Well if one could go through yesterday's post where I had written about the high possibility of the West Indies' batting collapsing owing to depth in the South African bowling that involves Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, that was what exactly happened when the entire West Indian batting was shattered by the same two for a score just above hundred. One has to notice the coincidence when the South African batsmen fell for the West Indies for a score of just two runs above 350 and the very next day the West Indies team fell for the Proteas' bowling for just two runs more than 100.
Anyways, such coincidences appear in large in the game of cricket and this is nothing special whatsoever. However, coming back to the third day's lay between West Indies and South Africa, it is fascinating to see the home team crashing towards the touring country and that too by a margin of more than 200 runs. The margin happened to be a mammoth 240 runs with the West Indies being able to put up just 102 runs on the board despite having the like of Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderapaul and Dwayne Bravo. The Proteas would have enforced a follow on had there been a little bit of courage from the South African captain.
May be the fact that they were the touring nation made the South African captain - Graeme Smith to decide against enforcing follow on the West Indies. The entire West Indies innings saw just three batsmen crossing double digit mark with Chandrapaul, Deonarine and Ramdin scoring 26, 29 and 25 respectively. The trio contributed a total of 80 runs out of the 102 put up on the board by the entire team. Including the extras bowled by the South African bowlers, the contribution from the rest of the West Indian batsmen come up to be 88. Meaning the trio put up 80% of the total score.
This should have been anticipated before hand itself when a bowler - less West Indian squad could contain the entire South African squad in a single day when they saw the Proteas end their first innings scoring just 352 on board. Then, one can imagine the case when a full fledged South African team with bowlers of the ranks of Dale Steyn and Morkel would bowl and that too on a pitch that would have got a bit slower compared to what it was a day ago. Not only did the West Inidies innings end at 102 but, they could not play for more than 47 overs meaning, the innings lasted just 2 sessions. Anyways, that was far more than expected.
Showing posts with label Morne Morkel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morne Morkel. Show all posts
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Enough....but not enough!
Well for all those cricket freaks who are into the ongoing first match of the test series between South Africa and the West Indies, here it is. Cricinfo is a better site to tell you what exactly happened on the 2nd day of the test at Antigua but, my views about the test and the day as well differ slightly. However, the view does not dispute the fact that the two Bs who were there to entertain the crowd who come to watch their favourite game cricket without favoring wither of the teams namely South Africa and West Indies out there.
However, the second day though belonging to the Proteas, some share was taken by the home team as well not only for Sulieman Benn who captured four more wickets after the first day's effort which saw him take the wicket of Hashim Amla and with that the tally of his wickets in the innings reached the magical figure of 5. Despite all odds, Sulieman Benn showed the cricketing world that he can do better things than on field spats with both his teammates and opponents as well. No one expects the West Indies to win the game and that too against South Africa.
But, as a home team, fans can nonetheless support their country though not deserving and the only satisfaction they take home would be that they put up a better performance compared to their previous one. And this time as well, the West Indies were found doing just that when they not only bowled out South Africa for a score just below 350 but also got them back in the pavilion on the second day itself. Speaking precisely, the game didn't last for two days, with only 34 overs being able to be bowled on the first day. Anyways, that is a different issue of what happened on day 1.
If the West Indies continue their good work from here onwards, one can expect a miracle to happen. This would shake all betting freaks who would have bet all their money on the Proteas taking the West Indies for granted which they deserve. It is indeed a more than decent performance from the West Indies' side when they bowled the South Africans for a score just above 350 as mentioned above. However, the Proteas still have the match well in their hands for, the bowling from the South African part is way ahead compared to that from the West Indians.
They have bowlers of the ranks of Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and others for whom the West Indies have no answer, both as a batting unit or as a bowling one. Though there are bowlers like Benn and Bravo, they can lest be treated on par with some Hussain from Bangladesh team and not with even a part time bowler from South Africa like say Graeme Smith or Jacques Kallis. So, keeping these things in mind, one can conclude that the West Indies' performance as a bowling unit is enough to reduce the margin of defeat but not win a test match.
However, the second day though belonging to the Proteas, some share was taken by the home team as well not only for Sulieman Benn who captured four more wickets after the first day's effort which saw him take the wicket of Hashim Amla and with that the tally of his wickets in the innings reached the magical figure of 5. Despite all odds, Sulieman Benn showed the cricketing world that he can do better things than on field spats with both his teammates and opponents as well. No one expects the West Indies to win the game and that too against South Africa.
But, as a home team, fans can nonetheless support their country though not deserving and the only satisfaction they take home would be that they put up a better performance compared to their previous one. And this time as well, the West Indies were found doing just that when they not only bowled out South Africa for a score just below 350 but also got them back in the pavilion on the second day itself. Speaking precisely, the game didn't last for two days, with only 34 overs being able to be bowled on the first day. Anyways, that is a different issue of what happened on day 1.
