Well a week is a long time in general but an even longer time in sport and the last 6 have been more than enough for my previous blog comments to seemingly curse the England cricket team from the no.1 position in both tests and ODIs. The top spot in cricket appears to be quite a slippery surface as Australia, India and now England have fallen victim to a lack of staying power upon it in the last 2 years. South Africa have finally achieved what they have threatened to do since 1992 and hold their nerve to claim the highest ranking in the gentleman's game. On the back of Amla's form and the potency of their fast bowling attack they totally outplayed England and brought an end to Andrew Strauss' career (more about him in my next blog). Spurred on perhaps by the freak injury to Mark Boucher before the series began, I salute them as deserved victors even if they aren't my favourite team to watch.
I can hardly believe my bad luck though in that in mid July I stated the following on this blog:
"...England have created for themselves an aura not too different from that of Steve Waugh's team of 1999-2004..." high praise indeed.
Eat your heart out Mark Richardson. I couldn't have had my words come back to bite me more completely than in the first test when South Africa so totally dominated the hosts and any aura I thought they had was not apparent. The only thing in England's defence that I will offer is that in the final test they played in a much more constructive and positive manner, the kind of style that won them the Ashes in 2005. In retrospect England seemed to0 defensive and hesitant against this South African team and lacked the nerve and assertiveness that so undermined and defeated Ponting's men in 2005. England's attempted run chase on Day 5 was some of the most exciting cricket of the series, so much so that I really wanted it to continue... FOR ANOTHER TWO TEST MATCHES! Why on earth was this series constrained to just 3 matches? If one thing has been certain in ENG vs SA encounters in the last two decades is that 1) they should be played across 5 games, and 2) if they are played across 5 games it will produce amazing cricket.
I will complain about this more in future posts but for now England are in free fall (due to their results and other issues which I will look at in my next post) and South Africa are on top of the cricketing world as last. Congratulations
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
