Australia in South Africa: 4th ODI Review : Gibbs powers SA to a series win

April 13 2009: After the No.1 spot in ICC ODI Rankings changed hands through the series, South Africa have made sure that they finish in the same position thanks to Herschelle Gibbs 21 ODI century that helped them win the 4th ODI and the series 3-1 to Australia at Port Elizabeth. His 110 came almost off a run a ball after having battled the first few overs in partnership with Smith. Australi who perished in the name of Van De Merwe never looked like being in the game.



An out of form Australia were always likely to be on the back foot heading into their do or die stint. They made a couple of changes bringing in Shane hardwood for Lauglin who didn't look like taking any wickets as Gibbs and AB Develliers powered SouthAfrica to a score of 317 leaving Australia with almost no margin for error run chase. For a while they looked Flauless, Haddin and Micheal Clarke clicked as a pair for the first time in the series putting on a 129 run stand, but both men loast their wicket at the half way mark. Clarke became victim to a vicious spinner pitching on leg and turning away from him to knock the off stump, a classical Van de Merwe delivery.

Merwe playing only his 3rd ODI picked up 3 for 46, the two other wickets coming in the name of Callan Ferguson and Micheal Hussey. Ferguson, Man who restored pride in the falling top order in the previous games was promoted to No.4 lost his wicket stumped by Boucher. Hussey soon followed, out LBW playing the wrong line. 129 for 0 suddenly turned 150 for 4 in a matter of 4 overs. Haddin's aggressive approach imbued Australia with hope and he batted instinctively in compiling 78 from 61 balls, including four sixes. But after he holed out to long-on off Johan Botha it was a steady decline for Australia and the tail succumbed to Dale Steyn, who finished with 4 for 44. The chase was always going to be difficult after Gibbs and de Villiers dominated with the bat.



Both Develliers and Gibbs kept the scoreboard moving also played some aggresive shots off the bad deliveries. Australian bolwers failed to offer any threat and the biggest worry turned out to be in the name of the spinners Micheal Clarke and Nathan hauritz who between them sent down 10 overs for 73. Both suffered in the hands off Gibbs who posted a ODI century after 14 months, Develirs suddenly turned the aggresson in the partnership as he trashed consecutive deliveries off Hauritz over long on and Mid Wicket boundaries.

The 61-run victory ensured Graeme Smith's men the honor of becoming the first team to triumph in three successive bilateral ODI series against Australia - a streak that dates back to their historic victory in the 438 match in Johannesburg three years ago. It also means that when the teams return to the Wanderers for Friday's fifth and final match, it will be to contest a dead rubber. Smith and his men have now won 7 out of their 10 games against the world champions - Australia. They deserve their 1st spot in the rankings, They've earned it.

In Other News: Botha, after being reported for suspect action has been cleared after tests found that the bending of his hand is well below the limit. His doosra and the faster ball came into the line of fire after match referee decided to report it for a test. Reports suggest that the Doosra measured a 9 deg bend while the off spinner measured 11 deg bend, well below the 15 deg limit set by the ICC.





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Australia in South Africa: 3rd One Day: Review

South Africa powered to yet another victory after they beat the touring Australians by 25 runs in the third match of the five match one day series. South Africa now lead the series 2-1. Earlier South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked like a slow and dry wicket. Australian quickies made a good start as they restricted Smith and Gibbs from scoring big runs. The first South African wicket came at the expense of Smith in the 7th over caught behind to Johnson. South Africa were 28-1 in 6.2 overs.


Playing his 289th match and with piles of runs,ten thousand plus, around his name South African all rounder Jacques Kallis joined Gibbs. The duo put together a partnership of just 22 off 48 balls before Gibbs lost his concentration and wicket to Johnson. He was caught behind by Haddin. Johnson was the pick of the bowlers until then with figures of 5 overs 2 maidens and just 7 runs for his 2 scalps. In the company of AB De velliers, Kallis cruised the sinking South African ship past the 100 mark.

Kallis suddenly uped the anti and powered South Africa past the 150 scoring almost at a run a ball. De velliers also played some excellent shots. The duo added 114 off a 124 balls before Kallis(70) pulled a short delivery straight into the hands of Hopes fielding at midwicket. A surprise scalp for Brett Geeves. 34 runs later De velliers(80) lost his wicket to a leading edge skier comfortably held by Hauritz at extra cover saw South Africa at 198-4 in the 41st over, just when South Africa had called the batting power play. Duminy(32) in partnership with Albie Morkel added 32 runs in 20 balls before he was held in the covers trying to make the best use of the powerplay.