If the West Indies continue their good work from here onwards, one can expect a miracle to happen. This would shake all betting freaks who would have bet all their money on the Proteas taking the West Indies for granted which they deserve. It is indeed a more than decent performance from the West Indies' side when they bowled the South Africans for a score just above 350 as mentioned above. However, the Proteas still have the match well in their hands for, the bowling from the South African part is way ahead compared to that from the West Indians.
They have bowlers of the ranks of Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and others for whom the West Indies have no answer, both as a batting unit or as a bowling one. Though there are bowlers like Benn and Bravo, they can lest be treated on par with some Hussain from Bangladesh team and not with even a part time bowler from South Africa like say Graeme Smith or Jacques Kallis. So, keeping these things in mind, one can conclude that the West Indies' performance as a bowling unit is enough to reduce the margin of defeat but not win a test match.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Smith's decision justified 100%
Yesterday, I had written about the second day's play between India and South Africa and also raised questions regarding Smith's decision to declare the innings. And, in the 3rd day's play, Smith has replied to my query in such a way as though he himself had read the post. Smith's decision to declare the innings worked out exactly the way he might have expected to be. India lost 12 wickets on a single day's play, in contrast to South Africa who lost just 4 wickets on day 2 and 2 wickets on day 1. The total of 556 put up by South Africa proved to be too much for India.
Now, another decision has been taken by Smith after he imposed a follow-on on the Indian batsmen after his team took a lead of 325 runs. Added to that, India have lost their openers and one of the noted batsmen in India viz Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir both of whom went for a partly score. Very rarely does a batsman get to play twice on the same day and to get out twice on the same day has to be something great for any batsmen. The only difference in this case is that, it would be for the wrong reasons. Sehwag and Gambhir were the two lucky ones here who got out twice on day 3.
Moreover, Gautam Gambhir got out for the ball of Morne Morkel for the 2nd time on the same day. Before the start of the series, there were worries for team India regarding playing Murali Vijay, Saha and Badrinath. But, if the 3rd day's play is taken into consideration, it was Subramanium Badrinath who scored 56 runs which stood 2nd in the innings after Virender Sehwag scored a hundred. Added to that was the 136 run partnership with Sehwag which formed almost 87% of the Indian score in the 1st innings. The two along with the extras scored 194 of the 233 runs that was the score towards the end of the innings.
Coincidently, they were the two of the three batsmen from the Indian side who could reach double figure mark though there were 29 extras in the innings. After being at 192/3 at one stage, the remaining 7 wickets fell for a score of just 41 runs. The only thing for the Indian team to feel satisfied at the end of the day is that they maintained a run rate of 3.6 which was slightly more than the run rate of 3.17 maintained by the Proteas in their first innings and that the Indian bowlers bowled just 25 extras compared to the 29 by the South African bowlers. If the proceedings of the match on the 3rd day is considered, it would not be a surprise if the match gets over on the 4th day itself.
Now, another decision has been taken by Smith after he imposed a follow-on on the Indian batsmen after his team took a lead of 325 runs. Added to that, India have lost their openers and one of the noted batsmen in India viz Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir both of whom went for a partly score. Very rarely does a batsman get to play twice on the same day and to get out twice on the same day has to be something great for any batsmen. The only difference in this case is that, it would be for the wrong reasons. Sehwag and Gambhir were the two lucky ones here who got out twice on day 3.
Moreover, Gautam Gambhir got out for the ball of Morne Morkel for the 2nd time on the same day. Before the start of the series, there were worries for team India regarding playing Murali Vijay, Saha and Badrinath. But, if the 3rd day's play is taken into consideration, it was Subramanium Badrinath who scored 56 runs which stood 2nd in the innings after Virender Sehwag scored a hundred. Added to that was the 136 run partnership with Sehwag which formed almost 87% of the Indian score in the 1st innings. The two along with the extras scored 194 of the 233 runs that was the score towards the end of the innings.
Coincidently, they were the two of the three batsmen from the Indian side who could reach double figure mark though there were 29 extras in the innings. After being at 192/3 at one stage, the remaining 7 wickets fell for a score of just 41 runs. The only thing for the Indian team to feel satisfied at the end of the day is that they maintained a run rate of 3.6 which was slightly more than the run rate of 3.17 maintained by the Proteas in their first innings and that the Indian bowlers bowled just 25 extras compared to the 29 by the South African bowlers. If the proceedings of the match on the 3rd day is considered, it would not be a surprise if the match gets over on the 4th day itself.
Monday, January 18, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, January 15, 2010
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?
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?
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