ICC World Cup 2011 - SWOT Analysis : SOUTH AFRICA

The South African Cricket Board announced its WC Squad couple of days back. Except for a couple of surprises it was more or less the squad which everybody expected.

The final squad looks like this :

Graeme Smith (Capt), Hashim Amla, Johan Botha, AB de Villiers (WK), JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Colin Ingram, Jacques Kallis, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Morne van Wyk (WK)

From the looks , it can be said that the team has beefed up their squad with all round bowling attack, getting off their conventional single dimensional pace attack. They are most likely to play 1 spinner + 3 pacers + Kallis. Maybe, at the Lankan grounds, where there isn't even an iota of help for pacers, they will go for 2 spinners + 2 pacers + Kallis. Their batting has looked consistent, though their middle order has wobbled without their 'Anchor-man' Kallis. Duminy has looked a lot better recently, his services will be key in the world cup. The inclusion of Peterson over Albie Morkel is definitely debatable. Both of them haven't proved themselves in the Int'l circuit in the recent past but, Morkel can be good with the bat comparatively. Dropping Mark Boucher was expected .

STRENGTHS:

• The Awesome Twosome combo of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel. Irrespective of the pitch and weather conditions, they are fatal.
• Their batting is strong with Kallis coming back. Smith, Amla, Kallis, ABD are the Fantastic Four of SA now .

WEAKNESS:

• They come along the tag of .. you know it .. "CHOKERS".
• The spin department is very inexperienced and chances of getting the 'STICK' treatment is more if they don't adapt to the conditions.
• They lack a power hitter at No.7. Faf du is expected to fill in that position and he doesn't look like a slogger. This is where Albie Morkel could have been handy.

OPPORTUNITIES:

• They definitely possess a squad combined with experience and young legs and this is the time for them to lose their CHOKERS status.
• Imran Tahir. Will he? Won't he? Period.

THREATS:

• Most of their star players(Smith, Kallis, etc) are prone to injuries .Their loss might dent the team big time .
• Their batting can be exposed while playing quality spin. Most of the teams possess a front-line spinner and playing in the sub-continent will definitely test their batting abilities.
•  Spin will be key in this world cup, the Proteas have heavily backed Botha to be their no.1 man for the job, the third seamer be it Tsotsobe or Parnell dint have much success during their last tour to India. Adapting to sub-continent conditions will be high on their agenda.

The team looks pretty competitive on paper and the same team pretty well when they toured the sub-continent. As Duncan Fletcher said, they are a team which can definitely make it till the end this time . They should hope that the LADY LUCK is with them and DUCKWORTH & LEWIS far away .

Pakistan Vs South Africa 1st Test Dubai : SAF Report Card

Can anyone crack this nut?
© AFP

   After crushing Zim without mercy and beating the Stanis in the T20s & ODIs, Proteas started favorites in the 2-match test series as well. Smith opting to go with 2 spinners in Botha and Harris along with Steyn, Morne in the pace department and Kallis to bowl his share(senior citizen quota). Clearly, Smith struggled with his 5th bowler options. But, it was the Proteas top-order that made merry in the first test against an unimpressive Pakistan bowling attack. Check how the Pakistanis fared in the match here.

Alviro Peterson - 6
Brilliant 150 run opening stand with Smith on day1. Set the mood for others coming in.

Graeme Smith - 7©
Started slowly, took his time at the crease. And by the time you knew it took the game away from the Stanis. As a captain dint use his bowling resources all that well. His decision to declare in the 2nd innings was to provide a result to the  test and it almost did go very wrong for him. Bold but the bowlers lacked the skills to take wickets on a  day 5 pitch. He may have used Kallis a bit more and perhaps Peterson's bowling just to test the Stanis.

Hashim Amla - 8
198 runs in the game. He's turning out to be the run-machine Proteas would have dreamed to replace Kallis at the no.3 slot. Runs in limited overs has helped his confidence overflow with aggression. Tendulkar, Ponting, Sehwag loyalists beware!

Jacques Kallis - 7.5
208 runs in the game. Played the Pakistani spinners with ease.Dominated the old-school style caution with aggression.

AB De Villiers - 4
Had a game to forget. Got out in the 1st innings when Gul, Rehman just pulled things back for Pakistan. Dint get to bat in the 2nd innings.

