In the end, England were not able to produce a third great escape to win the Test series here in South Africa. But had they held on for a couple of extra hours at the Wanderers on Sunday they might have just managed to do it.

Johannesburg was hit by a huge thunderstorm in the afternoon which would have washed out any play after tea - and on Monday the city was hit by heavy rain and dark cloud which may have made conditions impossible on what would have been the scheduled final day.

Whether it would have been right for England to win the series is obviously highly debatable although this morning’s newspapers here in South Africa leave you in little doubt about what they think.

Stuart Hess, writing in the Johannesburg Star, states: “There are those who believe that England deserved to get something out of the Test series. They’d be wrong. The outcome was not a true reflection of the standard these two sides displayed, for South Africa were much the better team. England were resilient throughout, showed a lot of character, but even their own captain recognised they were the inferior team.”

Despite England’s rather disappointing capitulation yesterday morning it has overall been a gripping Test series. As England clung on to nail-biting draws at Centurion and Newlands we got a great picture through your e-mails and texts of how you were nervously listening to Test Match Special.

It was almost too much for TMS new boy Michael Vaughan at Newlands who turned to Jonathan Agnew during the final over to say “I’m sorry Aggers, I just can’t watch this”. Jonathan quickly replied: “I’m sorry you’ve got to. Remember how many times you put us through this sort of thing when you were captain.”

One of my favourite stories of people listening to the series came from Steve in Oxford who e-mailed us when England were taking important wickets one afternoon. He told us: “I am currently invigilating an exam and just jumped for joy at that wicket, disturbed everyone, but I Read more…

Administrator RSA vs ENG Adil Rashid, Alastair Cook, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cape Town, Centurion, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Duncan Fletcher, ECB, England, Geoff Boycott, ICC, Johannesburg, Michael Vaughan, South Africa, Stuart Hess, UAE, UDRS, Wanderers, Yorkshire

A game in which batsmen score at more than eight an over is great entertainment, sure, but great cricket? Not really

After that Wanderers game , I argued long and hard with those who thought it a great game of cricket. Nearly four years on, my views haven’t changed. In the days to come, many will speak of Rajkot as another classic. Some opportunists might even come out with commemorative DVDs, but nothing will change the facts. A game in which batsmen score at more than eight an over hardly constitutes an even tussle between bat and ball. Great entertainment, sure. Great cricket? Not really.

If you want to watch a real classic, watch how Pakistan chased down New Zealand’s total in the World Cup semi-final in 1992, or better still, go and watch footage of the greatest one-day match of all, Edgbaston 1999. Until there’s a tie in a World Cup final, that will remain the greatest cricket played in coloured clothes. The enormity of the occasion and what was at stake ensured as much.

There were two big differences between Rajkot and the Wanderers though. Back then, Mick Lewis and Nathan Bracken had a meltdown in the final stages, while Mark Boucher and Johan van der Wath produced the cameos that got South Africa over the line. At Rajkot, Thilina Kandamby and Angelo Mathews whittled the target down to 15 from 12 balls before lack of experience and basic technique played into Indian hands. And while the figures may suggest Lewis-style outings, both Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra were superb with the older ball, pinging in yorkers at will.

Built on solid Arjuna Ranatunga lines, Kandamby is no natural athlete, but only he can tell you what he was doing running to the bowler’s end with bat poised in mid-air. Both he and Mathews, who holed out to midwicket in the final over, were also unfortunate in that they found one of the few Indians who can actually field. He may be going on 37, but Sachin Tendulkar seldom makes the schoolboy errors that his more lithe, whippersnapper colleagues are periodically guilty of.

Virat Kohli was the biggest culprit in this game, putting down Upul Tharanga at point early in the innings. Geoffrey Boycott wasn’t in the commentary box, otherwise we’d most certainly have heard how his mum would have snaffled it while brandishing a stick of rhubarb, Read more…

Administrator IND vs SL Angelo Mathews, Arjuna Ranatunga, Ashish Nehra, Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Geoffrey Boycott, Graeme Smith, Harbhajan, Johan van der Wath, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mark Boucher, MS Dhoni, Rajkot, Sachin Tendulkar, Sangakkara, South Africa, Tendulkar, Thilina Kandamby, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Virender Sehwag, Wanderers, World Cup, Zaheer Khan

When South Africa were knocked out of their own party, and India followed suit, there was palpable fear over how the public would take to the remainder of the tournament. There are few sights as disturbing as empty stands at a tournament where organisers spend millions just getting the show together.

