South Africa under Alrounder80

[Alrounder80]

For the second test England have finally seen sense and brought in Graeme Swann for Chris Tremlett.



England fought back very well in this second test. They dominated throughout and we were never really in with a shout. Trott played a typically gritty knock and handled Tahir, in particular, very well. Cook and Broad both contributed well.
South Africa's first innings saw 3 fifties along with a couple of 20s, none of which were converted (with the exception of Smith's 97). We only had ourselves to blame as the pitch certainly didn't have any demons. After England's second innings there was really no hope for a draw with one and a half days play left on a deteriorating pitch, let alone a win. Cook amassed a double century in unusually aggressive fashion and rightly picked up the man of the match award.


In other news, Guptill's not doing too badly against the Windies (GrahamB )

[Alrounder80]

The third and final test to be played with the series being 1-1.

South Africa XI:
G.Smith(c)
A.Petersen
H.Amla
J.Kallis
A.de Villiers(wk)
J. Rudolph
J.Duminy
V.Philander
M.Morkel
D.Steyn
M.de Lange

Dane Vilas wasn't as productive with the bat as I would have liked so he has been replaced with Duminy. Imran Tahir has also been dropped for M. de Lange.

England XI
A.Cook
A.Hales
K.Pietersen
I.Bell
J.Trott
M.Prior
S.Broad
C.Tremlett
J.Anderson
S.Finn

England decided, once again, to drop Swann and go with Tremlett.

The pitch looked very flat with a tinge of green on the surface. There didn't seem to be much turn in it hence no spinners playing in either XI.



After being reduced to 59-3, Kallis and Duminy played very well to get us up to 480. Duminy (batting at number 7) hoarded the strike wonderfully with the tail. 66 of the 68 runs from the tenth wicket partnership came from Duminy's bat. England top 4 all played well and after looking in trouble at 294-6 Broad and Bell shared a 158 stand to fall 3 behind South Africa's total.
In the second innings our top order was blown away by Finn and Broad. At 190-8 and really looking down the barrel, Duminy's heroic knock along with Dale Steyn's determined fifty left England with too much to get in the last 2 sessions.
Not picking Duminy from the start was a huge error on my part. Unfortunately he received a viscous bouncer from Finn which crept through the grill causing a fracture. He'll be out for 4 weeks.

So the test series is drawn 1 all.

Here are the series stats:





Steyn was the only bowler that impressed in the series. Petersen is on the verge of being dropped while Amla is already a proven player at test level so, despite his poor series, he's nowhere near being dropped.
For England, Hales looks like a bright prospect with 3 half centuries the last 3 innings.

Best Batsmen award: J.Duminy
Being the 3rd highest run scorer despite playing a solitary match says it all really

Best Bowler award: D.Steyn
Lived up to his reputation as the best fast bowler in the world.

Now for the one day stuff!

[anuragvivek93]

I also have SA career running for 4 years now.. Steyn. Morkel and Philander and genius with 20-23 bowl avg in both format. Botha was a good spinner but sad he reitred.. Tahir also seemed decent. Why worry for Boucher... I never played boucher use De Villiers instead.. it will save one spot and he's quite good also at WK.

Cheers

[Alrounder80]

I also have SA career running for 4 years now.. Steyn. Morkel and Philander and genius with 20-23 bowl avg in both format. Botha was a good spinner but sad he reitred.. Tahir also seemed decent. Why worry for Boucher... I never played boucher use De Villiers instead.. it will save one spot and he's quite good also at WK.

Cheers

Yeah, I used de Villiers in the last test but he conceded 32 byes in the 2 innings. But then again, he more than makes up for it with the bat.

[Alrounder80]

Here are the 15 man squads.





First match against Gloucestershire.

South Africa XI:
G.Smith
H.Amla
J.Kallis
A.de Villiers(c)
F.du Plessis
D.Miller
D.Vilas(wk)
J.Botha
M.Morkel
D.Steyn
L.Tsotsobe

Well, like the tour opener against Kent, this match didn't go as well as I would have liked. We batted well (although only Smith, de Villiers and Du Plessis scored runs). But it was, once again, the bowling that was of concern. Morkel went for 81 runs of his ten. Steyn didn't do much better.
Anyways, I hope the our performance against is England improved as it was in the tests.

[Alrounder80]

South Africa XI:
G.Smith
H.Amla
J.Kallis
A.de Villiers(c)
F.du Plessis
J.Rudolph
D.Vilas(wk)
J.Botha
M.Morkel
D.Steyn
L.Tsotsobe

I've decided to drop Dan Miller for Rudolph. He will bring some stability in the event of a collapse which I am actually expecting!

