WI vs SA, T20 series: a shot at redemption Print E-mail
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Written by Luke Tagg   
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 19:41
South Africa kicks off their (huge, extended, everlasting) tour of the Caribbean with two Twenty20 Internationals in Antigua on Wednesday and Thursday and it affords both ailing sides the opportunity to redeem themselves in the T20 format.

West Indies and South Africa both got eliminated in the Super Eights phase of the World Twenty20 and both made it abundantly clear they don't have the right formula in the shortest version of the game.

The Windies relied entirely on Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard; South Africa leaned heavily on AB de Villiers and Albie Morkel. One thing the World T20 taught us is that you can't leave everything up to one or two players. It's a team effort and the team has to be the right one.

Neither side has made too many changes to their squads from the World T20 - the Windies dropped Wavell Hinds and South Africa called up Dave Miller for the injured Wayne Parnell. Otherwise, the squads remain the same.

West Indies Squad

Chris Gayle (c)
Dwayne Bravo (vc)
Sulieman Benn
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Narsingh Deonarine
Andre Fletcher
Nikita Miller
Kieron Pollard
Denesh Ramdin (w)
Ravi Rampaul
Kemar Roach
Darren Sammy
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Jerome Taylor

South Africa Squad

Graeme Smith (c)
Jacques Kallis (vc)
Loots Bosman
Johan Botha
Mark Boucher (w)
AB de Villiers
JP Duminy
Charl Langeveldt
Ryan McLaren
Albie Morkel
Morne Morkel
Dave Miller
Vernon Philander
Dale Steyn
Rusty Theron
Roelof van der Merwe

I'm not entirely sure as to the accuracy of the South African squad - nobody seems to have the definitive, final squad. Cricinfo has it completely incorrect. Near as dammit, however.

The problem for the Windies is that they have good players, but most of them are highly inconsistent. Chanderpaul is the new Kallis - he's upped his game, to be sure, but needs to score a lot more runs a lot faster than he does if he wants to open with Gayle.

Pollard should come in when the situation demands it, but preferably around the 10-over mark. Giving him a couple of overs and a magic wand is just plain cheap.

As for South Africa, my guess is that they'll make some changes - but not the right ones. I don't see Kallis or Boucher going anywhere. The South African mindset dictates that rather than starting anew, you beat the old into submission. If the shoe doesn't fit, remonstrate with it for awhile, then sternly stuff your foot in it anyway.

Were I picking a side from the above list, it would be this one:

1. Loots Bosman
2. Graeme Smith (c)
3. Jacques Kallis
4. AB de Villiers (w)
5. JP Duminy
6. Dave Miller
7. Albie Morkel
8. Johan Botha (vc)
9. Dale Steyn
10. Rusty Theron
11. Charl Langeveldt

As with the Curious Case of Kieron Pollard, Albie should be a Roving No. 7. If the top three can get the score to around 80/2 after 10 overs, he should come in then. You've still got Miller for later in the piece.

Despite all my fighting talk about Jacques Kallis, I've had to include him. The only like-for-like replacement would be Ryan McLaren, and he hasn't been used in anger since the IPL. He's about as fresh as a pair of three-day-old y-fronts.

Australia played Michael Clarke at 3, which is about the only position he can play in that side. Same goes for Jakes.

I've also cruelly taken the vice captaincy away from Jakes and given it to the rightful candidate, Johan Botha. I can't for the life of me understand why Kallis would have the position, if not for a little fond nepotism. He certainly isn't as tactically astute as Botha in T20 cricket.

None of those changes will happen, of course. In fact, I'd be astonished if they don't field the exact same team that played so poorly in the World Twenty20. Nothing about Corrie van Zyl or Andrew Hudson suggests a belief in anything other than conventional wisdom.

Yet. I wish they would prove me wrong.

This is the ideal time for South Africa to start working out a way forward. The T20s will be over in a blink and the ODI series starts almost immediately, after which it's a long time until we play T20 again. We should at least experiment in one of the games.

I also hope the Windies can put up a good challenge - knocking them about as we have done over the last few years is all very well, but doesn't really serve anything other than to create a false positive. I'd rather get beaten by them and learn something than the other way round.

I expect South Africa will fare a lot better in this series than they did in the WT20, because this time around there is no pressure. No knockouts. No "choker" tag waiting just around the corner, willing the side to fail.

No amount of wins against the Windies will erase all that, however. Only silverware.

UPDATE

Saw on the news last night that AB has indeed been given the gloves, almost certainly spelling the end for Boucher - in T20 at least. Good call, selectors. Don't quit while you're ahead.
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