Proteas crash out
10 May 2010
South Africa lost to Pakistan by 11 runs in Gros Islet on Monday, which confirmed their elimination from the World T20.
Another ICC event, another early exit for the Proteas. However, this time it doesn’t come as a big surprise as the South Africans never looked convincing enough during their campaign in the Caribbean. The batsmen lacked the needed aggression while the bowlers blew hot and cold throughout the tournament.
The Proteas will head back home with only two wins out of five, which came against new-comers Afghanistan and in a tight contest against New Zealand.
A win was a must against the Pakistanis in their final Super Eights fixture, the team who ironically knocked them out in the semi-finals of last year’s event at Trent Bridge in England. However, there was no revenge for South Africa as they repeated last year’s slow bating performance and eventually fell short of the 148-run target.
Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis picked up early wickets in the Pakistan’s innings, but Kamran Akmal (37 off 33 balls) settled things at the wicket before his brother Umar won his team momentum after smashing 51 off 33 balls.
However, Charl Langeveldt slowed their run-rate after ripping through the middle order and finishing on a career best 4-19 off his four overs. Pakistan finished on 148-7 after their 20 overs.
South African openers Herschelle Gibbs and Graeme Smith fell cheaply early on, which contributed to their slow start to their innings: 50 coming off 61 balls. Boundaries were also rare after the sixth over as it took nine overs for AB de Villiers to find the rope again.
De Villiers kept South Africa in the game with a well-played 53 off 41 balls, but he gave his wicket way in extraordinary circumstances as an attempted shot over his head saw the ball fall into wicket-keeper Akmal’s hands. Mark Boucher and Albie Morkel failed to fire as they came to the wicket.
Johan Botha (19 off eight balls) played an impressive cameo at the death, however, by then it was too late as the Proteas fell 11 runs short.
Pakistan 148-7 (20 overs)
Umar Akmal 51, Kamran Akmal 37, Charl Langeveldt 4-19.
South Africa 137-7 (20 overs)
AB de Villiers 53, Jacques Kallis 22, Saeed Ajmal 4-26.
For a full scorecard click here
65 Comments
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12 May 2010, 03:00 am
@Golden Boy(Golden Boy)-40:
Actually, Golden Boy, I have enormous political tolerance.
It’s social engineering and racism, poorly veiled as ‘transformation’, that gets my goat.
I have said ad nauseum that we need true transformation, that we need to provide an equal playing field (or as equal as it can be in an, unfortunately, unequal world), give every kid who wishes to play the game the chance, the facilites, the coaches to do just that…and then let his or her talent dictate whether they make the grade.
Of course, that’s the hard road to travel, although it will ultimately reap the true rewards and we’ll be an absolute powerhouse in cricket. The easier, politically expedient route, is to enforce quotas (that they are enforced I have no doubt) at many levels of competition, to demand X number of darker hue players, to count the heads and to pat themselves on the back on achieving these numbers.
And then, to be mystified (as Majola claims to be) when the team falters. I did not say and do not believe quotas are the only contributing factor and have said this on many occasions. To repeatedly overlook it as a factor is simply dishonest.
Personally, I support South African sides, with South African players…and don’t give a fig for their pigmentation so long as they’re the best for the job.
One final point: yes, those witokes you mentioned did fail, but to suggest they were the only ones is also dishonest. I’d add Gibbs, Duminy, Bosman and Kleinveldt to that list.
And, of those, the only one deserving of retention is Duminy, who has oodles of class and will, I believe, emerge from his slump sooner rather than later.
12 May 2010, 09:47 am
@Joe Maher(Joe Maher)-51:
Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand your point and the situation you point out above would be great in an ideal world…however, we both are mature enough to know that we do not live in an ideal world due to our recent history of social engineering (apartheid) which had such a detrimental effect on our country and it’s people.
This has created a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots. As an aside…I was driving from Muizenberg through the Cape Flats towards Camps Bay recently and was absolutely gutted by the enormous discrepancies between the poorer people on the flats and the affluent rich in Camps Bay.