England XI
A.Cook
I.Bell
J.Trott
R.Bopara
E.Morgan
C.Kieswetter
T.Bresnan
S.Broad
C.Woakes
J.Clare
G.Swann

Good god, that is quite possibly the strongest batting line up I have ever seen. Graeme Swann at 11!? I've seen him open in county games.

I won the toss and decided to bowl first. Any total I put up would have been easily chased down by this batting line up so it was a pretty easy decision.



What a performance! Smithy does it again for the Proteas.
Trott was determined to try and bat through the innings while other batsmen played around him. Just when England had made a base to power through the last ten overs, Dale Steyn was there to rip through the defenses of the lower order (which is no mean feat when you look at the quality of the lower order).
Morne Morkel once again got hammered around the park for 61 of his 9 but the rest bowled well.
Amla and Smith played beautifully with a partnership of a 184 in just 30 overs. After the power plays England went on the defensive. But Amla and Smith weren't having it and Amla hooked a Broad bouncer over the ropes for six. Smith soon following by lofting a Tim Bresnan slower ball over the stands. Stuart Broad (the highest wicket taker in the test series) was slaughtered for 68 of his 10 and was left pretty glum faced.
Smith received the man of the match and here's what he had to say: "Our bowlers, especially Dale, did a great job keeping the total down to 244. My batting was made a lot easier with Hash batting so well. It's been a hard couple of years ever since I'd given up the captaincy, but the lads have helped me through it and backed me all the way."

Don't worry guys, the man of the match speech was just a one off thing. Just experimenting and mostly amusing myself!

[Imager36]

Haha, good to see our old ICC friend John Clare in England colours, even in ICC 2012

[Alrounder80]

Haha, good to see our old ICC friend John Clare in England colours, even in ICC 2012

Ahh I remember those days. He's become even worse now, been playing a bit of 2nd XI cricket this year.

[Alrounder80]

Time for the second ODI.

South Africa XI
G.Smith
H.Amla
J.Kallis
A.de Villiers(c)
F.du Plessis
J.Rudolph
D.Vilas(wk)
J.Botha
V.Philander
D.Steyn
L.Tsotsobe

Vernon comes in for Morne after his poor couple of OD performances. Otherwise the same XI for the first ODI.

A.Cook
I.Bell
J.Trott
R.Bopara
E.Morgan
C.Kieswetter
T.Bresnan
C.Woakes
S.Broad
G.Swann
J.Anderson

After leaking 52 runs of 6 overs, John Clare's been dropped for Jimmy Anderson



Another dominating performance from the Proteas. Smith and Amla built up a huge partnership of 275 beating the previous record held by Gary Kirsten and Herchelle Gibbs back in 2000. The first wicket fell in the 48th over. Amla pepper the offside area with numerous elegant cover drives. Smith on the other hand went played some superb on drives and clips of his legs.
England faced a daunting total of 304 and never really looked like getting it after losing two wickets in the first over by Tsotsobe. Cook continued his recent form from the tests and scored a well constructed century. Morgan (32) and Kieswetter (52) played well in the middle overs. However, Tsotsobe was the key to England's demise as he took a superb 7 wicket hall. Philander was as expensive as Morkel but took 2 wickets.
Another exquisite performance, we didn't do anything wrong. I couldn't ask for anymore.

[Alrounder80]

Both teams have gone with the same line up for the 3rd ODI



Our top four failed and it was left to du Plessis (40), Rudolph and some late order hitting from Botha to bring us up to a respectable total. Rudolph was particularly come and collective in his first outing in the one dayers. His cover driving was elegant as is the case with most left handers (except for Chanders).
Bell along with Cook, who's been a real nuisance with the bat, took the game away from us from the outset.
These next few one dayers and T20s will probably come thick and fast as I want to play the World T20 Cup.

[GrahamB]

An England win in the 4th ODI will have you worried.

[Alrounder80]

4th and 5th ODI will be done together here.

Here's the line up for the 4th ODI.

South Africa XI:
G.Smith
H.Amla
J.Kallis
A.de Villiers(c)
F.du Plessis
J.Rudolph
D.Vilas(wk)
J.Botha
R.Petersen
D.Steyn
L.Tsotsobe

Vernon has followed suit from Morkel and has also been dropped. Both have been to expensive for my liking. Robin Petersen gets his first game of the tour.

England XI:
A.Cook
I.Bell
J.Trott
R.Bopara
E.Morgan
C.Kieswetter
T.Bresnan
C.Woakes
S.Broad
G.Swann
J.Anderson

England keep swapping between Clare and Anderson! Anderson gets another go.



