De Villiers sends Proteas to the semi-finals

England won the toss and elected to field.

The team who won the toss had to consider the dew factor and the ability to catch the ball at the stadium under the floodlights.

England

A Hales, M Lumb, M Ali, E Morgan, J Buttler, R Bopara, T Bresnan, C Jordan, S Broad, J Tredwell, J Dernbach

South Africa

Q de Kock, H Amla, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, D Miller, F Behardien, A Morkel, W Parnell, D Steyn, B Hendricks, I Tahir

South Africa were without Faf du Plessis who was banned for a slow over rate. Tsotsobe was dropped with Behardien and Parnell replacing them.

If South Africa win, they are through to the semi-finals.

Unfortunately, a floodlight tower went off just when Amla was getting started. The longer the lights were down, the better for South Africa so the dew can affect both teams. The umpires called the players off the field, giving England a chance to regroup. The lights were down for about 10-15 minutes.

The umpires allowed the groundsmen to use hessian to get rid of the dew. Would the same be done for South Africa?

England missed a chance to stump Amla when he had walked down his wicket, missed the ball, Buttler dropped the ball and missed the stumping. Next ball, Amla hit a six.

South Africa reached 50 runs in 5.5 overs.

With regards to wickets, the powerplay score South Africa produced was the best of the tournament. South Africa 52-0 at the end of the powerplay.

Although de Kock was batting with Amla, he tried to keep Amla on strike by just taking singles.

In 7.3 overs, the same tower turned its lights off again, causing the players to leave the field. Again, hessian was used during the break.

Amla reached his maiden T20 international fifty off 30 balls. A couple of 40's in his previous matches but eventually reached the milestone against England.

In 10 overs South Africa were 85-0.

England finally got the breakthrough with the wicket of Amla who tried to go big but found the hands of Lumb. Amla out for 56 off 37 balls.

De Kock followed Amla after missing the ball and was stumped by Buttler. South Africa 98-2.

De Villiers hit a 4 and took South Africa to 103-2 in 12.4 overs.

De Villiers lost his balance while he struck the ball away for a possible single, he picked himself up and took to the non-strikers end for the single.

Another possible run out for England when Duminy lost his bat at the non-strikers end and although he dived, it wasn't enough and he was run out by Bopara.

A wide from Bernbach took South Africa to 150-3 in 17.2 overs.

De Villiers clinched the fastest T20 fifty for South Africa (from 23 balls), which was his 5th international T20 fifty.

South Africa reached their second 50 run partnership. The first between Amla and de Kock, then de Villiers and Miller.

Miller tried to hit the maximum after moving across his stumps but found Moeen Ali and was out for 19 off 15 balls. South Africa 174-4 with 1.2 overs remaining.

Morkel faced the last ball and instead of a four or a six, he lost his wicket to the bowling of Bresnan.

At the end of their innings South Africa were 196-5, de Villiers unbeaten on 69* off 28 balls.

England begun the first over with 2 dot balls but followed with 2 boundaries.

South Africa thought they had in-form Hales out but the umpire called No-ball, which was a bit harsh since it wasn't a No-ball.

3 overs gone and England were going for 10 runs per over.

South Africa got the breakthrough with the wicket of Lumb who started to get the ball rolling too. Parnell took the wicket with Miller taking a good catch at extra cover.

England reached 50 runs in 5.4 overs.

Hales hit a six to finish off the powerplay, England 62-1.

Parnell got his second with the wicket of Hales, Miller taking the catch once again. Hales and Moeen Ali crossed, so Ali was on strike. Parnell still bowling, Ali swung, nicked the ball and de Kock took the catch. Parnell was then on a hat-trick, but only got a single.

At 10 overs England were 92-3.

The umpires stopped the match after 10 overs so South Africa would also get the hessian treatment.

England reached 100-3 in 11.1 overs.

Tahir back into the attack, got the inside edge off Morgan, de Kock took the catch and England 105-4. However, Tahir was given a second warning for running onto the wicket.

Hendricks gave South Africa their worst over, which was the best for England, 17 runs came off it.

