South Africa Perform well at Newlands ODI (Trying to level the series)

It has been a great batting performance from South African batsmen. Graeme Smith has set the tone trying to dominate the England bowling in the first ten over’s. Amla and Smith batted well in a first two powerplays putting the English bowling under immense pressure. This has forced the English captain to hold off the third powerplay which have played into the hands of the South African team. This meant that the batsmen could rotate the strike and play themselves in and they could then attack when the powerplay had to be taken. Smith eventually fell to a ball playing the ball on to his stumps. Amla have also played a big part in South Africa reaching the score, which set the stage for AB de Villiers to play a blinder of an innings. He played with freedom and attacked the bowling also running between the wickets wit Amla and later with Pietersen. The only negative from the South African team was the batting of JP Duminy going out to a pull shot scoring 6 from 15 balls faced

South Africa VS England 2009 ODI Newlands

South Africa has won the toss at Newlands and elected to bat in their cricket match agianst England. Newlands which has been known for pear shape match results where the team batting first has a huge advantage over the team batting second. The reasons for these phenomena can be attributed to the lack of movement from the ball during the day comparing it to the night. It has been known that the ball is doing something from the deck and through the air. England will be doing well getting close to the huge total that South-Africa has managed to score. The score for the South African innings was 354 for the loss of 6 wickets. Special mention needs to be made in the way AB de Villiers has batted like a rock dispatching the ball all over the park 121. He was well supported by his fellow batsmen. England that has got match winners in their team but it is going to be tough.

Proteas vs England ODI Centurion 22 November 2009

So it is Cricket at last since the rain has set in over Gauteng over the past week. It is the first time that the weather is looking good and that we are sure there is going to be some good cricket played. England has won the toss and elected to bowl due to some moisture around. I think that this is the prudent decision that might prove to be the correct one for them. I think Smith would have done the same if he won the toss. The only good thing positive for the Proteas is that it is not overcast , but you can be assured that there is going to be some lateral movement.
Then there is the omission of Jacques Kallis which has been removed from the line-up due to a suspected cracked rib. This will also put him in doubt for the rest of the one day internationals and even for the first test against England.
Anderson will be opening the bowling and the Proteas will have to be at their best if they stand a chance of getting off to a good start.

Smith and Bosman dominate T20 at Centurion

I am happy to report that the batsmen have done the job in the 20/20 match last Sunday. Gleam Smith and Loots Bosman were superb in the way they went about in there dismantling of the English bowling attack. It has been calculated low risk cricket that have placed the pressure squarely on the English bowlers. The opening partnership was the biggest in the 20/20 form mostly because both batsmen like to dominate the bowling and that they were on a role.
Bosman nearly became the second batsmen in international T20 match to reach the elusive three figure total. He ended up with 96 runs unfortunately hauling out to a shortish delivered ball. He tried to hit the ball for a boundary not backing down putting the team upfront. Smith also played absolutely excellent and it is evident that his elbow is much better than last season in the way he is stroking the ball with immense power. It has also been evident in his shot selection that he is not only limited to certain regions he is playing his shots. This will make things much more difficult for the English especially in the upcoming test series.

Proteas vs England 20/20 Centurion

So there is again some weather around in the Johannesburg, Pretoria area. The Duckworth / Lewis method of determining the eventual winner might be again come into play. South Africa has probably been the team most affected in this manner, but it is probably because they only have one game plan, and that is to chase a target rather than to set one. It has cost them two advances in world cup matches one against England in Australia and one against West Indies in South Africa. I sure don’t hope that DL will be used today to determine the winner of today’s match. The previous game has shown signs of being a cliff-hanger up to the point that the rain has intervened. If this first encounter has anything to go by the tour will be something else and the intricate matchups something to behold and to enjoy.

South Africa VS England 20/20 match

I went to the South African vs England 20/20 match tonight. I think Standard bank was greedy selling the tickets for much more than they should have. I think they could have had about an extra 10 000 people at the Wanderers tonight if the pricing was done more prudently and even if there was a drop of R30 to R50 on the cover price they would have made more money in the stadium. I have spent more than that amount at the stadium. I don’t know how these corporate companies work out the price, but the one stand had 3 dancers only dancing for 10 to 20 people in the one corner. That was really lame that the stadium was not packed like during the 20/20 matches that were hosted by the Indian organizers a few months ago. They worked with a much better plan trying to fill the stadium to capacity and gaining more revenue on the Advertising and the selling of memorabilia to fans.
I think Standard bank should revisit their prices and that they might make more friends in the future. People don’t like being ripped off especially if they don’t get the moneys worth from what they are getting. I think the chance of games being rained out id quite good, luckily there was some play tonight, and it the chances of being a cliff-hanger was good. With the rain coming early and putting an end to proceedings I have felt a bit short changed. You are welcome to give your views on this.

Looking back at the week’s Semi-final match between the Sharks and the Cheetahs.

Looking back at the week’s Semi-final match between the Sharks and the Cheetahs it has been clear that the Sharks have been maybe overconfident in their match approach. The Cheetahs has always been a team that finishes strongly in the last 20 minutes of the game and has proved to be the case in the match. The non performance of some of the staunch Springbok players in the Sharks outfit is also a course for concern in the year end tour to England. The front rows for the Sharks have been totally dominated in the scrums by their Cheetah counterparts. I personally think that Os du Rant has done wonders to the cohesion in the front row for the cheetahs and they will still improve into the future. Maybe they can become a force to be contended with in the future and maybe also in the super14 competition. It will be interesting for me to see how the Bulls front row is going to stand up to front row of the Cheetahs in the final. I personally think that the Freestate has got the best front row in the Curry Cup competition.

