A whitewash, four Blackberries and lashings of Lopsy Print E-mail
Category: Match Reports
Written by Luke Tagg   
Friday, 04 June 2010 00:42
South Africa squeaked out a one-wicket win in the fifth and final ODI against the West Indies in Port of Spain on Thursday to record another series whitewash against the Islanders, who once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The game was all kinds of wrong in its own special way, from the wacky selections to Mark Boucher's first ever stint as a fielder to Lonwabo Tsotsobe thrashing South Africa to victory in his first ever ODI innings.

He took just one ball to get his eye in, did Lopsy, and that ball should have been called wide. A lesser man might have wandered off to find a quiet corner to cry in, but not the man they call Lasher: he spanked the next ball from Kieron Pollard through the covers for a boundary to win the game instead.

Then he strode off the field with a career strike rate of 200 and a madness in his eye and promptly slapped Charl Langeveldt on the back of the head, as hard as he could. No reason, really - Langes just has an intensely smackable bonce, is all.

I'll tell you something for nothing: I didn't see that one coming. The four to win the game, that is - not my imaginary Langes beatdown. I tend to get nervous round about the time I see nine wickets down and plenty of work left to do.

It was a good way to finish for South Africa but I fear some dark secrets and lies may have been swept under the carpet, to be dealt with later. I know we were buggering around a little once the series was won, but the only clear sign that has come out of this series is that the way ahead lies down Amla Avenue.

He won the Man of the Series award for his 402 runs at 80.40 and along with it four Blackberries (three for Man of the Match awards). I wonder how the pecking order for Blackberries works in the Amla family - oldest to youngest, maybe? Elders? Extended family? GrandmAmla?

AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis also chipped in with handy series averages, while Graeme Smith and JP Duminy struggled their respective ways to bitty contributions, neither looking particularly fluent.

We got a chance to take a look at the tail today and I wasn't blown away. Ryan McLaren is supposed to be the big-hitting allrounder in place of Albie Morkel, but he looked all kinds of terrified in this series. He bowled okay, but his opposition wasn't nearly as stiff as his attempted cover drives.

Lopsy toiled hard, had a few good moments but ultimately didn't offer enough and Johan Botha - although economical - wasn't much of a wicket-taking threat in the series.

It just doesn't look like a conquering side and to be fair to CSA and the selectors it isn't. Wayne Parnell continues to rot in injury hell, Colin Ingram and Rusty Theron are yet to be given a fair shake and a number of players are struggling for form or resting.

The good news is that Morne Morkel ended up the leading wicket-taker in the series by a country mile, while Dale Steyn was the most economical bowler. Neither played all the games, but both were impressive. Those two firing at once remains South Africa's No. 1 entry on its World Cup Wishlist.

As unconvincing as the last couple of wins were for South Africa, at least they got the job done. When you're not up to strength it's the best one can ask for.

As Biff said after the game - it's not every day you get to enjoy a 5-0 whitewash. Only when you tour the Caribbean, it seems.

Scorecard
Share
Tags:
 

Add comment

Note: you can skip this entire process - including using the spam protecting Captcha image - by registering. The details of registered members are automatically filled in and there is no security image to deal with. Just a thought.

 


Security code
Refresh

Hot Right Now

Most Popular

Latest Entries

Latest Sledges

I Support

Random Quotes

Kepler Wessels and Robin Jackman and Brett Proctor as commentators? Seriously? That's about as hip, urban, street and contemporary as an old Wellington boot.

From: Pro20 crowds on the up - but not enough


Popular Taggs

Live Cricket Commentary

Live coverage of English cricket, from the Test Match Sofa.

Cricket Webring

Equator - a cricket webring

Prev

List

Next

hosted by The "Silly Point"

Feed Me Cricket link

Barmy Army

We have 132 guests online