Cricket Tournaments

England's Team Celebrate after defeating South Africa in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

Even as India were battling Ireland on one hand, England pulled off nothing short of a major upset against South Africa, considering their shocking defeat against the Irish. And what the Englishmen’s victory over the Proteas has ensured is that the battle for top spot in Group B remains wide open. It wasn’t a convincing performance from England by any stretch of the imagination. However, a crumbling pitch and below par batting effort combined by some good under pressure bowling from England saw the game tilt in the bowling side’s favour. It is a win that will give England some much-needed confidence following two winless games.

Things did not look great for England at the start of the game when they kept losing wickets on a difficult pitch. But to their credit, they fought back well with the ball to resurrect their World Cup hopes. England’s win can basically to credit to a few hard-fought performances under pressure. With the bat it was Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara, who played saviours for the Englishmen. Had it not been for the duo, England wouldn’t have been in with a chance at all irrespective of the nature of the pitch. In hindsight, both Trott and Bopara assessed the conditions perfectly as they went about rebuilding the innings in the perfect manner. Not going for the big shots, Trott and Bopara steadied the England innings by rotating the strike and picking up all the runs on offer. It was their effort that England at least had an outside chance of going for victory. However, one shouldn’t forget Graeme Swann’s effort with the bat as well. Getting away some crucial boundaries in the final power play overs proved to be highly decisive for England as they ended by winning by a mere five runs. The off-spinner’s contribution with the bat has often been underestimated, but on this occasion he deserves credit for his handy knock.

If Swann played his part with the bat, he did a commendable job with the ball as well, getting the better of opposition skipper Graeme Smith with a wonderful delivery that did enough to take the gloves of Smith and land into a safe hand behind the wickets. Even as Swann bowled, it were Stuart Broad and James Anderson who did the bulk of the damage. England needed Anderson to get among the wickets sooner rather than later. And thankfully for them, he found his bearings as he managed to find some reverse swing midway through the innings and gave his team the crucial breakthroughs that kept them in the game. From England’s perspective, hopefully Anderson will bowl with a renewed vigour in the future games ahead.

If Anderson gave England a foot in the door, it was Broad to broke open the door to victory. Like Anderson, he also used the moving ball to great effect as the Proteas crumbled under the ever growing pressure. Not only did Broad keep getting wickets at regular intervals, but also maintained a tight line and length, maintaining the pressure throughout. This was an absolutely essential aspect of his bowling as England weren’t defending a huge score and hence needed to keep the runs down to the minimum.

Even though the bowlers took England to victory, it was apt that the man of the match award went to Bopara. On a bowling pitch, his effort was a definite standout. Coming in as a last minute replacement for Eoin Morgan, Bopara has performed credibly for his team in the World Cup. Against Netherlands, it was his cameo that took away the pressure they were placed under. And, against South Africa too, he stood amidst the ruins. Speaking of Morgan, there is further good news for England as he himself will now be flown in as a replacement for the injured Kevin Pietersen, who has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament. While Pietersen’s injury is not the best piece of news to come out of the English camp, it might well be a silent blessing in disguise for them as Morgan is just the kind of player England need to shore up their eleven. And if they can show further improvement in their bowling and fielding, the English will still be a force to reckon with, the disaster against Ireland notwithstanding.

If the win did a lot of good for England, the loss should serve as a timely wake-up call for South Africa who, until then, were firmly entrenched on top of the table. The defeat has pushed them right down to number four. Of course they will not stay down there for long and should make it to the quarter finals. However, it was their inability to chase down a moderate total against a team low on confidence that should worry them. True, the conditions were extremely difficult and the bowlers were on top once they got through the cream of the batting. However, this is where top teams are adept at battling adversity.

To win the World Cup should be able to perform and overcome the worst of conditions. This is where Australia were so good at their peak. South Africa, unfortunately, have often crumbled in such situations, which explains why they are yet to lay their hand on the coveted trophy. Four years back they succumbed to Bangladesh on a pitch that assisted their spinners, and here again they faltered to battle the tough conditions. It is not so much their so called choking habit but the inability to perform in challenging conditions despite having all the talent in the world that has proved to be the bane of South African cricket. And that needs to change if they want to be crowned as the number one team in the world.

The upcoming games will give us clear idea of how far South Africa have progressed in the abovementioned aspect over the years. And, it was also play a major role in determining how far the Proteas progress in this tournament.

A late Peter Siddle brace gave Australia the upper hand at the end of day one of the first Ashes Test at Cardiff. Andrew Flintoff and Matt Prior had put on 86 in just 15.5 overs before Siddle removed them both on the stroke of stumps – England ended the day on 336-7.

England captain Andrew Strauss won the toss, and chose to bat – hoping that the selection of two spinners would come into their favour come days 4 and 5. Australia took the shock selection to drop Stuart Clark and to play both Ben Hilfenhaus and off-spinner Nathan Hauritz.

