Hosts South Africa got a rude wake-up call in the opening game of the ICC Champions Trophy when Sri Lanka humbled them by 55 runs. This is a fairly significant margin of defeat and the hosts will be worried now that like in the 2003 and 2007 ICC events held in their country they will be spectators rather than participants in it.
Next year’s FIFA Football World Cup is already being looked as an embarassing time for South Africa since they don’t have much of a team and will be out sooner than later and so all hopes are being pinned on their cricket team to give the rainbow nation something to shout about.
In many respects South Africa is similar to Australia. The love for the outdoors and sports is pretty much like the Aussies and both teams play hard and are quite liberal in using gamesmanship to get an advantage. The Australians also know how to get out of tight situations which the South Africans have learned in Tests but have not yet mastered in the limited overs format where more often than not when confronted with a pressure point they have succumbed than fight back.
The game against New Zealand will be another Test of their character for having lost to Sri Lanka they know that they have to beat the Kiwis to stay in the frame for qualification to the next stage of the tournament.
The Lankans walloped their bowling with centurian Dilshan and Sangakarra putting on a big partnership and then the classy Jayawardene and Samaraweera adding another century plus to take the total past 300.
The T20 format has energized limited overs cricket considerably and so 300 plus totals will be par for the course now rather than the exception. It is here that the South Africans miss an all rounder who can come in at No. 7 and blast the bowling. Albie Morkel can fill in that role but he seems to get few overs in which to do so and perhaps a promotion up the batting order may well do the trick for South Africa.
Their quick bowlers also need to use the slower delivery in the power play overs a little more because their extra pace is taking the ball quicker to the boundary as was seen in the game against Sri Lanka.
This is the early season in South Africa so the pitches will take some time to settle down. Ajantha Mendis’ spin bamboozled the South Africans but the noticeable thing was that he and Murali both got turn and that means that spin will have a role to play even on pitches known for pace and bounce.
— Professional Management Group