Now, in an ideal world the kids from Mannenberg and Khayalitsha would have easy access to state of the art facilities, much like the ones we have in Rondebosch, Newlands, etc and they would then have an equal chance of progressing through the system. And in this same ideal world they would not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from or worry about the safety of their parents who have had to work overtime and are using public transport 9 or 10 at night.
We both know that kids from more affluent schools stand a better chance of being ‘spotted’. We even have rugby/cricket schools such as Rondebosch, Paul Roos, etc…I don’t see a Livingstone or Masipumuleli High in any of the top sporting schools. WHY? Because of funding and facilities and because their priorities are different.
Now I’m not saying that quotas are the way to go, but as you suggested earlier, getting everyone on a level playing field is the long-term priority but should we hinder the development of an entire generation of young sports-people while we are working towards leveling the playing field? Kids that do not have the money to attend private schools have to have another route to being spotted, and for now it is the quota system, whether it is right or wrong is up for debate and could be argued convincingly either way. However, it is what we have now so we have to bear with it.
And I do not see Gibbs, Duminy or Kleinveld as quota players because all of them are from very affluent families who could afford all the luxuries while growing up. So actually Bosman could be considered the only real quota player in the current squad, well him and vd Merwe
12 May 2010, 09:48 am
@Joe Maher(Joe Maher)-51:
And THANK YOU for having a decent debate with me!!!! You know yourself how rare those things are around here
12 May 2010, 10:21 am
@Golden Boy(Golden Boy)-43: I agree with you on a number of points but to say Duminy is out of form because he’s been moved up and down the order to many times won’t cut it. AB was given the same treatment early on in his career, especially in the Test match arena. I think he’s been found out for his suspect approach to bouncers and spin.
I don’t understand all this talk regarding Smith’s captaincy of the team, after all it wasn’t the fielding or the bowling that let us down in this tournament. To be honest we could have chased down all the totals set for us but for suspect batting from a number of batsmen, including our captain. Every total set us we should have chased down, except for the India one we should have won every game. Our bowling was actually pretty good and our fielding was stellar barring that Boucher gaffe, which proposes a case for him to bow out of this form of the game and stick to Test and ODI cricket.
12 May 2010, 10:49 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-54:
AB struggled as well when he was moved all over the place, same with Amla and Prince. That being said, Duminy has been found out, you are correct, so perhaps he should be sent back to his franchise in order to work on it a bit more and to get more game time in a less stressful environment.
The problem with Smith’s captaincy:
…is that he runs it like a dictator. Good captains are good man-managers and certainly he is not that.
…Good captains do not intimidate younger members of the squad and Smith certainly does.
…Good captains do not lose their cool on the field of play and Smith has been guilty of that a number of times.
…A good captain can assess the situation and 9 times out of 10 he will make the correct decision. His decision to field first against India when they had 3 spinners and only 2 quicks on a turning pitch is what cost us the game. And he has been guilty of that a number of times.
…A good captain can assess the situation of the game at any given time and will adapt his strategy accordingly. Smith has shown a number of times that he is too rigid in his thinking and he is a reactive captain, which is the worst you can get because he is always behind the 8 ball.
…A good captain will, along with the coach, evaluate the opposition and target their weaknesses. Our losses against England and Pakistan highlighted that we used the exact same game plan for both teams…even though Pakistan struggle against pace what do we do? We drop Morkel and bring in the worst performing bowler in our team, vd Merwe.
And the less said about our strategy when chasing down targets the better…I’m sure we had the lowest totals during the power play overs. Now surely even a school boy knows that a team fielding just 2 players in the outfield are at a disadvantage, but no, our captain decides to play himself in during this time and then to ‘go big’ near the end of the innings when there are 5 players out. Now does that sound logical to you?
The list is endless, but these are just some of the glaring weaknesses regarding Smith.
Please tell me you were joking when you said that our bowling was pretty good because the **** I saw them feeding opposition batsmen would certainly not qualify as bowling. The only player who performed with the ball was Langeveld…Steyn struggled to take wickets and could not keep the run rate down…Morkel cost us the match against India by bowling a no-ball whereby their top batsman could have been dismissed with his score in the teens. He went on to score 90+…I think he did it against England as well…Albie Morkel was bowling pies…Roelof…I don’t know what the hell he thought he was doing and Botha was fairly decent, but against teams from the sub-continent decent is not good enough.
