Hope ACSU wasn’t sleeping while England Vs South Africa match today
on March 6th, 2011 at 7:41 pmSouth Africa chasing a meagre total of 171 choked once again. It was a match which produced unusual surprises for the fans but must have been a delight for the book makers.
In the last three matches that England played, it was their bowlers who let them down but in this match it was their batsmen who let them down. The conditions were a bit difficult but the fall of top three wickets within the first four overs had nothing to do with conditions, first to go was Andrew Strauss who danced down the track on the third ball he faced in an attempt to hit the ball out of the park, unfortunately he hit straight to a fielder. Two balls later Kevin Pieterson decided to provide some catching practice to the fielder in slip, his struggle in handling left arm orthodox leg spinners is not over yet. Two overs later England were 15/3 when Ian Bell tried to use his feet but got beaten in flight and popped a return catch to Patterson.
Jonathon Trott and Bopara compiled a 100 run partnership in 25 overs and restored England’s innings to some extent, it wasn’t a high scoring track the spinners were getting some movement and the ball was keeping low, 220 was going to be a decent score. After 29 overs England were 115/4 they were still on for a par score, but England took a freefall from there and produced a spectecular collapse, they were all out in 45.4 overs the last six wickets could add only 56 runs.
Even though the conditions were a bit difficult but a total of 171 for this South African batting line up should have been a walk in the park specially when the English bowlers gave away an average of more than 300 runs in their previous three games.
South Africa got off to a good start they lost their first wicket in the 15th over when their score was 63, nobody at that stage could have imagined that South Africa will end up losing the match, from 63/1 South Africa slipped to 82/3 within a few overs, Stuart Broad and James Anderson who were pathetic in their previous outings all of a sudden gained full form and just ripped through South African batting line up.
AB De Villiers and F du Plessis who usually play aggressively strangely played quite defensively, they scored just 42 runs from the next 13 overs, considering the fact that 10 out of these 13 overs were bowled by Pieterson, Bresnan and Yardy it was a poor effort on all accounts especially when AB De Villers came to this match after scoring two back to back centuries.
South Africa were 124/4 after 32 overs when AB De Villiers got out, they were still favorites to win the match with six wickets in hand and 18 overs to go with only 47 runs to get, but they lost three wickets in the next three overs and collapsed in a similar fashion as the English team did.
We can shower accolades on the English team for providing us with another exciting match but I am still confused how did Anderson and Broad came into form all of a sudden, did they ate something special or were they flogged nonstop by their coaching staff after the match against Ireland. Whatever it was, form doesn’t change overnight. I am not taking any credit away from both bowlers this wasn’t a performance which they haven’t produced ever before but the way they were struggling to find any rythym, movement and line/length in their previous outings in this world cup it was a bit astonishing for me how quickly they came back into form.
How come Anderson all of a sudden found his reverse swing? Did he used a magic potion? A magic hair gel? or just used the same old spikes?
The Odds on the street were completely defied in this match in all four stages of this match. I hope that ACSU officials weren’t sleeping during this match, and won’t believe in statements like “the Chokers have choked again” and the English team has been excitingly inconsistent, if they investigate all unusual scoring and match patterns as they have claimed from time to time then they should also investigate this match, as this match was played in a way that the book makers must have made a killing out there as all the events in the match defied the odds on the street and South African innings was a classical example of starting strong and then collapsing to lose the match while chasing a very small target.They should have won the match comfortably.
Stani
I kind of expected this to happen. The performance of Broad and Anderson in the last match puts a question mark over their performance in the previous matches. And SA’s innings was a classic example of how a fixed match progresses a strong start and then a huge collapse, the strong start ensures that huge bets are placed on the batting teams victory and if a collapse happens later on the book makers make a killing.
The book makers are not going to go out of business, I am glad that they will find their recruits in other teams and now other teams will become beautifully inconsistent like Pakistan.
Smiths after-match interview was strange too Wasim. He didnt seem too concerned. Was it because they’re gonna qualify anyway or was it because he was wary of not bringing up the chokers subject again?
I think England certainly played more like we would expect them to so. Their batting which had done well so far was maybe due a collapse. The S.A batting did surprise me though. They were in a very good position a number of times and could have seen it out easily but didn’t
Eng have brought in Morgan for Pietersen now. I think they will be stronger.