While the sale of television rights has largely obviated the need to have full houses, and gate collections mean less and less to the bottomline, the true gauge of the success of any sport is how the paying public takes to it. Understandably, all of South Africa’s games were packed and the India-Pakistan match was sold out well in advance.

In the latter half of the competition, Centurion consistently had good crowds, and the Pakistan-New Zealand semifinal at Wanderers was watched by over 18,000 people.

In a tournament of 15 matches, there were almost no meaningless encounters, with even the West Indies stretching Australia in their league game. The India-Pakistan match had all the elements you would expect, and the Pakistan-Australia game was decided on the very last ball of the game. In Australia’s comprehensive win over England, Ricky Ponting played an innings that is unlikely to be surpassed in terms of quality.

The big question before the tournament began was whether there was life left in ODIs yet. The main objection seemed to be that the middle overs, from the 16th to the 40th over, were predictable and boring. The optional batting powerplay has gone some way in Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brett Lee, Centurion, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, England, India, New Zealand, ODI, Pakistan, Ricky Ponting, South Africa, Wanderers, West Indies

The most astonishing match of the Champions Trophy, with all results possible till the last ball, saw India knocked out of the tournament and Australia confirmed as toppers of Group A, from which Pakistan also qualified.

While India were busy skittling West Indies out at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, their fate was sealed when Australia held their nerve to win a last-ball thriller against Pakistan. Indian fans at the Wanderers used every possible means — television, radio, mobile phones — to keep track of the action at Centurion.

Even India’s players, out on the dressing-room balcony, while the openers began the chase of 130, were glued to the television and cheered as Rana Naved-ul-Hasan bowled a 47th over maiden.

When the last over began, with Nathan Hauritz and Brett Lee at the crease, and four runs needed, the game was slipping out of Pakistan’s grasp, and the exit door beckoned India.

When Lee drove Umar Gul past mid-on for a penultimate ball single, the scores were tied and India were out. With the pressure of qualifying off them, Australia scampered a leg-bye off the last ball, winning by two wickets.

Until Australia began their chase on what was a tricky pitch to bat on, several questions were raised about why Pakistan batted as they did, with abundant caution, to reach 205/6 from 50 overs.

Despite having wickets, Pakistan’s batsmen barely accelerated, even failing to make use of the powerplay. When Australia batted, and themselves struggled, as Pakistan put Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brett Lee, Centurion, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, India, Johannesburg, Pakistan, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Ricky Ponting, Umar Gul, Wanderers

The standard of cricket played in the Champions Trophy so far has been good without being exceptional but I’m certain it’s just a matter of time before the tournament catches fire with some brilliant individual performances or a classic contest or two.

Sadly, some attention was drawn away from the cricket by a ridiculous ‘scandal’ involving the Indian team and its coach, Gary Kirsten who I have known for a very long time.

Sex and the effect it has on sporting performance is a serious subject and has been the subject of much debate and scientific research for decades. Personally I don’t have a view because I’m not qualified.

As long as players get enough sleep and are well rested then I’m happy. But I’m obviously interested in any research which might give my team an edge with their preparation.

We have a qualified medical team and I let them get on with their jobs and I know that Gary does likewise which is why Paddy Upton, who deals with physical conditioning, wrote the document for the players.

I understand it is eight months old and formed a tiny part of a comprehensive dossier on physical preparation.

I have always had a very good relationship with the media but I think I would have found it extremely hard not to be angry if I was in Gary Kirsten’s position. The cheap, tabloid journalists who twist innocent stories to create sensation obviously have no idea of the effect they have on peoples’ lives.

Back to the cricket. Having a major tournament this early in the South African season has obviously caused a few problems for the groundsmen at the Wanderers and Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy Blogs.CMDN.com, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Gary Kirsten, Johan Botha, Pakistan, scandal, Sri Lanka, SuperSport Park, van der Merwe, Wanderers

There are things New Zealand can do to beat South Africa’s Proteas other than pray for invasions by dogs or raindrops - although I note that last time I checked it was thunderstorms and lightning, very, very frightening over there.