Tahir got his second, after taking the wicket of Buttler. Morkel took the catch and got his finger dislocated.

The sweetest sight was when Morne sat next to his brother to check if he was okay.

England reached 150-5 in 16.5 overs.

After hitting the ball for 4, the next ball Jordan hit it high in the sky but Superman (de Villiers) as the commentators called him throughout the night, took a fine catch down the ground.

England were 175-6, needing 22 off the last over.

Steyn begun defending 22 runs by taking the wicket of the dangerous Bopara. England 175-7.

England 193-7.

South Africa beat England by 3 runs in their last group stage match to secure a spot in the semi-finals.

South Africa's total of 196 for 5 is the highest of the tournament.

Tahir hands Proteas 2nd ICC T20 victory

The Netherlands won the toss and opted to field.

Netherlands Stephan Myburgh, Michael Swart, Wesley Barresi, Tom Cooper, Peter Borren, Ben Cooper, Mudassar Bukhari, Logan van Beek, Pieter Seelaar, Timm van der Gugten, Ahsan Malik

South Africa Q de Kock, H Amla, F du Plessis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, D Miller, A Morkel, B Hendricks, D Steyn, L Tsotsobe, I Tahir

Beuran Hendricks replaced Morne Morkel who had an awful spell against New Zealand on Monday.

Happy Birthday to Imran Tahir, he's 35 today.

Quinton de Kock went for a duck in the first over off the bowling of Michael Swart.

The first ball of the over was a wide which was followed by a dot ball. Amla then followed that six with 4 fours, handing South Africa a 23 run over.

Malik strikes and Amla's out after scoring a quick 43 off 20 balls. South Africa sitting on 45-2 in 4.3 overs and then reached 50 runs in 5.4 overs, 2 wickets down.

The match against Netherlands produced South Africa's best powerplay score of 58-2. Maybe if they didn't lose any wickets, it would have been an even better score.

Once again, one too many shots from Faf du Plessis resulted in the fall of his wicket. The skipper went for 24 runs.

A change in the batting order from the South Africans brought Albie Morkel to the crease, hopefully to do some major damage to the Netherlands.

There were missed run outs for the Netherlands, so if they had timed their throws perfectly, the South Africans could have lost some of their wickets to run outs.

At the end of 10 overs South Africa were 92-3.

Unfortunately AB de Villiers tried to smash the ball for a boundary, but found a Netherlandsman in the deep and he was gone.

South Africa reached 100-4 in 12 overs.

South Africa lose another. Morkel not doing what he wanted to do. He sent the ball high up and was caught in the deep off the bowling of Malik.

South Africa started well, Amla behind a lot of those runs. However, when they started to lose wickets, they were under a lot of pressure. The loss of wickets made their projected score lower and required them to increase their run rate. South Africa were no longer finding the gaps to score runs.

South Africa continue to struggle close to the death. Duminy, the last recognised batsman become the 6th batsman to depart. The South Africans found themselves on 120-6 in 15.5 overs.

At one stage South Africa were 84-2. They lost 4 wickets for 36 runs.

Steyn scored the first boundary in 8 overs but the next ball sent him back to the dugout after a slight nick, off Malik who claimed his 3rd wicket of the match, his 10th of the tournament. It began to look like South Africa could be bowled out before reaching 20 overs. Malik added yet another to his bag of wickets, when he took the wicket of Hendricks and went on to take his 5th wicket when he bowled out Miller. He finished with figures of 5-19 and became the leading wicket-taker for the Netherlands.

A good effort from the Netherlands left the South Africans with 145-9 at the end of 20 overs. The Netherlands need 146 runs to win in 20 overs.

The Netherlands had a good start, the run rate higher than required and the South Africans being punished for leaving out Morkel because his height would've caught a few balls.

The Netherlands reached 50 runs in 4.5 overs.

After a major thumping, Dale Steyn and an exceptional catch by the skipper got rid of Swart.

The Netherlands ended the powerplay on 63-1, with Myburgh reaching his 3rd T20 international 50 off 25 balls.

