England Take Unassailable ODI Series Lead
There is no doubt that Newlands in Cape Town and St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth are two of the most special grounds in the world. They are easily my two favourite places to watch cricket. While Newlands is excruciatingly beautiful, set against the backdrop of Table Mountain, St George’s has its own secret weapon: the world’s most marvellous band.
South Africa and England did battle at both grounds this weekend. The Proteas won convincingly in Cape Town on Friday and the visitors stole the show after Graeme Smith ballsed up the toss in PE, where he elected to bat under cloudy skies and his team was bowled out for 119 runs.
The ball moved around early doors and once James Anderson got into his stride he was devastating, taking five for 23 in ten overs. Broad (2/30), Collingwood (2/20) and Bresnan (1/15) backed up their spearhead strongly to complete a fine all-round bowling performance from England. Only Alviro Petersen (51, 79b) offered any resistance during the collapse.
Jonathan Trott (52*, 77b) guided England to victory by seven wickets as he built solid partnerships with Strauss (32, 59b) and Morgan (28*, 40b).
England now lead the five-match series 2-1 with only a single ODI still to be played, on Friday in Durban. SA coach Mickey Arthur seemed to hint that South Africa would have no problem winning this home series, but the home side is terrifyingly close to losing their first home ODI series since Australia were successful on these shores in 2001/2.
The South African public would see a series loss as an embarrassingly poor performance but the reality is that these two sides are very closely matched.
Port Elizabeth was the home to the best atmosphere of the IPL in South Africa earlier this year and it was no different here today where the band played beautifully, and the near-capacity crowd danced and waved their flags as if the home side were demolishing the visitors, not the other way round.
I guess there isn’t much to do in PE so dancing in the sun with a one quid pint of Castle as the band strikes up Gimme Hope Joanna beats all the available alternatives, even if your side is smashed by seven wickets.
When the Proteas were reeling at 92 for eight, the entire grandstand got on their feet and sang the national anthem. Remarkably, each of the anthem’s languages could be heard as clearly as the next.
The only audibly negative behaviour from the crowd came when Kevin Pitersen walked out to bat after Strauss left the crease at 74/1. Pietersen was booed loudly as he walked from the pavilion to join Trott, another South African-born player.
Pietersen may be thick skinned but he has still not learnt to ignore the jeering to which he is so often subjected. Facing only his third ball he tried to hook Ryan Maclaren into the ocean. The resultant top edge should have been a sitter for Morne Morkel at fine leg but the lanky bowler dropped a clanger.
The respite didn’t last long. Three balls later, KP gently chipped a Johan Botha off-break to de Villiers at midwicket, who gave the crowd the catch they wanted. All indications so far are that the Test series that starts in a fortnight will be very closely fought. But England’s star batsman is bang out of form and England will need that to change in a hurry.
After the match, losing captain Graeme Smith had the following to say: “We were easily as disappointed today as we were delighted on Friday night. We didn’t assess the conditions well enough, lost key wickets upfront and then bled after that. Anything over 200 would have given us a chance.
“Both teams are batting for consistency at the moment. Our young guys need to learn quickly and grow into their responsibilities” he added.
Winning captain Andrew Strauss grinned from ear to ear and admitted, “I ummed and ahhed about it but we also would have batted first.
“We didn’t allow them to build a partnership and were delighted to bowl them out for under 120” he added.
It certainly doesn’t always help to win the toss!
