Pressure on SA as Champions Trophy cricket rolls
JOHANNESBURG — The pressure will be on South Africa and off Sri Lanka when they clash at Centurion Park on Tuesday in the opening 2009 ICC Champions Trophy fixture.
South Africa need the cup to confirm what the world rankings have been saying for some time – that they are a class act when it comes to one-day international cricket.
But playing hosts in a sporting event is a double-edged sword with victories galvanising a nation and defeats having the opposite effect, especially in a country like South Africa where expectations are invariably sky high.
The least expected of the Graeme Smith-led Proteas is that they qualify for the October 5 final and many South Africans would dream that bitter rivals Australia provide the opposition and are conquered.
While Sri Lanka are good enough to win the 14-day mini-World Cup, it is defending champions Australia, South Africa and India who are most commonly mentioned as potential winners of the two-million-dollar top prize.
Supreme spinner Muttiah Muralitharan needs no introduction and fast medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara sat atop the world bowling rankings last week with his famous team-mate sixth.
However, batting could be the Sri Lankan Achilles heel with senior figure Mahela Jayawardene conceding they have been “patchy and inconsistent” in that department at ODI level.
Even minus injured Herschelle Gibbs, the Proteas boast a formidable array of run-getters with Smith, veteran Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and JP Duminy in the vanguard.
Add the pace and swing of Dale Steyn, Wayne Parnell and Kallis and the spin of Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, who captured four wickets in a warm-up win over the West Indies, and there are solid foundations for optimism.
Pessimists will raise the word that makes Smith see red – chokers – and also express alarm that the team is going into the second biggest ODI tournament after the World Cup without a competitive fixture since April.
The ‘chokers’ tag emanates from reaching eight ICC semi-finals and winning just one – by 92 runs against Sri Lanka in the inaugural Champions Trophy 11 years ago.
Inspired by the batting of late skipper Hansie Cronje and a five-wicket Kallis haul, South Africa lifted the trophy with a comfortable victory over West Indies in Bangladesh.
Since then they have departed at the semi-finals stage three times and failed to get even that far once – five years ago in England they came off second best against the men from the Caribbean in a group decider.
“We have had a good break and the squad is feeling fresh and ready to go. I think freshness may be an important factor in a tournament involving a lot of cricket in a short time,” is the Smith retort to fears of rustiness.
Opposite number Kumar Sangakkara agrees: “Every team in South Africa is a professional unit and whether they have played recently or not won’t matter because you are always in training and up to the challenge of playing.”
Source : Google News – AFP
England, Pakistan are Champions Trophy odd couple
Although the ICC Champions Trophy is just five tournaments old, it has delivered six different winners with England and Pakistan the only unsuccessful top-eight nations.
South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies and Australia won the mini-Cricket World Cup outright and Sri Lanka and India shared the honour after rain ruined two attempts to complete the 2002 Colombo climax.
The finalist batting second always triumphs and the top scorer in three of the four deciders, Philo Wallace of West Indies, Sourav Ganguly of India and Marcus Trescothick of England, finished a loser.
Launched to raise funds for non-Test-playing nations, the tournament has had an identity crisis with as many formats as editions and a name change from ICC Knockout Trophy after the second version.
Tournament history:
1998
The late Hansie Cronje and current squad member Jacques Kallis shone as South Africa beat West Indies by four wickets with 18 balls to spare in Bangladesh for their sole ICC competition victory.
Wallace struck 11 fours and five sixes as he contributed 103 of 245 runs while Kallis claimed 5-30 before an unbeaten 61 from skipper Cronje led the Proteas to 248-6 against an attack that produced no star performer.
2000
Chris Cairns and Chris Harris were the stars as New Zealand recovered from the cheap loss of five wickets to reach 265-6 with two balls to spare and defeat India by four wickets in Kenya.
Cairns (102 not out) and Harris (46) shared a 122-run sixth-wicket partnership to foil India who were indebted to Ganguly (117) and Sachin Tendulkar (69) as they made 264-6 off 50 overs.
2002
Sri Lanka made 244 and 222 respectively in two efforts to complete the final only for rain to play spoilsport with India managing to face just 12 and 51 in reply.
India, dumped as hosts over tax-exemption problems, pipped South Africa by 10 runs in the semi-final highlight of the tournament with the retirement of Herschelle Gibbs (119 not out) triggering a Proteas collapse.
2004
A 71-run, ninth-wicket stand by West Indians Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw turned seemingly certain defeat into a two-wicket triumph over an England team inspired by 104-run Trescothick.
Winning skipper Brian Lara said his team drew inspiration in London from television pictures of hurricanes lashing the Caribbean as they reached a 218-run target with seven balls to spare.
2006
West Indies became the first country to reach three Champions Trophy finals, but there was no London-like salvage operation as Australia cruised to an eight-wicket Mumbai success.
Nathan Bracken (3-22) inflicted most damage as the defending champions managed only 138 and an undefeated 57 from Shane Watson lifted Australia to 116-2 when rain intervened and the Duckworth-Lewis method came into play.