The bowling of Duminy removed the dangerous Myburgh. As he walked off, he looked down at his gloves because he hadn't changed them. It's humid in Bangladesh. The bat came off his hands and flew behind him.

Barresi moved across his wickets, Tahir hit him with an lbw and sent him back to the dugout. Sadly for the Netherlands, the ball didn't turn enough and would've missed the wickets.

After 10 overs the Netherlands were 90-3.

The birthday boy got his second wicket, another lbw, this time to get rid of Peter Borren. Tahir claimed his 7th wicket of the tournament. That wicket brought the other Cooper to the crease.

The Netherlands got to 100 runs in 10.5 overs, with the loss of 4 wickets.

When Steyn went back into the attack, he broke the Cooper brothers partnership by removing Ben Cooper and sent Bukhari to guard his wicket.

Tahir's first ball of his last over went through the legs of Tom Cooper and went on to hit his stumps. The birthday boy then claimed his 4th wicket as Seelaar was out for 2 runs, and took his tally to 9 wickets in the tournament. Two wickets and two runs off Tahir's final over. Tahir finished his spell with 4-21, his best T20 international figures.

A mix up down the wicket as a result of a communication break down and a throw in from Miller, gave the South Africans a run out. The Netherlands 125-8.

Du Plessis decided to bowl Steyn with 4 overs remaining. It looked like quite a gamble since the South Africans need him at the death.

Steyn finished his spell with 2 wickets from 19 runs.

After terrible spell, Tsotsobe finally had a wicket to his name. Bukhari tried to go for the maximum but Miller got under it and took the catch. Then, the Netherlands stood at 134-9 with 2.1 overs remaining. Steyn dropped a catch off Tsotsobe's bowling, disappointment was written all over him. Tsotsobe finished his 4 over spell with 46 runs and a wicket.

With 2 overs remaining, the Netherlands needed 9 runs to win.

Hendricks delivered, van der Gugten swung hard, got a little nick and de Kock made no mistake taking the catch behind the stumps.

Tahir was named man of the match as South Africa beat the Netherlands by 6 runs with 8 balls remaining, the Netherlands suffered their 2nd consecutive loss.

Duminy & Steyn win it for the Proteas

New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl.

New Zealand decided to go with an unchanged team while South African skipper Faf du Plessis passed the fitness test and replaced Farhaan Behardien.

New Zealand

M Guptill, K Williamson, B McCullum, R Taylor, C Munro, C Anderson, L Ronchi, N McCullum, T Southee, K Mills, M McClenaghan

South Africa

Q de Kock, H Amla, F du Plessis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, D Miller, A Morkel, D Steyn, M Morkel, I Tahir, L Tsotsobe

It's not common for de Kock to be dismissed without scoring runs. However, today that was the case as he lost his wicket for only 4 runs. After hitting one too many in Tim Southee's over, du Plessis was the next one to go. Soon after, AB de Villiers fell for Nathan McCullum's 50th T20 international wicket. Sitting on 43-3 after 7 overs, South Africa were already under immense pressure. De Kock and de Villiers not scoring runs was a bit unusual for South Africa.

South Africa eventually reached 50 runs in 8.1 overs, after the loss of 3 important wickets for both sides. Moreover, in 10 overs they had reached 61 runs. The projected score was around 127. Is that even defendable? It didn't look promising.

The dismissal of Amla was a bit weird. I thought Aleem Dar would call dead ball. I don't remember coming across a scenario like that in The Laws of Cricket. Another thing, Amla should stop walking before either umpire signals out.

Its been about 3 T20's and Miller hasn't reached his full potential. Where's the Ram Slam top scorer? Where's the man who scored 93* off 37 balls for the Dolphins?

After it took South Africa 15 overs to get to 100, Duminy started letting loose, hitting fours and sixes and eventually reached 50 runs off 31 balls. In the last over, Duminy smashed the ball down the ground and Aleem Dar went tumbling down. That was the second time and he clearly needed a helmet too.

Duminy top scored for South Africa with 86* runs off 43 balls.

