There appears to be an increasing understanding that bilateral series have a limited life-span, at least as far as the cricket watching public is concerned. The elite Test series are, for the moment, exempt from the ‘ennui’ the public feel about much of the international game. South Africa’s Test series against India was a glorious exception to the norm. Even the Ashes was a turn-off because of the one-sided nature of the series. Despite the asserions of Faf du Plessis that he has never, personally been involved in a “long-term planning scenario,†South African teams and squads have done so for over two decades ahead of ICC events. In 1998, before the World Cup South Africa REALLY should have won, coach Bob Woolmer’s strategy had been laid out 18-months earlier: “We want a squad of players with a minimum of 30 caps each, at least half of which must have...
Already there were a lot of comments about the different pitch conditions. Faff said he asked for a typical South African pitch, but he did not get it at Centurion and the Wanderers . Do you think the groundsmen understood what he wanted or were there external factors to blame? In the final test, Parthiv Patel, went off the field and the Dinesh Karthik came on to keep in his place. I might off missed a rule change, but since when can the substitute fielder keep if, a player goes off? Did SA miss a trick here with AB keeping in the game against Zim? See my answers to these questions and more on the SuperSport website.
Rarely has a ‘dead’ test match been quite so keenly anticipated as that between South Africa and India, which starts at the Wanderers on Wednesday. There isn’t usually much consolation to be gained for the team that has lost the series, and the victorious team often take their foot off the accelerator, subconsciously rather than intentionally. This time it is different. (the rest of my India Diary is on the SuperSport website please click here)
Why was it that so many South Africans were so moved by Lungisani Ngidi’s stunning performance in his debut Test? Social media was almost choked with semi-hysterical messages of joy and congratulations, from every corner of our multi-cultural society. It wasn’t merely the fact that he had taken 6-39 on debut. In fact he was the sixth South African to claim a five-for on debut since 1991 and it certainly wasn’t the most spectacular return, although it did result in a series victory against the top ranked team in the world, and there was the ‘revenge’ element, too. Lance Klusener was smashed all over Eden Gardens in the first innings of his debut Test as Mohammad Azharuddin collected a century from 74 balls, including five successive fours off Klusener, before he returned with 8-64 to win the match in the second innings. Charl Langeveldt took 5-46 at Newlands against England...
Stick with Steyn! Few sentiments are more galling and short-sighted than those from South African cricket ‘fans’ who propose an immediate cutting of ties between the national team and Dale Steyn following the heel injury which has ruled him out of the Test series against India. And it has nothing to do with sentiment. Even those who discount the dedication to his job and the team, which saw him fight an often lonely and painful 13-month battle to recover from the broken shoulder, are missing the point. He will miss the rest of the India series but he will be fit again by the time the four Test series starts against Australia in March and the Proteas have a far better chance of beating them on home soil for the first time since readmission with him in the starting XI. If he had bowled medium pace and looked like a...
Dale Steyn has spent 13 months getting back to full fitness after breaking his shoulder in the Perth Test against Australia in November 2016 and his journey has been packed with frustration. Not the least of which has been the scepticism of many South African supporters. “It has taken hundreds of hours of hard work and dedication, not just by me but the brilliant people who have overseen the rehab,†Steyn said. “In all that time, despite the bleakness it involves, I never once lost my passion and belief in returning to what I love – taking wickets,†Steyn said. Two days before the first Test against India and Newlands Steyn produced his most compelling training performance since his return, yet he knows it may not be enough to earn a recall to the Proteas starting XI. Opening batsman Dean Elgar survived –and edged - several fearsome deliveries from Steyn...
Day-Night, Four-day Test – Success! There will be many who point to the scorecard of the St.George’s Park Test against Zimbabwe and use it as evidence that the Test experiment – four day, day/night – was a disaster and should never be revisited. I suggest that those people will be attempting to use the ‘evidence’ to support a preconceived hypothesis based on a reluctance to change. Or, as it is more popularly called, “traditional values.†Zimbabwe lost 20 wickets in 72.4 overs because they aren’t very good and because they play so little Test cricket, not because they were facing a pink ball under lights. Conditions changed dramatically when the sun went down and the floodlights were turned on but conditions change in Test cricket just as much with nature as they do with man-made interventions. Hundreds of times in Test cricket’s 140-year life teams have batted under hot, cloudless...
Divided Zimbabwe pulling in same direction. Plenty of Zimbabwean teams have been thrashed in the last dozen years and there is a chance that this one will be, too, but one thing they won’t be – unlike many of their predecessors – is over-awed or intimidated. None of them has had any experience of floodlit, pink ball cricket and, certainly statistically, they are heavily outclassed, so there are plenty of reasons not to be surprised if the Boxing Day Test doesn’t reach it’s scheduled fourth and final day. But there are also reasons to believe the ‘Babweans will put up far more of a fight than many expect. One of those reasons is the presence of Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis in the squad. Not just because they are extremely decent cricketers, but because the deep divisions they have created are causing the team to unite. Allow me to explain....
Titans coach Mark Boucher has reacted angrily to suggestions that the Titans did not take their final group match in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge seriously enough when they fielded a weakened team and lost heavily to the Dolphins at Kingsmead on Sunday. The Titans were bowled out for just 79 to lose by 89 runs and concede the bonus point which allowed the Dolphins to claim a home semi final ahead of the Cobras who lost their final game to the Warriors at Buffalo Park. “There were so many valid reasons for what we did,†Boucher said. “We had two back-to-back away games with a travel day between them and only arrived back in Pretoria at 4:00pm on Monday. That gave us one day to prepare for the semi final. If we had taken our full strength squad we would not have been giving ourselves the best chance of...
South Africa’s four-day Boxing Day Test against Zimbabwe is likely to be scheduled for just over four and a third days rather than ‘four’ with extra overs almost certain to be built-in to revised playing conditions. It has yet to be confirmed but proposals indicate that CSA have suggested 98 overs per day over the course of the four days with the first two sessions planned for two hours and 15 minutes each with the final session lasting the usual two hours. That would mean a total of 392 overs instead of the normal 450 for a conventional five-day Test. If play starts at the suggested time of 1:30pm, that would mean a finish time of 9:00pm with the option of claiming an extra half hour in the event of rain or a slow over-rate to take the finish time to a maximum of 9:30pm. Such provisions would mirror the...