Morkel (29) and Boucher(28) added 53 in 5 overs to take South Africa to 283 before Morkel lost his off stump to Johnson. Merwe scored a six off the remaining 4 balls as South Africa reached a score of 289 for 6 at the end of 50 overs. Johnson was the stand out bowler for his effort of 4-34 in his 10 overs.


Australia started off cautiously, both Clarke and Haddin played defensive shots to keep wickets intact as Steyn and Parnell whizzed past their outside edges quite a number of times. Haddin scored 15 off 34 balls before he was out run out by Duminy in what was a quick single.

Ponting joined Clarke with Australia at 30-1 in 9.4 overs. Ponting played cautiously but also dismissed the bad balls to the boundary with confidence. Clarke picked up his strike rate as the duo took Australia past the 50 in 15 overs. It looked like a strategy by South Africa to bowl at the legs of Ponting as the spinner Botha bowled quite a few deliveries on the legs of the batsman. Ponting eventually lost his cool as he tried to force a shot coming down the track popping a simple catch to Botha. He was out for 20 leaving Australia at 66-2 in 17.5 overs. Van De Marwe was called into the attack and immediately he picked Clarke out bowled to a classical left arm spinner delivery. It pitched and turn.

Micheal Hussey then lost his wicket LBW to merwe as Australia received their 4th blow at the score of 83. It was all spin, Duminy in his first over picked the in-form David Hussey caught at long on. Australia(114-5, 30.2 Overs) never looked like getting home with the last recognized pair of Ferguson and Hopes at the crease still requiring 176 off 118 balls.

Both the batsman stitched together a decent partnership and mixed caution with aggression to take Australia past the 200 run mark. 45th over of the match, Fergusson(63) lost his wicket to van de merwe caught by Develliers at long on. Johnson(9) soon followed out run out to a combination of Duminy and Boucher. All door were shut as Hopes finished not out leaving Australia 25 runs short off target.

Kallis was declared man of the match for his all round performance with the bat and the ball. It was the spinner who made the difference, Botha and Duminy kept things tight, while Van de Merwe chipped in with 3 wickets. With Spinners doing well, South Africa now look a complete side, a team that can win in any condition. The next match will be played at centurion on the 13th of April.

Do Join me then for more updates, news, previews and reviews.





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IPL 2: Shilpa Shetty : New Owner.. New Cheerleader.. New Begining

Shilpa Shetty, The hot young bollywood actress who now is a 12 percent stake holder in Rajasthan Royals, the champions of the inagural season of the IPL, will be hoping for a repeat performace form the side as the first batch of 9 players arrived in Johanesburg. This bacth includes Mohammed Kaif, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja who expressed that sentiment before departing for South Africa for the second edition of the IPL. Both Kaif and Yusuf agreed that the pressure would obviously be there because of their fairy-tale like victory in the inaugural season last year.



Kaif said that they will have to treat the tournament as a new beginning to nullify all the pressure that is upon them as defending champions. "It will be a fresh start because last year we played in India, the conditions suited our bowlers and the batsmen and fielders supported them well," Kaif said. "But this is a new start." Adapting to foreign conditions will be another key factor to the team and kaif agreed as he indicated that the bounce and pace of wickets in South Africa are not the same as they are in India.

South Africa has always hosted good batting tracks which also has good pace and bounce for the bowlers which helps keep the match alive. SA had successfully hosted the inaugural season of the T20 world championships 2 years back and none of the matches could be called low scoring. The only thing that the teams will be missing thsi time around is the local support, but what we see from watching the current matches between SA and Australia, the crowd support is very high and there are one or two Indian flags amongst the crowd, always. If not for the players, the spectators may flood the stadiums to catch Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta, Shilpa Shetty in action :P

The presence of Smith in the team will help the team in performance. Smith brings in experience playing on South African conditions and the form that he carries playing host to the Australian team now. He will also be assisting Shane Warne as the vice captain of the team and the addition of Tyron Henderson will give the additional boost. However the team will miss the services of Pakistan fast bowler Sohail Tanvir who played a major part in the win last year both with the bat and the ball. The Pakistan Player contracts were suspended after the refusal of the Pakistan cricket board to participate in the IPL following the attack in Mumbai.