South Africa's innings were depressing to watch. That was until Duminy set the ball on fire with every whack.

South Africa finished their 20 overs with figures of 170-6.

New Zealand needed 171 runs to win from 20 overs at 8.55 runs per over.

At the start, New Zealand were not reaching the required run rate. Instead, they were going for 5.56 runs per over. Well, that was until M. Morkel came into the attack and Tsotsobe followed. Their overs changed things and both Guptill and Williamson started pulling their weight. New Zealand finished their powerplay on 47-0. Plus reached their 50 in 6.2 overs, without a loss.

Eventually South Africa got the breakthrough with the wicket of Guptill off the bowling of A. Morkel and a comfortable catch by de Kock. Tahir then dragged McCullum down the ground and de Kock made no mistake with the stumping.

Williamson went unnoticed to record a half century from 31 balls.

In the 12th over, Taylor reached 1 000 runs from a huge 6 he hit off M. Morkel and New Zealand reached 100 runs. Williamson and Taylor made a quick 50 run partnership off 30 odd balls.

Eventually the breakthrough came with a beautiful catch taken by de Villiers off the bowling of Steyn.

Taylor reached his 5th T20 international 50 just off 26 balls. With 5 overs remaining, New Zealand needed 31 runs to win off 24 balls.

Once again, Tahir took the wicket of Munro, with Amla taking the catch in the deep. Steyn then claimed his 50th T20 international wicket with the dismissal of Anderson.

M. Morkel was disappointed by his 50 run spell from 3 overs.

Steyn came into the attack, in the last over of the innings. His first delivery and he got rid of Ronchi. 2 balls left and Steyn took the wicket of N. McCullum. New Zealand needed 3 runs to win from 1 ball. Steyn charged in for his last delivery, Taylor hit it back at him, Steyn turned around and stumped Taylor at the non-strikers end.

As a result, South Africa recorded their first win of the ICC World T20 tournament by 2 runs.

JP Duminy won Man of the Match.

Hopefully South Africa can record a win against the Netherlands on Thursday.

Sri Lanka beat South Africa in ICC World T20 opening match

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first against South Africa in their opening match of the ICC World T20.

South Africa were without skipper Faf du Plessis but ODI skipper AB de Villiers captained the side.

Sri Lanka

K Perera, T Dilshan, M Jayawardene, K Sangakkara, D Chandimal, A Mathews, T Perera, N Kulasekara, S Senanayake, A Mendis, L Malinga

South Africa

Q de Kock, H Amla, JP Duminy, AB de Villiers, D Miller, F Behardien, A Morkel, D Steyn, M Morkel, L Tsotsobe, I Tahir

Before the start of the tournament, Sangakkara and Jayawardene announced that this ICC World T20 tournament would be their last.

According to statistics, Sri Lanka win all their matches when they defend 160+ runs.

K Perera scored his 5th international T20 fifty.

It turns out, Mathews has not been dismissed for a duck in 36 innings, and that is quite impressive.

Eventually South Africa dismissed top scorer K. Perera for 61 off 40 balls.

The South Africans delivered 10 extras, 7 of which were wides. Is this a cause for concern?

Sri Lanka posted 165-7.

South Africa needed 166 runs to win from 20 overs at 8.30 runs per over.

South Africa had to be very tactical against the bowling of Malinga.

The wicket of de Kock was Malinga's 34th T20 wicket. Which also made him the leading wicket taker in World T20 Internationals.

At the end of the powerplay the run rate had increased to 9.00, with South Africa needing 126 runs to win. To make matters worse, South Africa reached 50 runs in 8 overs, compared to Sri Lanka who reached their 50 runs in 5.5 overs.

The only decent partnership, was the 50 run partnership between Amla and Duminy.

After 11 overs Sri Lanka were 85-3 and South Africa on 83-2. The difference being a wicket and 2 runs.

Then after 13 overs Sri Lanka were 104-3 and South Africa on 103-2. This time the difference being a wicket and 1 run. The South Africans slowly catching on to the Sri Lankans.

