Dale Steyn and Neil McKenzie are going to have vital roles to fill if the South African cricket side expects to be competitive against the Australian’s in the home and away tours commencing in December.

A solid base at the top of the innings is going to be important and with McKenzie expected to fill the role of test opener he is not going to be able to drift through the tour scoring 20s and 30s.

Guys like Hashim Amla, AB Devilliers and Ashwell Prince will also need to deliver the goods, but McKenzies role is amplified because he has to be the first guy to front up to the Aussie pace attack.

If the Australians get early wickets and get on the front foot, then it will place a lot of pressure on the rest of the South African batting lineup.

The other asset that McKenzie brings will be his experience, but that won’t be enough to guarantee his place in the side. There’s enough competition for batting spaces at the moment that if McKenzie doesn’t bring the scores, his spot is going to be under pressure.

Managing Dale Steyn
Dale Steyn is arguably the world’s premium fast bowler, but managing him is going to be a big trick for the SA selectors. They cannot afford to bowl him into the ground for the sake of results.

Steyn’s priority is to bowl in the test matches. Dragging him into the Twenty / 20 games and over bowling him in the One Day Internationals is asking for disaster. An injury to our frontline strike bowler will cripple our entire campaign.

Thinking along the same lines, Graeme Smith also needs to be careful not to turn to Steyn every time he needs a wicket and use him as a stock bowler. Steyn is a strike bowler and must be bowled as such.

Without question Neil McKenzie and Dale Steyn have huge roles to play in the tour and the correct management of these players could be a make or break factor in determining a positive outcome for the SA team.

Francois Plaatjies - Interesting young SA bowler

I haven't watched much in the way of SA domestic cricket, but last night I watched a bit of the Cape Cobras against the Free State Eagles.

Watching the game last night, an interesting cricketer stood out for - Francois Plaatjies.

Plaatjies is a right arm quick bowler. When I first watched him bowl, my immediate reaction was nah he's got a very slingy action (check his back foot when he delivers the ball.)

Typically I prefer a quick bowler with a more upright action, but when I saw the pace at which Plaatjies was delivering the ball, I got interested.

Bowling with the white ball under lights, he was regularly delivering the ball at 142km/h - 148km/h.

He sprayed the ball around a bit - but at 22, he's still got some time to develop into a quick.

Think he has some potential to be a nice addition to the SA 'A' and SA ODI squad.

Double 20 competition

There is some talk in the local media, that South African cricket administrators could agree to a "double twenty" format of the game.

Basically the idea would be to have a T20 format of the game, but with both sides batting twice along the lines of a test fixture.

I'm all for anything that will boost the game of cricket, but I'm not sure that this is what the cricketing public is necessarily wanting?

We love T20 cricket because it is short and sweet and it provides a great social atmosphere - but if you are going to double the length of the fixture to make it roughly the same length as ordinary One Day Internationals, then the game hasn't really gone anywhere has it?

Dunno - what do you think?

Case for SA 'A' side

Watching the Bangladeshi capitulation against the South African pace attack yesterday, a strong case could be made for a four day fixture between the South African first team vs. the SA ‘A’ side before major tours – if they cannot find quality opposition then the opposition should be produced from our local ranks..

Guys like Dillon Du Preez, Monde Zondeki, JP Duminy, Albie Morkel, Johann Louw, Vaughan Van Jaarsveld etc. who are all a pretty big part of SA cricket could have made for some testing opposition and would have given the SA selectors something to think about ahead of the Australian tour….

Think maybe the SA management have missed a trick here…

Gary Kirsten - South Africa's next coach?

As a South African cricketing fan, I've been very intrigued to watch Gary Kirsten's progress as coach of the highly temperamental Indian cricket team.

Kirsten was a fabulous servant of SA cricket. As a player he was one of the toughest opening batters we possessed and his fighting spirit gave our entire order some real steel.

When he was appointed coach of India, a lot of people questioned whether he could make the make from being a good player, to a good coach - no easy feat!

A series draw against South Africa and a sound beating of the Australians (thanks Gazza!) makes for a pretty good record in a shortish international coaching career.

Having read some of the comments made by the Indian players, they've been impressed by his calm and decisive nature... something I personally think is missing from SA cricket at the moment - no offence Mickey Arthur. One just gets the feeling that beneath the toughness of Smith, there's a bit of a brittleness that could be exposed.

I suspect Kirsten has a very good chance of taking the reins at South Africa in the next few years and its really good to see a South African making good with a tricky team like India!

The challenge

The challenge that faces South African cricket over the next 6 months!

Tell me you don't get excited reading this schedule.... But you have to imagine they will be sick of eachother by the end of April.

