In the second of out feel good series. We look back on David Miller scoring a 35-ball hundred against Bangladesh. A look back on better times.
Watch: South Africa win a classic at Lord's to become #1
Heading into the final Test at Lord's in 2012, South Africa would have known that all they needed was a draw to seal the series. England was in disarray after Kevin Pietersen had decided that the middle of the series was the right time to give an interview regarding how difficult the task of being Kevin Pietersen was. Oh, he'd also been caught disparaging his captain at the time, Andrew Strauss to members of the Protea set up via text (somehow). Already one down in the series, with half the batting line-up horribly out of form, and a PR nightmare on the horizon, England were reeling. But they were the #1 team in the world for some or other reason, and like a weary, battle-hardened fighter about to lose his crown, this English side fashioned a final stand at the home of cricket using a mix of the old (incumbent wicket keeper Matt Prior) and the new (future wicket-keeper Johnny Bairstow). It was not to be though as the genius of Hashim Amla, and the metronome that is Vernon Philander proved to much, and the Proteas defeated the once Kings. .
As one of the greatest cricketers in history, Shane Warne has generally had the upper hand when it came to most battles, but on this fateful day at the Wanderers, it didn't matter what he bowled, he had to fetch it in Row Z.
The last time Theunis de Bruyn was in the subcontinent, he scored a fourth innings hundred in Sri Lanka. A fourth innings ton in the subcontinent buys you a lot of time, especially in tours to the sub-continent. The reason is pretty simple, the fourth innings of a game is when the pitch is at it's most decrepit, Asian pitches generally take turn sooner than non-subcontinental pitches, so it does reason that if you score a ton in the fourth innings in Asia, you must by definition be some sort of genius level player of spin. That is the only reason Theunis de Bruyn is on this tour. We would not be in favour of dropping him after just the one Test, but his dismissal in the first innings, a big booming cover drive against Ravindra Jadeja, with light fading and the day nearly done, was both reckless and unnecessary. Yes, batting is about scoring runs, and as such if balls are in slots which players identify as their strong zones, they should feel within their rights to have ...
Quinton de Kock is good at cricket. Everyone who plays cricket at an international level is good at cricket, but even in that hallowed territory, one can see that Quinton de Kock is exceptionally good at cricket. He boasts no obvious weakness, and there are very few good balls which he can't turn into boundary balls. He also happens to be, both on form and reputation, South Africa's best batsman, especially now that the great Hashim Amla has retired. This presents a quandary of sorts, because while de Kock's prodigious ability to take a game away from the opposition batting at 7 is not in question, the reality is more often than not, he has had to come in and repair some very creaky holes in the ship. In the history of cricket, only one team has ever had their best batsman keep wicket. Andy Flower, the Zimabwean great, was the only man who managed this feat of endurance and focus. You could arguably place AB de Villiers on this shortlist, but he only kept for 23 Tests an...
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