How the Proteas dismantled the Poms attack
Roar Rookie By Widget, 27 Jul 2012 Widget is a Roar Rookie
In a modern day heavyweight battle of Test Cricket, the South Africans landed a telling first blow against England.
Despite an average pitch and gloomy conditions, Graeme Smith and his men managed to put on a clinic of some sorts by taking victory by an innings and 12 runs.
Even after losing veteran wicket-keeper to a career ending eye injury and having not much cricket in the lead up to the first Test, the Proteas systematically took apart the all conquering English bowling attack.
The key in the eyes of many experts on a dry and dusty was Graeme Swann. South Africa’s three century makers all used a precise plan to counter the best spinner in world cricket.
Graeme Smith used a a very patient game plan at first against Swann, but once he reached his half century he began to open up with sweep shots.
Triple centurion Hashim Amlan used the age old technique of getting right across to off-stump and playing with the spin of the ball to the leg side.
Legendary all-rounder and number four batsman Jacques Kallis used his trademark technique and aggression to seemingly bully Swann into submission.
After seeing the way South Africa handled Swann, surely more teams will take notice, as it is crucial to beating England.
What do you think Roarers?
The Ashes journey begins
The Australian cricket team have left Australia to begin their tour of England, with a mission to reclaim the Ashes.
Australian captain Michael Clarke and his teammates were optimistic about their chances before jetting off.
Click here to hear the thoughts of our Australian cricket team as they left for England.
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- Cricket, England cricket, Jacques Kallis, South Africa cricket, Test cricket
July 27th 2012 @ 4:35am
Richard said | July 27th 2012 @ 4:35am | Report comment
I think any chance of an English cricketing dynasty, like the recent Aussie one, has just been blown well and truly out of the water.
July 27th 2012 @ 6:00am
k77sujith said | July 27th 2012 @ 6:00am | Report comment
SA is doing Australia a big favour by showing them how to negate the English attack in home conditions with the Ashes being the prime focus on the minds of the Australian cricket fraternity. A masterclass indeed by SA’s top batsmen.
July 27th 2012 @ 8:49am
Disco said | July 27th 2012 @ 8:49am | Report comment
South Africa’s batting is far, far stronger than Australia’s. Negating the English attack isn’t a regular occurrence in English conditions.
July 27th 2012 @ 9:21am
Matt said | July 27th 2012 @ 9:21am | Report comment
I didn’t watch south africa bat, but it’s so annoying when Australia make it look super hard, then another team walks out and it’s a breeze.
July 27th 2012 @ 11:15am
John 360180 said | July 27th 2012 @ 11:15am | Report comment
How many Australians would make the South African top 7?
Clarke possibly?
How many Australian bowlers would replace the English top 4?
Can’t see how we will bowl out South Africa twice in any match over our summer.
At this early stage can’t see us winning a test in England next year.
All the best.
July 27th 2012 @ 12:45pm
Rhys said | July 27th 2012 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
Though it was sad to see Boucher have his stellar career ended by a freak injury, in a way his departure from the team has served to strengthen an already tough South African team.
If Devilliers’ batting stays relatively unaffected by the added burden of keeping duties, South African have much more flexibility in team selection. Four of their top six are genuinely world class batsman (Smith, Amla, Kallis, Devilliers), whilst Rudolph, Duminy and Petersen are solid backup. Any one of the last three could be dropped to make way for another spin bowling option (say a Botha to partner Tahir), or an extra seamer, whatever the pitch conditions dictate.
Steyne, Morkel and Philander are the equal of any other international pace trio, not to mention Kallis. I think we’ll get a really strong indicator of just how good the Australians really are when they do battle against the Proteas this coming summer.
July 27th 2012 @ 1:40pm
Pope Paul VII said | July 27th 2012 @ 1:40pm | Report comment
Not sure about AB ( although it’s nice he’s adopted Allan Border’s initials ) being keeper. The insane english selectors stuffed Alec Stewart’s batting in that role. Although he might be lucky to get a bat at this rate.