19 November 2008 South Africa v Bangladesh Test Bloemfontein
26 November 2008 South Africa v Bangladesh Test Centurion

17 December 2008 Australia v South Africa Test WACA, Perth
26 December 2008 Australia v South Africa Test MCG, Melbourne

3 January 2009 Australia v South Africa Test SCG, Sydney
11 January 2009 Australia v South Africa 20/20 MCG, Melbourne
13 January 2009 Australia v South Africa 20/20 Woolloongabba,
16 January 2009 Australia v South Africa ODI MCG, Melbourne
18 Janary 2009 Australia v South Africa ODI Bellerive Oval, Hobart
23 January 2009 Australia v South Africa ODI SCG, Sydney
26 January 2009 Australia v South Africa ODI Adelaide Oval,
30 January 2009 Australia v South Africa ODI WACA, Perth

26 February 2009 South Africa v Australia Test Wanderers Stadium,

6 March 2009 South Africa v Australia Test Kingsmead, Durban
19 March 2009 South Africa v Australia Test Newlands, Cape Town
27 March 2009 South Africa v Australia Pro 20 Wanderers Stadium,
29 March 2009 South Africa v Australia Pro 20 Centurion

3 April 2009 South Africa v Australia ODI Kingsmead, Durban
5 April 2009 South Africa v Australia ODI Centurion
9 April 2009 South Africa v Australia ODI Newlands, Cape Town
13 April 2009 South Africa v Australia ODI Port Elizabeth
17 April 2009 South Africa v Australia ODI Wanderers Stadium

Monde Zondeki

Bluntly put, I have to say that I have been baffled with the handling of Monde Zondeki during the Kenya and Bangladesh games. I appreciate with the inclusion of the likes of Johan Louw and Rory Kleinveldt (for the T20 game), bowling spaces have been pretty limited, but I don't see how he didn't bowl in both the one day games.

A hell of a lot has been made of how Dale Steyn has obliterated the Bangladeshi lineup... but you can't say you're surprised.

The Bangladeshi's are used to 'quick' bowlers in the 120 - 130km/h mark, not the world's premium test fast bowler and fired up Dutchman (howdy Luke Watson - no offence Dale!) firing the ball in at 150km/h.

I'm not convinced Steyn needed this kind of work out ahead of the test series. At any stage we could roll out Ntini or him and they'd put in a credible performance against these guys.

Zondeki on the other hand needs game time. He needs to be charging in and putting six balls in the same place for 6 to 10 overs a game.

Johan Louw
Louw has been a bit of an up and down inclusion in this series. Had a bit of a flurry with the bat but never really put in a decent spell with the ball.

My gut feeling is that he needs to keep bowling in this side to try and pull him up to the next level. I also think that somebody like Dillon Du Preez might be due some game time even if the one day format of the game is not his ideal situation.

The whole discipline and level of coaching (as well as the exposure) could provide us with a nice bit of back-up to our first choice bowlers....

Observation - fielding

Just watching the South Africans playing against Bangladesh at the moment and Ashraful has just dropped Graeme Smith on 51.

Earlier in the innings, Mortaza dropped Hashim Amla on 15.

Both batters are now comfortably trucking along at around 5 and a half an over.

The Bangladeshi's I think dropped one on Friday night as well and then their fielding was very undisciplined at the Twenty/20 game on Wednesday night.

I actually watched them warming up before the Twenty/20 game and even when they were practicing, there was a pretty high number of drops. If you're dropping catches in your practice sessions, then you can't be surprised when catches are going down in matches...

You can't dispute that they are enthusiastic about their cricket, but they need to really sharpen up this aspect of their game if they are going to make a go of a match...

If you consider that they game away 6 runs in over throws in the Twenty/20 game, which they lost by 12 runs, you start to realise just how important those basics are....

SA vs. Bangladesh - 2nd ODI

Sports Trader makes it's predictions for the second South Africa vs. Bangladesh One Day International to be played at Willomore Park in Benoni this morning....

Despite the spirited performance of the Bangladeshi's in the Twenty/20 game as well as the first ODI, we're not giving any consideration to the fact that they will win a fixture. (Rain permitting we get a result)

For this reason, we need to look at the individual player performances from a betting perspective.

Top Batsman odds offered by Worlds Sports Betting:
South Africa
JH Kallis - 33/10
GC Smith - 33/10
HM Amla - 7/2
AB De Villers - 4/1
JL Ontong - 5/1
JP Duminy - 5/1

Bangladesh
M Ashraful - 3/1
T Iqbal - 7/2
MJ Siddique - 5/1
I Kayes - 6/1
S Hasan - 6/1

On the Bangladesh side, we don't think you can look beyond Ashraful, he's been in great form and has very little respect for the SA bowlers at present.

We're backing Duminy at 5/1 as the top batter from the SA side.

Carrying that forward, we're looking at JP Duminy (16/1) to win the man of the match award as well....

Good cricket...

Watching the South Africa vs. Bangladesh game at the moment and very impressed by the cricket being shown by the Bangladesh side.

SA are currently 149-3 after 31.4 overs and its great to watch the battle between the SA batters and the Bangladeshi spinners.

Good to see the Bangladesh team staying in the game!

AB ala Jonty

One of my oldest cricketing memories is the image of a very young Jonty Rhodes making that famous diving run out of Inzamam Ul-Haq, when South Africa played in their first ever cricket world cup.

