CricDigs Blogs

This may sound outrightly rude but the fact is that the South African team just cannot seem to get past the semi-final stage of any major ICC tournament. They seem to win nearly every kind of home series and have a very good record when playing overseas bilateral series also, but when it comes to major international tournaments, they just seem to get stuck on the verge of entering the finals. It has happened again with them losing to Pakistan in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2009.

It has to be said that this has been happening far too often for a team that is professional to the core and has world-class players. In fact, this is a sort of legacy that has been handed down to Graeme Smith from Hansie Cronje (may his soul rest in peace) and it could be best defined as some sort of a mental block. Or is it the supernatural forces that were last heard of creating crop circles in north America? Hmmm…..??

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Well, it may sound a bit discriminating but I am sure that some of the Asian bowlers, particularly those who have been often harassed by the securitisation of the ICC would be happy at this — Botha from South Africa has been reported for suspect action. In a way, it seems fair that finally we have a spin bowler who isn’t from the Indian subcontinent to be reported. The likes of Saqlain and Murali and even Harbhajan faced career-threatening hold-ups created by various technical committees that constituted mainly of certain English and Australian decision-makers.

What is remarkable though is that again a bowler has been reported only after he made some impact against the ‘more’ noticeable Aussies, assuming that it takes a bit longer for the whole world to realize what is happening to the sub-continental players. I think that is what Bucknor knew all along when he kept on raising his finger against the Indian batsmen when they played Australia, Down Under, last season.

Moving on, how the Botha question will be resolved would give a definite idea about how far the South African cricket board is ready to back its players. The BCCI has acted very staunchly in supporting its players and we can expect the same from the South Africans, now that their importance in the cricket world has been further raised with them inching closer to becoming the top-rated team and by hosting the IPL. I guess just the fact that South Africa have bailed out the BCCI by hosting IPL’s second instalment will ensure that no major harm comes its way and BCCI’s clout backing can be assured in this case at least.

From a personal perspective, Botha’s action seems as suspect as any of the spin bowlers who have played the game in the last decade. There are numerous off-spinners that tend to javelin the ball when bowling the faster-ones and reprimanding each of them is just not possible. I still don’t know how Shoaib Malik can still carry on bowling — I mean, you can practically see the guy stop at the time of delivering the ball and then arm it through, at least it does look to me.

Pat Symcox, a one time bowler for South Africa, once said that every off-spinner is guilty of arming balls every now and then. It is just a question of who gets noticed and who gets away. Maybe it is something about an off-spinner’s action. We seldom hear about leg spinners getting reported or does my memory fail me yet again?

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Recently, when the SA team won those incredible test matches against Australia, Down Under many experts highlighted the fact that it was their batting which had paved the way for these historic wins. Even as the Aussie tour of SA commenced, most people were of the belief that the inexperience of the Aussie bowling attack would again undermine their chances of winning the series and the SA batsmen were favoured to take advantage of it. However, the first two test matches are pretty much the contradiction of what was being expected — the Proteas just don’t appear to get a hang of the nagging Aussie bowlers. Mitchell Johnson has always been a bit of a tearaway but besides him most of the Aussie bowlers are doing a similar thing — they just keep bowling six to eight inches outside the off-stump, even if the ball isn’t swinging, keeping it short which is working on these bouncy pitches. The batsmen are denied chances of playing juicy strokes on the frontfoot and this appears to have worked for frustrating the Proteas.

In the ongoing second test match, it was strange to see a pretty slow medium-pacer like Andrew McDonald to have claimed three wickets. He isn’t a McGrath from any stretch of your imagination. Neither he is capable of swinging the ball. He just made sure that the ball was never pitched-up and in a mechanical way went about irritating the SA batsmen. They further obliged him by playing these strange ‘pushing-at-the-ball’ sort of strokes which if they hadn’t got out to would have yielded a single at the most. Now, things are getting more difficult for the host team to save this test match, having been bowled out for less than 150 and no one would be betting on them to score 400+ runs on the final day which they will be asked to do by the Aussies, in all probability.

