England play a spoilsport

Any random blog can now tel you where the English team now stands in the ongoing ICC world cup after losing to first Ireland and then yesterday to Bangladesh. I just had a bet that the West Indies might just flatter against Bangladesh for they were facing Bangladesh on their home soil and then the team is an outdated one after Brian Lara retired 4 years earlier. No one needs to feel sorry for England not being able to make it to the quarter finals in case they fail to do so. One can realize the fate of the team in earlier matches as well.

If one can take pains to go through the 2007 world cup, England's major win was only against the West Indies where they chased down 302 in the super eights. England failed in the games against Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa. A win against Bangladesh and Ireland cannot be given such a preference which I suppose you will agree to. Of course, even West Indies' major triumph was against Pakistan in the league stages which was followed by a series of losses against Sri Lanka, Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa. Now, England has a game only against West Indies to prove their myth.

I just cannot believe that England has secured a win against South Africa and a tie against India after seeing their performances against Ireland and Bangladesh. If Ireland comes in for all praises for coming back from being 111/5 at one stage to chasing down successfully 326, other finger points to the reckless bowling of the English bowlers who couldn't make the match theirs. If one could go through the match against Holland, England narrowly missed a defeat first after allowing them to pile up close to 300 runs and then failing initially during the chase. Did South Africa and India fare badly or did England play better cricket?

This has never been the case in the past where a team fares well against strong oppositions and goes for selfdestruction in the games against weaker teams. It would not come as a surprise if England fail to reach the quarter finals in case they lose to the West Indies because, West Indies is a weaker opposition like say Bangladesh and Ireland. A match against will always be considered a tie and not a win for England. Bangladesh now has three wins against England, Netherlands and Ireland which makes them eligible to qualify for the quarter finals. England on the other hand have only two wins and at a lesser run rate.

Bangladesh comfortable against India

In the past one month or so, there have been three test series' namely the ones between South Africa & England, Australia & Pakistan and India & Bangladesh offlate. As expected, the winners were South Africa(morally), Australia and India respectively. Coincidentally, the three winners mentioned belong to the top three positions in ICC's test cricket ratings. However, the performance of the three winning teams do the opposite of what the ratings has to say. The top rated India have a last gasp victory against Bangladesh, the Proteas who are rated at the second position were better than India, first for coming close to winning matches on 2 occasions and winning the fourth test rather convincingly.

And Australia, who are placed at number 3 finished off their test series victory in style by (needless to be said) a 3-0 margin against Pakistan, with the second test victory being the highlight of them all. South Africa and Australia were hosting their opponents and India to be different was hosted by Bangladesh, which need not be highlighted specially. The 3^rd test between Australia & Pakistan and the 4^th test between South Africa & England ended in just 4 days while the one between India & Bangladesh went until the fifth and last day. All expectations turning upside down.

All would have kept their finger crossed regarding the series' between South Africa & England and Australia & Pakistan regarding the days the respective teams would emerge victorious. But, regarding India & Bangladesh, expectations regarding India drawing off a win well before 5^th day, which went on till the end of the 4^th day (which still was less than 5 days though). South Africa beat England by an innings and so would have Australia had Ponting imposed a follow-on. But, that was not-to-be regarding India. India should have beaten Bangladesh by an innings. Luckily, atleast India went on to win by 10- wickets.

India needed the efforts of the age old Sachin and Dravid to post a big total against a team which should have seen Dhoni resting the seniors and playing some younger talent. On the bowling part, a 10 year experienced Zaheer khan had to bail out India in the second innings, which should have been done by some Murali Vijay. Top scorer of the match turned out to be Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal who scored 151 compared to Sachin's 143. Dhoni was forced to hand the ball to Sehwag & Yuvraj who were less an option in tests. One has to wonder as to what would have been the situation had India faced some stronger teams like Pakistan or England? And what if Dravid, Sachin & Zaheer not been in place?

One side of the coin also suggests that India might have taken the Bangladeshis lightly for which they had to compromise with a 10 wicket victory, which would have otherwise been an innings win. Also, Laxman and Sreesanth had to make a return trip sooner than their team mates that disturbed the combination. But, since the start of the tri series, one thing that is to be noticed is that Bangladesh have been comfortable facing India than any other team (Sri Lanka in this case).

England Deceived!!!

The way England played their first innings of the fourth test match against South Africa at Johannesburg was as though the English players had taken a draw to be granted like it happened in the earlier tests against the Proteas. One has to just imagine as to how foolish one can get when they are found expecting a fortune to happen, when it is a known fact that fortune has to come by its own in case of lack of hard work and fortune is hunted down by hard working people. How could the English players expect South Africa to take just 9 wickets just because it happened on two earlier occasions?

