SA player strengths and weakness -- Posted by Craig on Wednesday, March 3 2004
Analysing opposition strengths and weaknesses is very important for teams at all forms of the game from domestic to Test and One Day International level. It is even more useful for cricket follower to know where a player is strong or vulnerable at. This article will analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the South African Test team.

The team is from their last Test line up against the West Indies at Centurion in January 2-6 2004. However, I have been looking at the South African players since Jacques Rudolph made his Test debut and beyond that.

GC Smith:
Strengths: One of the best if not the best player through the leg and on side and a strong puller through square in the world. He plays a strong cut shot and is a proud and passionate person who is a natural leader of his country. If anyone who can lead a South African side to beat Australia, Smith can.
Weakness: It comes as no surprise on what it is. He plays away from his body during the cover area and the lack of footwork prevents him from driving without getting a top edge and venerable in the gully, deep point region. Also his bat turns in his hands forcing him to play it onto the on side. He is making attempts to fix that problem to his credit. Also his cut shot can also be a weakness if there are fielders there.
HH Gibbs:
Strengths: A wonderful naturally elegant aggressive stroke maker. He is strong through the cover area and is able to play all the shots. He is become more consistent batsman and more mature and is able to play long innings and bat through an innings then what he may have previously have done. Gibbs is also an excellent fielder in the point region, considered to be one of the best in the world.
Weakness: One of Gibbs main problems is being tied down and may tend to hit him self out of trouble by hitting a boundary or two and may get out. Also has a tendency to hit in the air through cover and point. Gibbs also has the habit of being caught on the crease as well. Another of Gibbs weakness is that chops on far too much by playing away from his body which allows this to happen.
JA Rudolph:
Strengths: Extremely talented young player who has a big future in either form of the game. Rudolph has the temperament to play long innings and the talent to do so. Is strong through the cover region and onside and has an ability to find gaps and score quick enough in the one-day game. Also has potential as a part-time leg spinner.
Weakness: Confidence. One of his two main flaws is his confidence and that he tends to fall over himself making himself prone to LBWs. It appears he tends to lose confidence easily when he makes a succession of low scores. When balls are pitched straight on the stumps, he tends to play around the front pad and tends to fall over himself and thus loses balances and is a candidate for LBW.
JH Kallis:
Strengths: Arguably one of South Africa’s greatest ever players in both forms of the game. He has a good technique and can play both spin and pace with ease and can play all the shots and has the ability to make very big scores. He is also a fine slip fielder and a handy enough bowler. With Kallis’ bowling he has a good off and leg cutter and can get the ball to nip away and trap batsmen on the crease.
Weakness: There is really none in his batting, except to short straight quick bowling as Kallis doesn’t often play the hook or pull shot. He actually plays the shot to an acceptable standard, but it isn’t a frequent shot. His batting can be a bit too slow and doesn’t look for more singles, but in recent times he has quickened up his pace of his batting.
G Kirsten:
Strengths: One of South Africa’s leading premier batsmen in Test cricket and has had success in the Limited Overs game and is also a former Test captain (for one Test). Strong through the off side and favours the cut shot and is strong off the back foot. Kirsten had opened for much of his Test career, scoring the majority of his runs as an opener, but since he has dropped down the order and to his credit he has still been consistent run scorer. He has achieved his goals of 7,000 Test runs and 20 Test tons. Kirsten has the reputation of playing long innings and once batted over 14 hours to save South Africa in a Test is credit to his mental strength.
Weakness: His tendency to play the horizontal shots through with an angled bat always making him a chance to play the ball onto his stumps and has been dismissed in that way in the past when playing cut shots. Usually a decent enough fielder, he is prone to make the odd fielding error.
ND McKenzie:
Strengths: Neil McKenzie has earned himself a reputation as a very good player of pace bowling and often an under-rated player of pace bowling. Also to his credit he has made himself into a good player of spin bowling. McKenzie is a strong hooker and puller and a strong cutter of the ball. He is also a fine under-rated one-day batsman.
Weakness: McKenzie is a real confidence player. Requiring belief in him self to keep on performing. But that is also due to his superstitions where as he cant step on a white line when batting and that makes susceptible to sledges that he stepped on a line and that can affect him mentally. He is also a nervous starter.
MV Boucher:
Strengths: Known for his wicket keeping prowess and being South Africa’s all-time Test and ODI wicket keeping record (i.e. catches) and is on track to break the all-time record. Boucher is pretty good behind the stumps and it is seldom that misses a chance when keeping and usually saves all the potential byes. He is handy lower order batsman as well. Boucher has a good head on his shoulders and the fact he is also remained really injury free throughout his whole credit must be given credit to him.
Weakness: When batting and when he is tied down, he can be tempted to do something rash and perhaps not consistent enough. During 2003, he went through a form slump with the gloves misses chances and did concede too many byes, although to be fair to him, it was to some wayward bowling. The role as captain affects him mentally and he doesn’t appear comfortable with the extra responsibility.
SM Pollock:
Strengths: One of South Africa’s greatest ever bowlers. His nagging line and length around outside off stump makes him hard to score and with his superb accuracy gets him lots of wickets. He has managed to cut back his pace but that to his credit hasn’t affected his bowled in anyway. Also can get movement and has a good off cutter. He can also bat down the order and score some important runs with his hard hitting.
Weakness: None really in his bowling. Except mainly that in non helpful conditions he may not be as effective if he were bowling in helpful conditions. He often drops far too many catches at slip, but he really shouldn’t be fielding in the slips during mid spell when bowling.
AJ Hall:
Strengths: One of the most inspirational cricketers after being shot and mugged and being kidnapped when selling his car and is playing international cricket. Hall is fairly nippy with the ball and in some helpful conditions he can be a handful. Hall can also wield the willow to an acceptable standard. Hall can also keep wicket if need be.
Weakness: Nothing overly special as a cricketer. He doesn’t get a good seam conditions so in helpful conditions he may not be able to exploit it to his fully potential.
A Nel:
Strengths: Full of confidence, full of attitude and full of pace sums up André Nel best. Talented and is accurate is also one of Nel’s main strengths as a bowler as is his ability to get seam movement. Nel has an aggressive nature when he bowls which follows up with a mean steer, but the best thing is that he able to back it up with wickets. Nel can get pretty quick and hostile as well which can make him hard to play when he is in full rhythm.
Weakness: Inconsistency in the limited overs game and the fact that Nel can go overboard with his aggression and boarder on to stupidity. Nel has become very consistent of late in the Test match arena, but of late his consistency in the limited overs game leaves a lot to be desired though. But he doesn’t appear to have a lot of weakness in his bowling though.
M Ntini:
Strengths: Super fit and can be super quick and pretty hostile and can be pretty awkward are some of the main strengths of Makhaya Ntini. Ntini fits the bill for Graeme Smith as the perfect strike bowler for South Africa. Ntini can be pretty accurate on just about all occasions in both forms of the game and get some swing and movement with the ball despite his unusual action. Ntini is also a fine fielder as well and is pretty quick athlete. A popular man and idol to coloured South Africans and South Africans in general and as a habit on the 3rd morning of each Test he goes and runs 10km.
Weakness: As much as he is a strike bowler, he does tend to bowl quite a few four balls in his spells. Also his action which is apparently similar to Malcolm Marshall, he tends to go wide of the crease which makes it very hard to get LBWs and to bowl batsmen other then a poor stroke. Also his action isn’t very suited to bowling around the wicket as his action doesn’t allow him to get off the wicket quick enough and thus has a bad habit of running on the wicket which has got him into trouble in the past.

