THE SOUTH AFRICAN CRICKET TEAM

Popularly known as The Proteas, the South African Cricket Team is one of the stronger teams of the world. This cricket team is administrated by Cricket South Africa. The South African cricket team is a full member of the International Cricket Council with participation is test and one day matches.

South Africa is currently ranked 2nd in one day internationals according to ICC ratings. South Africa has not won a single major tournament so far; in fact it has the uncanny knack of doing everything right till the final, before finally losing out steam. In spite of such failings, no one has any doubts about South Africa supremacy, next to Australia, in world cricket.

History
South Africa started its World Cup campaign in 1992. Since then it has reached semi-final twice and is yet to win the world cup.

Players
Herschelle Gibbs is an attacking batsman and a brilliant one on his day. Australians will not forget in hurry Herschelle Gibbs’ onslaught against them in the historic one-day in Johannesburg, where he guided South Africa to victory with 111-ball 175. Jacques Kallis is one of the best all-rounders in business. A lot of South Africa’s fortunes will be resting on the broad shoulders of this gifted player. Shaun Pollock has to lead the new ball bowling attack with Makhaya Ntini, who too is an impressive seamer. The former, being more experienced and accurate will be expected to provide early breakthroughs to the South African side.

Performance
It was simply the clash of the titans when Australia came to South Africa for a series against them in February 2006. The ODIs, as expected, were evenly contested and ended 3-2 in the favor of the hosts. The Australians swept the tests matches, much to the disappointment of the home crowd. The tests debacle notwithstanding, the ODI results showed that, if at all, only a thin margin separates the one-day sides of Australia and South Africa

Due to some unfortunate reasons of grave security concerns, South Africa pulled out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka. India was to be the third team in the tournament. The tri series, which ultimately got called of, would have been an acid-test for the South African side, where its ability to adapt under different conditions would have been sorely tested.

Chances in the 2007 World Cup
South Africa has lost venom in its play after the 2003 world cup. Authorities should be working hard to find new talent and induct them as soon as possible. Though South African team has not won any world cup, it has posted superb challenges to the opposing teams. South African side abounds in talent, what they could do with more is a little bit of luck. South Africa is the only side that has been beating the Australian side consistently and looks the most likely of the teams to quash Australia’s hopes of winning the world cup thrice in a row.

India pin hopes on fresh legs in Sri Lanka one-dayers

India open a five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in Dambulla on Monday hoping to erase unhappy memories of their last encounter.

Sri Lanka dashed India’s hopes of winning a major title in the sub-continent in their previous one-day international, winning the Asia Cup final by a comfortable 100-run margin in Karachi last month.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his young side needed to be positive against the hosts, especially spin sensation Ajantha Mendis who has been looking virtually unplayable in recent matches.

Mendis did not allow even Indian veterans Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Venkatsai Laxman to settle in, claiming 26 wickets in his team’s 2-1 win over the tourists in a recent Test series.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dhoni, who had opted out of the Test series due to fatigue, was confident his side would rise to the occasion.
“It’s an energetic side with youngsters,” said Dhoni.

“Sri Lanka is one of the toughest places to play cricket as you don’t get a lot of runs on slow, low wickets. You have to always stay positive.”

Dhoni is one of the seven players to join the squad for the one-dayers, the others being batsmen Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Subramaniam Badrinath, all-rounder Irfan Pathan and paceman Praveen Kumar.

India were undone by an unorthodox Sri Lankan pair in Karachi, with aggressive opener Sanath Jayasuriya hammering a brisk century under pressure and Mendis grabbing six wickets for 13 runs.

Dhoni’s side appeared to have gained a big advantage when they reduced Sri Lanka to 66-4, but Jayasuriya smashed 125 off 114 balls with five sixes in a superb exhibition of clean and powerful hitting.
Jayasuriya is the second-highest scorer in one-day internationals with 12,688 runs, behind only Sachin Tendulkar (16,361).

Only five other batsmen — Pakistan’s Inzamam-u-Haq, Australian Ricky Ponting, West Indian Brian Lara and Indians Ganguly and Dravid — have completed 10,000 runs in one-day internationals.

“It will be an exciting one-day series. They will want to make sure (after losing the Test series) that they go home with a win in one-dayers,” said Jayasuriya, who has quit Test cricket.

The Indian batsmen will need to be at their best against Sri Lankan spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Mendis, who are expected to call the shots on a slow pitch at the Rangiri International Stadium here.

India expect big guns to boom in vital Sri Lanka Test

COLOMBO: India will be looking forward to handsome contributions from their famed middle order in the crucial third and final Test against Sri Lanka starting here on Friday.

The series is tied 1-1, with Sri Lanka winning the opening Test by an innings and 239 runs in Colombo, and India bouncing back with a 170-run victory in the second match in Galle. India have quality batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Venkatsai Laxman, but they rarely looked at their best in the last two Tests. Laxman is the only middle-order batsman to have cracked a half-century in four innings, while Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly have failed to convert good starts into big knocks. Tendulkar, chasing retired West Indies captain Brian Lara’s world record of 11,953 Test runs, has so far contributed 75 in two matches, with 31 being his highest score. He is now 97 runs short of the record. All the middle-order batsmen were troubled by Sri Lankan spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, who shared 34 wickets in two matches.

Mendis, an unorthodox spinner with plenty of variation, grabbed 18 wickets and off-spinner Muralitharan 16. They are expected to play major roles in the final match. India captain Anil Kumble was confident the middle-order batsmen would return to big-scoring ways. “Everybody has got starts. Sachin was batting brilliantly in the second innings (in Galle) and Rahul also,” he said after the second Test. “Sourav spent some time in the opening match, but did not get an opportunity in Galle. Laxman has been among runs, so it (middle order) is not really a worry.” That India managed to square the series without sizable contributions from the middle-order batsmen was mainly due to the excellent form of openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

Sehwag buried Sri Lanka’s spin threat with an exciting strokeplay in the last match, hammering an unbeaten 201 in his team’s first-innings total of 329 and a half-century in the second. He was named man of the match. Gambhir made successive half-centuries in Galle, helping Sehwag add 167 for the opening wicket in the first innings and 90 in the second. In contrast, Sri Lanka are still looking for a solid start from their openers. Michael Vandort’s form is the main worry as he has contributed just 17 runs in three innings. The hosts also expect their fast bowlers to keep pressure on India. Veteran left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas has so far taken four wickets and Nuwan Kulasekara one. India’s pace attack looked sharper in the last match, with Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan sending the hosts reeling at 10-3 in the opening four overs. Sri Lanka could never recover from the early blows and were bundled out for 136 chasing a 307-run target.

India will be without coach Gary Kirsten, who left Tuesday for his native South Africa to be with his ailing mother. “There is a lot of expertise in the team. There are five guys who have captained India, so it will just be a case of coordinating the expertise that’s already there,” said Paddy Upton, a member of India’s coaching staff. “Individually, each person needs to take some responsibility to contribute to the win. We are very confident and comfortable that we have got the players in the team who can win us this Test match.” afp