12 May 2010, 11:09 am
Very good posts at 52 and 55, Golden Boy.
I suspect we’re on the same page re: an appreciation of the inequalities in sport, in South African life in general, just have different perspectives on how to reach nirvana.
Yes, quotas may be a necessary evil right now – I don’t subscribe to them but I hear the argument and can see merit in some of it.
What irks me is the dishonesty of those making the decisions to refuse to admit quotas are in place.
Admit it, explain why we need them and you’ll be surprised how many are prepared to be more understanding and supportive.
But bullsh*t us and we’ll see right through you, lose respect for you.
As for post 55, congrats on an articulate and factual account of our captain’s many flaws (again, what really irks is his inability to learn from his errors…a sign of an arrogant or stupid or both individual).
12 May 2010, 17:02 pm
@Golden Boy(Golden Boy)-55: Lets be honest about 20 over cricket: it’s more of a lottery than the other two forms of the game.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone question Graeme Smith’s on-field temperament or his handling of strategy. I think those are his two major strengths, the ability to be unfazed when under pressure and strategy. The Proteas major strength in all forms of cricket is our ability to chase down scores that would usually be deemed impossible. Thats all down to our captain and the start we get from his bat. There is no better captain in World Cricket today.
I think Graeme is brilliant as a captain at Test and ODI cricket. Our track record in 20 over cricket is what worries the most, we clearly have the best bowling line-up, best fielders and some of the best batsmen at every tournament but for some reason we can’t reach a final. This form of the game is more of a lottery and I agree that maybe Graeme’s strengths aren’t suited quite as well as Johan Bothas when captainning the side. But to fire him as test or ODI captain would be stupid of us.
I don’t know about you but I thought AB was our best batsmen in the tournament, along with Kallis, who can’t be asked to do more than what he’s already done.
I’m surprised at your assessment of our bowling. We conceded 148 against Pakistan, this should have been an easy chase but our batting let us down again, we conceded 168 when we should have been hit for 180+ against England and even this was a gettable total. Our frontline bowlers were brilliant.
Mark Boucher needs to give up either ODI or Test cricket so we can blood a successor.
13 May 2010, 02:25 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-57:
Sorry, don’t agree with a thing you say about Smith – other than praise for his batting.
The man clearly cannot spell s-t-r-a-t-e-g-y. Headless chickens in a farmyard have more strategic nous and direction.
It’s time he does the honourable thing and resigns as captain.
It won’t solve all our woes but it will be a positive start.
13 May 2010, 05:30 am
Stop bleating … its not Capt Limelight’s fault … he can only do as good as he can with what he is allowed … SA cricket will always be below standard thx to the political issues you yourself have mentioned. As long as that is the issue we will never be at full potential, and to beat the likes of Aus we need to be.
He remains an excellent captain and is respected world-wide. Yes, he does make mistakes, who doesn’t.
Botha is great, Alma good too, but they also cannot make miracles from nothing.
13 May 2010, 05:30 am
And who gives a hoot if he can spell or not.
13 May 2010, 11:18 am
@Joe Maher(Joe Maher)-56:
Yeah…the politics are a bit of a problem at present when it comes to talent spotting especially in the more rural areas. We were just plain lucky to uncover Ntini the way we did. And trust me, there are many other things I could say about Smith, but it would all be edited here on KEO, LOL.
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-57:
Have you not seen the fall-out after this latest debacle? Former convenor of selectors Omar Henry has called Graham Smith tactically naive…Ray Jennings has called for him to resign. Darryll Cullinan said it was the worst performance he had ever seen by any SA team post-isolation. Andrew Hudson, current convenor, has called for the team to be reviewed. These as far as I can see are all very respected individuals within the SA cricket fraternity and they can see that there is something seriously wrong with the current setup.
We have been steadily going backwards as a cricket team and for me the decline started with the Bob Woolmer debacle. I am in no way blaming only Smith and in fact think he is a wonderful, if somewhat limited batsman, but his averages are fantastic and in cricket, that’s all that counts so he should stay on in the team, BUT NOT AS CAPTAIN.