A Morkel, came in and smashed two sixes and left South Africa needing 33 runs to win. Moreover, coming back to the side after a long absence, he looked very disappointed after his dismissal.

For a moment South Africa were in a good position to win the match. However, 2 unnecessary run outs cost them the match.

In the end South Africa lost their opening match of the ICC World T20 while Sri Lanka proved their stats by winning yet another match where they scored 160+ runs.

South Africa finished with figures of 160-8.

Sri Lanka beat South Africa by 5 runs.

The man of the match was K Perera for his 61 off 40 balls.

Hopefully South Africa will turn things around in their next match against New Zealand on Monday.

Warner and Hodge take Australia to finishing line

The first T20 in Port Elizabeth was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Durban was very close in suffering the same fate. Sahara Kingsmead Stadium was covered in a few islands of sawdust, with the wet outfield making the two teams worry about their safety. Fortunately, the umpires assessed the ground and agreed that the conditions would not harm any of the players, especially with the ICC World Twenty20 a few days away. South Africa and Australia were given 7 overs each.

Australia won toss and elected to bowl. Beuran Hendricks being the only man on debut, after a very successful Ram Slam tournament for him.

Quinton de Kock & Amla opened the batting. The line-up was not changed to accommodate the shortened match. Cricket's Imperfect Angel thought the big hitters would open, or maybe de Kock would have been paired with another big hitter.

South Africa had somewhat of a slow start. In 2 overs they had 6 runs and in 3 overs they had 11 runs.

Eventually the run rate picked up as de Kock and du Plessis were smashing 6's and 4's just like it should be in T20 cricket.

The Proteas posted 80-1. De Kock on 41* and du Plessis 27*.

Australia needed 81 runs to win from 42 balls at 11.57 runs per over.

Compared to South Africa, Australia had the better start. They scored 21 runs in their first over, and were well above the required run rate which kept getting higher and higher and at one point it was 13.80.

Picking up where he left off during the Test series, David Warner was the culprit once again as he hit 40 runs off 15 balls.

However, the introduction of JP Duminy into the attack changed the match as he claimed the wickets of Warner and Glenn Maxwell in the same over, with du Plessis taking an incredible catch.

The last over produced 15 runs that Australia needed to win, in which Hodge smashed two consecutive 6's to take Australia home.

Australia won by 5 wickets, finishing with figures of 81-5 in 6.4 overs.

The Man of the Match was Hodge for his 21* runs off 8 deliveries.

Hopefully the 3rd and final T20 in Centurion will not be affected by rain like the first two T20's. Both these teams need practice before heading to Bangladesh for the ICC World Twenty20.

ICC Test Rankings After South African and Australian Battle

I'm not sure how the ratings are calculated, so I've omitted the figures. I'm yet to figure them out. All I know is who's number 1, 2 and so on. Generally, that's all we want to know.

ICC TEST BATSMEN RANKINGS

1. A.B. de Villiers

2. K.C. Sangakkara

3. S. Chanderpaul

4. H.M. Amla

5. D.A. Warner

6. R.L. Taylor

7. Misbah-ul-Haq

8. C.A. Pujara

9. M.J. Clarke

10. V. Kohli

-------------------------------------

16. Graeme Smith

AB de Villiers still sits in first place while Hashim Amla is fourth. Graeme Smith ended his career in sixteenth place, dropping six places from tenth when the Test series began. (With a career high of second place). Top scorer David Warner moved up to a career high position of fifth after a good series performance.

ICC TEST BOWLER RANKINGS

1. D.W. Steyn

2. R.J. Harris

3. V.D. Philander

4. M.G. Johnson

5. Saeed Ajmal

6. H.M.R.K.B. Herath

7. T.A. Boult

8. T.G. Southee

9. R. Ashwin

10. P.M. Siddle

Dale Steyn remains the number 1 Test bowler, despite a hamstring injury during the 3rd and final Test. Ryan Harris moved up two places to second position. Vernon Philander moved down to third place while Mitchell Johnson moved down to fourth.