The Australians really can’t be surprised at being dethroned from their customary numero uno position in one-day cricket. The reason is simple — this was very evident for the last five-six months as other teams were quickly beginning to size-up and catch-up with the Australian team. Although, I do say it, this view in itself is a big question mark.

Is it really the Aussies on the decline or the other teams really beginning to play good? I guess it has to be combination of both. The Oz haven’t been able to find good replacements for their players who retired recently and teams like SA and India have begun to exhibit some real spunk, especially the Indians. There is still no clear favourite among the three — SA, India and Australia, as all three of them can beat each other on any given day. What would matter in the end is the ability of these teams to sustain their dominance in the near future, something that the Aussies did very well for more than a decade.

Can the Indians really maintain a winning percentage of nearly 75% in a calendar year, again something that the Aussies have done? Is SA’s batting good enough to win consistently and actually bat out the opposition if on a given day their bowling fails to deliver?

Most of these questions would sort out themselves in the coming days. I guess the Lankans too could prove quite a handful but their team is bound to struggle if either Murali or Jayasuriya don’t deliver and they already have a captain who has been averaging less than 26 runs per match for nearly a season. This is where the Indians gain advantage — they are no longer dependent on a Tendulkar (though his very presence seems so assuring and his contribution is undoubted) or Dravid to win. The team is moving ahead like a cohesive unit and gaining momentum with every series win.

Albie Morkel is fast turning out to be South Africa’s new version of Lance Klusener. ‘Zulu’ as Klusener was famously called had a notorious reputation for blasting off the opposition in the dying stages of the game and winning matches for his team with his lethal batting. Now, Morkel is emerging as another great finisher for the Proteas and he did the same thing during the third of ODI series between Aus and SA.

Of course, it was Kallis who was the architect of the win again, as he held the middle order together at a time when SA was losing wickets by the bunch. His 60 was priceless and had it not been for his presence at the crease, SA with or without Morkel could not have even dared to challenge Australia’s 269. South Africa hasn’t been getting good starts in this series and the pattern continued with Amla again failing to make any impression. Kallis has been restored his much-favoured no. three position and it seems to work best for him. He had nearly won the game for SA in the second one-dayer too.

The Aussies did have a pretty good start to their batting with the new-sensation Warner slogging the bowling just like Gilchrist used to do. It might be too early to make comparisons but he hits the ball as savagely as Gilly. The SCG is Warner’s home ground and he enjoyed batting in front of his home crowd, giving the spectators ample opportunities to cheer with his hard-hitting drives and cuts. However, the Aussie middle-order failed to score against the South African spinners and instead of reaching a very-possible score of 300, they folded up short of even 270.

Besides Albie Morkel destroying Australia, it was again the use of power plays that continues to confuse Ponting. Tait did bowl pretty well during the middle-overs of the Proteas’ innings but no bowler could survive Morkel’s assault. What impresses most about his batting is that, just like Klusener, he is sent in when the team is on the brink of losing the match. It is then left to him to do whatever he can to try and win if from there. With so much pressure on still a pretty inexperienced cricketer, one would have imagined that the expectations would get to him but he has now delivered in two out of the three matches played so far.

The Aussies might have got some solace after wiping out South Africa in the two T20 games but when it came to a more ‘proper’ format of the game — ODI, they could not do much against the swinging blade of Morkel. Now, the second one-dayer at Hobart assumes greater significance for Australia because if they don’t manage to win this one, things could get real tight as they would have to win the remainder of the matches.

South Africans have shone in the past too that they don’t depend on just one or two good players to deliver the goods. As it has turned out, it isn’t Kallis or Gibbs who is scoring heavily for them but it the formerly-unknown Duminy who is proving to have that magical touch when it comes to scoring against the Aussies. There have been murmurs that Johan Botha didn’t deserve the captaincy as players like Boucher were there in the squad. The decision is a bit surprising but maybe the administrators in SA just don’t want a scenario of more than one capable captain within the team in order to preserve his complete authority. It seems that Botha realises, just like most of us, that he is a very much a stop-gap sort of a selection.

