Payback is a bitch...

That's all I can say - we got put in our place by a damn useful Aussie side in front of our home supporters... Ouch!

Now before we do the usual South African story of throwing our hands up in the air and berating our side, we need to step back and try and put these performances into perspective.

Number 1: When we were in Australia it took heroics from Duminy, Steyn and Devilliers to ultimately keep us competitive in the first two tests which we won... We didn't walk all over the Aussies and I think that is something we need to emphasise. Both sides could have won either of the first two tests in Australia. We were less competitive at home.

Number 2: This is a good Aussie side... We mustn't forget how good this Australian side is... Johnson, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke and Katich are amongst the best in the world in respect of the positions they occupy. On top of that, Hughes looks like a world-beater in the making. Quality cricketers don't roll over and get beaten under any circumstances.

Number 3: Injuries played a part.... An injury to Graeme Smith and the knock that Kallis took invariably rattled us in our first innings. If they had been able to contribute another 100 runs in our first innings and Smith a few in the second innings the series would be all square and we would be patting ourselves on the back for chasing a mammoth total.

We didn't win it and we have to get over it. Imraan Khan and Ashwell Prince have been moved in for the injured Smith and the out-of-form Mckenzie which makes some sense and Wayne Parnell has been added to the squad in place of Morne Morkel...

... and this is where I get irritated with selection in SA cricket. Where the hell is the consistency in moving players in and out.

Bowlers: First test match Lonwabo Tsotsobe is the 12th man and I as a fan believe he will be the replacement bowler if somebody moves out. The second test match, he gets drafted out and Albie Morkel moves to the bench. Third test match, MORNE Morkel gets dropped and Parnell moves into the lineup.... Who the hell is the next choice bowler?!

Personally I think that Tsotsobe or Parnell should be at the top of the line because they offer some variety with left-arm seam where as Albie Morkel (while offering something with the batting front) offers just straight-up right arm seam. Dunno...

Batters:
I think it is great that Khan got a hundred against the Aussies in the warm-up game and he has been the top domestic run getter so he deserves a chance to play. My question is - where was he in Australia or the T20's or the ODI games?

Suddenly the guy has been drafted in to the setup... where is the succession planning. As far as I knew the next two batters in line for international spots (based on selector behaviour) were Herschelle Gibbs and Vaughn Van Jaarsveld with Andrew Puttick on the fringes... Suddenly they are pulling in Khan....

In the same way I see that Ashwell Prince is supposedly going to open the innings. This doesn't make sense and we seem to be carrying on with this idea of "making" openers out of middle-order batters.... Dunno - no consistency.

Let's see how it goes

SA ODI squad announced

South Africa has announced a couple of new faces for the One Day International (ODI) team to take on Australia over the summer.

South African Standard Bank squad:
Graeme Smith
Johan Botha
Hashim Amla
Mark Boucher
AB de Villiers
JP Duminy
Herschelle Gibbs
Jacques Kallis
Albie Morkel
Morne Morkel
Makhaya Ntini
Wayne Parnell
Dale Steyn
Lonwabo Tsotsobe
Vaughn van Jaarsveld

Have to admit I'm a little surprised that Amla is in this lineup while Ashwell Prince and Neil Mckenzie. But otherwise a good solid lineup with Herschelle Gibbs being thrown a lifeline.

Inconsistency
I do however have a bone to pick with the selectors - Kleinveldt, Zondeki, Louw all got games for SA six weeks ago when we were playing Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Now suddenly you have Parnell, Tsotsobe and Van Jaarsveld in the lineup - where's the consistency?!

These guys needed the game time and exposure to the squad setup if they were going to be part of the Aussie series - so why did they not get involved early on?

The new boys
If I slated the selectors in the last paragraph then I need to praise them for a bit of progressiveness with their selections here.

For the Australians who haven't seen much of Van Jaarsveld (pictured left) - he's a super aggressive young left handed batter who has been a great success in the domestic one day game. If he could get his head screwed on right he might even be knocking on the test squad door. Good selection.

Parnell (pictured right) and Tsotsobe we don't know much about. They're two young left arm seamers with some solid performances in the local game. If these two can get some good performances under their belt, they could contribute some nice variety to the SA attack which has often been accused of being a bit one dimensional.



Word of warning
Graeme Smith is already battling with his old elbow injury and Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel have a long season of hard test cricket in front of them - we don't want to be running them into the ground chasing a couple of ODI victories at the expense of our premium strike bowlers....

Lonwabo Tsotsobe

I meant to blog about this when the SA touring team to Australia was announced a couple of weeks back, but it seemed to slip through the cracks...

Uncapped left arm seamer Lonwabo Tsotsobe was included in the SA team to tour Australia. His selection came a little bit out of far left field, seeing as he didn't really feature in the Kenya and Bangladesh tours and his role in the team doesn't seem particuarly clear cut.

I argued this point with guys like Rory Kleinveldt and Johann Louw - they seem to be given some time to play in T20 side but then don't spend a hell of a lot of time actually being part of the 'bigger picture'.

South Africa has been crying out for a decent left arm seam bowler for many years. The predictability of our attack has been our undoing for a decade or so and this could be a good move.

Tsotsobe has done well enough in domestic cricket for him to be considered - but then one argues - why didn't the selectors give him some T20 / ODI game time instead of fielding other guys like Kleinveldt and Louw?

Dunno - just doesn't seem to be a consistency. In the same way - if (heaven forbid) two of the quick bowlers were to break down would Monde Zondeki and Tsotsobe be pushed into the side or would reinforcements be flown in from home to jump the queue?

While the touring experience is great for players, it doesn't do anything for their form to be used to bowl a bit in the nets and do shopping while the cricket is being played.

One of the other major concerns around Tsotsobe is that his pace for an international "quickie" is in question.

Do you bank on the variety at the expense of genuine pace or do you go with reliable shock and awe pace in place of predictability?