Futhermore, I don’t agree that we have the best bowlers or indeed batsmen for this form of the game. They may be great Test or 50 over players, but they don’t cut it at this format. It’s like taking the Springbok sevens rugby team and expecting them to perform in the 15 man version and vice versa. It just won’t work because you have specialists in the different forms of the game.
And using the Pakistan game as an example. I think we had them at 17/3 at one stage and what does our astute captain do? He takes off all the pace bowlers and brings on both Botha and vd Merwe when the wise thing would have been to bowl the pace bowlers from the one end and rotating the spinners from the other.
That for me and many others, was just tactically naive and proves my point that he simply cannot accurately read the status of the match at any given moment. He obviously had a game plan worked out before hand and was hell-bent on sticking to it regardless of the situation. And the fact that some of the more senior players like Kallis and Boucher failed to mention it also speaks volumes.
And against England I don’t think it was our bowling that restricted them but rather their batsmen going all out in the final 4 overs. If they had just gone on in the same vein, then they would have scored 200 easily, but they were going a bit over the top, hence the collapse. If you look at that England lineup and compare them to SA then even you must agree that England should not even be on the same field as SA because we have some serious talent whereas England, apart from KP and Kieswetter, and that young bowler, can’t remember his name, are comprised mainly of journeymen cricketers that would not hack it in most teams and yet we lost comprehensively to them.
I also disagree with your assertion that Smith is the best captain around today in any format. If you recall the England series we twice had them 9 down with PLENTY of overs left and yet again Smith made the wrong choices as captain by letting a man bowling in his Test debut have a go at the tail-enders in the one game and by throwing the ball to Ntini in the next. So I would say that Smith personally cost us both those wins and the series.
For me the standout captain in world cricket today is undoubtedly Daniel Vettori who seems to always get the best out of a very limited bunch of cricketers and 2nd would be Ricky Ponting for just being sheer class and for being a seriously brave captain who always backs his players to perform under any situation. Have you noticed how easily the new players are integrated in to the Aussie lineup? Why does it not happen with our team? Who do you think is to blame?
The senior players should stick to Test cricket. 20/20 should be reserved for young up-and-coming talent. This will ensure that the younger crop gets international exposure. Frankly, the older guys are only in this 20/20 format so that they can get a big pay day in the IPL.
13 May 2010, 11:22 am
@TheBoksAreBack(bringbacktheboks)-59:
With a nick like yours, surely you can see that it’s not as simple as politics…why has the Boks been playing some of the best rugby in its history despite all the political interference??
@TheBoksAreBack(bringbacktheboks)-60:
And we do give a hoot because spelling is usually a minimum requirement in order to be considered half intelligent. And who wants an idiot as a leader?? Yes we are stuck with the Zuma’s of this world, but hell man, in the name of all that is rightious, atleast drop Smith as captain!!!!
13 May 2010, 19:07 pm
@Golden Boy(Golden Boy)-61: Did you just bring up Bob Woolmer? What decline?? We’re the best at Test cricket, we’ve won series in both India and Australia. We’re amongst the top 3 at ODI cricket. For fu*ks sake we chased down a score bigger than 400!!! All these things happened under Graeme Smith’s captaincy.
Now we have a bad tournament, and lets be honest this is the first real time Graeme and the boys really didn’t try, now you want him gone. In past tournaments we were knocked out having played good cricket and sometimes by teams who would eventually win said tournament.
I agree that he maybe shouldn’t captain the 20 over squad cause he definitely deserves to be dropped but he’s never put a foot wrong in ODI or Test cricket. What more does Graeme have to do to remain captain of the Test team? Lately England don’t lose to anyone at home even to the Aussies, Australia never lose at home period, India never lose at home unless it’s to Australia but we beat all of them at their respective homes. How Bob Woolmer gets into this conversation I don’t understand.
Firing Graeme from either ODI cricket or Test cricket would be a mistake, he deserves this last 50 over World Cup to prove to us all that chasing 400+, winning in Australia, England and India and becoming the worlds best team wasn’t just a one off thing. He’s earned at least one more chance to prove himself.
