Amla's resignation good for South Africa in the long run

The Proteas had worked hard to recover from being put to the sword by the England cricket team. After losing dismally in the first Test match in Durban, England added to the pressure by posting 629–6 declared in the first innings of the second Test in Cape Town. Something inspirational was needed to turn the four-Test series around. This came in the form of our Test captain, Hashim Amla, scoring 201 in reply. His innings revitalised our team, inspiring a comeback on the fourth and fifth days of the Test. We finished our innings on 627–7 declared, with Temba Bavuma scoring a maiden Test hundred. 

So encouraged were the Proteas by Amla's innings, that we declared two runs short of England's score, just so we would have more time to bowl them out. And, our bowlers did well. Wickets kept tumbling. England struggled to survive on the last day, only doing so thanks to wickets being disallowed due to no-balls, and missed chances by the South Africans. England finished the day on 159–6, having abandoned the game a few hours early due to bad light. Then came the shock of the series. Amla resigned as Proteas Test captain, saying that for the previous two weeks he had been thinking that someone else could be doing a better job than him as captain. He also wanted to work on his batting.

Hashim Amla has resigned as Test captain of the Proteas.

As One Day International captain, AB de Villiers brings his own captaincy style to the squad, and for T20 Internationals, Faf du Plessis does the same. While these two are different people, they grew up together, both playing cricket for their school – Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool. They are both hard-working, high-intensity players who rely on skill and labour to do the job. Yes they are intelligent, and know how to be patient while batting, or place a field for certain batsmen for the situation in the game. But for Amla, it was all methodical.

Amla once compared captaincy to a game of chess, where every decision had to be comprehensively thought out before implementation. One could see early on in his captaincy that his field placements were very intentional, much like Graeme Smith's once were. South Africa is going to lose this aspect to its Test game. Yet, I believe that this action will probably turn out better for South Africa in the long run.

AB de Villiers, who was vice-captain in Tests, will replace Amla as captain in the remaining Tests in the series, and hopefully, for the foreseeable future. AB de Villiers inspires players more than Amla does, and through his tenacious batting puts fear into the opposition more than any other batsman in the world. AB has shown that he can be captain and still bat well in the ODIs. With Quinton de Kock ensuring that AB does not have to keep wickets anymore, I think AB can replicate his success in Tests as well. He just needs to learn a few things and he will make a phenomenal Test captain.

James Anderson best bowler of this era? Nonsense. Ajmal and Steyn are better.

Wasim Akram has called James Anderson, a bowler for England, “ the best bowler of this era”. Firstly, Akram is a legend of cricket, being one of the best pace bowlers of all time (having taken 414 test wickets at an average of 23.62 and 502 ODI wickets at 23.52) so this is a huge statement. It is also huge when we realise that Dale Steyn (SA) and Saeed Ajmal (PAK) are both bowling in the same era. I am going to show you that Akram’s claim is nonsense.

James Anderson (31) of England is undeniably a good bowler, and I enjoy watching him bowl, but he is not the best. Image taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk.

As on 01 October 2013 the ICC bowling rankings tells us that:

In tests Steyn is rated the best bowler in the world. Ajmal is fourth and Anderson ninth.

In ODIs Ajmal is third, Anderson sixth and Steyn is 15^th

In T20s Ajmal is second, Steyn is 21^st and Anderson is not even on the top 100 list.

ICC BOWLING RANKINGS (01 October 2013)

	Anderson	Steyn	Ajmal
Test ranking	9	1	4
ODI ranking	6	15	3
T20I ranking	-	21	2

The full ICC rankings lists are available at http://www.espncricinfo.com/rankings/content/page/211270.html

These rankings tell us that Saeed Ajmal is actually the best bowler in the world. Dale Steyn is undeniably the best in tests, and has been for a while, but in terms of consistency over all three formats Ajmal is the best.

I find it incongruent to compare pace bowlers with spinners. So let us compare Anderson to Steyn.

James Anderson is 31 years old

He has played 87 tests, 174 ODIs and 19 T20Is

In tests he has 329 wickets at 30.11

In ODIs he has 245 wickets at 29.11 (economy 4.97)

In T20Is he has 18 wickets at 30.66 (economy 7.84)

Dale Steyn is 30 years old

He has played 65 tests, 73 ODIs and 29 T20Is.

