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Favourites SA looking for ruthless edge 0

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Ken

South Africa go into Thursday’s first test against Sri Lanka at Centurion as overwhelming favourites, but captain Graeme Smith said on Wednesday that they wanted to discover a ruthless edge to their play.
    Although South Africa have maintained a position in the top three of the International Cricket Council test rankings for the last few years, they have not won a series at home since beating Bangladesh in 2008/9.
    They have drawn series with England, India and Australia since then.
    “I hope we get a lot of confidence out of the way we play. We’ve played some really good cricket at home, but we just haven’t been able to land that killer blow. We’ve dominated, but we haven’t done enough to get over the line,” Smith told a news conference at Centurion on Wednesday.
    “I’m hoping we can string three good sessions together instead of just two out of three … that’s probably why we haven’t been able to beat the good teams. Hopefully we can string a whole day together against Sri Lanka.”
    To make matters worse for the Sri Lankans, they were greeted by a pitch with a lush green covering of grass on Wednesday, conditions exactly the opposite to what they are used to at home.
    “The pitch looks pretty green. I think the groundsman’s having a bit of a panic, he’ll be wanting heaters and I reckon there’ll be a tent up over the pitch this afternoon,” Smith said. “He only started preparing the pitch on Monday and he desperately needs some sunshine. I’m sure he hoped for more sunshine than he got.”
    Sri Lanka captain Tillekaratne Dilshan said they were just going to have to perform on whatever surface they were given.
    “The pitch looks good for fast bowlers, all fast bowlers will enjoy it. We have no control over the groundsman, we just have to play on that wicket. It’s definitely the greenest pitch I’ve seen in South Africa, even more than in 2002/3.”
    Sri Lanka’s pace bowling reserves were decimated before the tour by injuries to Nuwan Kulasekara, Dhammika Prasad, Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal, while the tourists were still waiting for a replacement for the 25-year-old Nuwan Pradeep, who strained his hamstring in a warm-up game last weekend.
    Sri Lanka have taken some encouragement out of their performance in that warm-up match, against a SA Invitation XI in Benoni. The visitors dismissed the home side for 357 and then made 207 for three in reply in a rain-shortened game.
    “Our last test against Pakistan went very well, we came back strongly after losing the previous game. And the bowling unit did a great job on a really flat pitch and the top-order batsmen got runs in the warm-up,” Dilshan said.
    While South Africa have the expectation of being favourites to live up to, their veteran wicketkeeper Mark Boucher is under enormous pressure to score runs and save his international career after 141 tests.
    The 35-year-old has scored just 195 runs in his last dozen innings at an average of 17.72, but Smith said he backed Boucher to come good.
    “Bouch is coming into the game with calm focus. He’s worked hard on aspects of his batting and I hope all the hard work comes off for him. As a team, we’re collectively behind Bouch, and I’m really excited with the way he’s trained, he’s looked good in the nets. He’s always an asset for a team, with his experience and the way he handles the bowlers,” Smith said.
    Sri Lanka are hoping their luck will turn in South Africa, having lost six and drawn one of their seven tests in the republic.
    The Centurion test is the first Sri Lanka have played in South Africa since 2002/3. The second test is in Durban from December 26 and the third in Cape Town from January 3.

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SL no longer in the sub-continent – Smith 0