I’m sure the pomsters will come back hard but SA do appear stronger.
July 27th 2012 @ 9:13pm
Pirate said | July 27th 2012 @ 9:13pm | Report comment
He is not a Test keeper at all…
July 27th 2012 @ 3:25pm
Sid said | July 27th 2012 @ 3:25pm | Report comment
The first two comments are a joke and show true ignorance. First the Poms were never going to have the cricketing dynasty like ours as they don’t have truely great cricketers. The West Indes of the late 70′s 80′s and early 90′s had some of the quickest and skillful bowlers the world has seen and hunted in packs. They also had a great openers a brillant middle order and decnt wicket keeper. We didn’t have the same in the pace stakes but had one of the best in McGrath, backed up by very good seamers, the best spinners the world has seen and probably the same as them in batting. The only difference being Gilly being better wicket keeper batsman. I wouldn’t like to be drawn on who was better but they both had greats of the game backed up by world class or very good test players. The current England team has a couple of world class players backed up by some good test players and couple of average players but no great players (cook might be). The same goes for SA and the rest of world cricket. So to mock someone not doing what we and the windes does is frankly stupid and obviously just a wind up.
The second comment about SA showing us how to beat the Poms is also stupid. Their batsmen are stronger than us and I believe play the moving ball better (even though in the last test the poms didn’t do much with it). Even if we do beat them out here we still have to go to England and play the swinging / seaming ball. Its one thing watching some of the best batsmen in the world do it and another for ours to do it.
After all is said and done it was a very good victory for SA and I do believe that they are better than England across the board. Not by much but better. What makes test cricket so interesting at the mioment is there are no stand out teams. On a given day SA, Aust, Eng, Ind Pak and Sri can beat the others especially in home conditions. SA and Eng are the best as they have strenght in depth and work better as a team but the others can beat them. We can go to England and win of that there is no doubt but we will have to play at the top of our game. We don’t think because SA makes them look average that we will.
July 28th 2012 @ 11:11am
Richard said | July 28th 2012 @ 11:11am | Report comment
Get off your high horse, whats wrong with winding up the Poms. And regarding your spiel, tell us something we don’t know next time
July 27th 2012 @ 8:41pm
Pirate said | July 27th 2012 @ 8:41pm | Report comment
The South Africans did well to win their first match against England. However their excitement from this thumping victory has clouded their objective judgement. They have failed to critic individual perfomances of SA players during this match…..
AB De Villiers is not a test wicketkeeper. He dropped a sitter of a catch, let through 11 byes and missed a run out. Even some of the balls that he took from behind you could see that he is not a keeper but a good fielder that has been used to keeping. He should just keep on bating and give the gloves to Thami Tsolekile. The myth that this Thami bloke cant bat buffles me. Thami has been averaging at 46 over the past 3 seasons and has taken 103 catches, which is more than any of the local keepers. Im sure he cant do any worse than Mark Boucher has already done in his last 15 tests, where hes scored just 378 runs at an average of 22.
The real problem that SA has is not the No7 position as everyone believes… Rudolph and Petersen seem to be struggling a bit. Duminy might be troubled by Swann as he has been in the past… This will leave a huge load on Kallis, Smith , Amla and AB…
July 27th 2012 @ 10:55pm
jason8 said | July 27th 2012 @ 10:55pm | Report comment
The reason for the big win is quite simple…. It was a dry flat pitch patently unenglish conditions which the English have failed miserably to adapt to in the Sub continent against Pak and India. Its BS that they even have this Test ranking with some of their results in the sub…
English bowlers rely on swing in utterly crazy and variable weather not truly suited to the game of cricket – it astounds me that they are the originators of a game that is so weather reliant !
July 28th 2012 @ 9:10am
Disco said | July 28th 2012 @ 9:10am | Report comment
They didn’t rely on such conditions when they won three Tests by an innings in the last Ashes series.