We are surprised?

All I am going to say on the subject of the Proteas going down to New Zealand is.... don't tell me you are surprised.

Prior to the tournament I warned that there was a problem with the makeup the side and the South African brainstrust have nobody to blame but themselves.

In my humble opinion Faf Du Plessis and Imran Tahir were probably the only players in the side to really enhance their international credentials while AB De Villiers and Hashim Amla did their bit. For the rest it was a pretty average performance.

I'm not blaming Robin Peterson completely but he came in at number 8 with 128/6 on the scoreboard. If he and Faf had stayed together - as the allrounders in the side - they could have done a run a ball and gotten us home. Instead he scored zip.

JP Duminy and Johan Botha at 5 and 7, can't be getting out for 3 and 2 respectively.

We can go back to the England game which we tossed away when the pressure was put on us. Duminy (0), Peterson (3) and Morkel (1) didn't keep their heads.

I go back to the point I raised pre the World Cup - we were not building a team for this competition designed to peak in March 2011. One moment Lopsy was going to add variety to the attack, the next he didn't play any big name cricket. At the same time Wayne Parnell was supposed to be the answer to our number 8 allrounder problems and then we decided we didn't need to fill this critical role.

Why invest all that time in Ingram and Miller if they weren't going to be part of the bigger picture? We could really have used an extra batter especially with AB doing the keeping duties.

I'm just looking on Twitter now and seeing all of the sympathetic messages that "winning isn't everything" etc.... KAK - a lot of effort has been put into this side and their goal was to be primed for this event. In short somebody has to take responsibility for this and its got to be the Proteas brainstrust - we can't accept this result.

Betting with my head not my heart

Don't get me wrong, I am a patriot when it comes to backing South Africa and will always back the boys with my heart. But if I have to gamble with my head then I don't see on balance of probability how the side last night can win the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

The squad
Graeme Smith (Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras, capt)
Hashim Amla (Nashua Dolphins)
Johan Botha (Chevrolet Warriors)
AB de Villiers (Nashua Titans)
JP Duminy (Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras)
Faf du Plessis (Nashua Titans)
Colin Ingram (Chevrolet Warriors)
Jacques Kallis (Chevrolet Warriors)
Morne Morkel (Nashua Titans)
Wayne Parnell (Chevrolet Warriors)
Robbie Peterson (Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras)
Dale Steyn (Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras)
Imran Tahir (Nashua Dolphins)
Lonwabo Tsotsobe (Chevrolet Warriors)
Morne van Wyk (Chevrolet Knights)

SA won't win the Cricket World Cup

South Africa will not win the ODI World Cup with Wayne Parnell batting at number 8 in their line-up. I am watching this game against India at the Wanderers and it reminds me a bit of the T20 game they played recently - what should have been walk-in suddenly gets complicated if you lose your top 6.

Don't get me wrong. There is no question that Parnell is a talented cricketer and a fabulous prospect for the future but for the sake of balance in the side we cannot have him coming in when there is a high pressure situation. I appreciate that with Jacques Kallis not around the side is a little unbalanced but without a specialist allrounder coming in down the order and with Van Wyk and De Villiers sharing the keeping duties we are lacking depth.

Without being nasty, David Miller also needs to start showing some brains as well - you need a number 6 who is going to take you home not somebody who is going to blast a couple of balls and then get himself out with 50 runs still to be gotten. In two of the last three games he has smashed a six and then promptly picked out a fielder in the deep.

For those interested in taking a punt on the World Cup, here are the odds as they stand (supplied by Voltbet.com):

India - 7/2
Australia - 4/1
South Africa - 11/2
England - 5/1
Sri Lanka - 5/1
Pakistan - 8/1
New Zealand - 16/1
West Indies - 25/1
Bangladesh - 40/1
Zimbabwe - 200/1
Ireland - 250/1
Netherlands - 350/1
Canada - 350/1

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Had to happen

What is the difference between Ricky Ponting and a Funeral Director?

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The Funeral Director doesn't keep losing the Ashes!!!!!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Love it.

Time for Robin to go

I hate criticising individual cricketers but the continued selection of Robin Peterson for the Proteas absolutely baffles me. I understand the concept that he brings some variety to the attack being a left arm spinner, who supposedly can bat a bit and not a bad fielder but the stats don't lie - he doesn't fulfil these roles in the national side.

Batting:
T20 - 6 games, 43 runs, average of 14
ODIS - 38 games - 153 runs - average of 12 (Booster by 4 not outs)

Bowling:
T20 - 8 wickets at an average of 15 and an economy of 15.25 from 6 games
ODIS - 21 wickets, 53.19 and an economy of 4.76 from 38 games.

He has taken 11 catches in those 44 games.

England proved a few years back that you actually need some specialists - genuine allrounders not bit players who might get lucky on the occasional day. As Peterson has shown 44 games into his career that he is not getting lucky!

If you want somebody to fill that role then stick JP Duminy in at 7 or 8 and push another batter into the side like Andrew Puttick. A number 7 or 8 in ODI / T20 cricket still needs to be able to bat and at the moment we don't seem to be rushing to find somebody to fill that role.

We need to work hard at balancing our ODI side ahead of the world cup because as it stands, we can't expect people beyond number 6 to carry us through the tight games

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The decider

Well after an absolutely fascinating series of test cricket between South Africa and India we come down to third and final test at Newlands to decide us a winner. The Indian team really came back hard in the Kingsmead test and that will have given them a lot of confidence coming into this third test, especially with Singh having demolished our tail in the first innings.

I'm still comfortable with my bet that South Africa will win the series but I expect India to make a real game of it. They're certainly not going to be any kind of pushover.

The match odds are in favour of the home side with Voltbet offering 13/10 and India at 10/3 while Sportingbet have priced it closer at 11/8 for both sides.

Our picks for the best batters in the first innings are as below:

SA
Jacques Kallis - 7/2
Graeme Smith - 15/4

India
VVS Laxman - 6/1

(Batter odds supplied by Sportingbet)

C'mon SA!

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