our top 6 lifted their game and their averages towards a more respectable 40+. However it only takes 2 centuries per innings to build a total you are unlikely to lose from and really bury the opposition. In the return series I have a feeling we will need a few more centuries.

However in saying that Australia only had the 1 century from Ponting. They have built their game around large first innings totals, so getting them out for scores that were not beatable, played a huge role in keeping us in the game and being able to take victory.

The other aspect that was particularly noticeable, and maybe it was the reason why Australia scored less than us per innings in the end, was the fact we scored at about 3 an over (Smith was the exception but has to score quickly to make up for McKenzie!), whereas they scored about 4 an over. Our batters all displayed top class temperament which is vital for test cricket. The ability to play each ball on its merit, to play and miss and then simply forget about it and start again. Duminy was a great example of this in Melbourne. However the downside was that again we possibly weren’t attacking enough when we needed to be. I’d like to see us show a bit more confidence, take the game to the aussies and really put them away.

It was particularly pleasing to see our tail take more responsibility and show a bit more grit and determination. It has been a weakness for us, and Harris was good, and Steyn in Melbourne was getting hammered with shorts balls around his fingers. His determination and courage won us that game, and allowed Duminy to shine.

Our bowlers got the job done also but again need to go into overdrive. Steyn again got results like he did all though 2008. I thought Morkel was very disappointing, didn’t get much wickets, lacked control and was expensive.
Ntini battled away as he always does, and got vital wickets but perhaps won’t get 5 wicket bag like he used to. And although it surprised Australia, Harris was damn good. He used great control, and it shows that if you bowl tight and stop runs, you will get rewarded with wickets.

All in all our bowling lacked consistency. Steyn bowled some magnificent deliveries but mixed with that were too many deliveries wide of off stump that the batsmen did not have to play. I also felt there were too many short of a length deliveries that the batsmen could hit with little risk.
I would like to see us attack the stumps more often. We have bowlers who all bowl great yorkers, (Steyn can be almost unplayable). Attacking the stumps also increases your chances of getting the batter out a you bring in more modes of dismissal. Bowled, LBW, caught behind…

If there is an area we are weak, and we struggled last time we toured Australia, it is bowling the tail out. We often had Australia in trouble eg Perth and 3/15 on the opening morning but simply couldn’t wrap up the innings cheaply. I think our strategy needs to change, especially with our weapon Steyn. Attacking the stumps and setting fields which back up straight bowling in my view will bring about the desired results.

The wickets for the South African series are all result wickets. Newlands may be high scoring, but Durban and Joburg will all favour the bowlers but allow centuries if you are prepared to graft and apply yourself. I am hoping for a comprehensive test series victory if we can dominate with bat and ball.

The ODI series was quite different, albeit a similar result. Again we did not dominate with all contests bar Adelaide being reasonably well contested. However like the test series we again won the key moments.

Without Smith we struggled initially. I felt the players took time to get used to Botha’s captaincy, and lacked urgency initially.

We definitely got better as the series progressed, and the pleasing aspect (I hope it is permanent) is that we learnt how to construct our innings. Since readmission I’ve felt that we are too conservative in the one day game and try not to lose, rather than aiming to win. We prefer chasing, and if that is the case I like to see us come out and start well so that the run rate doesn’t climb too high. Otherwise we end up putting too much pressure on the middle and lower order. Too often in the past our strategy has been to keep wickets in hand for the end. If the run rate gets too high like it did in Hobart, it doesn’t matter how many wickets you have left. Sometimes you just can’t get them, whilst other times you lose wickets from the pressure. It requires a near perfect execution to get there. Whereas gaining momentum from the beginning makes the job so much easier. The Adelaide run chase was a perfect example of how to make it look easy.

On the bowling side of things, I thought we did a great job, other than the first 10 overs. By the end of the series we were at least taking wickets which kills the oppositions chances of a huge total. But allowing them to score at 5-6 an over puts the pressure right back on you. Something for us to work on.