In tests he has 332 wickets at 22.65

In ODIs he has 102 wickets at 29.07 (economy 4.92)

In T20Is he has 39 wickets at 16.64 (economy 6.30)

Statistics show that Steyn has better averages in all formats and better economy rates than Anderson. Anderson only has a better ODI ranking than Steyn because he has been in superb form recently, England plays far more cricket than South Africa so their players can accumulate more points and Steyn has been injured lately so he has missed even more ODIs.

As prominent as Wasim Akram is in the cricketing world, statistics refute his claim. Saeed Ajmal is the best bowler of our era and Dale Steyn is the best pace bowler of our era.

By the way I am South African and might be biased in my evaluation if I did not use statistics as my primary tool of comparison. 

The first Ashes test was one to remember

James Anderson  (30) took 10 wickets and man of the match. Image taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk. He is really the bowler with the best form in the world right now, following his success at the Champions Trophy.

England were the strong favourites going into the game at Trent Bridge and were dominating before the Australian number 11, Ashton Agar, came to the crease. England made 215 in the first innings and Australia were on 117-9. Agar and Phil Hughs made a record 10^th wicket partnership by any team (163 runs). Agar produced the record number of runs by a test match number 11 (98).

A number 11 making 98 runs does not happen in cricket. Yes, amazing acts of determination and defiance take place, but number 11 bowlers do not make scores like 98. Include the fact that Agar is 19 years old and this was his test debut, and a cricket fan like me cannot compute the possibility that this happened. Of course he moved up the order in the next innings.

Australia managed to get 280 (Agar 98, Hughs 81), a lead of 65 runs. England had a very good second innings thanks to an Ian Bell 109. They made 375 all out, leaving AUS with 316 to win. The Aussie openers made good scores, giving AUS a chance (Watson 46, Rogers 52). However wickets fell and Australia needed 80 runs with one wicket left.

Such was the determination of the last batsmen (Brad Haddin and James Pattinson) that before lunch on day 5, England were scared. It was visible that they were doubting they would win. England eventually got Haddin’s wicket and won by 14 runs. Haddin (71 off 147) and Pattinson (25 off 57) nearly stole the game for Australia.

Defiant: Ashton Agar (19) stunned everyone coming in at 11 and scoring 98. If his bowling can become as good as his batting he will go far. Image taken from http://www.theaustralian.com.au.

The match was filled with as much controversy as I’ve ever seen in a test. First Ashton Agar was given not out by the third umpire when he should have been given out stumped. His foot was not behind the line [England lost out because of this decision due to Ashton making another 92 runs]. Then Jonathan Trott was given out LBW because all the available technology pointed to him being out, but the side-on hotspot could not be utilised because of a technical glitch. The ex-England cricketer and commentator Sir Ian Botham felt certain it was an edge onto the pads [England lost out again]. The umpires later apologised for this!

Then the most memorable moment in the test came. Stuart Broad clearly edged a ball to slip. The umpire gave him not out. Australia had no reviews left. Whether the umpire had just made a mistake, was not concentrating or was trying to make up to England for Trott’s dismissal, it is unknown. In the end a lot of people have voiced their frustration at the incident. Many say that Broad should have walked, the ex-West Indian great and commentator Michael Holding said that Stuart Broad should be banned from cricket for not walking, calling Broad’s actions “contrary to the spirit of the game”.

The incident occurred when Broad was on 37. He finished on 65. This means that he made 28 more runs than he should have, twice the amount England won by. One way to look at it would be that England won because Broad stood his ground. Although, both the controversies involving Agar and Trott cost England more than 28 runs.

In my opinion if the umpire was really just giving Broad a lifeline because of the mistake involving Trott then Broad should have walked. If the umpire thought Broad was not out then I think it would be fine for Broad to stand his ground.

There are five test matches in this Ashes series. England are 1 – 0 up and the second test starts this Thursday at Lord’s in London. The other tests are on 01 August, 09 Aug and 21 Aug.