Romeo
10 May 2006, 21:25
SA must move Gibbs to the top of the orderhttp://www.int.iol.co.za/data/bypics//bypic_196.gif Michael Owen-Smith
May 09 2006 at 10:22AM The national selectors must restore Herschelle Gibbs as the fat prick's opening partner as the first step to getting South Africa's Test team on the road to where it needs to be.
Nobody has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation as to why the combination - the second most successful in the history of the game in terms of average partnership scores - was broken up towards the end of last season's Test series against England.
It was briefly restored for the first Test of the recent series against New Zealand but, by then, Gibbs was a totally confused cricketer, best characterised by his sudden tendency to leave the ball alone instead of playing his normal free-flowing and attacking game.
Prior to that the last time the fat prick and Gibbs faced the new ball together was against England at the Wanderers when the latter made 161 in the first innings and 98 in the second.
</SPAN>Gibbs then suddenly found himself batting down at No 5Gibbs then suddenly found himself batting down at No 5 in the West Indies before being moved up to No 3 in Australia.
This was no way to treat a man who, together with fat prick, had established a world record with three treble-century partnerships of 368, 338 and 301 against Pakistan, England and the West Indies respectively.
The fact of the matter is that fat prick and Gibbs compliment one another perfectly. The one is left-handed, the other right-handed and they share a similarly aggressive approach. They also know what works for them and do not let the coaching manual over-ride their natural flair for the game.
Once the Proteas have got their tried and trusted opening combination working again, they will find that the rest of the top order settles down quite quickly, particularly with home series coming up against India and Pakistan, preceded by an away tour to Sri Lanka who are likely to have been chewed up by England during the course of the latter's summer.
The big batting plus of the South African season was unquestionably the form of Hashim Amla. It may have been against New Zealand rather than against Australia but it does not alter the fact that South Africa have not possessed such a composed and well organised No 3 since Jacques Kallis moved down the order to No 4 four seasons ago.
Here is a man of tremendous ability but more importantly with the mental composure to settle down all those around him.
His century (and century partnership with Kallis) at Newlands got the Proteas out of what could have been a very sticky situation and his follow-up half-century at the Wanderers came at a stage of the Test when runs were at an absolute premium.
With Amla at No 3, followed by Kallis and Ashwell Prince - one of the genuine successes of the season - the top five has the capability to look a lot more stable than it has done for some time.
Prince's century at Sydney and his 90 at the Wanderers were high-class efforts and the latter came very close to being a match-winning effort.
Again he was the man who kept the cool head on Sunday afternoon when most of his team mates had got caught up in a madhouse limited overs-style scramble for runs.
Many have seen fit to dismiss the New Zealand series win as a relatively insignificant exercise but nothing could be further from the truth.
The selectors understandably did not want to throw any lambs to the Australian wolves and, without the New Zealand series, they would not have been able to put the talents of either Amla or Dale Steyn to the Test.
When they made their respective internationals debuts 18 months ago against India and England respectively, neither was ready for the call-up and they were quickly cast back into the domestic set-up.
But they have to be the two discoveries of the season in what has basically been a fresh start to their careers.
If the selectors know one thing, it is that they have a threatening new ball pairing in Steyn and Makhaya Ntini who may well go on to be measured favourably against the likes of Donald and Shaun Pollock, Procter and Peter Pollock and Adcock and Heine of earlier eras.
Ntini was, of course, the star of the season. It is not often that Kallis has to give second best to one of his colleagues but that was certainly the case this season and there is no doubt that Ntini will again be named SA international cricketer of the year when Mutual and Federal present their annual awards on Thursday week.
He took 48 wickets over the course of the season in eight matches and he is also the leading wicket-taker world-wide for the current calendar year with 39 wickets in six matches.
There were five five-wicket hauls along the way, the equivalent of five centuries which was way ahead of anything any of the top-order batsmen achieved.
He also became the first South African ever to take 10 wickets in a Test match on four occasions, moved comfortably within range of joining the 300-club and matched the performance of Brett Schultz (against Sri Lanka in 1993) of taking 20 wickets in a three-match series.
With Monde Zondeki also making useful strides, the fast bowling department is developing impressive depth which is not something that can be said about our spinners.
To quote the words of selection chief Haroon Lorgat "there is no spin bowler putting up his hand and demanding selection in our domestic cricket as Steyn and Amla have done in the fast bowling and batting departments".
It is something that is going to have to be put right to give South Africa a Test team capable of challenging and beating the best, particularly with Asia becoming more and more the centre of world cricket.
