Over to you

What did Shaun Pollock and his men do wrong? What were the reasons for the whitewash?

Name: Ram
Your View: South African bowling was imbalanced. Klusener should have been asked to tie one end up. Secondly South Africa allowed Hayden and Langer too many 4 balls. Tie them down and it will automatically produce a wicket. Last of all, the controversial decisions all went against SA. I don’t think a single leading Australian batsman was given out LBW in the entire series despite close calls. And look at what happened to SA especially Kallis, McKenzie and Ontong, these are crucial factors which go unnoticed. It always happens to teams touring Australia.

Name: Sumit
Your View: The Proteas were defeated most shamefully in the past 10 yrs because they have an overdose of overconfidence. The other teams against which they played earlier did not dispatch the bad ball as effectively as the 7 top quality Aussie batsmen. They came under a shock from the first day of the series when they won the toss and elected to bat.

South Africa now is definitely the second best team in the world and the Aussies are 10000 miles away from them. I am 100% sure that the Aussies are going for the kill and beat the Proteas in the upcoming VB ODI series and go for the final kill in South Africa later this summer. At this point of time I even think that the Sri Lankans are a better unit than South Africans and hold the best chance of giving a fight to the Aussies along with Pakistan.

Name: Gaurav Sharma
Your View: According to me South Africans just found out as to why the Aussies are the best Cricket team in the World. The Aussies exposed the vulnerable bowling as well as batting of South Africa, which other teams have struggled to. The Aussies were clearly ahead of the Proteas due to the fire power they possess and the fact that they have at least 7-8 match winners in their side, made it, that much more difficult for the South Africans.

Aussies brought to the fore, the defensive attitude of the South Africans and gave the clear signal that positiveness and aggression always pays. The Proteas I think were intimidated and for my money got exactly what they deserved for their overconfidence and under estimation of Australia.

Name: Swaminathan Natarajan
Your View: Sir, Your question as to what SA did wrong has two parts. 1.The attitude with which they started out was very tentative. The difference in body language can be seen, if we see the last 3 matches S.A played on their own turf (against India) and in their first Test against Australia. I could even say they were more defensive, whilst they should have attacked. 2. The S.A bowling strangely enough lacked sting. Except for Pollock & Donald (late during the series), the other S.A bowlers looked pedestrian.

I guess they tried to do too much with the ball. I think personally, that N.Z did a far better job at attacking the Aussies than S.A did, and were only a few whiskers away from a series victory, if not for, some of the dubious decision of the Australian umpires. (To say the least they were crucial). The same happened for S.A too. I think, NOW would be the time to introduce 3 neutral umpires for all Test series.

Name: Samuel Rajendran
Your View: I am not a SA basher. Its just a opinion. Watching SA play is like watching a video game; they are monotonous and never had a plan B if something goes wrong. They don’t have flair; normally they work tirelessly to wear their opponents out. But Australia is not the type of team, which succumbs to these kind of game plan. So you cannot really compare SA with Australia especially in the Test arena, may be one day tourneys are different.

I am a keen follower of cricket and the result is not a surprise to me. The only team, which can give the Aussies a run for their money if everything goes well, may be Pakistan. To beat teams like Australia one needs natural talent, intelligence and flair, which SA badly lacks. Thanks rediff for giving almost equal coverage for all sports.

Name: Ramana Kumar
Your View: The SA men were outplayed in all 3 departments of the game: 1. Batting 2. Bowling 3. Fielding/Catching.

But it is to be remembered that the SA score in the 1st innings of the 1st Test was competitive. It’s obvious that later, the Proteas lost the game in their minds. The bigger culprit was their batting and the way they capitulated, reminded me of the Indian team. But unlike their bowling dept., all the SA batsmen were definitely equipped to fight better. Their bowling was definitely below par.

Shaun Pollock showed no penetration. Donald looked tired. Ntini, Hayward and Klusener never looked threatening. There was no quality spinner. The relatively weak bowling was exploited to the hilt by the Aussie batsmen. This put huge pressure on the entire SA team and they lost.

Name: Amit Shaligram
Your View: The South Africans did not play their natural game, and allowed the pressure of the "World Championship" series tag get to them. This caused them to play too defensively and at times negatively, and such an attitude against the Australians is not going to yield positive results.

As has been the case in the past, the Australians indulged in their "mind games" even before the first ball of the series was bowled, and the Proteas played right into the Aussies' hands. To get down to specifics, the South Africans were never able to put pressure on the Aussie top order and middle order batsman, as is evidenced from the 3 double century partnerships that Hayden and Langer put together.

The SA attack lacked hospitality, Pollock was not the same bowler he was in SA and Donald was not penetrative, indicating that perhaps he is truly past his prime. The SA batting was caught in a defensive mindset, and barring Kallis and Kirsten, there was none to challenge the Aussie bowlers. To keep the Aussies at bay, let alone win against them, any team needs to get onto the field with a positive frame of mind and self-belief. The South Africans for some reason lacked that. They allowed the pressure of the "Championship" billing to get to them. It showed in their performances and in the end result.

Name: Sridharan
Your View: South Africa lost the series even before a ball was bowled. Cricket is as much a mind game as it is one of skill. Over a period of time the Aussies, particularly during their rebuilding phase thanks to WSC, have understood this fact extremely well. It was Border, who provided the platform enjoyed by Aussies today, and a significant part of that game is played in the mind.

The Aussies always play a media drama before every series focusing exclusively on the key players of the opposition, a ploy that has worked very successfully, except in their tours to India, working on the minds of the entire opposition, thereby taking away precious energy they should commit to the game. This is the first phase of their operation. Most of the time the opposition falls straight into this ploy and loses the battle and the war. The opposition also succumbs to the pressure do not play their natural game. Result, below par performance in bowling, fielding and batting! The second phase of Aussie strategy is to use aggression as a way of subjugating the opposition.

They do that by taking fairly calculated risks early on in the series and it has paid off! In case the first two strategies do not produce the desired results, then they indulge in their pet theory of what the rest of the world calls sledging, but the Aussies call mental disintegration. The Aussies also understand the importance of playing the mind games with the umpires. They never antagonise the umpires or irritate them, like some other teams tend to do when decisions don't go in their favour.

However, they do let the umpire know what they thought of the decision!! Unlike some other teams (India comes to my mind) they do not indulge in excessive appealing. But when they appeal they make it count!! Look at the number of wrong decisions given in favour of them and against them! This requires an excellent skill in understanding the game and team effort.

Man-to-man, the Aussies are not way above many of their opposition teams, and yet they have had results in the last few years way better than most. It is time the other teams started understanding the importance of mind over matter!!!

Name: Anuj
Your View: SA just didn’t did their basics right, I mean South African team doesn’t have any single player who can win matches for you on your own. Infact, nowadays the competition is such that the team has to play cohesively. And also nowadays it is quite clear that whenever one of the top opening batsmen hits big runs, the team automatically gets into commanding position and which South African couldn’t get it right on all the 5 innings except for the last 6th innings.

Name: Sudip Shrestha
Your View: They were simply not good enough! That's it. Overall team balance of SA was very weak! Bowlers were a shadow of the past. Aussie batters always play their best when they get true pitches. They just love bounce. That's the way it should be as it makes up an exciting contest! When Indians toured last time, it appeared as if Indians had applied themselves well, they might have as well beaten them, with all due respect to the Indians.

Give your view...