"We are going to miss some key players: Tanvir did really well last season and his four overs were something special every game," Kaif said. "Kamran Akmal did his job well whenever given the chance, both behind the stumps and with the bat. We have some new players this season so I'm looking forward to meeting the entire squad."


Yusuf said Tanvir was just one of the building blocks of Rajasthan's success and this year the team would need to move ahead in his absence. "Having won the championship will help us," Kaif said. "That and the youngsters having done well last season will also help. That was the secret to our success. In this format the opposition will look for the new players they don't know about and that helped last year for us." Jadeja, who hit headlines with his power cameos last year, said the responsibility is now on players like him to remain consistent. "The key player will be that one who will start well, remain consistent and then perform well in the main games as the tournament progresses."

Addition of Shipla Shetty will add to the glamor quotient and the players will want to perform really well to receive hugs and kisses from their owner, specially after they saw Priety Zinta throw a few at her players in the last season :P Jokes apart, There will be battles fought both on and off the field as to which team has the best looking owner this season :P





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IPL 2: Team Preview : Rajasthan Royals

The inaugural season's champins Rajasthan Royals managed to work out a winning formulas under the guidance of shane Warne, and would expect to do the same this year too. The team may not have the big names in the squad but they proved that playing as a team and celebrating other players success is the winning formula. Fined for not spending enough money on the side, Emerging Media, team owners are hopeful of a repeat performance with new recruits in the likes of Shaun Tait and Tyron Henderson.


Their Indian players were not the best of the lot, but Warne turned them into a formidable unit, and found two highly successful foreign recruits in Sohail Tanvir and Shane Watson. Tanvir is unavailable and Watson doubtful due to Australia's schedule and fitness worries, but Rajasthan have found adequate replacements at the auction. Shaun Tait the tall fast bowler with slinging action from Australia is tailor made for Twenty20, and Tyron Henderson, one of the surprise picks at US$650,000, has proved his worth with skills in batting and bowling playing for MiddleSex. Yet to make international debut, Tyron will make his first international appearance courtesy Rajasthan Royals.

It will be a tall order to match Watson's heroics from last season, but Henderson is an impact player in this format. The team will also be boosted by the availability of Morne Morkel and Justin Langer. Both had to miss the inaugural edition due to commitments to the specific counties..Dimitri Mascarenhaus will only make Rajasthan a stronger side. Yusuf Pathan made his way into the national side courtesy his power hitting and match winning performances. Mohammed kaif, Munaf patel and the likes of Ravindra Jadeja will have to play out of their skins to impress the national selectors. The big doubt however lies over the availability of Graeme smith who is expected to have a surgery post the current South Africa - Australia series. One other important person missing in the team is Kamran Akmal.

Rajasthan Royals play their first match of this season on April 18th against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. for Full match schedules go here: IPL 2 Schedule

Both Kamran Akmal and Sohail tanvir's contract has been suspended, which means they cannot be picked by any other team for a contract period of 2 years. Both players are serving their second year of the contract. If they were terminated, they would have been available for transfer to other teams. Currently all contracts with the Pakistani players stand suspended immaterial of the team they belong to.


The Rajasthan Royal Squad:
Graeme Smith, Niraj Patel, Justin Langer, Swapnil Asnodkar, Mohammad Kaif, Shane Watson, Tyron Henderson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Shane Warne, Shaun Tait, Morne Morkel, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.

Playing XI that i assume will be used for the matches:
1 Graeme Smith/ Niraj Patel/ Justin Langer, 2 Swapnil Asnodkar, 3 Mohammad Kaif, 4 Shane Watson/ Tyron Henderson/ Dimitri Mascarenhas, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Mahesh Rawat (wk),8 Shane Warne, 9 Shaun Tait/ Morne Morkel, 10 Siddharth Trivedi, 11 Munaf Patel.

Do Join me later for more previews and Team news following the IPl Season 2 starting in South Africa on April 18 2009.

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Australia in South Africa: 1st One Day: Preview

South Africa will try to retain their first spot in the ICC ODI Rankings by winning the 5 match one day series against Australia starting today. Australia conceded their first spot to South Africa after they lost both the one day and the test series in the host series prior to this tour. Australia came out strong in the test series and regained the first spot in the rankings for Test's. It just seems that every time these two teams go head to head, the No. 1 Ranking is always up for grabs.



