Wednesday, January 19, 2011

After failing to chase, RSA fail to defent as well

Well if the second one dayer between India and South Africa at Johannesburg comes in for much criticism from most around the world, the Proteas have yet again made news for the wrong reasons when they failed to win a winning battle which came in defending a rather decent score of 220 on the board with the pitch assisting the bowlers to a greater extent. Some stupid part time bowlers like Yuvraj Singh could control the South African batsmen let alone strike bowlers like Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan. Some Munaf Patel who rarely makes it to the 15 member squad makes his day.

This time, India were playing the hosts without another star player - Sachin Tendulkar in addition to the absence of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The total what the Proteas left before the second innings started was a combined effort of half centuries from the blades of Jean Paul Duminy and Faf Du Plessis, the latter who was making his debut appearance in a one day international. Of course, even South Africa was without their key player in Jacques Kallis, but being the hosts and winning the toss, they should have had no reason to defend their defeat once again.

Batting was looking terribly tough taking the way the South African batsmen were struggling after winning the toss and opting to bat first. However, a 5th wicket partnership of 110 runs between the aforementioned players made all of us feel that the South African players are back in the game which was only half truth. The remaining half being that their bowling was exactly opposite to what their batsmen could manage. The scoreboard which read 200/4 at one point of time in the 45th over eventually ended by freezing at 220 with the hosts losing all their ten wickets, meaning just 20 runs were added before 6 more wickets fell.

Just a couple of days back, South Africa failed to chase down a mere target of 191 after falling 1 run short. And, what happened in the 3rd one dayer has well been depicted. Shortly, the Proteas will be heading to the same venue to against which it is seen reeling even without any sort of pressure. However, the South Africans can tend to relax a little bit, for they are not grouped with India in pool A. But, what if South Africa happens to face India in the quarter final which is a knock out affair? They'll be reminded of the 1996 WC.

I wish the South African players Travel the World before they head on to the sub continent to play the game's most respected tournament - the world cup.

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