For those who don't remember, Inzy (who will never be remembered for his great running between the wickets) thought about a risky single just behind backward point. His partner at the time turned him back - a bit like turning the Titanic? - when he realised that Rhodes had fielded the ball.

Jonty realising that no keeper had come up to the stumps picked up the ball and took Inzy on in a flat out sprint before diving in and breaking the wickets....

... aaaaaaahhhh what history!

Last night in the South Africa vs. Bangladesh game, we had another fantastic piece of fielding. Johan Botha came charging in to take a catch which fell just in front of him. He recovered extremely quickly and fired the ball in to AB De Villiers who was keeping wicket and De Villiers made his own diving run out.

A great bit of cricket !

SA vs. Kenya and Bangladesh

A lot of people (myself included) have been very critical about the Kenyan and Bangladesh cricket teams touring South Africa. My opinion changed slightly at the 20/20 game at the Wanderers last night...

I'm going to deal with Kenya first because they are earlier in the 'process' than Bangladesh who have had to walk a similar line.

Kenya Let's be honest - Kenya is nowhere at the moment in world cricket. They don't have the firepower or the structures in place to be competitive for probably
the next decade - that's not a nasty assessment - its a brutal fact.

Having said that, we had the opportunity to see a young talented player like Alex Obanda come on to the world scene and reinforce that developing cricket nations like Kenya can and are producing come really great cricketing talent.

I was surfing around the internet this morning looking for some info on Kenyan cricket and was highly surprised to find a dedicated blog to Kenyan cricket. Check them out - they're here at: http://kenyacricket.blogspot.com/

A search on the internet revealed thousands of pages following the development of the sport in the region which I think is hugely important for spreading the game away from the traditional powerhouses.

I think its brilliant that a nation with such a fledgling cricket community!

The trick is to make sure that guys like Obanda get as much as exposure to high levels of first class cricket as possible and build their experience and playing records so that they can put more back into the game domestically.

Bangladesh
Anybody who was at the Wanderers last night will attest to the fact that for every 3 South African fans in the crowd, there must have been 1 Bangladeshi fan. The noise and support for this tiny cricket nation is growing - and it's growing fast!

When Mohammed Ashraful came out to bat and he started dispatching the SA bowlers to all ends of the park in his brief little innings, the Bangladeshi's got excited - they were in the game!

The fans were cheering, the cricket wasn't the best from a 'thinking' perspective, but at the end of the day everybody got full for their money.

I look at a talent like Ashraful and I know that the idea of taking the game to other countries across the world is working.

The guy on merit could probably be competitive in any top 6 batting lineup at the moment.

He needs his head checked every now and then to stop him throwing his wicket away, but you can't deny the talent!

One can only hope that we see more of this kind of talent coming out of Kenya and Bangladesh over the next few seasons. The more talent being exposed to top level cricket, the better the health of the world game...

SA vs. Bangladesh

From the Sports Trader blog.

It's South Africa vs Bangladesh in the 20/20 fixture this evening in Johannesburg.

World Sports Betting have released their odds for the game.

Match odds aren't particularly juicy with South Africa being quoted at 1/7 and Bangladesh at 4/1.

But I thought you could have some fun with the best batter odds.

South Africa best batter odds
HH Gibbs - 33/10
AB De Villers - 7/2
LL Bosman - 4/1
JP Duminy - 4/1
JL Ontong - 5/1
JA Morkel - 7/1

Bangladesh best batters
M Ashraful - 7/2
T Iqbal - 4/1
MJ Siddique - 4/1
M Hossain - 11/2
N Islam - 11/2
S Hasan - 6/1

Albie Morkel at 7/1 looks pretty decent. He's made for 20/20 cricket.

For the rest, I think its a bit of a lottery....

SA fast bowlers

On Friday the South African cricket side took on Kenya in a One Day International fixture which they easily cantered home in. The side looked very short of match practice (particularly the bowlers) and this is something that needs to be addressed without blowing them out ahead of the Aussie tour at the end of the year.

Monde Zondeki was particularly off song and didn’t find any real rhythm.

Morne Morkel’s figures weren’t that bad and apart from one over where he went for 12 runs, he was efficient.

But let’s bear in mind that they were bowling, against a very average Kenyan batting line-up, one couldn’t help but think he’d have been in trouble bowling to the Indian or Australian batters.

For the record their bowling figures were as below:
M Zondeki 8 0 50 1
M Morkel 9 0 32 0

Morkel at the moment is definitely in the picture for a first team test bowling spot and a fit Zondeki backing up the first line strike bowlers will be invaluable over the coming summer, but splashing it around is not going to get you where you want to be.

Games against the likes of Kenya and Bangladesh should be aimed at having your strike bowlers proving they can control the ball under lights and bowl 6 balls in the same area of the pitch.

My suggestion would be to the South African fast bowlers that if that they should remember that the Kenyan side wasn’t intimidated with their blast ‘em out mentality so the bigger name sides probably won’t be – disciplined fast bowling is what is needed from these guys now…