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Ken

Graeme Smith says Sri Lanka are no longer in the sub-continent and must accept the reality that they will be facing a pace bombardment in the first test against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion from Thursday.
South Africa’s captain did stress, however, that his fast bowlers need to attack the Sri Lankan batsmen in controlled fashion.
“Whenever we’re in the sub-continent, it involves plenty of spin in those conditions. The reality is that they now have to face our pace bowlers in our conditions.
“But control is the key, the bowlers have to have the right mindset and we can’t get ahead of ourselves with the ball,” Smith said in Centurion on Wednesday.
To make matters worse for the Sri Lankans, an ominously green SuperSport Park pitch suggests batting will not be for the fainthearted. Groundsman Hilbert Smit has admitted previously that he errs on the side of the bowlers when it comes to test pitches, but the balance seems to have swung too far this time in favour of the pacemen.
Even Graeme Smith was taken aback by the verdant covering that greeted his team when they inspected the pitch on Wednesday morning.
“The pitch looks pretty green! I think the groundsman’s having a bit of a panic, he’ll be wanting heaters and I reckon there’ll be a tent up over the pitch this afternoon.
“He only started preparing the pitch on Monday and he desperately needs some sunshine. I’m sure he hoped for more sunshine than he got,” Smith said.
This is great news for South Africa’s quartet of pace bowlers – Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Jacques Kallis.  In fact, that might even become a quintet as the little sub-tropical dorp of Tzaneen could celebrate their first international cricketer in Marchant de Lange.
The 21-year-old could be called up for his debut, turning his “work experience” into a full-on job for his country if South Africa decide to omit leg-spinner Imran Tahir and go the all-pace route.
Smith warned, however, that South Africa’s batsmen could also face a testing examination even though Sri Lanka’s attack is nothing like Australia’s on paper.
“It’s going to be different for our batsmen too – all the Australian bowlers were around 145km/h – but if we don’t give enough application and concentration to the job then we can slip on that banana peel as well. These conditions can turn a seamer with a limited record into a seamer with a good record very quickly,” Smith said.
Wicketkeeper Mark Boucher is one batsman who is under more pressure than most to score runs, the record-breaker staring the end of his international career in the face unless he comes up with the goods at Centurion.
Smith said the 35-year-old had put in outstanding preparation for the test.
“Bouch is never going to change his personality, he’s coming into the game with calm focus. He’s worked hard on aspects of his batting and, even though he didn’t get the opportunity to play a long innings, he played some key little innings for the Cobras.
“I hope all the hard work comes off for him. As a team, we’re collectively behind Bouch, and I’m really excited with the way he’s trained, he’s looked good in the nets. He’s always an asset for a team, with his experience and the way he handles the bowlers,” Smith said.
All of which does not change the fact that, unless Boucher can come up with some runs, he may well be out of the team.

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Category Cricket, Sport

Another injury blow for Sri Lanka 0

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Ken

The already-weakened Sri Lanka team have suffered another injury blow with key batsman Kumar Sangakkara splitting the webbing on his right hand ahead of the first test against South Africa starting on Thursday.
    Sangakkara split the webbing between the index and second fingers of his right hand during the Sri Lankans’ weather-affected warm-up match against an SA Invitation XI in Benoni at the weekend and was unable to bat.
    The absence of the 34-year-old, who is Sri Lanka’s second highest all-time run-scorer with 9167 runs in 103 tests, would be a huge blow for the tourists, who have brought an inexperienced side on their first tour of South Africa in nine years.
    Sri Lanka team manager Anura Tennekoon told Reuters he was confident, however, that the tough Sangakkara will be able to play in the first test at Centurion.
    “Sanga has split the webbing on his right hand, but it’s okay, he’s recovering well and, according to the medical experts, he should be fine for the first test,” Tennekoon told Reuters via telephone on Monday.
    Sri Lanka’s fast bowling prospects are less positive, however, after Nuwan Pradeep’s hamstring strain added to a terrible run of injuries amongst the pacemen.
    Nuwan Kulasekara, Dhammika Prasad, Shaminda Eranga and Suranga Lakmal were all ruled out of the tour before departure and the 25-year-old Pradeep is now likely to be joining them back home, Tennekoon said.
    “Nuwan Pradeep will likely have to return home and be replaced. The replacement hasn’t been decided yet because the selectors want to look at a few bowlers in domestic matches first. So it’s unlikely the replacement will arrive in time for the first test,” Tennekoon said.
    Sri Lanka have not won a test in South Africa in seven attempts and the home side’s vice-captain, AB de Villiers, admitted that the tourists held little fear for them.
    “If we get a good cricket wicket and we play good cricket, then they’re not going to stop us,” De Villiers told a news conference at Centurion on Monday.
    The batsman said the series represented an ideal opportunity for the South Africans to end an astonishing gap of three years since their last series win at home, over Bangladesh in 2008/9.
    “We need to get back to playing consistently good cricket for longer periods, that’s probably the reason we haven’t won at home for a while. We want to do that for the whole series against Sri Lanka,” De Villiers said.
    “My feeling is that test cricket is all about momentum and you get waves that are up and down. Whoever maximises their opportunities when they’re on top, when they have the opposition on the ropes, will win. You have to finish off the opposition, be aggressive, whether you’re batting or bowling,” De Villiers said.

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Category Cricket, Sport

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    Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

    The fruit of the Spirit are elements of the character of Christ and we should have the constant desire to become more and more like Christ in thought and deed. But what seems impossible for you becomes possible through Jesus. In him, we are filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.



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