The Aussies are plagued by injuries which in combination with a string of retirements has made the team look much more vulnerable than it actually is. Just imagine if the actual squad members were fit. That would have meant that the Aussies would have all-rounders like Symonds and Watson playing along with James Hopes to provide plenty of bowling options for Ponting without compromising on the batting part. Both Haddin and David Hussey aren’t capable of scoring in the manner Gilchrist or Symonds did and their team needs some batting firepower.

Now, the latest development is the injury of Michael Clarke and he is bound to be replaced by David Warner who despite having very limited first-class cricket exposure has caught everybody’s attention with his T20 exploits. He can hit the ball gruesomely hard and the Aussies would be banking upon him to fire on early and give them a start just like those they were served by Gilchrist & Hayden.

South Africa just about managed to win the first of the one-day internationals against Australia. They looked almost defeated on more than once occasion but managed to pull it off in front of a full-capacity crowd at the MCG.

They managed to win by a three-wicket margin but the contest was much closer than that. Proteas’ victory was carved out by Morkel, who had been waiting to launch himself as an all-rounder in the side. He eventually hit a quick-fire 40 as the MCG crowd looked on in total disbelief. The Aussies bowling wasn’t that bad.

In fact, it was pretty good at least during the first 15 overs but eventually some consistent batting from the South African middle-order ensured that they were in with a chance as long as someone could strike the ball hard towards the end of the innings and this is exactly what Albie Morkel did.

One thing that worked in the favour of the Proteas was that they had the luxury of the final overs being a part of the powerplay. Morkel was supported by Botha as they scored 50+ runs to secure the match for their side. Australia had initially set up a pretty good score of 271. Shaun Marsh was very impressive as usual during the Aussie batting display but they missed the firepower to score heavily during the last five overs. Haddin and Cameron White did little to accelerate the scoring as the innings came to an end.

Proteas tried out a new opening combination with Smith no longer a part of this series and lost some early wickets. It was Duminy, who appears to have taken a liking to the Aussie bowling attack, who laid the foundation for the innings. However, the real surprise came in the form of McKenzie who was asked to bat in the middle order and he came out trumps by scoring a very precious half century. Finally, the game was secured with the blitz of Albie Morkel whose big-hitting reputation is now being backed with his performances.

The victory for Australia has done the game of Test a big advantage, though the Proteas might not agree to this as they rue letting go of a chance to be crowned Test cricket’s new world champions. This victory for Australia has meant that for the first time, in nearly a decade, a reciprocal test series would be played for the world championship of Test cricket. As it turns out, even if India wins against New Zealand when they tour Kiwiland, it will be the outcome of the Aussie tour of South Africa that will determine who is at the top of cricket hierarchy.

Ponting’s men were aware of the fact that losing this test match would have meant that they would have slipped to second ranking in test cricket. They have managed to avoid that and also the criticism of being white-washed by the Proteas. Now, both Australia and South Africa have sufficient time to plan ahead for the return series. Both the teams have unearthed some very decent talent that promises good returns in the short-term and when planning for the future as well.

Aussies would be happy that they have regained some tenacity in their bowling with a very capable Mitchell Johnson and Siddle firing all cylinders to back-up Lee’s efforts. In all probability, Lee too would have fully recovered for the Aussie tour. The Proteas now look like having found an answer to their middle-order batting dilemma in the form of Duminy and with DeVilliers improving with every game, they even have a substitute for Boucher and it gives them the option to add another batsman in the playing XI.

There isn’t much India can do about this. All they should be doing is making sure that they keep winning their matches and don’t lose focus as the media in the sub-continent is infamous for distracting their players with undue constant criticism and over-hyped reactions to things that ‘may’ and ‘would’ happen. Dhoni has a better team than Graeme Smith in terms of experience and the sheer quality of its batting heroes. For the time being, Sri Lanka have been stretched out of this race and it would interesting to see if they are the ones who end up upsetting the present contenders for taking the top honour in the game.