If one can take trouble to go through the scorecard of England's batting, it would be clear that England had no plans to even sweat it out at the stadium. It is not a big task to bowl out some team like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and even the West Indies (to a greater extent) on day one itself. But, if someone like England have lost all their 10 wickets on a single day and that too on two successive occasions, their test status needs to be questioned whatsoever. On the first day's play, England were all out for 180, that was followed with South Africa putting 29 runs for no loss of wickets.

Then on the fourth day, even before half of the scheduled time had elapsed, England lost 7 wickets, earlier to which England had lost 3 wickets at the end of the third day's play itself. With England winning the fourth test at Johannesburg or even a draw completely being out of question, at least, England could have avoided an innings defeat by scoring atleast 254 runs required for South Africa to bat again. But, England ended up their second innings putting up a score less than what they could in their first innings when they lost all their 10 wickets for 169.

The third and the first tests that ended in draws was not only a caution for the South African players but also for the English players. Finally, England who took the caution for granted had to pay the price for their half minded approach. Whatever be the result of the Johannesburg test, there was no chance of England losing the series and may be that England were more the less contended with that. Who cares when a loss can only see the trophy being shared! If South Africa had Kallis, Smith and Steyn, England had Peitersen and Broad an co..who could have given it back to the Proteas which didn't.

Finally, though no one expected England to win, or though there can be at the most one winner, both the teams are expected to put up a tough fight which can make the spectators keep their fingers crossed. But, England relied on things which were beyond their control and may be that home sick England just wanted to leave South Africa ASAP.

South African Win At Jo'burg confirmed!

Well if the first three tests between South Africa and England are taken into consideration, it would be wrong to tell or precisely speaking predict the result of the fourth test at Johannesburg no matter what the bats and balls have had to say on the first two days of play. Not for the first time are the South Africans holding an upper hand in the ongoing test series which is needless to be said. Anyone who says that South Africa will win the series will have to kick himself at the end of the day for this is something that the Proteas are facing since the start of the test tournament.

But, after the end of the third day's play, one has to give South Africa their due in the series whatsoever. If people are still keeping their fingers crossed, they would be left with no other option but to stop the prediction game and just press the red button on their TV remote control. However, the ghosts were seen haunting the Proteas by threatening to play a spoilsport yet again when bad light had its say for almost 20 minutes, following which things returned to normalcy. However, there was nothing to panic for the Proteas for, there were still two more days to go after this.

At the end of the day's play, South Africa had declared with 423 runs on the board with the loss of 7 wickets, 5 more than what they had lost on the second day's play which is not the million dollar question at the moment. However, the moment the South African captain Greame Smith declared at the aforementioned score, doubts would have begun to raise in Smith's favor for, declaring with a lead of just above 200 runs can make a fool out of oneself no matter whose decision it was to declare. Or was Smith undoing the mistake that he did in the first and the third tests where he declared with a mammoth total?

Smith imposed a target of 364 runs and 466 runs in the first and third tests respectively, which the English batsmen gave up to chase and just concentrated on how to save the test by seeing to that it ends up in a draw which they successfully did. Now, it looks like a comparatively better decision by Smith when, there is still 2 more days to go and added to that is that a session on the day's play is yet to finish. And that session did pay for, South Africa did manage to grab three quick English wickets to find England reeling at 48-3 with 3 of their top batsmen back in the pavilion. Incase things don't go as anticipated, there would be yet another innings for South Africa to bat and set things right.

Until yesterday, there was no fear of South Africa losing. But, after the third day's play well in front, a South African win can never be ruled out unless there is heavy rain until the end of the scheduled fifth day.

South Africa's Step 2 on day 2 at Johannesburg

With two days of the fourth test match between South Africa and England well in front of us, it look like the Proteas do not want to take their eyes off from the Wanderers whatsoever. The past devil that haunted the South Africans in the first three tests at Centurion, Durban and Cape Town respectively is found to free them this time atleast at Jo'burg. South Africa did well to bag all ten English wickets wee before the first day's play got underneath. On the first day itself, a 29 run first wicket stand between Greame Smith and Ashwell Prince provided a rock steady defence for the Proteas.

And the second day should have seen the Proteas piling up atleast close to 300 runs on the board if not for the four odd hours which were lost due to rain initially and the bad light that followed. How can one take their eyes off from the television sets when there was Greame Smith playing test cricket in the way it should be! It took the Proteas just over half a day and 2 wickets to surpass the 180 runs that England had piled up on the first day with all 11 English batsmen combined and not to forget the extras that were bowled.