14 May 2010, 03:25 am
@TheBoksAreBack(bringbacktheboks)-60:
As Golden Boy has said, being able to spell is the minimum requirement for even a half-intelligent person.
I’m not personally aware of Smith’s spelling prowess but I have seen him on the cricket field, as a captain, enough times to deduce that his cricketing intelligence is well below par.
And I’m not jumping on any bandwagon following one poor performance. I have long believed Smith is a one-dimensional bully boy not fit to captain a village green outfit let alone a top Test playing nation.
He’s fully deserving of his place as a batsman, that I will happily concede.
14 May 2010, 09:57 am
@Ezee-23(Ezee-23)-63:
Ofcourse I brought up Bob Woolmer…the best coach SA has ever had. Now allow me to address your questions/assertions one at a time please.
“What decline?? We’re the best at Test cricket, we’ve won series in both India and Australia.”
No we are not the best at Test Cricket…we once were (very, very briefly) that distinction currently rests with India followed by the Aussies and then South Africa. For a very long time we were the undisputed challengers to Australia. In fact SA and to a lesser extent India (at home) were the only real challengers to the mighty Aussie machine in Test cricket and ODI’s (yes, under Bob Woolmer), sadly those days are long gone now and this has happened during the captaincy of Graham Smith and under the guidance of Mickey Arthur.
Yes, I will concede that there was a stage, 2 years ago I think when we were the top team in both formats of the game, but that was not due to our team being fantastic, it was due to Australia, England and India going through a seriously disruptive rebuilding phase with approximately 40% of their teams retiring or being dropped from international cricket therefore having to start from scratch. They have now surpassed us and it is time that we go through a rebuilding phase ourselves.
The series we won in Australia was a fantastic achievement I must concede, but remember they were missing ALL their front-line bowlers and a newcomer, a certain Mitchell Johnson stepped up to the plate and absolutely destroyed the Proteas in SA. It kinda took the shine off our win in Australia don’t you think?
And yes, SA did win a series in India, but that was in 2000 under Hansie Cronje and yes, Bob Woolmer. The recent series against India was drawn if you recall correctly. Smith has therefore never won a Test series in India.
I happened to be at the 438 game…mate those boundaries were so short, I think the longest was 60 meters and the pitch was as flat as the N1, I’m surprised the Aussies never posted 500+. Just look at the number of sixes hit during that match, a world record I believe and you will get an idea of how easy it was to bat on that track. I’ll bet that even you and I could have scored a quick 50 on there that day. I have to admit that I have a DVD of the game, and I watch it every so often and mate, it’s honestly one of the greatest games ever from a SA perspective, although I’m sure the Aussies don’t think so
“Now we have a bad tournament, and lets be honest this is the first real time Graeme and the boys really didn’t try, now you want him gone.”
You said it yourself. We had a bad tournament. Against England we had a bad Test series. During last years WC we had a bad loss in the semis…in the champions trophy (At home!!!) we were eliminated in the first round!!!!! Do you see any pattern developing here? Our results has been on a steady decline for the past 2 years now and our constant failures under this setup should no longer be tolerated.
Smith has had plenty of opportunities (this is just off the top of my head) but I think he has failed at 13 international tournaments including the latest fiasco. How many more chances should he get??? Another 13???? Please man, for a team claiming to be the best in the world he has failed to even reach a final. Now just imagine he was the captain of any other top international team in ANY sport. Do you think that he would still be in that position after such a poor record?
@Joe Maher(Joe Maher)-64:
We have been advocating for the removal of Smith for a very long time now!!! Hopefully the Proteas management will have the balls to remove this guy now but I doubt it. You just have to look at their choice of replacement coach for Mickey Arthur to realise that they don’t have a freaking clue whats happening in the world of cricket.
I would have jumped at the chance to get in Duncan Fletcher or even Gary Kirsten once his contract with India finishes, but no, they get in a never was former fast bowler with archaic ideas about cricket and bloody Kepler Wessels as batting coach!!! Kepler freaking Wessels!!!!! And I really hope that Andrew Hudson has the balls to make the difficult choices that lies ahead because frankly he does not instill that much confidence in me. But lets give the guy a chance and see what he does.
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