ICC TEST TEAM RANKINGS

1. South Africa

2. Australia

3. India

4. England

5. Pakistan

6. Sri Lanka

7. New Zealand

8. West Indies

9. Zimbabwe

10. Bangladesh

Australia moved up to second position, pushing India down to third. On a good note, South Africa managed to retain the Test Mace even after losing the series to Australia and dropping to 127 points.

ICC TEST ALL ROUNDER RANKINGS

1. V.D. Philander

2. R. Ashwin

3. Shakib Al Hasan

4. S.C.J. Broad

5. M.G. Johnson

6. S.R. Watson

7. R.J. Harris

8. T.G. Southee

9. D.W. Steyn

10. D.J.G. Sammy

Philander climbed two places to become the no. 1 ranked Test All-Rounder.

Australia Punish South Africa and Clinch Series 2-1

Since South Africa's re-admission into international cricket, Australia has not lost a Test series in South Africa. With that said, South Africa's last series loss at home was against Australia in 2008/09.

Team News: Petersen and Abbott came in for de Kock and Parnell. While Watson and Pattinson came in for Marsh and Siddle.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat.

Michael Clarke received a round of applause when he reached 25 for first time in 12 innings.

S Smith reached his 6th Test 50.

With Steyn off with an injury, the cracks were beginning to show in the South African camp.

Castle Lager Proteas seamer, Kyle Abbott, has described his thrilling opening spell with the ball towards Michael Clarke as a "great period of Test cricket". Clarke was stuck on 99 for 24 balls, and was tied down by consistent lines and lengths from Abbott, who bowled six maidens in a row.

   

Eventually Clarke reached his 27th Test century, his 5th against South Africa. He then went on to reach his 10th Test score of 150+.

It was a good toss for Australia to win as they finished their first innings with an overnight declaration on 494-7 on day 2 after play was halted by rain.

The Proteas were off to a bad start in their innings, with Petersen and du Plessis reaching Test 50s.

After the Proteas passed 200 for the fall of 6 wickets, it became clear that they needed to get to 295 in order to avoid the follow on.

Eventually Australia bowled South Africa out for 279, just a few runs short of the follow on score. However, Australia did not enforce the follow on.

At the start of their 2nd innings, Australia had a lead of 207.

Late in the evening, the man dubbed as the world's most successful captain, Graeme Smith announced he will retire from international cricket after the 3rd Test. Boucher & Kallis at Newlands to support the retiring skipper.

Australian team gave Smith a guard of honour when he came to bat. While the South Africans gave him a guard of honour when he was dismissed after his last innings.

The next day, Australia continued their domination. Warner managed to score 1 000* in Test cricket during the 2013/14 season, as the leading run-scorer. He also went on to record an 8th Test century, his 4th against South Africa.

Rogers reached 1 000 Test runs.

After reaching 303-5, Australia then declared, leaving South Africa with a mammoth score of 511 to chase down on the 4th day.

At the start of South Africa's attempt to chase down 511 runs for victory, South Africa lost 3 very early wickets.

Ryan Harris took his 100th wicket from 24 matches. While Pattinson taking his 50th Test wicket.

A few times, Warner and the Australians were warned by the umpires for throwing the ball onto the square to rough it up. Later, the umpires then had a word with Clarke about continuing with the action.

As time went by, South Africa was not going for the win. Instead, they were going for a draw, with AB de Villiers spending over 5 hours at the crease.

After holding on the whole day, with only 5 more overs to be bowled, South Africa lost their last two wickets from 2 balls. Australia bowled South Africa out for 265, winning by 245 runs and clinching the 3-match series 2-1.

Winning the series moved Australia up to number 2 in the Test Championship rankings.

Warner was named Man of the Match and Man of the Series after scoring 543 runs, with two centuries in the 3rd Test and one in the 1st Test.

This was the first Test series between South Africa and Australia which I was fully aware of. I didn't miss a Test or an innings. So I must say, the Australians are so rude. I wonder what life would be like if they didn't have mouths. Every little thing, they ran their mouths about it.