This game went RIGHT down to the wire. Trott and Morgan batted a large part of the middle overs. Morgan played flamboyantly as usual and struck a few sweet sixes against Botha, one was a sweep and another was struck down the ground. Steyn's searing pace at the death bought us some wickets but we were very loose in the field with a few misfields and drop catches.
Smith, Amla (41), Kallis (44) and de Villiers all batted well without carrying on. At one point we were 204 for just 2. A collapse ensued but du Plessis scored a measured 29 to keep us in the hunt. At the end of it all, we needed 6 of the last over with 2 wickets in hand. Broad bowled a yorker first up and all Robin Petersen could do was dig it out. The next ball was the same type of delivery but this time it was squeezed past point for a single. The next 3 balls Dale swung as hard as he could. He missed all of them. He was batting like a typical fast bowler (mindlessly slogging). Believe it or not though, Broad incredibly went for the bouncer the last ball, despite the blockhole stuff working, and Dale swung his bat and a top edge flew over third man for a six. Fittingly, Steyn got the man of the match, more so because of his five wicket hall but I'd have given to him just for that six.
I WON THE SERIES! Even though I'm managing a strong unit, this series win really pleased me.


In the dead rubber, I replaced Vilas with Miller and gave the gloves to de Villiers. This was just to see if I could use him as a future keeper in one dayers by seeing how many byes he gives away and if he drops any catches.



We lost but who cares? Okay, I do care but who cares if I do? The gist of this match was that Smith took 104 balls to get to 64. We never really took of after the slow start and manages only 228.
England got them with 5 overs to spare. Cook was the main man again.

Now let's put the new feature of ICC2012 into play.Here are the stats for this series.





Good to see the top 2 run scorers and wicket takers all being South Africa.

Best batsmen award: G.Smith
Batted brilliantly throughout with a hundred plus average.

Best bowler award: L.Tsotsobe
Most important reason is obviously being the top wicket taker, but his economy rate of only 4.17 was the lowest amongst all the seamers and was also a feat in itself.

An England win in the 4th ODI will have you worried.

It truly would have and am glad I won, especially since I ended up losing the fifth ODI!

3 T20s left until the end of a long series in England.

[GrahamB]

It truly would have and am glad I won, especially since I ended up losing the fifth ODI!

3 T20s left until the end of a long series in England.

Looked like there were a few nail biters though!

[Alrounder80]

A few changes for me in the T20s.



I've decided to bring in Richard Levi, Justing Ontong, Albie Morkel and Juan Theron. They will replace Jacques Rudolph, Colin Ingram, Vernon Philander and Robin Petersen. I recon I'll be using Theron and Levi in future one dayers but Morkel and Ontong will mist likely stay as T20 specialists.



England have gone with the same squad. I'm sure they have good reasons to keep Clare, who has conceded 116 runs of 16 overs with just one wicket, still in the side

South Africa XI:
G.Smith
R.Levi
H.Amla
J.Kallis
A.de Villiers(c&wk)
F.du Plessis
A.Morkel
J.Botha
J.Theron
D.Steyn
L.Tsotsobe

Three out of the 4 new guys come into the side (Levi, A. Morkel and Theron).

England XI:
A.Cook
I.Bell
J.Trott
R.Bopara
E.Morgan
C.Kieswetter
T.Bresnan
C.Woakes
S.Broad
G.Swann
J.Anderson

Surprising to see Cook and Trott in the side being generally defensive batsmen. Cook did show his ability to score fast in the one dayers though.



We've notched up yet another win.
Now do you see why I was questioning Cook's selection? He nicked of to Steyn's warm up delivery first up. Smith gobbled it up with ease. Two balls later Steyn delivered an absolute beauty. Pitched up and swung away and totally squared up Trott as he edged to du Plessis at second slip. Bopara (28) still tried playing aggressively as wickets fell around him but ended up running himself out. I was particularly impressed with Juan Theron the newcomer in the side.
After Smith clipped one straight into midwickets hands, Levi and Amla took regular singles with the odd boundary in their stand of 49. Amla's 48* was really the key. The team as a whole batted a bit too defensively for my liking though. Chasing down 102 with 7 balls to spare was pushing it a bit but a wins a win.
Glad to see all the new boys did well, Morkel with 4 overs 17 runs and a wicket (and 8*!), Levi with a solid 38 and Theron picking up a 3-for. Good signs for the World T20 Cup coming up.

[GrahamB]

What bowling tactics did you use for the T20?