Ashwell Prince - 4
Had the same fate as that of De Villiers.


Mark Boucher - 5
Dint flourish with the bat. Was neat behind the stumps.

Johan Botha - 5
Got into the Pakistani middle order in the 1st innings getting 3 wickets. Failed to do so in the 2nd innnigs.

Paul Harris - 4.5
Picked up just 2 wickets in the game bowling 56 overs! But dint leak runs at a miserly rpo of 1.86 for the match. Ideally Smith would like the wickets column show some life.

Dale Steyn - 5.5
Bowled well but, could not finish the job for his captain. The Stanis played him very cautiously infact, in the Pakistani 2nd innings Misbah faced Steyn for 34 deliveries scoring zilch!

Morne Morkel - 6.5
Stuck to the task and earned a well deserved 5fer in the 1st innings. However, couldn't repeat the performance in the 2nd innings and Pakistan played it easy.

Chennai Sup(CK)er Kings

CSK is definitely one of the best teams in IPL. Somehow its managing to screw it up big time leaving even the cricket pundits confused. It is definitely not a team which should be at the bottom of the table. Their bowling has been pathetic, but then its the same bowling attack for 3 years now. So what is the problem?

The bowling has become more pathetic with at least 2 bowlers going for 40 runs of their quota. CSK has the weakest bowling attack of all the teams. Every team has a Fast 'Sting' bowler like Steyn for RCB, Roach for DC, Malinga for MI, Lee for KXI, Nannes for DD, Bond for KKR and Tait for RR. These are bowlers who can hit the 145ks+ consistently. Speed does help in T20 and we can see it. Albie Morkel is CSK's fastest bowler who barely touches 130. CSK's pace bowlers are Morkel, Balaji, Gony, Tyagi, Joginder Sharma, Ganapathy, Ntini, Perera & Thushara.

Morkel has been lucky ,with his pace with the new ball he should be whacked all over.
Balaji gets the right treatment every match.
Gony and Tyagi play alternate matches and its even stevens, both get creamed.
Joginder Sharma, only God knows how he makes it to the playing XI
Perera bowled 5 full-toss deliveries on his debut game, 4 were to God. Got spanked, let the game shift to Mumbai Indians. Obviously not returned to the team since.
Thushara , haven't seen much of him yet and with whatever seen ,he isnt impressive either.
Ganapathy bowled just one over, not enough to rate him.

Chennai's only saving grace has been the spin department comprising of Murali, Jakati and Ashwin
Murali is Purple Cap holder with an economy of less than 7. Period.
Jakati has been impressive with his line and length.
Ashwin has been disappointing.
All over ? wait a minute..
Makhaya'Fast bowler-converted-Joker'Ntini, where the hell is he ?
why isnt he playing ? If MSD needs a fast bowler y is he still waiting for Ginger Bollinger.
Bolly can be vicious and very useful but he too has his limits and bowls under 140k's and in Indian conditions will be a big question mark. So, y hasn't MSD tried Ntini when he had so many opportunities.. remains unanswered!



ps: more on the batting and champion-like fielding later...

IPL 3.0 Sooper Dooper Kings

Chennai Super Kings

Alas the Chennai Sooper Kings, the side that lost the championship in the inaugural season and then lost in the knock-out semis in the second season, look like they are on the downslide. They rely heavily on Aussie giant Matt Haydos and from there the problems begin. MSD has played Parthiv-mini-Patel as he is free from the wk duty that has already given him enough back issues. But this means Parthiv who can(read should) be playing lower down the order opens the batting with Hayden. If MSD is going to take IPL seriously, as equal to winning World Cup. Then he may have to strain his back a bit more and stand behind stumps and accommodate an extra bowler in place of mini Parthiv. Otherwise Parthiv has to lift his game, or bat lower down the order so, Vijay can open the batting. The CSK are marred and scarred by injuries to Jake' Oram, Al' Morkel has his line of fitness issues, Mike Huss wont be available initially. Losing Flintoff was a big blow for them. But, the replacements for Freddie and Stephen Fleming were just not enough. So now they have Justin Kemp their new recruit along with a few Lankans whom they dont miss to buy at every player auction.