Australia vs England in ICC champions trophy match (Prediction update)

So England has come up about 25 runs short because of some pretty tame dismissals and not batting out the overs. England has done got the runs on the board and Australia has to chase it now and the rest is history. The weather is quite fair with some cloud around so here is my prediction – Australia will find it quite challenging in the beginning of the innings due to the bowling conditions, but if they can preserve their wickets in the first ten to twelve over s they will be set to progress to the finals. My gut feel is that Australia will progress to the next round and win the match by four or five wickets with about 4 over’s in hand.

Australia vs England in ICC champions trophy match (Prediction)

So it is time to look into the crystal ball and yet another game between England and Australia but this time at Centurion in Pretoria. Centurion has one of the best batting pitches definitely in South Africa with true bounce and not deteriorating throughout the day. I think this pitch is probably the best one day “day game” pitches in the world but does benefit the team batting first in a “day night” game mainly to two factors. During the day the pitch is so flat and does not deteriorate a whole lot, but at night there is just a bit of nip around but does not moisten the ball sufficiently to detract from bowling and the second factor will play into the team bowling second will be that the ball will discolour quicker due to the moisture on the ball that makes it difficult to pick up from the pitch.
England posses a devastating team in suited swinging conditions for bowling, but I don’t think Centurion will have wet enough conditions and Australia has a hard working attack that will pick up wickets on a regular basis.
My Prediction Scenario one -- England wins the toss and elects to bat. England will score 287 to 293 for the loss of seven wickets. Australia should win with 4 wickets in the second last over.
My Prediction Scenario two – Australia wins the toss and elects to bat. Australia will score 310 to 320 with the loss of six wickets. England will fail to get the needed runs to win and lose by about 25 to 17 runs if there is no movement of the ball at night but will win by 45 it there is assistance.

England VS New Zealand in ICC Champions trophy

So New Zealand has bowled out England for a meagre total of 147 on a weather assisted Wanderers pitch. With the ball swinging nicely this will be a quite daunting target to achieve. If New Zealand can beat England convincingly they will go to the next round of the competition and the hopes of Sri Lanka dashed. New Zealand has done the basics well to ask the questions right from the start of the match and earned their right to be in this position. It is now up to the batsmen to show their skill and worth to see if they can progress in this years ICC champions trophy.

England on top in ICC match against South Africa

England has outplayed South Africa in their ICC champions match. It seems like South Africa will also fail to proceed to the next round of the competition. I would like to see only day matches played at Centurion as it has been shown that the team batting first in the

Graeme Swann has been introduced to the bowling attack

Graeme Swann has been introduced to the bowling attack in the 21st over going for a four in his first over. The performance of Swann will be pivotal in the outcome of the match. To my thinking the partnership between Smith and de Villiers will be the make or break to their chances in the ICC champion’s trophy competition.

Graeme Swann has been introduced to the bowling attack

Graeme Swann has been introduced to the bowling attack in the 21st over going for a four in his first over. The performance of Swann will be pivotal in the outcome of the match. To my thinking the partnership between Smith and de Villiers will be the make or break to their chances in the ICC champion’s trophy competition.

Graeme Swann has been introduced to the bowling attack

Graeme Swann has been introduced to the bowling attack in the 21st over going for a four in his first over. The performance of Swann will be pivotal in the outcome of the match. To my thinking the partnership between Smith and de Villiers will be the make or break to their chances in the ICC champions trophy competition.

South Africa VS England in ICC 2009 Second innings

South Africa has made a good enough start to the run chase on Centurion in their match against England in the ICC champions trophy match to be in front 89 for the loss of two after 17 over’s of the scoring rate compared to rate of England at the same stage. The two batsmen out for South Africa are Herschel Gibbs and Jacques Kallis, both of whom were caught in a soft manner. At the crease at the moment are AB De Villiers and Graeme Smith

Eoin Morgan has played a gem of a innings.

Eoin Morgan has played a gem of a innings at the tailend of the South Africa, England game in the ICC trophy competition. The final score was England 323 for the lost of 8 wickets. Now we will have to wait and see if this is a bridge to far for the South African team to come back and score the runs to proceed to the next round of the competition or is this is wickets for them

England VS Sri Lanka Update

England has set South Africa firmly on the back foot in the ICC champions match with Shah eventually out for 98 well played runs. The only thing that is sure is that this is going to be one hell of a game if South Africa gets close to the target set. There was a incident that I saw where the backup runner has backed up about 5 meters. This brings to mind that mancad should be ruled legal dismissing a player as the benefit of backup is not fair to my mind.

Collingwood and Shah are playing the spinners quite comfortable

Collingwood and Shah are playing the spinners quite comfortable with no real spin as the other day against New Zealand. The lack of spin will bode well to the South African team trying to negate the spinning ball in their run chase. England has reached 100 for the loss of two wickets in the 22 over. I am certain that there is a big chance of a run out ending the partnership as the calling by both Collingwood and Shah is not the best

Parnell has bowled a maiden over

So Wayne Parnell has bowled a maiden over from the opposite side of the field that he started of. This will put some pressure on the England batting with the spinners coming on and probably bowling in unison

England undoing good start

England has undone some good work in the first few over’s by losing two quick wickets in succession. Boucher took a magnificent catch to dismiss Straus. Straus tried to play the ball fine to third man, but could only manage to find a thick edge. The new man at the crease is Shah and Collingwood. There was no sign of spin yet. By my thinking the spinners will come on as soon as the fifteenth over