South Africa took the top ODI spot thanks to their 4-1 victory in Australia in January but to retain their new status they need to stop Australia winning this five-game series.Captain Graeme Smith will return after a injury to the right hand, while all rounder Jaques Kallis will miss the first match because of a groin injury. He should however return to the team in the second one-day on Sunday. Morne Morkel and Makhaya Ntini have been added after being rested for the Twenty20s, while Yusuf Abdulla, Robin Peterson, Justin Ontong and Johann Louw were the Twenty20 squad members to make way. South Africa couldn't find a place for Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Roelof van der Merwe or Wayne Parnell in the starting line-up.

South Africa Starting line-up for the first one day: South Africa 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Herschelle Gibbs, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 AB de Villiers, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Mark Boucher (wk), 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Morne Morkel, 9 Johan Botha, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Makhaya Ntini.

For Australia, Shane Harwood and David Warner have flown home after the Twenty20 matches. It was a shocker when Philip Hughes was not named as the part of the squad, even after his aggressive debut in the tests. Australia will rely on their opening pair of Micheal Clarke and Brad Haddin. Ponting believes the key to their success in the one-day series will be the bowling of Nathan Bracken. He was hit for 44 runs off his four overs in the second T20 match. Ben Laughli, a carpenter by profession made a paccy debut in the T20 matches and will be hoping for a debut int he one day matches. He is nippy and exciting to watch. Australia have not named the playing XI so far.

Australia squad: Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Callum Ferguson, Marcus North, James Hopes, Cameron White, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Brett Geeves, Nathan Bracken, Ben Laughlin.


End of this series ends a fascinating summer between the two sides. This will be the last chance for the South African player to prove their potential as South Africa at the end of this series play no International Cricket till October except the World T20 Championship, and the Champions Trophy in September. The Australians on the other hand will head straight to Abu-Dhabi for a 5 match one day series against Pakistan. The venue was shifted to Abu-Dhabi after concerns over player security in Pakistan, this decision was however taken well before the terrorist attacks on SriLankan cricketers earlier this year.

Match starts 6PM IST.

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Australia in South Africa: Smith returns to ODI Squad

South Africa won their final test match against the touring Australian side to restore some pride and momentum back with them. With a big loss of Smith to Injury, Jaques Kallis took over captaincy as South Africa convincingly beat the Australian's by an innings, the Australian's however had won the earlier matches to take the series 2-1. That brought an end to the Test, but the real test begins now, Can South Africa restore the same pride as the host Australia for 2 T20 matches and 5 ODI matches? The real test begins now as the South African Cricket season draws to the end...



It's hard to carry momentum with you for nine months but that's the task South Africa have ahead of them after winning the third Test against Australia in Cape Town. Their next Test assignment is not until December 16, when they host England in Centurion for the first of a four-Test series. The only international action they have between the upcoming ODI series against Australia and the visit of England will be the World Twenty20 in England in June and the Champions Trophy in September. However, Jacques Kallis, the stand-in captain who oversaw their victory by an innings and 20 runs at Newlands, said the Test players would still take heart from the dead-rubber win.

Despite good performance in his debut test, Imraan khan has been left out of the ODI squad for South Africa. Albie Morkel impressed with his all round performance in the last test to retain his well established spot in the side. The rest of the squad is contained with players who have impressed not only with their current form but with performances in the past helping South Africa to a number of wins. These names include, Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher,Morne Morkel, Johan Botha, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini.

The big doubt however lied over inclusion of Greame smith who was injured during the second test when he preffered to stay in the dressing room as SA lost the second test. The man showed no courageous efforts as against the last time in Australia where he walked out with a fractured rib to face the final few overs to save the test. He didn't manage to save the wicket for long but South Africa took the series 2-0. Refer here for more. All doubts were cleared as the ODI squad was announced. Smith will be in the team, playing as a captain.

Wayne Pannel, the tall left arm bowler who proved his skills with the game in the one day series that SA won in Australia against Australia. He also finds his spot in the team. The 14-man squad announced for the first 2 one dayers is as follows: Graeme Smith (capt), Herschelle Gibbs, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Mark Boucher (wk), Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Johan Botha, Dale Steyn, Wayne Parnell, Makhaya Ntini.





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