South Africa Too Bad A Hosts

Well it was the same Sri Lanka way back in 2003 that spoilt all hopes of South Africa making it to the second round of the ICC World Cup in South Africa. There it was Marvan Atapattu who blasted 124 that was aided with 18 hits to the fence off 129 balls, that was well supported by Aravinda De Silva who added another 73 runs, that too aided with the help of 6 fours and 2 huge sixes. That match was a real nerve tester for the Proteas after their initial loss at the hands of West Indies and New Zealand. South Africa were just 1 run short of the victory target which was 230 and a wrong signal from the dressing room ended up in such debacle.

Otherwise, there was good work done in by Herschelle Gibbs who scored 73 (88 balls) and an unbeaten 45 from Mark Boucher. I guess, from then onwards, the South African team, in addition to 15 players, a coach and a manager would have included an abacus or a calculator to avoid such disasters. That was also a rain hit match like yesterday's which imposed a Duckworth Lewis total of 262 runs from 37.2 overs. Not a bad target or an unachievable one for South Africa but, Sri Lanka was too strong for the Proteas to overcome. Sri Lanka's efforts shouldn't go unrewarded?

One has to indeed pity the South African captain Greame Smith who along with ace batsman Jacques Kallis put up a strong foundation for the South African chase. As the Duckworth Lewis method always does, this time as well the run rate shot up from the previous one at 6.4 to just below 7 runs an over for South Africa. And what better can South Africa do with no recognized batsmen in the side to lead the batting? More than pointing fingers towards South Africa, one has to really appreciate Sri Lanka for outplaying South Africa in all departments of the game.

This was the first ime that Sri Lanka beat South Africa in an ICC Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka had lost to South Africa in the inaugural edition of the ICC Champions Trophy in a league stage match which in that tournament was a knock out one, meaning a team that loses its first match will have to wind up from the tournament which is not the case in these days. Sri Lanka lost their match to the proteas under Hansie Cronje when they were all out for 198. South Africa went on to win the series. Then in 2006, Sri Lanka yet again lost to South Africa in the league stages of the tournament held at India.

Australia As Good As India

If at all there can be any team in the world who can win five out of five tests, it has to be either Australia or England for, it has been only these two teams who play a five match test series. While the remaining teams play at the most 4 tests like India played the West Indies in 2006 and the Border Gavaskar trophy played between India and Australia. However, there have been many 7 match one day international series involving all major teams barring Bangladesh and Zimbabwe (as far as my knowledge goes). And, I guess only Australia have been able to achieve 5 out of 5 test victories.

However, coming to the 7 match ODI series involving Australia and England in the recently concluded one day series in the Nat West Trophy 2009, Australia needless to be said had all chances of whitewashing England yet another time by winning all the 7 ODIs to be the first team in the world to do so, which was not the case whatsoever. I remember India winning 6 out of seven one day matches against Sri Lanka in 2005 when Sri Lanka had visited India for a 7 match one day series. Then, India had won 5 out of 5 matches in yet another 7 match ODI series against England in November last year.

However, things were not in favour of India and more so against a team that had all chances of making it 7-0. It is all owing to the dreadful terror attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 which restricted the 7 match ODI series to just 5. So, the challenge of winning a 7 match series 7-0 still needs to be achieved. Let alone winning the match by Australia, the Aussies never behaved as though they have had the earlier 6 matches in their pockets. A total of mere 176, which England overtook with as many as 60 balls or 10 overs to spare really asks for more evidence of Australia's dominance of the Nat West series.

One should never forget that until their defeat at the hands of England in the 7th one dayer, they had been enjoying the number 1 position in one day cricket along with South Africa. And after their debacle in this match, Australia slump to the third position behind India and obviously South Africa. This was also the case with India in the recently concluded tri nation tournament involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand. India became the number 1 team in one day cricket after their win against New Zealand, only to lose the plot after their loss at the hands of Sri Lanka. However, even their win against the same in the finals could not get India back to number 1. So was the case with Australia as well.