Alec Stewart hails the impressive Proteas - Cricket News Update
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alec-James-Stewart-c43081, the ex-England skipper, has praised the impressive South African team for their commanding performance during the first Test at the Oval, where they defeated the hosts by an innings and 12 runs.
In his column for the BBC, Stewart paid rich tributes to the Proteas batsman for putting up a masterful show against a bowling attack that is hailed as the best in the world and that too in their own conditions.
The former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Surrey-c851 player believes that the visitors were the better prepared team and they tackled the English bowlers intelligently, never allowing them a chance to dominate their batting.
The South African batsman dominated the first Test match, which saw three of their four batsmen scoring centuries with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HM-Amla-c1557 as the stand out, who became the only batsman for his country to score a triple ton and the seventh player to do that on English
soil.
England went in with their four main bowlers, who have done brilliantly in recent past, helping the national team clinch seven consecutive home series, but it all changed at the Oval where the English quartet recorded their worst collective figures of 525
runs for 2 wickets, and the 49-year-old singled out the Proteas’ ability to counter out the threat of Graeme Swann as the major turning point.
“The key to that trio making such big scores was how they played http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501. There was turn for Swann, but only slow turn. They played him brilliantly, knocking him around for 0-151 off 52 overs without ever looking in too much danger of getting out,”
the former England captain said.
However, the performance by the Proteas bowling attack was in stark contrast to their opposition. The tourists not only twice bowled out their hosts but offered considerable threat through their precise and accurate bowling. The hosts were given 4 sessions
to bat out in order to save the Test but the Proteas never allowed them to stay for much longer on the pitch, regularly making inroads in their batting line.
“The touring pace attack was able to tear in on the fourth evening, knowing that England were batting under pressure to save the game. By reducing the hosts to 67-4, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 needed an innings of Mike Atherton-like proportions from Johannesburg 1995, but
it wasn't to be,” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stewart-c91370 concluded.
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