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

Want to open a sports betting account and get in on the action? Click HERE and open an account with Sportingbet now.

England destroyed

Well England took a bit of a pasting on the first day of the fourth test against South Africa at the Wanderers.

Hostile bowling from Dale Steyn (5-51) and Morne Morkel (3-39) reduced England to 180 all out. Ashwell Prince (15) and Graeme Smith (12) managed to see us to the close of play at 29-0 which was encouraging... I guess the real question is whether or not the weather is going to play ball.

It still looks a little overcast in Johannesburg today.

It was nice to see Wayne Parnell get a run but he managed to roll off just 3 overs for 18 run - fortunately the rest of the team (including Ryan Mclaren) managed to pick up his slack and roll over England.

Mclaren was useful (1-30) although I'm not totally convinced he's long-term test cricket material. I can't see what he brings to the party. Fortunately JP Duminy has been delivering with his off-spinners so it does provide some variety for Graeme Smith to call on.

Will be interesting to see how the SA batters fare today. I got the impression that Englands batters contrived to get themselves out rather than problems with the pitch.

Let's see what Day 2 holds

Does Mickey Arthur have a plan?

I know that coach-bashing is a popular past-time in South African sports, but the more I look at the selections and planning around our national cricket team, the more I wonder whether or not Mickey Arthur really has a clue about where he’s taking this team?

The openers crisis
Our inability to find a decent opening pair is a starting point. Yes Ashwell Prince has had some success there but he’s indicated that he doesn’t want to play there on a regular basis and it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team when he gets out cheap.

Yes these may be our six best batters, but why are we trying to make an opener out of somebody out of a middle-order batter?

We have the Andrew Putticks and Stephen Cooks of the world who are chalking up the runs, but whenever the mess hits the fan we draft Herschelle Gibbs back in or try and invent an opener.

Friedel de Wet
De Wet at the age of 29 has come out of nowhere to represent the test squad and somehow is now the first choice back up to Dale Steyn. With Ntini’s retirement this makes him part of the first-choice attack. Where did he come from? He was never given a run in the ODI or T20 side before he suddenly got a surprise call-up.

Wayne Parnell, Lonwaba Tsotsobe, Rory Kleinveldt, Johan van der Wath, Yussuf Abdullah, Ryan Mclaren and Albie Morkel have all been given a crack in the ODI side. Somehow De Wet leapfrogs over all of these guys and Johan Botha into the first test team?

Imran Tahir
The Pakistani / we think South African spinner was out of the blue included in the fourth test match squad at the Wanderers.

Then he was dropped when questions around his eligibility were raised.

All of a sudden he has jumped ahead of all the other bowlers – including the very successful and experienced Johan Botha as a test candidate?

For sure it is easy to be an armchair fan and criticise Arthur and the selectors for the makeup of the team, but there doesn’t look like there is any real process happening here to develop and build a sustainable long-term team.

Changes to my cricket dream team

As mentioned I had expected Eoin Morgan and Wayne Parnell to play in the first test match and picked them in my "Dream Team". With two 0's against their names I finished the first round of the competition with a global ranking of 1530.

I have made two changes to my side with Graeme Swann replacing Parnell and Ashwell Prince replacing Morgan. Hopefully they can come to the party in the second test match.

Unbelievable

I have just read that Wayne Parnell has been dropped from the Proteas test side for the next two test matches against England with the selectors reducing the squad from 15 to 14.

Pardon my ignorance but we are battling to take 20 test wickets on a pitch which has been relatively helpful to seamers and we are choosing to exclude probably the best left-arm quick in the country at the moment?

That's bizarre.

Parnell travesty

Wayne Parnell not playing in the first test against England at Centurion Park is an absolute travesty of justice and in my opinion a really short-sighted decision that the SA management will regret.

We are going into this test match with three right arm seamers (Steyn, Ntini and presumably Morne Morkel) and we have Paul Harris holding up one end as a spinner.

South Africa are almost certainly going to be without Jacques Kallis from a bowling perspective and we have battled to take 20 wickets in a test match for a while.

Despite this we choose not to include the left-arm seamer who has been a brilliant addition to our ODI setup over the last 12 months? Bizarre...

For sure Steyn is still the premier fast bowler in the side and Ntini has 99 caps to his name but if you have to toss-up Morkel vs Parnell on current form and what they bring to the side, you'd be hard pushed to say that Parnell deserves to draw the short-straw.

There are plenty of reasons not to rush a young fast bowler and not put too much pressure on him, but Parnell has proven he has what it takes to play at international level and by not including him we have robbed ourselves of some much needed variety in our attack.