Alastair Cook fell in a lapse in concentration – and to a great catch too. Pushing at a ball off Hilfenhaus around a foot wide of his off stump, Michael Hussey was the great full recipient of a superb catch diving to his right.

The bowling of Mitchell Johnson and Siddle imparticular was very encouraging for Australia. Both got some early life out of the pitch, Strauss’ dismissal a short ball that climbed on him from Johnson that he could only fend to Michael Clarke.

Ravi Bopara’s dismissal showed his inexperience. After struggling during the morning session – being hit in the throat of Siddle and suriving chipping a slower ball just over the in field. It was another Johnson slower ball that did for the Essex batsman. You would hope that his scores against the West Indies are a sign of his quality – rather than the lack there of, of the opposition. But Bopara looked uncomfortable throughout on one of the more passive pitches that we will play on this series.

At lunch England were 97/3 – The Australians the happier of the two sides going into lunch – England with work to do in their first innings.

In the afternoon session Australia turned to spin, in the form of Nathan Hauritz and Michael Clarke. Despite the odd miss-sweep from Pietersen England looked comfortable, with scoreboard ticking along – albeit slowly – England were just glad to gain regroup after losing wickets regularly in the first session.

Hauritz struggled – but first day is always going to be difficult – even on a pitch that will ultimately offer spin for the bowlers. Ricky Pontings inability to keep a hold on the game was apparent, boy how he misses Shane Warne right now.

Pietersen survived a huge LBW shout of Ben Hilfenhaus. But it was Collingwood who was first to fall, snicking Hilfenhaus to wicket keeper Brad Haddin, who took a confidence boosting catch diving away to his right after two similar drops in the warm up game at new road. The partnership worth 138.

Pietersen fell soon after, pre-meditating a sweep of Hauritz to a ball that was far too wide to sweep, the result edge clipped his helmet before balooning up to Simon Katich at short leg.

Andrew Flintoff and Matt Prior began the rebuilding work, playing agressively against the spin before the new ball, and the seamers after it. Matt Prior raced along to 50 from 54 balls as the pair kept the run-rate ticking over rather nicely.

But Siddle’s late spell just before the end of the game accounted for both of them – Flintoff dragging on and a lovely in swinger to remove Prior. Australia ended the day the happier side after being asked to field, needing only three more England wickets in the morning.

The boys from West Indies got the better of the England in a rain-reduced run chase through the Duckworth Lewis method to make it to the semi finals of the T20 WC Men’s competition. They beat the hosts to knock them out of the competition. This is for the first time after a gap of more than ten years that the West Indies team has made it to the Semi Finals of a major tournament.

The experience of Ramnaresh Sarwan and classy Shivnarine Chanderpaul through an unbeaten partnership of 37 runs in 20 balls ensured safe passage for West Indies into the Semifinals. With South Africa having already qualified from this group, the match between England and West Indies was nothing sort of a Quarter Final Clash. The Windies players managed to hold on to their nerves in an intriguing match to make it to the Semi finals of the T20 World Cup competition this year.

Earlier set into bat the Englishmen scored a respectable 161 runs loosing six wickets in the process. Ravi Bopara played the crucial anchor’s role scoring 55 runs and Kevin Pietersen scored a quick fire 31 runs of just 19 balls to set up a challenging total for the West Indies. Other notable contributions included Owais Shah with 18 runs, Stuart Broad with 10 crucial runs of just 2 balls and James Foster with a useful knock of 13 runs towards the end of the innings. The Englishmen were hoping to get a complete match, which might have given them a chance of reaching the semis.

With heavy downpour right after the England innings, the match eventually got underway with West Indies being set a revised target of 80 runs from nine overs. The England bowlers did their best to restrict the Windies batsman as Ryan Sidebottom got rid of the dangerous Chris Gayle, after the opener had hammered him in the first four balls of the over. Stuart Broad got rid of Lendl Simmons in his very first over. West Indies were tottering at 23 for the loss of three wickets and the shortened target was looking stiff.

Dwayne Bravo, the only Windies player to have been consistent throughout the tournament contributed useful 18 runs to the run chase, before the English pair of Swann and Foster combined to remove him. With Bravo gone, the West Indies were looking for some miracle to make it to the next round. With 16 runs required of the last two overs, the experienced pair of Chanderpaul and Sarwan ensured that West Indies suffered no further hiccups in the run chase. By scoring 13 runs of the penultimate over the Windies batsman ended all hopes of an England victory. Sarwan ended the match by smashing Sidebottom to the extra cover boundary.

West Indies thus made it to the Semifinals of the competition through group E and must watch out for the match between South Africa and India, to get to know their fate. If South Africa can beat India, the West Indian team would qualify for the Semi Finals as the Group runner up and might face the daunting task of playing last year’s loosing finalist Pakistan in the Semi finals.