- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,641
FOR the second time inside nine months Australia has been beaten by the Other South Africa: aka England.
Last year, Australia lost the Ashes in the face of a dominant South African batting display and it has happened again.
This time the South African batsmen took England to the World Twenty20 title in the Caribbean yesterday morning, England's first major limited overs success in any tournament since the World Cup legitimised short-form cricket in 1975.
Captain Paul Collingwood was the only token Englishman in the team's top five. The top three were all South African and Eoin Morgan is Irish.
But then Collingwood was an even more token captain than Michael Clarke during the tournament, scoring only 61 runs in seven matches at an average 10 and a strike rate of 6.2 runs per over.
Under pressure to hold his place in the Australian T20 side because of ongoing poor performances, Clarke was a runaway success compared to his England counterpart, scoring 92 runs at 15, with a strike rate of almost five.
Not surprisingly, no Englishman managed 100 runs for England in the tournament, but four non-Englishmen did.
England's leading run-scorer was Kevin Pietersen, who made 248 at 62 with a strike rate of better than eight runs per over despite skipping a match to be at the birth of his first child half a world away.
Another South African, wicketkeeper and opening batsman Craig Kieswetter, 22, made 222 at 32 in seven matches at a strike rate of seven. Irishman Morgan made 183 runs at 37 at a strike rate of almost eight and a third South African, Michael Lumb made 137 runs at 20 with a strike rate of 8 1/2.
It was an 111-run second-wicket partnership between Kieswetter (63 in 49 balls) and Pietersen (47 in 31 balls) yesterday morning which allowed England to cruise to a seven-wicket victory with three overs to spare, after Australia was restricted to 6-147. Missing from this procession were South African-born Ashes heroes Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott.
Captain Strauss was the player of the Ashes, the leading run scorer (474 at 53) who ensured England would regain the little urn.
He and Trott, called in for the last Test at The Oval, were the only players in the England team to score centuries, ensuring England would win at Lord's and The Oval to claim the series 2-1.
Wicketkeeper Prior was England's second highest run scorer, while Pietersen was third in the averages behind Trott and Strauss despite playing just the first two Tests because of an achilles injury.
All of which prompted the joke: Where did England stay during last season's tour of South Africa?
A: With their parents.
But South Africa shouldn't take all the credit for England's recent success. Coach Andy Flower is from Zimbabwe.
Which means he and his most important players should feel at home under the Southern Cross during this summer's Ashes series.