Added to that was Hashim Amla's unbeaten 73. On the other hand, South Africa took just 64 overs to score the 215 runs which was 35 runs more than what England could in their first innings. South African team can be considered to be a step closer towards victory with England after ending their first innings in less than a day's time, leaving the South African batsmen enough time to bat their first innings with a mammoth total. Perhaps! Had there been no interruption due to rain on day 2, one would have seen the Proteas piling up close to 300 runs.

From here onwards, if the South African batsmen can continue the good work they were found doing the first two days of play, the result need not be specially said. However, the picture was no different in the first test and the third, both of which South Africa missed winning by just a whisker. But, if the first 2 days of play are taken into consideration, South Africa are found to have done a neat planning ofhow the five days of the test is supposed to go on. Unlike what they did in the league stages of the world cup 2003 in matches against West Indies and Sri Lanka.

South Africa Have Started the Hide 'n' Seek Game

This is something that the world has been seeing since the beginning of the 4 match test series between South Africa and England. And gone are the people who would have bet on South Africa no matter what the scorecard has to say. Despite the South Africans being able to dislodge the bails for 10 times on the first day of their fourth test against England, their past performance can never ever speak for them. C'mon, when Pakistan couldn't draw a win or even a draw from the Aussies in the second test at Sydney, how can one imagine the Proteas to snatch one from England when England have deceived Australia in Ashes 2009!

Anyway, Ashes is a different issue altogether. It is really difficult to guess as to where on earth did the South Africans go wrong in the third test against England that they had to settle with a draw when a win was thought to be always on the cards for the Proteas. Initial appreciation most of the times for the South African team has turned to be a nightmare. And, even a win in this test may not guarantee the South Africans the satisfaction that they would have relished from their heart. But, a win in this would mean a lot if not complete.

Coming to the first day of the ongoing Johannesburg, it was not sure whether the English batsmen were trying to finish off a one day match that was heading its climax in the first innings or were the English batsmen facing a free hit that is bowled after a no ball in a Limited Overs International match where the chances of batsman getting is highly freak or have the English batsmen decided to gift the South Africans the due in their last match which England should have lost actually? Was this the reason behind the England captain winning the toss and electing to bat first!

Usually, in test cricket, the pitch is found to deteriorate as days pass by, making life difficult for the batsmen. But, in the recent in both the ongoing tournaments namely Pakistan vs Australia and South Africa vs England, runs are found to be coming in the latter parts of the test match than in the initial stages. After being 39-4 at one stage, English batsmen were thought to have made a comeback after the highest partnership of 76 runs between Collingwood and Ian Bell fir the fifth wicket. But, a score of 180 all out on day 1 raises slight doubts over England's dominance over Ashes. Oh! yes, England was hosting the Ashes in 2009 isn't it?

The Curse continues for the Proteas even in tests

Well until now, the South African team used to make fools of themselves only in the one day and the T20 formats of the game. But, in yesterday's third test match against England at Cape Town, it was as though that the Proteas were desperate to extend that to test cricket as well. For, South Africa did each and everything to snatch a test victory from England, first by taking a small margin lead of 18 runs in the first innings and later on put up a mammoth total of 447 before declaring by setting a target of 466 runs for England to chase. But at the end of the test match, it was England who came out smiling.

A chase of 466 is never easy for any team and England is no exception whatsoever. But, one has to indeed congratulate England for attempting to chase that mammoth total by putting up a 101 run 1st wicket partnership between Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook. But, it should have been South Africa and only South Africa from there onwards. But that didn't happen. The last thing that any team would want had to be embraced by the Proteas. On the other side of cricket, Pakistan made a mess of their run chase by failing to chase a modest total of 176 imposed by Aussies and here, South Africans made a mess of their bowling to get rid of the English batsmen.

And this is the second time in the ongoing series that South Africa have let away an opportunity to win a test match. The first instance was in the first test at Centurion where South Africa still fell short of 1 wicket to claim a victory with England took to chase a decent 364 runs with a failed attempt. I wonder as to how come any team could be so stupid and that too repeating the same mistake in a span of one test match? And the match which the South Africa lost was lost by a mile when they were over thrown by an innings and 98 runs at Durban.

The only point to cherish for the South Africans this time was that the man of the match was awarded to the South African captain Greame Smith no matter for what reasons, unlike in the first test where the man of the match was handed to Greame Swann for his 5 wicket haul and 85 runs in the first innings. The only chance left for the Proteas is to win the fourth test scheduled at Johannesburg where in case South Africa manage to grab a win the series would be leveled 1-1. But, if superstitions are given a close look at, the Proteas have lost the 2^nd test and the 1^st & the 3^rd ended in draws with South Africa needing 1 wicket to win.

So, it would not be a surprise if England in the 4^th test to take a 2-0 lead to take home the series.