Here’s a quick 10 to consider - feel free to chip away with your own…

* See if we can arrange to play somewhere other than Centurion. Too late for this of course but it would be nice as the Africans have beaten us there all three times we’ve played. Let’s at least pray we have packed our economy rates in our coffins as we’ve conceded 314 and 324 in front of the grassy embankments of the ground formerly known as SuperSport Park.

* Eradicate legside addict and compulsive puller Graeme ‘Le Muppet’ Smith early. Might be worth putting 5 bucks on him to be dismissed bowled too: he is 4th on the all-time list of most likely to get out in that fashion (27% of all his ODI dismissals).

* Not succumb to the skiddy pace of the man who looks like Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Dale Steyn. We shouldn’t either - his only return against us in ODIs is 2/50 from 9 overs although he did snare both openers that day back in December 2007.

* Whoooooh big ol’ Jesse Ryder to make his debut against South Africa in one-dayers with an innings to remember, punctuated with limited running between the wickets, cheeky grins, crashing drives, Kluseneresque slogs, and a memorable bandanna.

* Put pressure on AB de Villers - he is the South Africans’ banker in terms of runs. He Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy, New Zealand AB de Villers, Blogs.CMDN.com, Bond, Broom, Butler, Centurion, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dale Steyn, Elliott, Graeme Smith, Guptill, Jesse Ryder, McCullum, Mills, New Zealand, Oram, Ryder, Shaun Pollock, South Africa, SuperSport Park, Taylor, Vettori, Wanderers

Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower have plenty to think about ahead of the Champions Trophy in South Africa

There are perils in becoming a freelance. It is always possible that no one will want to offer any work, but this weekend cricket’s most prominent freelancer and first tax exile must be sitting pretty somewhere in Dubai.

Andrew Flintoff knows that once he can walk again, he will stroll right back into the England one-day side, always assuming that there is not a better offer on the table to play elsewhere. England have been so insipid in the past fortnight that Flintoff would be welcomed back with open arms if only because his presence in the dressing room appears to promote confidence.

Just remember how dire England were throughout the Headingley Test in Flintoff’s absence. Their performances in six one-day internationals have been no better, the sole consolation for the two Andrews, Strauss and Flower, being that the team’s ineptitude does not seem to matter so much. This summer will still be remembered for England’s Ashes victory rather than their NatWest humiliation.

Even so it has been a degenerating mess. Australia have been invigorated by this tournament, seizing it as a chance to regain some pride after the Ashes defeat and to prepare for the Champions Trophy, which begins in South Africa on Tuesday. The England players are either exhausted (Paul Collingwood, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Matt Prior) or incompetent (the rest with the honourable exception of Strauss).

There has been a major turnover in personnel since that joyous afternoon at The Oval Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy, England Adil Rashid, an Bell, Andrew Flintoff, Andrews Strauss, Ashes, Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brett Lee, Centurion, Chester-le-Street, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dubai, ECB, Eoin Morgan, Flower, ICC, James Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright, Matt Prior, Mitchell Johnson, New Zealand, Paul Collingwood, South Africa, Sri Lanka, stuart broad, The Oval, Twenty20, Wanderers

South African cricket reminds me of the man who deliberately bumps his head over and over again against the wall.

Why are you doing that? asks an incredulous observer. Because it feels so good when I stop, he explains.

Mtutuzeli Nyoka would not approve. He is a humane man, gentle to boot, and an anaesthetist at that.

He would, in normal circumstances, prescribe something rather more soothing to prevent the pain.

But he didn’t. Instead, he convened his Members Forum to vote in favour of big-time cricket being banned at the Wanderers.

In case you don’t know, the Members Forum is Cricket South Africa’s 20-person committee that largely comprises the presidents of all its affiliates. They are a bunch of, shall we say, members, and apparently should not have been involved in the first place in CSA’s fight with the Gauteng Cricket Board.

In fact, there is a strong suspicion that some of these members couldn’t organise Read more…

Administrator South Africa Blogs.CMDN.com, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, CSA, GCB, ICC Champions Trophy, South African, Wanderers