The way we fought back in the middle overs was magnificent. Couldn’t ask for more. And our bowling at the death was good. Interestingly we used the yorkers and fuller delivers to great effect. Something Australia wasn’t able to do. Maybe we could use the short ball/bouncer a bit more as a surprise delivery. That was one thing Australia did to us, and our batters especially Duminy and Amla weren’t prepared to go after them. We also have more of our bowlers bowling cutters and slower deliveries which is great. We will need them on the subcontinent and for the next world cup.

The only change I’d like to see would be to get rid of Gibbs. He’s too old, too inconsistent and doesn’t add enough value contributions. Surely we can develop someone else, the way we have with Amla and Duminy.

The 20/20’s were perhaps a disappointment. Maybe we were readjusting after the test series, with a new captain. Tactically we were naïve. In the second one we looked like we were playing a test match. But I’ll reserve judgement until the South African edition as I feel we were on the right track after the one dayers.

I expected the Aussies to win the final one dayer in Perth as we blooded a few new youngsters. If we won we’d get the number 1 ranking but it certainly wasn’t an important factor for the Proteas.

We started off quite sedately, with Gibbs getting out in a manner and timeframe that I have become accustomed to seeing (my prediction remember was for 1 good innings out of the 5 games…) and then Mckenzie getting bogged down and also getting out. At that stage we were in a bit of trouble and any further wickets would’ve place us under immense pressure.

Amla and De Villiers play beautifully. They showed that you can bat with little risk and score at a good clip (about 5 an over). They worked the 1’s and 2’s beautifully and threw in the odd boundary. Importantly they preserved wickets so that by over 37 De Villiers was looking to up the tempo. He got out but he had done his job. Now it was time to go for it.

Amla was looking for his hundred and to bat through the innings. Unfortunately he got out. At that stage we were relying on Morkel to power us home. He came in, had an over or so and then we started the power play. Disaster stuck as he got out at the end of the first over of the power play. At that stage I thought we’d struggle to get past 260 odd as we had no power hitter left.

Once again Duminy fired when we needed it most. His was one of the best one day innings I have seen in a long time. He worked the 1’s and 2’s beautifully, and then got some wonderful boundaries. 3 6’s and 3 4’s. Some delicate touches, others great timing, and even bludgeoning one straight down the ground. He has it all and I believe he is the best cricketer i’ve seen from South Africa. His temperament is fantastic, he has all the skills, and most importantly he has the mental tenacity to win matches. The only things he needs to work on are the pull/hook shot; and to continue developing his bowling.

Johan Botha had a great cameo too. First ball he lap swept Nathan Bracken, then he reverse swept a 140kph+ delivery between 2 fielders from Mitchell Johnson. How much confidence are the proteas playing with? It’s fantastic to watch, and amazing how quickly it has transformed our play. We must now simply play this way all the time.

I still though at halfway the aussies would be favourites with a good batting lineup against our inexperienced bowling attack. Go Tsotsobe! I have mentioned I have wanted him in at the expense of Morne Morkel, and boy did he show what he can do. He bowled a great line with a little bit of swing and troubled Ponting in particular. 2 early wickets were crucial in ensuring that Australia could not gain any momentum. From that pressure they never recovered.

Morkel accounted for Clarke, and when Warner was unluckily run out, the game was effectively over. The 2 Hussey’s batted so slowly. Sure they had to consolidate but letting the run rate get so high effectively killed their chances. It is pleasing to see other teams struggle to understand how to chase down a total, especially one as good as Australia. They are definitely much better at setting a total, and the key to stopping any chase is early wickets.

The most pleasing aspect of the win was that our young guys performed brilliantly. Under pressure they didn’t shy away, and how good was it see Tsotsobe smiling and enjoying himself, thrashing the pants off Australia! This team is going from strength to strength, the youngsters have maintained our mental toughness that makes it so hard to play against South Africa, let alone beat us.
It also stopped the Aussies gaining any momentum or mental advantage ahead of the return series in South Africa. And the icing on the cake…South Africa are the number 1 ranked one day team in the world…Yahoo!