In Paul Harris you have a great spinner who can plug up one end so you won't have a case where a young fast bowler is going to be toiling for hours on end in the sun and taking its toll on his body. But you lose some of your effectiveness if you are going to tie up one end and then charge in with three right-arm quicks for two and a half days.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big Morne Morkel fan and think he has plenty to offer SA cricket, I am just concerned that the balance of the side is not exactly there if he is given preference over Parnell.

Too much cricket?

Well the third ODI between South Africa and Australia is being described as a "Cliffhanger" of a finish in the local media today....

It is great that we've won, but I get the sense that the sides are now just going through the motions. The South Africans are experimenting and giving runs to guys like Parnell and Van Der Merwe which I think is great but maybe 5 ODI's on top of 3 T20's games is just too much cricket.

Like I said on The Baggy Green - Johnson, Ponting, Mike Hussey, Clarke and Haddin have all played an absolute stack of cricket in the last few months and I wonder if maybe they didn't deserve a bit of a break to recharge their batteries.

For us we've been able to call on Parnell, Van Der Merwe, Botha, Gibbs and Albie Morkel who are all relatively fresh which seems to be coming through in our approach to this ODI series.

Everybody can start taking a look toward the T20 world cup after the IPL.

Bit of a lottery but we will take it

.... 1-0 to the good guys... but geez I'm convinced we still don't really get this T20 format of the game.

Let's be honest, if Albie Morkel hadn't blasted us in the middle of the innings there (AGAIN) we'd have been beaten convincingly after a pretty decent bowling performance.

I thought David Hussey played amazingly well for the Aussies and I'm kicking myself - I could have gotten GREAT odds putting money on him to be the top batter and I had been tempted to do it. Backed him a coupla times in Oz and missed out but I had a good feeling about him yesterday.

Oh well!

Thought the value of spin / bowlers who can take the pace off the ball was well displayed here tonight on a pitch that normally provides fast and bouncy conditions. Robin Peterson, Johan Botha and David Hussey all got to grips (scuse the pun) with how to bowl and their figures proved it.

Wayne Parnell - how well did he bowl?! Did anyone check the speeds he was bowling - definately gathering some confidence and I hope he gets given an extended run in the ODI format of the game - like Mitchell Johnson has proven - the value of a quality left-arm seamer in your side cannot be doubted.

Johan Botha - Another solid performance from the SA T20 captain. This is another under-rated SA cricketer and HE seems to have worked out how to play this type of cricket - he's just got to get his batters to understand how to think their way through the game!

Robin Peterson - I'm not a big Robin Peterson fan but last night he put in a good performance. He bowled accurately, fielded well and in general made a good contribution. It is going to be interesting to see how his role is defined in the the team.

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

Here come the ODI's

In my humble opinion one of the greatest Test series of all time has come to a close and we're now onto the smash-and-grab version of the game.

Without question the two teams were very closely matched with SA holding the aces in the bowling department and the Aussies persisting with a couple of guys who were out of form.

However Ian over at The Baggy Green believes that the Aussies may have the upper hand when it comes to the shorter version of the game in terms of the players they're putting out:

To give you an idea of what the two teams face I've posted the fixtures below:
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, Pert

The Aussies have named the following two teams and Ian has done a write up on the players here:

The KFC Twenty20 squad is:
R. Ponting (C)
M. Hussey (V/c)
D. Hussey
B. Hilfenhaus
J. Hopes
N. Bracken
B. Haddin (w/k)
S. Marsh
S. Tait
D. Warner
R. Harris
C. White
N. Hauritz

The Commonwealth Bank Series squad is:
R. Ponting (C)
M. Clarke (V/c)
B. Haddin
J. Hopes
N. Bracken
S. Marsh
M. Hussey
D. Hussey
N. Hauritz
B. Hilfenhaus
C. White
S. Tait
P. Siddle

The South African squad minus Graeme Smith is:
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

My concerns are that Steyn, Morne Morkel and Makhaya Ntini need to be used very sparingly for these games after the long hard test series. The Aussies are resting Johnson for the series and Siddle for the T20s. which is a smart move.

That leaves SA with Botha, Tsotsobe, Albie Morkel, Wayne Parnell and Jacques Kallis shouldering a lot of the bowling work.

Albie Morkel hasn't bowled much with an injury niggle and Tsotsobe has been sitting on the sidelines in Oz so they might be a little rusty as well.

Tend to agree that the Aussies may have the upperhand with this one but would never write SA out of anything.

South Africans - planning to go watch the boys in action??

TravelStart.co.za - Find out which airline is really the cheapest. Click Here

Need a car?
Imperial Europcar. Book your car online now! Click Here

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....