Deja Vu... that's the only way I can describe last night's ODI. The West Indies once again managed to establish a desirable position only to botch it up in the end. Needless to say the fielding was somewhat reminiscent of the
1998 Windies side who toured South Africa. Hansie Cronje', SA' then Captain, was relentless in the way he constructed his game plans. As a result the Windies failed miserably then as they did last night.
So this is how it all went down. Finally after winning the toss the Windies, often bold Captain, Chris Gayle opted to bat first. That was rather unusual considering his insane decisions in the preceding fixtures to bowl first. The Opening batsman, Chris Gayle and Dale Richards walked on to the crease with mass uncertainty. Dale Richards was a highly debatable selection from the beginning of the series. You may remember him in last years "B Side Windies team" which participated in worldwide cricketing fixtures in place of the regular outfit due to contract disputes. He, along with Travis Dowlin, Kemar Roach and Gavin Tonge were highly impressive inclusions in last years Bangladesh disasters as well as the ICC Champions Trophy. So, I really don't get the whole mass confusion over Dale Richard's selection. The man played well enough in a disastrous side and as a result deserved a shot. He scored yet another fifty last nite, one which involved various ground strokes and lofted cross batted punchers of the bowling of Tsotsobe. He later fell a couple runs after getting his fifty. Dwayne Bravo and Chanderpaul looked superb and really took advantage of a bouncing wicket. Darren Sammy, perhaps the most entertaining cricketer of this series looked like his spirit was depleted and failed to trouble the scorers. Pollard and Bernard were looking great and managed to take the score pass the 300 mark. Gayle felt that they were 30 runs short at the end of the match, and I completely agree with him! The middle order failed to develop formidable partnerships which would have truly placed SA out of contention. Hashim Amla thought
otherwise. He along with Smith managed to take advantage of the slow bowling of David Bernard. Kieron Pollard didnt really impress with the Ball. Bravo managed to uproot the stumps of Smith only to allow Kallis to come in and assist Amla to his hundred. Kallis played slightly unconventionally with sweep-slogs and advancing down the track to pacers.
At 170/2 the South Africans looked unstoppable. Amla reached to 129, despite being dropped twice. The fielding was truly shocking especially off the bowling of the innings best bowler, Ravi Rampaul. Darren Sammy was clearly the most significant culprit of the night by missing a standard bump ball at point, followed by a poor through to the wicket keeper, Ramdin, allowing Amla and Kallis to get 2 bonus runs. The next ball was almost an action replay with Kallis bumping an extremely decent ball to Sammy with the end result being 5 runs!!! How did this happen.. well Sammy figured that he ought to make up for his blunder 2 minutes previously, by taking a shy at the stumps... missing it completely. The comical show was far from over... with JP Duminy, a man who is clearly not in form. He made two attempts at getting a boundary, which resulted in him mistiming it... on both occasions he was dropped. The culprits.. the brothers Bravo with Dwayne dropping it at midwicket and Darren at deepish long on. Fazeer Mohammed perhaps said it best... "Clearly the West Indies don't want this...". This was clearly the case until the last over of the game. With not one, but two dot balls and only conceding 2 runs from the over... the game looked like it may end in a draw. De Villiers punched a ball straight to Sammy only for him to screw up any chance of a draw.
So what can be learned from this? South Africa played their best cricket in the series last night. Amla is definitely their most in form batsman. Darren Sammy was a hero turned villain but shows promise for the future of West Indian cricket. Richards is truly the comeback kid and is guaranteed opener for the next 2, maybe 3 seasons. Graeme Smith will surely keep his captaincy, should South Africa (most likely) win the test series. I can only pray at this point that the West Indies fight back in the test matches as they have done against most successful nations. So, on behalf of the Islander Republic, we salute you Hashim Amla!!!
Deja Vu... that's the only way I can describe last night's ODI. The West Indies once again managed to establish a desirable position only to botch it up in the end. Needless to say the fielding was somewhat reminiscent of the 1998 Windies side who toured South Africa. Hansie Cronje', SA' then Captain, was relentless in the way he constructed his game plans. As a result the Windies failed miserably then as they did last night.
So this is how it all went down. Finally after winning the toss the Windies, often bold Captain, Chris Gayle opted to bat first. That was rather unusual considering his insane decisions in the preceding fixtures to bowl first. The Opening batsman, Chris Gayle and Dale Richards walked on to the crease with mass uncertainty. Dale Richards was a highly debatable selection from the beginning of the series. You may remember him in last years "B Side Windies team" which participated in worldwide cricketing fixtures in place of the regular outfit due to contract disputes. He, along with Travis Dowlin, Kemar Roach and Gavin Tonge were highly impressive inclusions in last years Bangladesh disasters as well as the ICC Champions Trophy. So, I really don't get the whole mass confusion over Dale Richard's selection. The man played well enough in a disastrous side and as a result deserved a shot. He scored yet another fifty last nite, one which involved various ground strokes and lofted cross batted punchers of the bowling of Tsotsobe. He later fell a couple runs after getting his fifty. Dwayne Bravo and Chanderpaul looked superb and really took advantage of a bouncing wicket. Darren Sammy, perhaps the most entertaining cricketer of this series looked like his spirit was depleted and failed to trouble the scorers. Pollard and Bernard were looking great and managed to take the score pass the 300 mark. Gayle felt that they were 30 runs short at the end of the match, and I completely agree with him! The middle order failed to develop formidable partnerships which would have truly placed SA out of contention. Hashim Amla thought 
otherwise. He along with Smith managed to take advantage of the slow bowling of David Bernard. Kieron Pollard didnt really impress with the Ball. Bravo managed to uproot the stumps of Smith only to allow Kallis to come in and assist Amla to his hundred. Kallis played slightly unconventionally with sweep-slogs and advancing down the track to pacers. At 170/2 the South Africans looked unstoppable. Amla reached to 129, despite being dropped twice. The fielding was truly shocking especially off the bowling of the innings best bowler, Ravi Rampaul. Darren Sammy was clearly the most significant culprit of the night by missing a standard bump ball at point, followed by a poor through to the wicket keeper, Ramdin, allowing Amla and Kallis to get 2 bonus runs. The next ball was almost an action replay with Kallis bumping an extremely decent ball to Sammy with the end result being 5 runs!!! How did this happen.. well Sammy figured that he ought to make up for his blunder 2 minutes previously, by taking a shy at the stumps... missing it completely. The comical show was far from over... with JP Duminy, a man who is clearly not in form. He made two attempts at getting a boundary, which resulted in him mistiming it... on both occasions he was dropped. The culprits.. the brothers Bravo with Dwayne dropping it at midwicket and Darren at deepish long on. Fazeer Mohammed perhaps said it best... "Clearly the West Indies don't want this...". This was clearly the case until the last over of the game. With not one, but two dot balls and only conceding 2 runs from the over... the game looked like it may end in a draw. De Villiers punched a ball straight to Sammy only for him to screw up any chance of a draw.
So what can be learned from this? South Africa played their best cricket in the series last night. Amla is definitely their most in form batsman. Darren Sammy was a hero turned villain but shows promise for the future of West Indian cricket. Richards is truly the comeback kid and is guaranteed opener for the next 2, maybe 3 seasons. Graeme Smith will surely keep his captaincy, should South Africa (most likely) win the test series. I can only pray at this point that the West Indies fight back in the test matches as they have done against most successful nations. So, on behalf of the Islander Republic, we salute you Hashim Amla!!!
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