CSK do look like a formidable opposition but, seriously not the top-3 in the competition. In Balaji and Gony their bowling can fall apart anytime. Add Tyagi to that, MSD will have some serious cardiac issues while fielding. Raina, Badri, Vijay should help MSD post big, bigger, biggest totals everytime so, he wont worry about the bowling too much. Ashwin, Jakati & Murali give him added tension of whom to drop and whom to play. It will take a few games initially to find the balance in the team and sort out fitness issues.

SQUAD:R Ashwin, L Balaji, C Ganapathy, MS Gony, SB Jakati, M Muralidaran, M Ntini, S Tyagi, KB Arun Karthik, S Badrinath, GJ Bailey, ML Hayden, MEK Hussey, SK Raina, M Vijay, T Thushara, JA Morkel, JDP Oram, NLTC Perera, JM Kemp, MS Dhoni, PA Patel.

STRENGTH:Hayden opening, Depth in batting.

WEAKNESS:Bowling in death overs.

WATCH OUT FOR:Lankans could well prove to be strong plus for CSK, Ganapathy, Bailey. Justin Kemp.

WAH'S XI:

• Haydos
• Patel*
• Raina
• MSD©
• Albie
• Badri/Vijay
• Perera/Thushara
• Ganapathy
• Murali
• Balaji
• Jakati

WAH SAY: Bailey replacing Pup in the Kiwi tour mid-way will hurt CSK. Mike Huss will have to play in a cramped batting order again. I will have to stick my neck out and say CSK are most likely to miss the bus to the semis. DD, MI, RCB clear favorites right now. With KxiP, DC, CSK fighting for that final semi spot. But, dont count them out completely! Like MSD would say it "MIND IT!" Period.

W.W.W.S. -While Wah were Sloshed...

• Pak lost to Aus again.


• Ind bowl out Bangers for 233.


• Saf announced their test and ODI squad for Indian tour.


• SL resume the romance with Ind.


• Pak u-19 reach u-19 WC finals.


• GG does a Viv, in search of the Don.

The second ODI between Australia and Pakistan played at Sydney, resulted in the Aussies thrashing the Stanis by a mere 140 runs margin. Opting to bowl first, Stani’s fast bowlers were not effective enough. Aussie openers, Twatto & Marshy put up a hundred run stand and set the drums rolling. The spinners though brought them back in the game. White once again played well, his fifty helped Australia post 267. Not a mighty but, a competitive total keeping both the teams interested in the match. The second innings however, faired very poorly for the Stanis. Bollinger started strongly claiming 2 early wickets, Pak – 2/7. Clint McKay continued the Aussie onslaught reducing Pak to 7/71. Peter Sizzle was sizzling as well.. Not long before Pak were all out for 127 falling short by a mere 140 runs. Aus now 2-0 up in the 5 match ODI series.

The other Pakistani team though was just proving to be unbeatable. The u-19 boys beat the Windies and moved into the finals of the u-19 world cup. Sri Lanka face Australia in the other semis match.

Saffers announced their test and ODI squad for the Indian tour starting in February. Botha gets into the test squad. Gibbs in the ODI squad. Peterson in both. Albie Morkel still missing. I hope Prince is not going to Open the batting with Smith again. It’s clearly not his game. I’d prefer to see Amla-Smith opening, followed by Kallis, AB Devil, Prince then Doominy. Let’s see wats in store for us ahead.

Sri Lankans though don’t seem to be interested in sitting idle. They got the time, they got the deal. Yet another Ind-SL tournament now featuring Kiwis. The Ind-SL romance just can’t be kept under wraps for the moment.

Gautam Gambhir who hit his 5th consecutive ton in tests against the Bangers at Cheetah-gong, was very much in line to achieve sir Don’s record of 6 consecutive test tons in the 2nd test at Dhaka before he got out on 68. Awwww… u just can stop feeling for the man. Gauti however did manage to equal sir Viv Richards record of 11 consecutive 50+ scores in as many tests. Wow!! I dint see that coming..

India earlier bowled out the Bangers for 233 in the 1st inn at Dhaka. Ishant claimed 4 wkts, Zaks took 3. Mysteriously, Mishra-ji was dropped in this test. Pragyan Ojha and Bhajji made their return. Also, Murali Vijay replaced the injured VVS Laxman. MSD resumed duty behind wickets. Mahmudullah once again played well for his 96.