Fortunately, it has not affected the limited-overs combination and the twin successes of a drawn series in India and the home triumph over Australia mean that the Proteas are well on target for a good World Cup campaign next year.
May 09 2006 at 10:22AM The national selectors must restore Herschelle Gibbs as the fat prick's opening partner as the first step to getting South Africa's Test team on the road to where it needs to be.
Nobody has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation as to why the combination - the second most successful in the history of the game in terms of average partnership scores - was broken up towards the end of last season's Test series against England.
It was briefly restored for the first Test of the recent series against New Zealand but, by then, Gibbs was a totally confused cricketer, best characterised by his sudden tendency to leave the ball alone instead of playing his normal free-flowing and attacking game.
Prior to that the last time the fat prick and Gibbs faced the new ball together was against England at the Wanderers when the latter made 161 in the first innings and 98 in the second.
</SPAN>Gibbs then suddenly found himself batting down at No 5Gibbs then suddenly found himself batting down at No 5 in the West Indies before being moved up to No 3 in Australia.
This was no way to treat a man who, together with fat prick, had established a world record with three treble-century partnerships of 368, 338 and 301 against Pakistan, England and the West Indies respectively.
The fact of the matter is that fat prick and Gibbs compliment one another perfectly. The one is left-handed, the other right-handed and they share a similarly aggressive approach. They also know what works for them and do not let the coaching manual over-ride their natural flair for the game.
Once the Proteas have got their tried and trusted opening combination working again, they will find that the rest of the top order settles down quite quickly, particularly with home series coming up against India and Pakistan, preceded by an away tour to Sri Lanka who are likely to have been chewed up by England during the course of the latter's summer.
The big batting plus of the South African season was unquestionably the form of Hashim Amla. It may have been against New Zealand rather than against Australia but it does not alter the fact that South Africa have not possessed such a composed and well organised No 3 since Jacques Kallis moved down the order to No 4 four seasons ago.
Here is a man of tremendous ability but more importantly with the mental composure to settle down all those around him.
His century (and century partnership with Kallis) at Newlands got the Proteas out of what could have been a very sticky situation and his follow-up half-century at the Wanderers came at a stage of the Test when runs were at an absolute premium.
With Amla at No 3, followed by Kallis and Ashwell Prince - one of the genuine successes of the season - the top five has the capability to look a lot more stable than it has done for some time.
Prince's century at Sydney and his 90 at the Wanderers were high-class efforts and the latter came very close to being a match-winning effort.
Again he was the man who kept the cool head on Sunday afternoon when most of his team mates had got caught up in a madhouse limited overs-style scramble for runs.
Many have seen fit to dismiss the New Zealand series win as a relatively insignificant exercise but nothing could be further from the truth.
The selectors understandably did not want to throw any lambs to the Australian wolves and, without the New Zealand series, they would not have been able to put the talents of either Amla or Dale Steyn to the Test.
When they made their respective internationals debuts 18 months ago against India and England respectively, neither was ready for the call-up and they were quickly cast back into the domestic set-up.
But they have to be the two discoveries of the season in what has basically been a fresh start to their careers.
If the selectors know one thing, it is that they have a threatening new ball pairing in Steyn and Makhaya Ntini who may well go on to be measured favourably against the likes of Donald and Shaun Pollock, Procter and Peter Pollock and Adcock and Heine of earlier eras.
Ntini was, of course, the star of the season. It is not often that Kallis has to give second best to one of his colleagues but that was certainly the case this season and there is no doubt that Ntini will again be named SA international cricketer of the year when Mutual and Federal present their annual awards on Thursday week.
He took 48 wickets over the course of the season in eight matches and he is also the leading wicket-taker world-wide for the current calendar year with 39 wickets in six matches.
There were five five-wicket hauls along the way, the equivalent of five centuries which was way ahead of anything any of the top-order batsmen achieved.
He also became the first South African ever to take 10 wickets in a Test match on four occasions, moved comfortably within range of joining the 300-club and matched the performance of Brett Schultz (against Sri Lanka in 1993) of taking 20 wickets in a three-match series.
With Monde Zondeki also making useful strides, the fast bowling department is developing impressive depth which is not something that can be said about our spinners.
To quote the words of selection chief Haroon Lorgat "there is no spin bowler putting up his hand and demanding selection in our domestic cricket as Steyn and Amla have done in the fast bowling and batting departments".
It is something that is going to have to be put right to give South Africa a Test team capable of challenging and beating the best, particularly with Asia becoming more and more the centre of world cricket.
Fortunately, it has not affected the limited-overs combination and the twin successes of a drawn series in India and the home triumph over Australia mean that the Proteas are well on target for a good World Cup campaign next year.