CricDigs Blogs

This was coming for some time now. Aussies have been reeling under a really bad patch that has seen some of their best players retire, too many injured at the same or some just unfit to do international duty (i.e. Andrew Symonds). Their team has been forced to include players that weren’t even considered for their A team last season.

Ponting has found it hard to motivate his resources and may be he will now understand that all those record-breaking and glorious victories that seemed to come so naturally to Australia was the courtesy of some world-class performers that were a part of the squad at that time and his captaincy had nothing to do with it. If he really is that great a leader of men, how come he is repeatedly setting one-dimensional fields or failing to ring in the more suitable bowling changes? I guess, when you are under the hammer, an individual’s common sense is the first thing that makes a hasty exit.

Proteas have won the ongoing one-day series 3-1 and had it not been for some casual shots by Kallis and the hero of yesterday’s victory — ABe DeVilliers, SA would have won the second one-dayer too. They have constantly chased down targets set by Australia in this series and this leaves a serious question mark over the back-up bowling resources of the Baggy Greens.

Not too distant in the recent past it was Ponting who had commented that a team can’t use the ‘excuse’ of having too many injured players as a reason for losing a match — so this time why did he mention the names of the missing bowlers in the post-match conference?

SA on the other hand have benefited tremendously from this series win. In the absence of Smith, Botha has led the team superbly and comes across as a pretty useful off-spinner too. DeVilliers’ stock has gone through the roof as he lends more stability to the previously-fragile SA middle-order. Kallis appears to have found his old bowling rhythm and is happy to shoulder responsibility batting at his customary number three position.