England vs Jamaica Day 1 -- Posted by David on Tuesday, March 2 2004
England vs Jamaica - Day 1
England 320 and Jamaica 25-2

England's batsmen had mixed fortunes on their first day's play of the tour. The best news was the innings of Michael Vaughan, who hit 105 from only 89 balls, and looked to be in supreme form. In ideal batting conditions, he stroked 19 fours and hit one enormous six: it was a surprise to everyone when Jermaine Lawson bowled him shortly after lunch. Hussain also batted well for 65 and Thorpe made a quick 34.

But the rest of the batsmen contributed little, which is a worry with so little cricket to be played before the first test. Trescothick made only 7 before being bowled off his pads and Butcher swatted a catch to square leg when he had made only 1. With Flintoff also only managing a single, and Clarke, who surprisingly played ahead of Collingwood, only making 4, England were grateful for Chris Read's gritty innings of 61. Read, of course, is well aware that he needs to produce some decent scores if he is to stay in the side, and he must have been delighted with his performance today.

320 was somewhere below par in these conditions, but it looked much better when Hoggard took two quick wickets before the close of play. He had Parchment caught behind for a duck and caught Pagon of his own bowling for 6. His four overs only cost five runs and were a terrific start to the tour, especially after his frustrations in 2003. However, at the other end, Harmison sent down five wicketless overs for 19 runs. He will hope to do much better tomorrow.